NOTES for Gen 14:1-24
1 And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; |
2 That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. |
3 All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. |
4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. |
5 And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, |
6 And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness. |
7 And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar. |
8 And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim; |
9 With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five. |
10 And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain. |
11 And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. |
12 And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. |
13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eschol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram. |
14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. |
15 And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. |
16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. |
17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale. |
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. |
19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: |
20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. |
21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. |
22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, |
23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: |
24 Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion. |
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In the story of the war of the kings, the reader's main attention is naturally drawn to the figure of Melchizedek. Meanwhile, the story is interesting also because it lets us better understand the situation that was taking shape in Palestine in Abraham's time. There was no unified authority in this territory then, and wars between small city-states located mainly in Galilee and in the Jordan Valley were commonplace. Tribes living on the adjacent lands were often drawn into such wars. That is what happened to Lot: after settling near Sodom (Gen 13:12), he was taken captive together with the inhabitants of the city defeated in the war (vv. 11-12). Abraham had to rescue his relative who had fallen into trouble, and he did so by attacking the victors' camp at night (vv. 14-16). And Melchizedek, as was customary in those days, blessed the returning victor (vv. 17-20).
Who, then, was Melchizedek? In the story's text he is called a "priest," but the corresponding Hebrew word came to mean priest only much later, after the Exodus; in the time of the Patriarchs it meant not a priest, but a prophet. Besides, the god in question here has no relation to the God of Abraham. Although in the Russian text he is called "God Most High," his Hebrew name ("El Elyon") occurs only in this story, and Abraham himself never called his God by this name. Melchizedek plainly did not serve the God of Abraham. And yet his god was not an ordinary Baal, of the sort found in great numbers in antiquity both in Palestine and in other Near Eastern lands. Judging by the fact that he was called "possessor of heaven and earth," he was not a simple patron of a city or region, as the Baals were. He was probably a heavenly god like the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter, and his worship reflected faint gleams of an ancient monotheism that had already almost completely disappeared.
And now this prophet of the heavenly god blesses Abraham, and his blessing is filled with a meaning that perhaps Melchizedek himself never thought of, a meaning that will be fully revealed much later, when in Christ the possibility of communion with the God of Abraham is opened to everyone and the vague premonitions of paganism are replaced by the clarity of true communion with God.
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