Genesischapter 14
24 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High—
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
Moses set this chapter down, by the tradition of the synagogue and the church, for Israel in the wilderness, a people about to cross the same eastern country it describes. It is the one chapter of the Abram story told as a war report. The man who has so far moved his tents and built altars now leads armed men. Listen for the long roll of kings and places at the start, and then for the two kings who come out to meet him on his return. Watch what Abram accepts and what he refuses, and whose name he swears by.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, whose own route would cross the same eastern highway
- What
- A war report in which Abram rescues his nephew, receives a priest's blessing and refuses a king's reward.
- Where
- The road down the east side of the Jordan, the Valley of Siddim by the Salt Sea, the pursuit north past Damascus, and the King's Valley near Salem.
- When
- The patriarchal age, about 2084 BC on the traditional dating, a date the chapter itself does not give.
- Why
- To show Israel their father as a man of standing in Canaan who gave God the credit for his victory and took nothing from Sodom.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Abram, who is living as a resident foreigner at the Oaks of Mamre with a household large enough to field 318 trained men and a treaty with three local Amorite chiefs. It is the only place in Genesis that shows him at war.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The date is the patriarchal age, placed at about 2084 BC on the traditional reckoning, and the chapter supplies its own clock instead of a year: twelve years of tribute, a revolt in the thirteenth, and the army back in the fourteenth.
The geography is a road rather than a region. The invaders come west and then south along the corridor later ages called the King's Highway, striking Ashteroth-karnaim, the Emites and the Horites of Mount Seir, turning at Kadesh and coming up to the cities of the plain.
The occasion is a rebellion by five vassal cities against Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Abram enters it only because Lot has settled in Sodom and is carried off with its goods.
A first hearer knew what a reader today has to be told. Shifting coalitions of kings from Mesopotamia and Elam raiding west for tribute is the political shape of the early second millennium, and a vassal revolt after about a decade of payments is its ordinary rhythm. He also knew that a tenth of war spoil paid to a shrine was common practice in that country, so the remarkable thing at verse 20 is the priest who receives it, a king of Salem serving the God Abram serves.
Significance
For Israel this chapter said their father was a man of standing in Canaan, able to raise a force, beat an army and refuse a king's money in front of witnesses.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It also gave them Salem, the city that becomes Jerusalem, and a priest there who blessed Abraham. The rest of Scripture points back at those three verses.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard inside the third portion of the annual cycle, in the same sitting as the call of Abram and the covenant that follows it (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). The war of the kings, the rescue of Lot and the meeting with Melchizedek are read without a break. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.
How it is read
Every comment the corpus holds on this chapter is kept with its English text, which is true of no other chapter in these twenty five. Rashi is quoted here from the public domain Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, and Radak from the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash.
Rashi reads the names of the kings for their meaning. Amraphel he identifies with Nimrod, and he reads the name as the man who told Abraham to plunge into the fiery furnace (Rashi on Genesis 14:1:1, citing Eruvin 53a). Bera he reads as a name of evil, toward God and toward people (Rashi on Genesis 14:2:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 8). He reads En-mishpat as a name given for what would happen there later, at the waters of Meribah, and he gives the plain sense of Onkelos beside it (Rashi on Genesis 14:7:1).
Radak reads the war itself as a matter of numbers and expectation. The five kings went out expecting other subject kingdoms to join them, and expecting weight of numbers to tell. He holds that the four won so that Abram would gain the name he gained by the rescue (Radak on Genesis 14:8:1). Rashi reads the same point from the count of the kings, that the fewer won and that Abram pursued them even so (Rashi on Genesis 14:9:1).
Rashi reads the share of the spoil at the end of the chapter as a precedent. Abraham gave a portion to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre, who had stayed with the baggage while his servants fought. David made that the rule in Israel. The share of the man who stays with the stores is the share of the man who goes down to the battle (Rashi on Genesis 14:24:1, citing 1 Samuel 30:24 and 30:25).
What the rabbis say
Rashi carries four sayings of the rabbis on this chapter, and each stands here as what they taught.
The first is the one a Christian reader meets first. On the eighteenth verse Rashi reports the Midrashic reading that Melchizedek is "identical with Shem, son of Noah" (Rashi on Genesis 14:18:1, citing Nedarim 32b). The letter to the Hebrews reads the same figure another way, as a priest whose line is not traced, and the two readings are named here with their holders.
The second is on the pits of the tenth verse. Rashi reports that the clay was thick enough to hold a man, and that the king of Sodom came out of it by a miracle. Some of the nations had doubted that Abraham came out of the furnace at Ur, and they believed it after seeing that escape (Rashi on Genesis 14:10:1).
The third is on the man who escaped and brought the news. Rashi gives Og as the plain sense, the one left of the Rephaim. He reports the Midrash that reads him as the last of that generation (Rashi on Genesis 14:13:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 42:8 and Midrash Tanchuma). The fourth is on Lot. Rashi asks what brought the capture on him, and answers that it was his dwelling in Sodom (Rashi on Genesis 14:12:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 42:7).
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty four under Midrash and six under Talmud, with the locator for each one and no text. Bereshit Rabbah reads the fourth verse at 42:6, the tenth at 42:7 and the sixteenth at 41:3 and 43:4. It reads the twenty first verse at 43:9 and the twenty fourth at 67:12.
Aggadat Bereshit reads the thirteenth verse at 19:3, the fourteenth at 13:3, the fifteenth at 46:3, the eighteenth at 43:1, the nineteenth at 50:2 and the twenty second at 45:1. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the first verse at 10:5, the seventh at 19:14, the thirteenth at 16:16, the fifteenth at 20:12, the seventeenth at 15:14 and the twentieth at 12:11. Kohelet Rabbah reads the ninth verse at 5:15:1, and Bereshit Rabbati reads the seventh at Parashat Bereshit 72.
The Talmud is cited at Chullin 95b:8 on the tenth verse and Chullin 89a:1 on the twenty third. The Jerusalem Talmud reads the third verse at Taanit 4:2:12. Avot DeRabbi Natan is cited at 34:5 and 34:6, and its second recension at 38:6.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 14, in Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, about 1090; Radak, Radak on Genesis 14:8:1, 14:11:1 and 14:16:1, in HaChut Hameshulash, translated by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY, about 1200; The Midrash and the Talmud, the forty locators on Genesis 14 in scripts/data/sources/sefaria/genesis/14.json; MannaFest, the annual cycle table at src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Four Kings Against Five
Genesis 14:1-2
Amraphel king of Shinar: The first war in Scripture starts here, and this is the first verse that calls a man a king. It begins in Shinar, the plain where Babel was built and where Nimrod began to reign. The writer gives the names and the cities like a record. Four kings come west against five.
Genesis 14:1
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Bera king of Sodom: Adam Clarke counts these five as the Pentapolis, the five cities of the fruitful plain of Siddim, which had been paying tribute to Chedorlaomer. Only Bela carries a second name, Zoar. It is the small town Lot will beg to reach when Sodom falls in chapter 19.
Genesis 14:2
“These made war with Bera, etc. - It appears, from Gen 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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 14:3-4
the Valley of Siddim: The writer gives the valley the name it carried later, the Salt Sea, though the same plain was well watered like the garden of the LORD one chapter back. Lot chose it on that description. The cause of the war takes two lines, twelve years of tribute, rebellion in the thirteenth year, and the army back in the fourteenth.
in the thirteenth year they rebelled: Chedorlaomer is named alone here, so the five cities owed their tribute to the king of Elam, a land far to the east beyond Babylon. Adam Clarke reads the revolt as a bid to recover their liberty after twelve years of servitude. Elam's reach ran to the Jordan.
Genesis 14:5-7
the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim: Chedorlaomer comes down the east side and defeats the Rephaites, the Zuzites, the Emites and the Horites before he turns toward Sodom. Deuteronomy 2:10 and 11 counts the Emites among the Rephaites and calls them as tall as the Anakites. Israel will meet these same nations on this same ground. The Amalekites are named here before Amalek is born at 36:12, and the older commentators read it as the name the land carried later.
Genesis 14:5
“Rephaims - A people of Canaan: Gen 15:20. Ashteroth - A city of Basan, where Og afterwards reigned; Jos 13:31. Zuzims - Nowhere else spoken of, unless they were the same with the Zamzummims, Deu 2:20, as some imagine. Emims - A people great and many in the days of Moses, and tall as the Anakim. They dwelt among the Moabites, by whom they were reputed giants; Deu 2:10, Deu 2:11. Shaveh Kiriathaim - Rather, as the margin, the plain of Kiriathaim, which was a city afterwards belonging to Sihon king of Heshbon; Jos 13:19.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the Horites in the area of Mount Seir: Bede notes that the sons of Esau later held these mountains after the Horites were driven out, and Deuteronomy 2:12 records the same expulsion. Seir became the country of Edom. El-paran, near the desert, marks the southern end of the march.
Genesis 14:6
“And the Horites in the mountains of Seir. Indeed, these mountains, along with the neighboring regions, were possessed by the sons of Esau, who was also called Seir, because he was hairy, after the Horites were expelled.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)patristic
En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh): En-mishpat means the spring of judgment, and Adam Clarke ties the name to the judgment God gave on Moses and Aaron at Kadesh in Numbers 20. Clarke places Hazazon-tamar at Engedi, a town later allotted to Judah. The army swung north toward the plain.
Genesis 14:7
“En-mishpat - The well of judgment; probably so called from the judgment pronounced by God on Moses and Aaron for their rebellion at that place; Num 20:1-10. Amalekites - So called afterwards, from Amalek, son of Esau; Gen 36:12. Hazezon-tamar - Called, in the Chaldee, Engaddi; a city in the land of Canaan, which fell to the lot of Judah; Jos 15:62. See also 2Ch 20:2. It appears, from Son 1:14, to have been a very fruitful place.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 14:8-10
marched out and arrayed themselves for battle: Five kings march out to fight, and the ground beats them, a valley full of tar pits. Men of Sodom and Gomorrah fall in as they flee. That tar is what the builders used for mortar at Babel in chapter 11. The survivors run for the hill country, where Lot is sent in chapter 19.
Genesis 14:8
“And they drew up in battle array against them in the wooded valley. Instead of the wooded valley, in Hebrew it has in the Valley of Siddim, which signifies pleasant and wooded places.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Genesis 14:8
“Bela, the same is Zoar - That is, it was called Zoar after the destruction of Sodom, etc., mentioned in Genesis 19.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 14:8
“Let us not idly pass these words by, dearly beloved, or consider the account to be of no value. It was of set purpose that sacred Scripture recounted everything to us with precision so that we should learn the might of these barbarians and the degree of valor they displayed and with how much ferocity they involved themselves in war so as to clash even with the giants—that is, men powerful in bodily stature—and put to flight all the peoples dwelling there.”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 35.9patristic
Genesis 14:8
“We have seen now the prog-ress of the noble mind, which, finding itself in perilous deviation from the path of virtue, immediately arose to search for the reward of wisdom, the inheritance of justice. The readings that follow will show how harmful are the vices connected with frivolity. For those four kings who defeated the five kings and took captive the whole cavalry of the Sodomites captured Lot the son of Abraham's brother as well and went on their way. The five kings are our five bodily senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
Chedorlaomer is now named first, where verse 1 had named Amraphel first, and John Gill reads the order as marking him the principal in the war. Gill calls the other three his allies. He follows the Latin Vulgate in reading the count as four kings against five.
Genesis 14:9
“With Chedorlaomer king of Elam,.... Who is here mentioned first, being the principal in the war, and against whom the kings of Sodom, &c. had rebelled: and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; who were his allies, confederates, and auxiliaries: four kings with five; those four last mentioned, with the other five before spoken of, that is, they fought with them; or rather four kings against five, as the Vulgate Latin and Tigurine versions, and some others.”
full of tar pits: John Gill reads the tar pits as wells of bitumen, the pitch that later gave the lake its Greek name, Asphaltites. Gill adds that the valley was turned into that lake when the cities were overthrown. The kings fled across it.
Genesis 14:10
“And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits,.... Or "wells" or "fountains of slime" or bitumen (s); a liquid of a pitchy nature, cast out of fountains, and which was used for a cement in buildings; such fountains were near Babylon; see Gill on Gen 11:3; so that this place was naturally prepared for what it was designed to be, a bituminous lake; and hence, when turned into one, it was called the lake Asphaltites, from this slime or bitumen, called by the Greeks "asphaltos".”
Genesis 14:11-12
seized all the goods: The four kings strip the cities, and then the text adds the line that makes a border war Abram's business. They carried off Lot and his possessions. Genesis names him by where he was, living in Sodom. The plain he chose for its water carries him off.
Genesis 14:11
“All the goods of Sodom, and particularly their stores and provisions of victuals, were carried off by the conquerors. Note, When men abuse the gifts of a bountiful providence to gluttony and excess, it is just with God, and his usual way, by some judgment or other to strip them of that which they have so abused, Hos. ii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 14:11
“They took all the goods, etc. - This was a predatory war, such as the Arabs carry on to the present day; they pillage a city, town, or caravan; and then escape with the booty to the wilderness, where it would ever be unsafe, and often impossible, to pursue them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
since Lot was living in Sodom: Lot was living in Sodom, and Adam Clarke reads his capture as a share in the punishment of a wicked city, since he was found in its company. At 13:12 he had pitched his tent toward Sodom. Now his possessions are carried off with its goods.
Genesis 14:12
“They took Lot, etc. - The people, being exceedingly wicked, had provoked God to afflict them by means of those marauding kings; and Lot also suffered, being found in company with the workers of iniquity. Every child remembers the fable of the Geese and Cranes; the former, being found feeding where the latter were destroying the grain, were all taken in the same net. Let him that readeth understand.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Abram Rescues His Nephew Lot
Abram the Hebrew: An escapee brings Abram the news, and the verse calls him Abram the Hebrew, the first use of the word in Scripture. The older commentators take the name from Eber in the line of Shem, or from the verb abar, to cross over. He was living by the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, whose brothers Eshcol and Aner were bound to him by treaty.
Genesis 14:13
“Abram the Hebrew - See note on Gen 10:21. It is very likely that Abram had this appellation from his coming from beyond the river Euphrates to enter Canaan; for העברי haibri, which we render the Hebrew, comes from עבר abar, to pass over, or come from beyond.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 14:13
“Providence so ordered it that he now sojourned not far off, that he might be a very present help. He is here called Abram the Hebrew, that is, the son and follower of Heber, in whose family the profession of the true religion was kept up in that degenerate age. Abram herein acted like a Hebrew--in a manner not unworthy of the name and character of a religious professor.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 14:14-15
his relative had been captured: The Hebrew calls Lot his brother here, where verse 12 had called him a nephew. Abram takes 318 trained men born in his household against an army that had just beaten five kings. He divides his forces and attacks in the dark. The chase runs past Damascus to Hobah.
Genesis 14:14
“And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants--domestic slaves, such as are common in Eastern countries still and are considered and treated as members of the family.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 14:14
"When Abraham learned of this, he counted his servants born in the house" and with 318 men won a victory and liberated his nephew. This shows that the separation had taken place in friendship, since Abraham's love for his nephew was so great that he was willing to confront even the dangers of war on his behalf. What does it mean "he counted"? It means he "chose." So too what Jesus said in the Gospel refers not only to the knowledge of God but also to the grace of the just: "Even the hairs on your head are all counted."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
Genesis 14:14
“He armed his trained servants - These amounted to three hundred and eighteen in number: and how many were in the divisions of Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, we know not; but they and their men certainly accompanied him in this expedition. See Gen 14:24.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Abram divided his forces: Adam Clarke reads the night attack as a work of skill as well as courage, since Abram's force was small beside an army that had beaten five kings. Clarke names love for Lot as the motive, for a nephew who had taken the best of the land. Abram risked his life for him.
Genesis 14:15
“And he divided himself against them - It required both considerable courage and address in Abram to lead him to attack the victorious armies of these four kings with so small a number of troops, and on this occasion both his skill and his courage are exercised. His affection for Lot appears to have been his chief motive; he cheerfully risks his life for that nephew who had lately chosen the best part of the land, and left his uncle to live as he might, on what he did not think worthy his own acceptance.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 14:15
“Again, It is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few, 1 Sam. xiv. He rescued his kinsman; twice here he is called his brother Lot. The remembrance of the relation that was between them, both by nature and grace, made him forget the little quarrel that had been between them, in which Lot had by no means acted well towards Abram.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 14:16-17
He retrieved all the goods: Abram brings back everything, and the writer stops to say the women came back too. Two kings then come out to meet him there, in the Valley of Shaveh, the King's Valley. One comes from Sodom to bargain over the spoil, and the other comes from Salem, the city Psalm 76:2 sets beside Zion. Melchizedek reaches him first.
Genesis 14:16
“And he brought back - the women also - This is brought in by the sacred historian with peculiar interest and tenderness. All who read the account must be in pain for the fate of wives and daughters fallen into the hands of a ferocious, licentious, and victorious soldiery. Other spoils the routed confederates might have left behind; and yet on their swift asses, camels, and dromedaries, have carried off the female captives. However, Abram had disposed his attack so judiciously, and so promptly executed his measures, that not only all the baggage, but all the females also, were recovered.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Melchizedek Blesses Abram
the king of Sodom went out to meet him: Adam Clarke doubts this king is Bera of verse 2, since verse 10 seems to leave the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah dead in the tar pits. A successor may have taken the throne. He waits while Melchizedek speaks.
Genesis 14:17
“The king of Sodom went out to meet him - This could not have been Bera, mentioned Gen 14:2, for it seems pretty evident, from Gen 14:10, that both he and Birsha, king of Gomorrah, were slain at the bitumen-pits in the vale of Siddim; but another person in the meantime might have succeeded to the government.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Melchizedek king of Salem: Melchizedek arrives with no father, mother or genealogy. Genesis is built on genealogies and gives him none, and Hebrews 7 rests its case on that silence. He is the first priest named in Scripture, and he brings out bread and wine as priest of God Most High. Psalm 110:4 swears a priesthood after his order, and Henry reads him as a Christophany, an appearance of Christ before the incarnation, while Clarke reads him as a Canaanite king.
Genesis 14:18
“But one who is victorious should not claim the victory for himself; rather, he should attribute it to God. This is the teaching of Abraham, who became more humble, not more proud, in victory. Indeed, he offered a sacrifice and gave tithes; for this reason too, he received the blessing of Melchizedek, which means in translation "king of justice, king of peace." He was indeed the priest of the most high God.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
4 more voices on this verse
Genesis 14:18
“Melchizedek--This victory conferred a public benefit on that part of the country; and Abram, on his return, was treated with high respect and consideration, particularly by the king of Sodom and Melchizedek, who seems to have been one of the few native princes, if not the only one, who knew and worshipped, "the most high God," whom Abram served.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 14:18
“And how came he to settle in Canaan? Many Christian writers have thought that this was an appearance of the Son of God himself, our Lord Jesus, known to Abram, at this time, by this name, as, afterwards, Hagar called him by another name, ch. xvi. He appeared to him as a righteous king, owning a righteous cause, and giving peace.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 14:18
“And Melchizedek, king of Salem - A thousand idle stories have been told about this man, and a thousand idle conjectures spent on the subject of his short history given here and in Heb. vii. At present it is only necessary to state that he appears to have been as real a personage as Bera, Birsha, or Shinab, though we have no more of his genealogy than we have of theirs.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 14:18
“What a splendid type is Abram, in the narrative before us, of our Lord Jesus Christ! Let us read this story of Abram in connection with our Savior and see how full of meaning it is. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the abundance of His love, had taken us to be His brothers. But we, through our sin, had gone into the land of Sodom and Jesus Christ dwelt alone in His safety and His happiness, enjoying the Presence of God. The hosts of our enemies, with terrible force and cruel fury, carried us away captives.”
Cross references
Genesis 14:18
- Quoted inHebrews 7:1“This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,”
'Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God' (Melchizedek typology)
ConnectionsHebrews 7:1, Hebrews 7:1–3, Hebrews 7:2
Genesis 14:19-20
The blessing runs both ways, over Abram first and then back to God Most High, the Creator of heaven and earth. Abram answers with a tithe, a tenth of everything, and it is the first tithe in Scripture, given centuries before any law asked for one. Hebrews 7:7 presses the order, that the lesser is blessed by the greater. Jacob vows the same tenth at Bethel.
Genesis 14:19
“Observe the titles he here gives to God, which are very glorious. (1.) The most high God, which bespeaks his absolute perfections in himself and his sovereign dominion over all the creatures; he is King of kings. Note, It will greatly help both our faith and our reverence in prayer to eye God as the most high God, and to call him so.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 14:19
“And he blessed him - This was a part of the priest’s office, to bless in the name of the Lord, for ever. See the form of this blessing, Num 6:23-26; and for the meaning of the word to bless, see Gen 2:3 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
blessed be God Most High: The second blessing credits God Most High with the victory, since He gave Abram his enemies. Ambrose reads Abram's tithe as the answer of a man made humble by victory. Clarke counts the tenth from the spoils.
Genesis 14:20
“And he gave him tithes - A tenth part of all the spoils he had taken from the confederate kings. These Abram gave as a tribute to the most high God, who, being the possessor of heaven and earth, dispenses all spiritual and temporal favors, and demands the gratitude, and submissive, loving obedience, of all his subjects. Almost all nations of the earth have agreed in giving a tenth part of their property to be employed in religious uses.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 14:21-22
The king of Sodom offers a trade, the people back and the goods kept. Abram answers with an oath sworn by lifting his hand, the oldest form of oath in the book. He swears by the title he had just heard from Melchizedek, God Most High. To it he joins the covenant name, the LORD.
Genesis 14:21
“Give me the souls, and take thou the substance - So the Hebrew reads it. Here he fairly begs the persons, but as freely bestows the goods on Abram. Gratitude teaches us to recompense to the utmost of our power those that have undergone fatigues, or been at expence for our service.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 14:21
“Rich countries are a desirable prey, and idle luxurious countries are an easy prey, to growing greatness. The Sodomites were the posterity of Canaan whom Noah had pronounced a servant to Shem, from whom Elam descended; thus soon did that prophecy begin to e fulfilled.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke calls the raised hand the first way the faithful called God to witness a transaction. After circumcision was given, an oath could be sworn with a hand placed under the thigh, as at Genesis 24:2. Abram names his oath to the king's face.
Genesis 14:22
“I have lift up mine hand - The primitive mode of appealing to God, and calling him to witness a particular transaction; this no doubt generally obtained among the faithful till circumcision, the sign of the covenant, was established. After this, in swearing, the hand was often placed on the circumcised part; see Gen 24:2, Gen 24:9.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 14:22
“It is good to learn of others how to order our speech concerning God, and to imitate those who speak well in divine things. (2.) The ceremony used in this oath; I have lift up my hand - In religious swearing we appeal to God's knowledge of our truth and sincerity, and imprecate his wrath if we swear falsely; and the lifting up of the hands is expressive of both.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 14:23-24
even a thread, or a strap of a sandal: Abram refuses everything, down to a thread and the strap of a sandal, so that no king of Canaan can say he made Abram rich. He had been made rich once already, by a Pharaoh who thought he was buying a sister. The oath binds Abram alone. Aner, Eshcol and Mamre never swore it, and he tells them to take their portion.
Genesis 14:23
“It is characteristic of the perfect mind not to take for itself any earthly thing, anything prone to bodily seduction. This is why Abraham says, "I will take nothing of what is yours." He avoids intemperance like the plague. He flees from sensual bodily temptations as from filth. He rejects worldly pleasures to seek those that are above the world. This is what it means to raise one's hands to the Lord. The hand that does good is the virtue of the soul.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 14:23
“From a thread even to a shoelatchet - This was certainly a proverbial mode of expression, the full meaning of which is perhaps not known. Among the rabbinical writers חוט chut, or חוטי chuti, signifies a fillet worn by young women to tie up their hair; taken in this sense it will give a good meaning here.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 14:23
“What are all the ornaments and delights of sense to one that has God and heaven ever in his eye? He resolves even to a thread and a shoe-latchet; for a tender conscience fears offending in a small matter.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
what my men have eaten: Adam Clarke reads what my men have eaten as the food Abram's servants had already used from the plunder of verse 11. Clarke calls it unavoidable. Abram claims no payment for the march and keeps no share of the recovered goods.
Genesis 14:24
“Save only that which the young men have eaten - His own servants had partaken of the victuals which the confederate kings had carried away; see Gen 14:11. This was unavoidable, and this is all he claims; but as he had no right to prescribe the same liberal conduct to his assistants, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, he left them to claim the share that by right of conquest belonged to them of the recaptured booty. Whether they were as generous as Abram we are not told.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 14:24
“A good man will deny himself that liberty which he will not deny another, contrary to the practice of the Pharisees, Matt. xxiii. There was not the same reason why Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, should quit their right, that there was why Abram should. They did not make the profession that he made, nor were they, as he was, under the obligation of a vow.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 14:24
“How remarkable it is, then, that Abraham did not wish to touch any of the spoil gained by his victory or to take even what was offered him? The fact is that to receive recompense diminishes the joy of a victory and blunts the gratuitous character of a favor. For it makes a great difference whether one has fought for money or for fame. In one case, a person will be regarded as a mercenary. In the other case he will be deemed worthy of fame as a deliverer.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
How this psalm is built
The form: A war report set inside the Abram story, which presents Abram in the character of a warrior, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The roll of the nine kings | The chapter opens by naming four kings with their lands and five with their cities, and then names all nine again when the armies meet in the valley. John Gill reads the five as the Pentapolis, the five cities of the plain of Jordan. The list is the chapter's way of measuring what Abram walked into.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Genesis 14:2. | Genesis 14:1, Genesis 14:2, Genesis 14:8, Genesis 14:9 |
| God Most High, said first by the priest and then by Abram | The title God Most High stands four times in verses 18 to 22 of the Berean text in the store, three times in Melchizedek's blessing and once in Abram's oath. Abram takes up the title he has just heard and joins the covenant name to it. The repetition is the hinge between the blessing and the refusal. | Genesis 14:18, Genesis 14:19, Genesis 14:20, Genesis 14:22 |
| The two kings who come out to meet him | Verse 17 sends the king of Sodom out to meet Abram and verse 18 brings Melchizedek out with bread and wine, and the chapter sets the two offers side by side. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that both princes treated Abram with high respect on his return. One offers him goods and one gives him a blessing, and Abram takes the blessing.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 14:18. | Genesis 14:17, Genesis 14:18, Genesis 14:21 |
| Abram the Hebrew, the man who crossed over | Verse 13 is the first place in Scripture that calls a man a Hebrew, and the commentators divide on where the word comes from. Adam Clarke takes it from the verb abar, to pass over or come from beyond, and reads it of Abram crossing the Euphrates. Matthew Henry takes it from Eber, in whose family the true religion was kept in a degenerate age.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 14:13. | Genesis 14:13 |
The New Testament's use
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Genesis is a book built on genealogies, and Melchizedek arrives in it with no father, mother or genealogy given. Hebrews 7 rests its argument on that silence and reads the priest without recorded descent as a figure of a priesthood that does not pass down a family line. Psalm 110:4 had already sworn a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, and Hebrews 7:7 presses the order of the meeting itself, that the lesser is blessed by the greater.
The tenth is the other half of the New Testament's interest. Abram pays it centuries before any law asks for one, and Hebrews reads the payment as Abram's own acknowledgement of who the priest was. Jacob vows the same tenth at Bethel in Genesis 28:22, so the practice stands twice in Genesis before Sinai.
The debated concept
Who Melchizedek was is the chapter's long argument, and the commentators the site cites hold two positions in their own terms.
Matthew Henry reads him as Christ appearing before the incarnation, and reads the bread and wine as representing the spiritual provisions of strength and comfort that Christ has laid up in the covenant of grace. On that reading the silence of Genesis about his parents is theological rather than accidental, and Hebrews 7 is reading the text as it stands.
Adam Clarke answers that a thousand idle stories have been told about this man, and holds that he appears to have been as real a personage as Bera and Birsha, the kings named beside him. On that reading Melchizedek is a Canaanite king of Salem who held the priesthood of God Most High in his own city, and the force of Hebrews 7 lies in the silence of the record rather than in the identity of the man.
The strongest objection to Henry is that Genesis treats Melchizedek as one king among the kings of the chapter and gives him a city. The strongest objection to Clarke is that Hebrews 7:3 presses the absence of a genealogy as far as it can be pressed, which a purely local priest-king would not need.
The divine connection
The pattern the chapter holds out is the order of the two meetings. Abram is blessed by a priest before he is offered anything by a king, and the blessing is what lets him refuse the goods. Charles Spurgeon preached the whole chapter as a type in 1864, reading Abram as the warrior who goes after his captured brothers and brings them home, and reading the bread and wine set before the returning soldiers as the refreshment Christ gives His own. What the text supplies is the sequence and the titles; what the preachers add is the application, and the two are kept apart here.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 14:11; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 589, 1864; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 14:1 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 14:15.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, On Abraham; Bede, Commentary on Genesis; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.