Chapter 14
There is a regional war in all the area around Lot and Abram. Many Kings are mentioned. Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned, and these seem to generally be located near the south end of the Dead Sea. Zoar is mentioned, and it too is shown on "Bible maps" as being in this area. There were several place names that I could not locate. King Chedorlaomer leads a group, and they battle those rebelling against the 12 year rule of Ched.
2021 - Chedorlaomer is King of Elam, which is to the SE of Shinar, on the Persian Gulf. This was a fairly widespread war, as it goes all the way to the Sinai peninsula. This war goes on for some time. Chedorlaomer's forces defeat a number of armies that come out against them, and do sort of an enforcement action bringing various places over in the west back under Ched's rule. Among those defeated are the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Emim, and the Horites, along with the Amalekites, and the Amorites. All these seem to be south of the Dead Sea. The Amalekites and Amorites are toward the north end of the Sinai Peninsula, and as the campaign is described, they were sort of a far western stroke after defeating kings in northwestern Saudi. After the far west, Ched's army swings north toward the southern end of the Dead Sea itself. This is where Sodom and Gomorrah, and Zoar are located. Ched continues his campaign to re-establish his rule, Sodom and Gomorrah fall. As described, this seems to have been the culminating battle of the campaign. These nations were more north of where the previous battles seem to have been and in this last battle, we find the King of Shinar. Since Shinar borders Elam back over in the east, it is a bit confusing as to what he was doing all the way over at the Dead Sea. Perhaps he thought to cut Elam's supply lines and surround Chedorlaomer. This seems to be a real reach for Shinar, at least according to the map above. I did find some additional explanation here: http://www.biblehistory.net/newsletter/Chedorlaomer.htm
I think that these events, like many so remote in time and culture and language from us, may never have any real clarity, and should be read in a general context. These things took place in about 1000 BC as nearly as I can tell. The main point in the link above is that three of the four kings mentioned in Genesis 14 are also mentioned in surviving artifacts from that same time. This is an external corroboration of a Biblical account from 3000 years ago. This is one of those "ties" between Biblical history and secular history, giving weight to the historical "credibility" of the Bible that ought to extend to details that secular history has not preserved.
Also - much is made of some of these defeated by Chedorlaomer. The Rephaim, Zuzim, and Emim were/are all thought to have been "giants" or at least peoples taller than other peoples of the time. I did not choose to go down this trail to see what more is here. We will see the Rephaim again in Joshua's time, so we know that while Chedorlaomer defeated them here, he apparently did not wipe them out as a race.
2024 - If you trace out the route by looking at each place named in vss 5-9, it is pretty obvious that the "Kings of the East" took the northern route and attacked Ashteroth-karnaim first. It is NE of present day Damascus. Then they moved on southward, conquering as the went. The only one I cannot place is Ham, which, in order, would be South of A-K and north of S-K. But the Land of Ham is Egypt. They went as far south as Mt. Seir - Edom, but do not appear to have gone into Egypt herself. One wonders then why the King of Zoar would have been drawn into this conflict. That's a long way off. But...perhaps that is why the Eastern Kings turned back to go home after Mt. Seir. I note that the King of Zoiim is allied with the Eastern Kings. That ending on the word implies an Egyptian King. Perhaps he was hoping to have the Eastern Kings help him against Zoar, but they decided against it. It was on the way back to the East that Sodom and Gomorrah fall, after/around the time of the battle at the Dead Sea.
It says there were bitumen pits, and as the armies of the Kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, and others fled, some fell into the pits, and some fled to the hill country. Wonder what might be excavated from those pits if they are still there? The armies against Ched are routed and all their possessions and provisions are taken. Lot and his family are taken captive.
Abram gets word of this. (Mamre is a name, of an Amorite. So Abram is living among the Amorites at this time.) Abram takes 318 trained men - apparently Abram had foreseen the need for a defensive force at his disposal - and divides them into two groups and then attacks by night, and defeats all these kings. Hard to believe it was a very large group, and that they had done so much damage. Yet that is what it says. Those kings were chased to north of Damascus. And they weren't just defeated. Abram recovers all the loot they'd taken, his own family, and all the women of the people. Abram had "preserved" the people of Sodom and Gomorrah incidentally to recovering his nephew. I often wonder how the evil are not punished until later in the Bible, but here I see that the evil are even sometimes preserved in order for God to do good to His own. Sometimes the good suffer with the bad, other times the bad benefit from even a little bit of good among them.
This might make a good FB post. Genesis 14.
As he returns home, the King of Sodom meets Abram, and Melchizedek king of Salem brings out bread and wine. Says he is king of Salem, not part of Sodom, though he could have been there when the King of Sodom came out. Melchizedek is a priest of God Most High, before the Aaronic priesthood and before the Levites. This priest blesses Abram. Abram gives Melchizedek a tenth of all his spoils. This is before the law.
2023 - It is also quite important that Melchizedek is BOTH King and High Priest. We don't see another one like that until Jesus.
2026 - Melchizedek is called Priest of God most high. "God most High" is El Elyon, and that is the term used in the text. Again, it is a proper name, not a title. The LSB is really showing me that in his writing, Moses used God's name and very few translations render it that way....or maybe just because we read it in English, we don't interpret it that way.
2026 - In vs 22, Abram uses the name "Yahweh El Elyon", making it clear that the God of Melchizedek is the same as the God of Abraham.
Abram won't take anything offered by the King of Sodom. He doesn't want that King to be able to say "I have made Abram rich" - which probably means Abram did not want to be under obligation to the King of Sodom in any way. Further, when Abram names those who should get a share because they went with him, there are three names, including Mamre's. So Abram took his own 318 trained men, but he may well have taken many others under the leadership of these other three Amorites.
2026 - We know from verse 13 that Mamre is a man's name, and he had two brothers, Eshcol and Aner. It is to these three brothers, with whom Abram was allied, and on whose land he lived, that Abram tells the King of Sodom that spoils are due. So Abram took his 318 men, but we don't really know how many men these other three brothers had. We know the four of them could apparently stack up against the kings from the east. They were likely laden with all the loot they'd taken, their forces depleted by the many battles they'd fought, and relaxed because they were on their way home. Still, they were overrun at night. Surprise tactics. Was Abram in charge of the strategy? Did his own men go in first?
2021 - Couple of other things. Note that Abram follows Ched as far as Dan, and as he defeats Ched, he chases the remnants of Ched's army to north of Damascus. So thinking about this, we might say that instead of cutting across the middle of Saudi to go home, Ched is going "around the circle", north, then west, then south, through Babylon on his way through Shinar to reach Elam. The "order" in which Ched had attacked his enemies indicates that he had come across the interior of Saudi to begin the battle, perhaps surprising many of them, and so defeated them with what may have been a relatively small force. (No, this is not correct. He went around the northern route. See above.) However, when it came to that final battle, he still managed a resounding defeat, looting all the cities near the south end of the Dead Sea, and then he started north on the long roundabout journey home. Perhaps summer had arrived by this time and going back across the desert would have been suicide. So many details we don't know.