Tidal (king)
{{Infobox monarch
| name = Tidal
| title = King of Goiim
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| royal house = Goiim{{cite web|url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2014&version=NIV |title=Genesis 14 NIV - Abram Rescues Lot - At the time when |publisher=Bible Gateway |date= |accessdate=2015-07-28}}
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In the Old Testament, Tidal ({{Hebrew Name|תִּדְעָל|Tīdʿal|Tīḏʿāl}}) is a king of Goyim. In the Book of Genesis (14:1), he is described as one of the four kings who fought Abraham in the Battle of Siddim.
Modern scholars have attempted to identify the original context of the story and potential historical correspondents. It has been speculated that the name Tidal is a Hebrew rendering of Tudhaliya, the name of several Hittite and Neo-Hittite kings.{{cite book|author1=Adam Simon van der Woude|author2=Adrianus van Selms|title=Adhuc Loquitur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lSHSAAAAMAAJ|year=1968|publisher=E. J. Brill|page=36}} The name continued as "Tudal" down to the Neo-Hittite period.{{cn|date=May 2024}} Stephanie Dalley argues that Tidal should be identified as the military leader ‘Tudhaliya the chief cupbearer’ mentioned on a clay tablet from the pre-Hittite Assyrian colony at Kanesh.{{cite book |title=The City of Babylon: A History, c. 2000 BC – AD 116 |last=Dalley |first=Stephanie |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2021 |isbn=9781107136274 |pages=319–321 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMsvEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA319}}Cf. {{cite book |title=Ups and Downs at Kanesh: Chronology, History and Society in the Old Assyrian Period |last=Barjamovic |first=Gojko |publisher=Netherlands Institute for the Near East |year=2012 |isbn=978-90-6258-331-7 |pages=39 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2092700 |last2=Hertel |first2=Thomas |last3=Larsen |first3=Mogens Trolle}} Alternatively, Gard Granerød regards Tidal as literary figure rather than a historical one. According to him, the name Tidal could be originated from a foreign story that Jewish people learned from the foreign diaspora community, which included Elamites and many other foreigners, as mentioned in Ezra 4.Gard Granerød (26 March 2010). Abraham and Melchizedek: Scribal Activity of Second Temple Times in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 118-121. ISBN 978-3-11-022346-0.{{Clarify|date=May 2024}}
The kingdom of Goyim has not been identified, though modern scholars have speculated that it may refer to Hittites, Hurrians and other groups in central Anatolia. The Genesis Apocryphon (col. 21) places it in Mesopotamia. In Biblical Hebrew, the word is generally translated as "nations" or "peoples".