Genesis 14:2

_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;_ And it came to pass. This chapter presents Abram in the unexpected character of a warrior. The occasion was this: the King of Sodom and the kings of the adjoining cities, after having been tributaries for twelve years to the King of Elam, combined to throw off his yoke. To chastise their rebellion, as he deemed it, Chedorlaomer, with the aid of three allies, invaded the territories of the refractory princes, defeated them in a pitched battle, where the nature of the ground favoured his army (Genesis 14:10), and hastened in triumph on his homeward march, with a large amount of captives and booty. AMRAPHEL - supposed by some to be derived from the Sanskrit Amarapala, 'worshipper of the gods;' but it has been sugges

1-12 The wars of nations make great figure in history, but we should not have had the record of this war if Abram and Lot had not been concerned. Out of covetousness, Lot had settled in fruitful, but wicked Sodom. Its inhabitants were the most ripe for vengeance of all the descendants of Canaan. The invaders were from Chaldea and Persia, then only small kingdoms. They took Lot among the rest, and his goods. Though he was righteous, and Abram's brother's son, yet he was with the rest in this trouble. Neither our own piety, nor our relation to the favourites of Heaven, will be our security when God's judgments are abroad. Many an honest man fares the worse for his wicked neighbours: it is our wisdom to separate, or at least to distinguish ourselves from them, 2 Corinthians 6:17. So near a relation of Abram should have been a companion and a disciple of Abram. If he chose to dwell in Sodom...

Verse Genesis 14:2. _THESE MADE WAR WITH BERA, C._] It appears, from Genesis 14:4, that these five Canaanitish kings had been subdued by Chedorlaomer, and were obliged to pay him tribute and that, having been enslaved by him twelve years, wishing to recover their liberty, they revolted in the thirteenth; in consequence of which Chedorlaomer, the following year, summoned to his assistance three of his vassals, invaded Canaan, fought with and discomfited the kings of the _Pentapolis_ or five cities - Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboiim, Zoar, and Admab, which were situated in the fruitful plain of Siddim, having previously overrun the whole land....

- Abram Rescues Lot 1. אמרפל _'amrāpel_, Amraphel; related: unknown. אלריוך _'aryôk_, Ariok, “leonine?” related: ארי _'arı̂y_, “a lion:” a name re-appearing in the time of Daniel Daniel 2:14. אלסר _'elāsār_ Ellasar (related: unknown) is identified with Larsa or Larancha, the Λάρισσα _Larissa_ or Λαράχων _Larachōn_ of the Greeks, now Senkereh, a town of lower Babylonia, between Mugheir (Ur) and Warka (Erek) on the left bank of the Frat. כדרלעמר kedārlā‛om

EXPOSITION GENESIS 14:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS. After the separation of Abram and Lot, the latter of whom now appears as a citizen of Sodom, and not merely a settler in the Jordan circle; perhaps about the eighty-fourth year of Abram's life (Hughes). The present chapter, "the oldest extant record respecting Abraham" (Ewald), but introduced into the Mosaic narrative by the Jehovistic editor (Knobel, Tuch, Bleek, Davidson), possesses traces of authenticity, of which not the least is the chronological definition with which it commences (Havernick). IN THE DAYS OF AMRAPHEL. Sanscrit, _Amrapala_, keeper of the gods (Gesenius); _Arphaxad_ (Furst); powerful people (Young, 'Analytical Concordance'); root unknown (Murphy, Kalisch). KING OF SKINAR. _Babel _(Onkelos); Bagdad (Arabic version of Erpe

[THAT THESE] MADE WAR WITH BERA KING OF SODOM,.... A city in the plain of Jordan, which with the four following made the Pentapolis, or five cities of the plain. Strabo y says, in this place formerly were thirteen cities, the metropolis of which was Sodom, and which yet had remaining a compass of sixty furlongs; according to Dr. Lightfoot z, it should be placed in the southern extremity of the lake Asphaltites, whereas it is usually set in the maps in the northern bounds of it: AND WITH BIRSHA KING OF GOMORRAH; another city in the plain of Jordan, called by Solinus a Gomorrum: SHINAB KING OF ADMAH; a third city situated in the same plain: AND SHEMEBER KING OF ZEBOIIM; a fourth city of the plain, which seems to have its name from the pleasantness of its situation: AND THE KING OF BELA, WHICH IS ZOAR; so it was afterwards called by Lot, being a little city,...

CHAPTER 14 THE FIRST RECORDED WAR AND LOT'S DELIVERANCE _ 1. The battle of the confederacy (Genesis 14:1)_ 2. Sodom and Gomorrah spoiled (Genesis 14:11) 3. Abram's rescue (Genesis 14:14) 4. Sodom's king to meet Abram (Genesis 14:17) 5. Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18) 6. The king's offer and Abram's answer (Genesis 14:21) The record of the first war is here foreshadowing the last great warfare still to com

THE FOUR KINGS MAKE WAR WITH THE FIVE REBEL KINGS. The four kings of Lower Babylonia, Larsa, Elam, and (?) Guti, made war on the five kings of the cities of the Plain, who had formed a confederacy in the Vale of Siddim, a district now covered by the Dead Sea, and after twelve years'subjection threw off the yoke of Elam. Amraphel is by most scholars identified with Hammurabi (p. 51), in spite of serious objections which others regard as insuperable. The date of Hammurabi has been much disputed (pp. 119, 130). He threw off the sovereignty of Elam, then overthrew Rim-Sin, the brother and successor of Arad-Sin or Eri-aku, and created a united kingdom of Babylonia after the conquest of Sumer and Accad. He has become specially famous in recent times through the discovery of the legislation, known as the Code of Hammurabi, which, apart from its intrinsic interest for the student of jurisprudenc...

ZOAR. Compare Genesis 14:8 with Genesis 19:22....

_that they made war_ This anticipates and summarizes the contents of Genesis 14:5. As Hammurabi, the conqueror of Elam and founder of the Babylonian kingdom, terms himself king of _Amurru_= Amorites, or northern Palestine, there is nothing unhistorical in the representation of an invasion of this region by the Elamite suzerain. _Bera … Birsha_ The kings of the cities of the Plain mentioned in this verse are not otherwise known. Identifications with the Arabic _Bari_and _Birshi_, and with the Babylonian _Sinabu_, have been conjectured. The five cities here named, sometimes (e.g. Wis 10:6) called the Pentapolis, were, according to the tradition, situated at the southern end of the Dead Sea, and, with the exception of Zoar, were overwhelmed in the catastrophe of chap. 19. Each city has its king, as was the case with the cities of Canaan, according to the Book of Joshu