Genesis 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Four kings march against five kings, defeat them in the Valley of Siddim, and carry off the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah along with Abram's nephew Lot. A survivor brings word to Abram, who takes 318 trained men from his household, pursues the raiders north, and brings back Lot, the goods, the women, and the people. On his return he is met by the king of Sodom and by Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who brings out bread and wine and blesses him; Abram gives a tenth of everything and refuses to keep anything belonging to the king of Sodom.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • There was a time in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar.
   • Arioch was king of Ellasar.
   • Chedorlaomer was king of Elam.
   • Tidal was king of Goiim (nations).
2. 14:2
   • These kings made war against Bera, king of Sodom.
   • They made war against Birsha, king of Gomorrah.
   • They made war against Shinab, king of Admah.
   • They made war against Shemeber, king of Zeboiim.
   • They made war against the king of Bela.
   • Bela is Zoar.
3. 14:3
   • All these joined together at the Valley of Siddim.
   • The Valley of Siddim is the Salt Sea.
4. 14:4
   • For twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer.
   • In the thirteenth year they rebelled.
5. 14:5
   • In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer came.
   • The kings who were with him came as well.
   • They struck the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim.
   • They struck the Zuzim in Ham.
   • They struck the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim.
6. 14:6
   • They struck the Horites in their mountain, Seir.
   • They struck as far as El Paran.
   • El Paran is beside the wilderness.
7. 14:7
   • They turned back and came to En Mishpat.
   • En Mishpat is Kadesh.
   • They struck all the territory of the Amalekites.
   • They also struck the Amorites who dwelt in Hazazon Tamar.
8. 14:8
   • The king of Sodom went out.
   • The king of Gomorrah went out.
   • The king of Admah went out.
   • The king of Zeboiim went out.
   • The king of Bela went out.
   • Bela is Zoar.
   • They set the battle in array against them in the Valley of Siddim.
9. 14:9
   • They fought against Chedorlaomer king of Elam.
   • They fought against Tidal king of Goiim (nations).
   • They fought against Amraphel king of Shinar.
   • They fought against Arioch king of Ellasar.
   • There were four kings against five.
10. 14:10
    • The Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits.
    • The king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah fled.
    • They fell there.
    • Those who remained fled to the mountain.
11. 14:11
    • The victors took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah.
    • They took all their food.
    • They went their way.
12. 14:12
    • They took Lot.
    • They took Lot's goods.
    • Lot was the son of Abram's brother.
    • They departed.
    • Lot was dwelling in Sodom.
13. 14:13
    • One who had escaped came.
    • He told Abram the Hebrew.
    • Abram was dwelling by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite.
    • Mamre was the brother of Eshcol.
    • Mamre was the brother of Aner.
    • These men were parties to a covenant with Abram.
14. 14:14
    • Abram heard that his brother had been taken captive.
    • Abram mustered his trained men.
    • The trained men were born in his house.
    • They numbered three hundred and eighteen.
    • Abram pursued as far as Dan.
15. 14:15
    • He divided his forces against them by night.
    • He and his servants attacked.
    • He struck them.
    • He pursued them as far as Hobah.
    • Hobah is to the left of Damascus.
16. 14:16
    • He brought back all the goods.
    • He also brought back Lot his brother.
    • He brought back Lot's goods.
    • He brought back the women.
    • He brought back the people.
17. 14:17
    • The king of Sodom went out to meet Abram.
    • This was after Abram returned from striking Chedorlaomer.
    • It was after he returned from striking the kings who were with Chedorlaomer.
    • The meeting was at the Valley of Shaveh.
    • The Valley of Shaveh is the King's Valley.
18. 14:18
    • Melchizedek was king of Salem.
    • Melchizedek brought out bread and wine.
    • Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High.
19. 14:19
    • Melchizedek blessed Abram.
    • Melchizedek said that Abram is blessed by God Most High.
    • God Most High is possessor of heaven and earth.
20. 14:20
    • Melchizedek said that God Most High is blessed.
    • Melchizedek said that God Most High delivered Abram's enemies into his hand.
    • Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
21. 14:21
    • The king of Sodom said to Abram to give him the persons.
    • The king of Sodom told Abram to take the goods for himself.
22. 14:22
    • Abram said to the king of Sodom that he had lifted up his hand to the LORD, God Most High.
    • Abram called the LORD the possessor of heaven and earth.
23. 14:23
    • Abram swore he would not take a thread or a sandal strap.
    • Abram swore he would not take anything that belonged to the king of Sodom.
    • Abram said this was so the king of Sodom could not say he had made Abram rich.
24. 14:24
    • Abram excepted what the young men had eaten.
    • Abram excepted the share of the men who went with him.
    • Those men were Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre.
    • Abram said they should take their portion.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

14:1

Shinar is southern Mesopotamia, the region later called Babylonia; Elam lay east of it, in what is now southwestern Iran; Ellasar has not been securely identified. "King of nations" translates the Hebrew word goyim, meaning peoples or nations generally; it may be a place name here rather than a description, and translators differ.

14:2

Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela were small city-states, each with its own king, towns with a ruler rather than kingdoms in the modern sense. The parenthesis is the writer telling readers that the town they know as Zoar is the Bela of the story.

14:3

The Salt Sea is the body of water now called the Dead Sea. It is so salty that nothing lives in it. The writer is identifying an old battlefield name with a landmark his readers would recognize.

14:4

"Served" here means they were subject states: they kept their own kings but paid yearly tribute to Chedorlaomer and owed him military support. Rebelling meant refusing to pay, which is why an army came.

14:5

Rephaim, Zuzim and Emim are names for older peoples of the region. Elsewhere the Hebrew Bible remembers the Rephaim and Emim as unusually tall, and it uses these names for populations that had already largely disappeared by the time the story was written down.

14:6

The Horites were the earlier inhabitants of the hill country of Seir, southeast of the Dead Sea, the territory later held by Edom. The "wilderness" is dry, uninhabited grazing land, not forest.

14:7

En Mishpat means "spring of judgment" in Hebrew, a desert water source where disputes were settled; Kadesh is the name it was known by later. Naming the territory after the Amalekites is the writer using the label current in his own day for land the Amalekites had not yet settled at the time of the events.

14:9

"Four kings with five" is the storyteller's summary of the odds, the way one might say "four against five."

14:10

The King James "slimepits" means pits of bitumen, natural asphalt, a thick black tar that seeps to the surface in this region. It was collected and used as mortar and waterproofing. Men and animals could sink into it.

14:11

Armies in those days carried off food, animals, and anything valuable. Taking the losers' goods was the normal reward for winning.

14:12

The King James "Abram's brother's son" is exact: Lot was Abram's nephew, the son of Abram's dead brother Haran. Under the customs of the time this made Abram responsible for him.

14:13

"Hebrew" appears here for the first time in the Bible; it is what outsiders call Abram, not what he calls himself. The "oaks" (King James "plain") are large trees, probably terebinths, that marked a known spot, landmarks people camped beside and named. "Confederate with Abram" means bound to him by a sworn treaty of mutual defense, which is why their men fight alongside him.

14:14

Hebrew uses "brother" for any close male relative, so the King James "his brother" and the rendering's "his relative" mean the same thing: Lot, his nephew. The men "born in his own house" were slaves born into Abram's household rather than bought, a group considered the most loyal and here trained as fighters. Dan is the name the northern site carried in the writer's day, long after Abram.

14:15

The King James "on the left hand of Damascus" reflects the Hebrew habit of orienting by facing east: ahead is east, behind is west, right is south, left is north. So it means north of Damascus.

14:16

The women and the people are captives. A victorious army in this period carried off the population along with the property, to sell them or keep them as slaves, so recovering them mattered as much as recovering the goods.

14:17

The King's Valley was a known spot near Jerusalem; the writer gives both the older name, Shaveh, and the familiar one. Going out to meet a returning army was the formal way a ruler greeted a victor and opened negotiations.

14:18

Salem is generally understood as the older name for Jerusalem. Melchizedek's name means something like "my king is righteousness" or "king of righteousness." A priest was the man authorized to offer sacrifices and pronounce blessings for a community. "God Most High" translates El Elyon, a title for the highest god used in that region; the story does not explain how Melchizedek came to serve him. Bread and wine were the ordinary provisions offered to an army coming off a march.

14:19

The King James "possessor of heaven and earth" translates a Hebrew word that can mean either "the one who acquired or owns" or "the one who made." Both senses are live in the phrase and translators split between them.

14:20

"Delivered thine enemies into thy hand" is standard battle language: handed them over, gave you the victory. Giving a tenth of captured goods to a temple or its priest was a recognized practice in the ancient Near East. The Hebrew does not name the giver or the receiver, "he gave him a tenth of everything", and although the usual reading is that Abram gave to Melchizedek, the sentence itself leaves it open.

14:21

The "persons" are his own captured citizens, taken as prisoners and about to be sold or kept as slaves. By the war customs of the time the recaptured people and goods now belonged to Abram, so the king is asking a favor, not stating a right.

14:22

Raising the hand was the physical gesture that accompanied swearing an oath, the way a raised hand accompanies swearing in a court today. Abram is saying he has already bound himself by oath, so the matter is closed.

14:23

A thread and a sandal strap are proverbially the most worthless things a person carries, the equivalent of saying "not a scrap, not a shoelace."

14:24

"The young men" are Abram's fighting men; the word can mean servants or retainers as well as men of a certain age. Dividing captured goods among those who fought was the normal expectation, so Abram is refusing his own share while protecting his allies' claim to theirs.