(Genesis 13:19 - 15:21)
It happened that King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal, king of many tribes made war against King Bera of Sodom and his allies King Bersha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (or Zoar). They engaged in battle in the valley of Siddim, which is now a salt sea. The latter had paid tribute to Chedorlaomer of Elam for 12 years, but in the 13th year they revolted against his authority. Thus in the 14th year Chedorlaomer and his allies attacked the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emins in Sahveh Kiriathaim, the Horite on Mount Seir as far as Elparan, bordering the wilderness. On their return, the army came to Enmishpat, later known as Kadesh, and raided the lands of the Amalekites and the Amorites who lived in Hazezontamar. The Kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela mobilized their armies and engaged in a battle in the Valley of Siddim with Chedorlaomer, Tidal, Amraphel, and Arioch. The valley was full of tar pits and in retreat the armies of Sodom and Gomorrah were trapped in them. Those that were not, fled to the mountains.
The victorious army of Chedorlaomer looted Sodom and Gomorrah of treasures and provisions and withdrew with their booty. Taken, along with his possessions, as a captive of war, was Lot, Abram's nephew. One captive who had managed to escape reported the situation to Abram, who was living in the forests of Mamre the Amorite, whose brothers Eschol and Aner were allies of his. When Abram heard that his nephew was a prisoner, he armed what household servants had been trained to fight. With 318 of them he tracked Chederlaomer's army to Dan. With flanking forces he made a night attack upon the enemy forces and routed them. He pursued the enemy army to Hobah, to the east of Damascus. There he was able to free all the captives, including Lot, and retrieve all the booty that had been taken.
On his return from the defeat of Chederlaomer and his alliance, Abram was greeted by the King of Sodom at the Valley of Shaveh, which was in his land. Melchizedek, the King of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Being a high priest, he extolled Abram, "Blessed be Abram of the great god who rules heaven and earth! Blessed be the great god who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And so Abram proffered to him a portion of the recovered booty as a tithe.
The King of Sodom told Abram "You may keep the rest of the booty for yourself; just let me take custody of the captives."
Abram replied. "I worship Jehovah, the great god who rules heaven and earth. I refuse take anything that is yours, not even a thread, not even a boot lace, in case someone might think that I have been enriched by you. I only accept payment for what the captives and for what Aner, Eschnol and Mamre, and the men who came with me may have eaten."
After these things had transpired, Jehovah appeared to Abram in a vision and consoled him "Don't be afraid. I will protect and reward you!"
Abram replied "Jehovah, what can you give to me, considering I am childless? You have given me no offspring and, as it is, Eliezer of Damascus, my steward, will become my heir."
The words of Jehovah that came into his head were these: "He shall not be your heir, for your heir will be of your flesh and blood." And he led Abram outside and made him look up at the night sky. "See if you can count the stars, for your descendants will be just as numerous." And he trusted in Jehovah and in the accuracy of his words.
Jehovah told him "I am the one who took you out of your home in Ur of Chaldea, so that I can give you this land, that you can occupy it."
"But, my god, how will I know when it's to be mine?' Abram asked.
"Bring me a three-year old heifer, a nanny goat and a ram that is also three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
Abram did so. He slaughtered the animals; he slit their carcasses and laid out one slice of flesh alongside another. (The birds, which he did not kill, landed on the carcasses, but Abram shooed them away.) At dusk Abram fell into a deep sleep and experienced an horrific nightmare. In it a voice proclaimed "Let it be known that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land where they shall be made slaves and undergo great hardship for four hundred years. But I will pronounce a judgment against the nation they serve and afterward your people will depart there with considerable wealth. You will go to your ancestors peacefully and be buried at a ripe old age. But four generations after, hard times will come again for your people, for the violence of the Amorites has not been fully expended."
After sunset, when it fell dark, there arose smoke like that from a furnace and glowing flames flickered between the strips of meat. On the following day Jehovah made a contract with Abram. "To your descendants I bequeath this land, from the River Nile to the great river, the Euphrates, the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims, as well as the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Notes
1. The location of the Battle of the Valley of Siddim was either just south of the Dead Sea or in an area now covered by water. Sodom and Gomorrah are thought to be in this area. Archaeologists have not located the ruins of those cities, although some recent excavations have shown promise. Kadesh, in the south on the border of the Sinai has long been considered the south border of traditional Israel. The Amorites, who spoke a Semitic language, were originally nomads from Syria who moved into southern Mesopotamia in the 22nd Century B.C. In the 18th Century B.C. they ruled all Mesopotamia under Hammurabi, the first king of the Babylonian Empire. But they were soon expelled from Mesopotamia and moved into Canaan. In the Bible they are often synonymous with Canaanites, or at least eastern Canaanite tribes. The Amalekites (the name is here used anachronistically) were nomads who inhabited northwestern Arabia. They would become the ancestral enemy of the Jewish people.
2. Much scholarship has been expended trying to identify the kings listed as participating in the Battle of the Valley of Siddim with known rulers of the time. About a hundred years ago Biblical scholars were confident that credible matches had been made, eg. identifying Amraphel with Hammurabi. However, further research thoroughly exploded the identifications. It seems likely that the kings mentioned, if they existed at all, were not even contemporaneous with one another. Moreover, the alliance is patently implausible. The leader of the coalition was the Elamite king. Elam, a kingdom southeast of Sumer, was a country of some importance in ancient times, but was not a dominant force. Although it was often ruled by Mesopotamian powers, it did maintain an empire of sorts in southwest Iran, but that was in the 13th and 12th Centuries B.C. The king of Shinar (Babylonia or Akkad) would have been an unlikely ally, as would the king of Ellasar (or Assyria in the northern Mesopotamia). No Mesopotamian power extended their control as far west as southern Canaan in the 2nd Millennium B.C. This occurred in the 1st Millennium B.C. when the Hebrew nations ran afoul of the Assyrians and Chaldeans. While the combatants in the Siddim battle are impressively recounted, the list is an instance of spurious detail employed to enhance the credibility of a fiction. The basis of this account is probably oral tradition, but the Genesis writers probably had access to Babylonian writings and from them learned of past rulers whose names, added to the tale, would lend it greater importance and interest. A modern analogy: a little-known sheriff in a little-known town in the Old West thwarts a gang of little-known outlaws. More than a half century later the real-life incident becomes a popular movie. In the film, the town is now Abilene, the sheriff becomes Wild Bill Hickock, and outlaw gang consists of the James Brothers, the Daltons, Sam Bass, Sundance, and Billy the Kid. Future generations have access to the movie, but know nothing of the true incident that inspired it. Will they accept the film as Gospel?
3. It is amazing how quickly Abraham springs in action to rescue his nephew from the Elamites, when he did nothing to rescue his wife from the lustful Egyptians. With a small party of armed servants, 318 of them, he was able to defeat, with superior strategy and a sneak, night-time attack, an army which surely would have numbered in the many thousands, if not tens of thousands. (The great powers of Mesopotamia would have had to taken a considerable force with them to subdue the rebellious Sodomites, if, indeed, that's what they did.) The tale is hardly credible, but it must be remembered that this is merely a propaganda piece to enhance ancient Jewish national pride by exalting its patriarch Abraham, making him a warrior who routs a far superior force and humbles the great kings of his time. (This is like Robin Hood and his merry men defeating in battle the combined forces of King John, Philip Augustus, and Frederick Barbarossa in order to rescue Maid Marian.) It is curious that Abraham who was so timid when he was in Egypt is now all of a sudden a bold man of action, a mighty warrior. Why this change of character? It is easily explained when one considers the likelihood that the two stories, passed down for more than a thousand years, may have applied to two different persons, perhaps living in different times.
4. It is written, not without purpose, that Abraham honors the King of Salem, because the city (later Jerusalem) would become the Hebrew capital and religious center. He rebuffs the generous offer of the King of Sodom, which is sin city and the anathema of Jehovah. It is noble that Abraham has offered his military services to the region' rulers pro bono, but this is certainly at odds with the man who accepted unearned gifts from the Pharaoh.
5. It would seem that his action in refusing the King of Sodom's generosity placed him in peril, so much so that Jehovah had to appear in a dream to comfort him -- and to reiterate the old promise of making him the father of a nation and the patriarch of numberless descendants. When Abraham starts asking too many questions, Jehovah falls back upon the familiar demand -- slaughter a few helpless animals for me, cut them up, and burn them. This, apparently, instead of the customary hand shake, was required to seal the deal. (The importance of the birds who were not sacrificed somehow escapes one.)
6. In this story there is also the prophecy of the 400-year bondage of the Israelites in Egypt. Since all that happens is the will of God, the writer of the Old Testament find it continually necessary to have Jehovah prophesy every significant future event -- with remarkable accuracy!
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