Seder 12: Gen 14---Abram Rescues Lot

In Gen 13:14-18, God promised to give the land of Canaan to Abram and his descendants.  But no one had yet informed the four Mesopotamian rulers who would invade sometime later (Gen 14:1-12).

Those rulers had been requiring the five cities of the plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar) to pay them an annual tribute.  When those five towns decided they were tired of paying, their overlords determined to make the trip of several hundred miles and collect the tribute personally.

The invaders came south through what is now Jordan on the road called the King's Highway, subduing all the peoples they passed on the way (and perhaps collecting additional tribute).  Later, in the fortieth year of the Exodus, the Israelites would come north on that road and claim these areas for Israel (Num 21).  Perhaps those Israelites were encouraged by the exploits of Abram recorded in Gen 14. 

After trouncing the cities of the plain in a one-sided battle, the army from Mesopotamia left with a substantial amount of booty, including Abram's nephew Lot.  Taking someone from Abram's family proved to be a crucial error on their part.  When Abram heard what had happened, he set out in pursuit with "his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them" (v 14).

The size of Abram's party is the only such figure given in the chapter, so it is not so easy to put into historical context.  What we know about populations at that time suggests that 318 was a pretty respectable number, showing how much Abram had been blessed.  Abram's army was probably comparable in size to those of the five cities of the plain, so Abram was in some sense a "king" himself.

On the other hand, Gen 14:1-12 emphasizes the strength of the invading force, which was probably substantially larger than Abram's forces.

The 318 is also an unusually precise figure, so there has been some speculation about its significance.  An article published in 1969  (S. Gevirtz, "Abram's 318", Israel Exploration Journal, Vol 19, No. 2, pp 110-113) points out that 318 is the sum of all the prime numbers between seven and seven times seven (7+11+13+17+19+23+29+31+37+41+43+47 = 318).  This is a fun fact but probably not relevant.

One midrash observes that 318 is the total of the numbers associated with the Hebrew letters in the name of Abram's chief servant, Eliezer (Gen 15:2) and suggests that Abram and Eliezer pursued Lot's abductors all by themselves, just the two of them.    There is no hint of this in Gen 14, but the midrash does underline an important truth:  It does not matter how small Abram's army is.  What  matters is that God is with Abram.

Abram and his trained group of 318 caught the Mesopotamians by surprise and recovered what the invaders had seized, including Lot.  When Abram returned victorious, he established himself as a regional power.  Would be now require tribute from the cities of the plain?  No, he decided that he would steer clear of local power politics and make clear that he placed all his trust in the true God to provide for him (vv 21-24).

In his EBC commentary on Genesis, John Sailhamer notes that Abram could be said to have followed the principles for warfare against distant nations later laid out in Deut 20.  He had

• not been afraid of a larger army (Deut 20:1).
• taken only trained men ready for battle (Deut 20:5-9)
• taken spoil from the distant nations (Deut 20:14).
• not taken spoil from peoples in the promised land and stayed separate from them (20:16).

Sailhamer suggests that Abram in some sense had the Torah written on his heart, providing a possible explanation for Gen 26:5.