34 | Genesis 14:1 rah, the king of Ad mah, the king of Ze boy im and the king of Bela( that is, Zoar) marched out and drew up their bat tle lines in the Val ley of Sid dim
9 against Ked or la o mer king of Elam, Ti dal king of Goy im, Am ra phel king of Shi nar and Ar i och king of El la sar— four kings against five. 10 Now the Val ley of Sid dim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sod om and Go mor rah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills.
11
The four kings seized all the goods of Sod om and Go mor rah and all their food; then they went away.
12
They also car ried off Abram’ s neph ew Lot and his pos ses sions, since he was liv ing in Sod om.
13
A man who had es caped came and re port ed this to Abram the He brew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mam re the Am o rite, a broth er b of Esh kol and Aner, all of whom were al lied with Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his rel a tive had been tak en cap tive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his house hold and went
Abram Rescues Lot
At the time when Am ra phel was king of Shinar, a Ar i och king of El la sar, Ked or la o mer
14 king of Elam and Ti dal king of Goy im, 2 these kings went to war against Bera king of Sod om, Bir sha king of Go mor rah, Shi nab king of Ad mah, Sheme ber king of Ze boy im, and the king of Bela( that is, Zoar). 3 All these lat ter kings joined forc es in the Val ley of Sid dim( that is, the Dead Sea Val ley).
4
For twelve years they had been sub ject to Ked orla o mer, but in the thir teenth year they re belled.
5
In the four teenth year, Ked or la o mer and the kings al lied with him went out and de feat ed the Reph a ites in Ash te roth Kar na im, the Zu zites in Ham, the Emites in Sha veh Kir ia tha im 6 and the Ho rites in the hill coun try of Seir, as far as El Pa ran near the des ert. 7 Then they turned back and went to En Mish pat( that is, Ka desh), and they con quered the whole ter ri to ry of the Am a lek ites, as well as the Am o rites who were liv ing in Haz e zon Ta mar.
8
Then the king of Sod om, the king of Go mora
1 That is, Babylonia; also in verse 9 an ally b
13 Or a relative; or
14:1 – 24 This episode recounts a regional war between several Mesopotamian kings. Lot’ s fateful choice to live near Sodom embroils him in the conflict, and Abram must rescue him from the kings who have conquered Sodom and the surrounding cities. This narrative is the only time Abram is depicted as a warrior, and the themes of promise and blessing— prominent in the other episodes from Abraham’ s life— are absent here.
14:1 Amraphel was king of Shinar The identity of this person is unknown. Shinar Another name for Babylonia( see 11:2). Arioch The name Arioch appears in the ancient Near Eastern Mari archives( eighteenth century BC) and the Nuzi tablets( fifteenth century BC). Ellasar This may be the Hebrew equivalent of the Akkadian phrase al ashshur, which indicates“ city of Ashur”( Assyria). Kedorlaomer This name does not appear in the known lists of Elamite kings( roughly 40 kings). The first part of the name, however, may correspond to the Akkadian term kudur( kutir in Elamite, which means“ a servant”). This element appears in several royal Elamite names. Elam The ancient name for modern Khuzestan( southwestern Iran), east of Babylon. Tidal This name may be a transcription of the Hittite royal name Tudchaliash. The name is attributed to four Hittite kings, the earliest of whom lived during the seventeenth century BC— chronologically too late to be identified with the king mentioned here. 14:2 Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah Neither name is known. However, this may be a wordplay: Bera( bera’ in Hebrew) and Birsha( birsha’ in Hebrew) appear to play on the Hebrew words for“ evil”( ra’ ah) and“ wicked”( rasha’). 14:3 the Dead Sea Valley The water of the Dead Sea has the highest salt content of any body of water in the world. 14:5 Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim The people groups listed in this verse were clans of giant people— much like the descendants of Anak( see Nu 13:33; Dt 2:10 – 11; 3:11 – 13). 14:6 Horites The inhabitants of the region of Edom before it was taken over by the descendants of Esau
( Ge 36:20 – 30). The narrator probably intended the Horites to be understood as another Canaanite people group since all the names given in ch. 36 are Semitic. Another possibility, though less likely, is that“ Horites” was the Hebrew name for the Hurrians— a non-Semitic people who moved into northwestern Mesopotamia and established the Mitannian Empire in the mid-second millennium BC. There is no evidence that the Hurrians lived in the region of Edom or Seir, though they were occasionally in other parts of Canaan. Seir Refers to the mountainous region southeast of the Dead Sea. This name is often used as a synonym for Edom. El Paran Generally refers to the desert of the Sinai Peninsula southwest of Palestine( see 21:21; Nu 10:12). 14:7 En Mishpat( that is, Kadesh) A location in the northern Sinai that later served as a regular campsite for Israel during their wilderness wanderings( Nu 20:1). the Amalekites Refers to a nomadic or seminomadic tribe that later occupied parts of Canaan. Genesis portrays them as descendants of Esau, Abraham’ s grandson( Ge 36:12; compare 1Ch 1:36). Hazezon Tamar This location is later equated with En Gedi, a freshwater spring on the west side of the Dead Sea( 2Ch 20:2). 14:13 the Hebrew The Hebrew language word used here, ivri, could come from the Hebrew language preposition ever, meaning“ beyond,” resulting in the translation“ Abram, the one from beyond( the river Euphrates).” However, this phrase most likely refers to Abram being a descendant of Eber( see Ge 10:21 – 31; 11:10 – 26)— whom Genesis seems to present as the forefather of the Hebrew people. great trees See note on 12:6. Mamre the Amorite Since his own people had been attacked in this war, Mamre had good reason to assist Abram. 14:14 318 trained men A realistic number for an armed force, but two extra-Biblical examples suggest it may be a symbolic number indicating a large group. In an Egyptian text, Princess Giluchepa of Mitanni arrives with 317 harem attendants. In the Greek work Homer’ s
Iliad, 318 men die in a four-day battle. The number 318 is the sum of the 12 prime numbers from 7 to 47, so the number may have symbolic meaning.