Genesis 14:6: As far south as the road goes, and then the wilderness
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 14:6
This verse sits inside a list of conquests. Four kings from the east swept south, and the Horites of Seir were one more people in their path. The names are strange and the places remote. So why does Scripture keep such a careful record of a war Abram had not yet joined?
Who the Horites were
The verse names the people struck in Mount Seir. They were the original inhabitants of that region, and their name points to how they lived:
Descendants of Seir, and the original inhabitants of Mount Seir. The children of Esau destroyed them. It is thought that they were cave-dwellers, as the name implies. The sandstone rocks of Mount Seir are full of dwellings cut into the rock. There are traces of the same throughout the region of Edom.
The mountain itself may carry a man's name:
Seir was a Horite who lived in the land, and as a chief he may have given his name to Mount Seir. The Horim were dispossessed by the children of Esau.
The far edge of the march
The march reaches El-paran, on the border of the wilderness. That name marks a spot in the far south:
Some translations put 'the plain of Paran' in the margin. It may have been a boundary mark in the wilderness of Paran, in the south of Palestine.
The distance these kings travelled
Chedorlaomer was no local chief. The scale of his reach says something about how early organised power arose — and how it ended:
In the days of Abraham we hear of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. He and his three allies came 2,000 miles to punish the kings under his rule in the valley of Siddim. That is plain proof of early power. Yet the father of the faithful punished him hard.
Names in the ground
Here the record touches ground that spades have reached:
It is an interesting fact that at this point in the Bible's story we come to names of people that archaeologists believe they can identify. Their digging into the past has turned these names up. Some of these greater kings, such as Amraphel and Chedorlaomer, left their mark on very ancient records. Abram the pilgrim would leave no mark of that kind. Years before, he had cut himself off from their cities and their whole way of life.
Who decides who holds the land
The Horites lost Seir twice over — first to this raid, later to Esau's descendants. One writer looks at the same peoples in Deuteronomy and sees God's purpose behind the change:
The possessions referred to here had long ago been in the hands of giants. But it was God's purpose to give their territories to the children of Esau and Lot, and so He destroyed these giants. Who or what can stand in the way of what God has planned?
The pattern under the history
Commentators also read this march as a picture:
The five kings became subject to Chedorlaomer for twelve years. This pictures the world under the control of false religion. In the end they rebelled against this bondage (v. 4). But false religion can be determined and strong, as the history of the professing church through the middle ages teaches us. Chedorlaomer and his allies began by defeating six nations (vv. 5-7) before they approached Sodom and Gomorrah.
The answer to such power
The chapter ends with a reversal. One man stood outside this whole struggle, and he was the one who rescued its victims:
Turning away from the world is the path to victory over it. Choosing it means being held captive by its power. The powerful ones of the earth carry Lot away captive, along with the people his worldly leanings had led him to live among. Abram is free and walks in the faith of God. From God he has more force than all the kings, conquerors or conquered. He delivers Lot and the kings who could not help themselves.
Summary
- Sweep — Four kings came 2,000 miles and crushed people after people. The Horites of Seir were one of them, and the march reached the desert edge at El-paran.
- Cave — The Horites were the first people of Seir. Their name points to the rock dwellings still visible there, and the mountain may carry the name of one of their chiefs.
- Land — Seir changed hands more than once. God's purpose stood behind the change, and no power can block it.
- Monument — The invaders left their names in ancient records. Abram left none. He had already walked away from their cities and their way of life.
- Victory — The man who refused the world rescued the man who chose it.
