Genesis 14:5: Three peoples beaten in one sentence, on a road running south
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 14:5
In the fourteenth year the eastern kings come back in force and crush three peoples before they ever reach Sodom. Commentators treat this as the first battle recorded in Scripture, and as a picture of a power the world cannot resist.
Why the kings marched
Verse 5 is the answer to the revolt of verse 4. Writers call it a campaign to win back a lost rule, wrecking cities on the way.
We have no record of a battle in the Scriptures until we reach Genesis 14. There four kings from the Mesopotamian district made an expedition towards the Dead Sea. They ravaged cities as they marched, and finally defeated the five kings of the cities of the plain… Chedorlaomer was apparently the overlord of the kings with him, and he had extended his rule over the region of Sodom. The rejection of his rule was the reason for the expedition.
Who the Rephaim were
The first name in the list is a Hebrew word that older translations left untranslated.
rapha means "a fearful one." In the plural, with "the" in front, it works as a proper name: the REPHAIM, or sons of Raphah. They were a race of giants who lived beyond the Jordan, and Og the giant king of Bashan came from them… At times the term Rephaim applies to any people in Canaan who were of great stature… The word Rephaim is untranslated in Gen. 14:5.
The Emim, last in the list, got their name from the people who later took their land.
A people, described as "great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim," who lived on the east of the Dead Sea. Chedorlaomer and his allied kings struck them down. Their land later passed to the Moabites, who called the people EMIM, that is, "terrible."
Names on the map
Ashteroth-karnaim, the first battlefield in the verse, is named after a goddess:
Ashteroth-Karnaim — Double-horned Astarte (Phoenician); Venus.
A king out of the records
Chedorlaomer is not a legend. Commentators point to the sheer scale of his reach.
King of Elam in the time of Abram… The inscriptions carry the name of KHUDUR-LAGAMAR king of Elam, thought to be the same as Chedorlaomer. He had subdued the five kings near the Dead Sea. That was some 700 miles away across the desert, or 1,000 by the Euphrates and through the land of Canaan.
One writer sets that fame beside a man who left no records at all:
At this point in the Scripture narrative we come to names of people that the archaeologists believe they can identify from their research into the past. Some of these greater kings, such as Amraphel and Chedorlaomer, left their mark on very ancient records. Abram the pilgrim left no mark of that kind. Years before, he had cut himself off from their cities and their whole way of life.
What the campaign pictures
The kings crush six nations before they even reach Sodom. One writer sees in that advance a picture of false religion holding the world down:
The five kings were subject to Chedorlaomer for twelve years — a picture of the world held under false religion — but at last they rebelled against this bondage (v. 4)… Chedorlaomer and his allies began by defeating six nations (vv. 5-7) before they came to Sodom and Gomorrah… But the ungodly world of the flesh has little power against religion inspired by Satan. To be truly delivered from such a yoke, you need a true knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
The man the war passed by
These armies swept through the region, but the fight was never Abram's.
His tent marked him as a stranger to all these things. To him the battle of "four kings with five" would be a matter of very small importance. And his altar marked him as one whose pursuits were of quite another character, a heavenly one… It did not matter to Abram whether the crown of victory was about to rest on the head of the king of Sodom or of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. His portion was not in danger through their strife.
Summary
- Revolt — Twelve years of submission ended in revolt, so the eastern kings came back. Verse 5 is the first blow of that campaign, not a random raid.
- Giants — The Rephaim were a race of giants living beyond the Jordan. The Emim were tall too, their name means "terrible," and Moab later took their land.
- Reach — Chedorlaomer struck some 700 miles from home, and ancient inscriptions carry his name. Abram the pilgrim left no monument at all.
- Pattern — Six nations fell before the kings even reached Sodom. One writer reads that advance as a picture of the world held down by false religion.
- Distance — The armies swept past a man with a tent and an altar; what he owned was never on the battlefield.
