Four kings, and a rescue by night
1 In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar; Arioch, king of Ellasar; Chedorlaomer, king of Elam; and Tidal, king of Goiim, 2 they made war with Bera, king of Sodom; Birsha, king of Gomorrah; Shinab, king of Admah; Shemeber, king of Zeboiim; and the king of Bela (also called Zoar). 3 All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (also called the Salt Sea). 4 They served Chedorlaomer for twelve years, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and struck the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites in their Mount Seir, to El Paran, which is by the wilderness. 7 They returned, and came to En Mishpat (also called Kadesh), and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that lived in Hazazon Tamar. 8 The king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (also called Zoar) went out; and they set the battle in array against them in the valley of Siddim 9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings against the five. 10 Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and some fell there. Those who remained fled to the hills. 11 They took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food, and went their way. 12 They took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. 13 One who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew. At that time, he lived by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner. They were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his relative was taken captive, he led out his three hundred eighteen trained men, born in his house, and pursued as far as Dan. 15 He divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. 16 He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot and his goods, and the women also, and the other people.
A regional war reaches into Abram's family, and the man who gave away the best land turns out to be able to take an army apart.
The chapter opens in a register nothing else in Genesis uses. Nine kings are named with their territories, a twelve-year vassalage is dated, a rebellion is placed in the thirteenth year and the campaign in the fourteenth, and the route of the invading force is traced city by city down the eastern side of the Jordan and back up through the Negeb.
This is the writing of political history, with the old place names glossed for later readers — the valley of Siddim (also called the Salt Sea), En Mishpat (also called Kadesh), Bela (also called Zoar). A writer inventing a founding legend does not embed it in a coalition war with a chronology and a line of march.
What brings Abram into it is one clause: They took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who lived in Sodom. The nephew who chose the well-watered plain, then moved his tent as far as Sodom, is now living in it, and the city's defeat is his captivity. The consequence of the choice in the previous chapter arrives without any comment from the narrator.
Abram is here called the Hebrew, the first use of the term in Scripture, and it appears in a verse about a man living among allies with names and a treaty — Mamre, Eshcol and Aner. He is a resident alien with standing.
The rescue is described with the same precision as the war. He led out his three hundred eighteen trained men, born in his house, pursued the coalition to the far north, divided himself against them by night, struck them, and drove them past Damascus. The number is oddly exact, which is a mark of a record rather than a story, and the tactics are those of a man who knows he cannot win a battle and can win a surprise.
Two things are worth holding about this. The first is that Abram, who has been portrayed as a herdsman moving tents and building altars, commands a private force large enough to break a raiding army — the household of a man of substance in that world. The second is what he does with the capability: he uses it once, for a relative who had taken advantage of him, and never again.
And he recovers everything. He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot and his goods, and the women also, and the other people. The list is careful to include the people of Sodom, who owed him nothing and had done nothing for him. The man who separated from Lot to avoid a quarrel crosses the country to get him back, and brings the citizens of a city the text has already called exceedingly wicked home with him.
settled What this mark means