ויהי בימי אמרפל, these wars took place during the reigns of the kings described in these verse; details of them will follow. We find a similar construction in Esther 1,1,ויהי בימי אחשורש, where the words ויהי בימי also serve as an introduction to what is to follow. The main reason why the Torah gives us details of these wars, something that does not appear to be too relevant to our times, is to demonstrate the righteousness, courage, and sense of responsibility even for a nephew who had suffered a setback, as well as captivity due to his greed in settling near the Sodomites. When Avram knew that what he was about to do was something that morality demanded, i.e. not to allow a next of kin even one such as Lot to remain in captivity, he mobilised the few men he had, and tackled the greatest contemporary war machine to liberate his nephew, being sure that G’d would assist him in such an endeavour. The word כדרלעומר is one word. The words מלך גוים mean “king of a people known as גוים. The reason may well be that in that land members of different nations had decided to live together under a single king.

עשו מלחמה, now the Torah tells of the battle between them in the valley of Sidim. The fact that there had been previous wars resulting in the five kings becoming subservient to the four kings is mentioned only as a backdrop to this war that prompted Avram’s involvement.

כל אלה, the four against the five.

אל עמק, this means the same as בעמק, “in the valley of.” We have a similar construction where the word אל substitutes for the prefix ב in Exodus 25,22 ואל הארון תתן את העדות, “and in the ark you are to place the testimony (Tablets).”

השדים, as translated by Onkelos, an area comprising many fields. The dagesh in the letters ש and ד saves writing both letters twice, as the word is a composite of two roots, שדה, field, as well as שדד, ploughed. The word is also found in Hoseah 10,11 ישדד לו יעקב, “Yaakov will do the final ploughing.”

השדים, הוא ים המלח, the valley in question is close to the Dead Sea. Alternatively, the Torah tells us the region which nowadays is the Dead Sea, used to be that fertile valley before those cities were overturned by G’d. At any rate, that region is part of the eastern boundary of the land of Israel as mentioned in Numbers 34, 3, and 12.

שתים עשרה שנה עבדו, they were enslaved to Amrafel, paying annual taxes to him.

ושלש עשרה שנה, these words mean the same as if they had been written in the ordinal form, i.e. “during the thirteenth year.”

מרדו, their rebellion consisted of their not paying the annual taxes. Contrary to the impression created that Amrafel was the leader seeing he was named first, the leading king in that group of three was Kedorleomer.

ובארבעה עשר .. את רפאים בעשתרות קרנים, they defeated the giants who lived at that place. The place עשתרות קרנים was so named seeing it was situated between two mountains, so that the word קרנים, “horns,” describes the way in which these mountains protruded from the earth’s surface. Our sages in Sukkah 2 already mentioned that all the places mentioned in these verses are not far from Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps the inhabitants had supported the insubordination of Sodom and satellites and that is why they were attacked.

ואת החרי בהררם שעיר, they also defeated the Chori on the mountain on which these people lived. We know that the area was mountainous from Genesis 36,20. בהררם, the name of the place without the pronoun-suffix is הרר, with a vowel pattern similar to ארץ and גפן. If the word הררם were a derivative from a root in the piel mode, itself a noun in its own right, as some commentators claim, (including Ibn Ezra), the letter ה would have had to have the vowel kametz and not patach, as it does. Onkelos, in rendering it as דבטוריא דשעיר “in the mountains of Se-ir” also understands it as did Ibn Ezra. איל פארן means, as the Targum renders it, “the plain of Paran.” The words על המדבר mean the same as if the Torah had written סמוך למדבר, adjoining the desert. A similar construction is found in Numbers 2,20 ועליו מטה מנשה, “next to him the tribe of Menashe.”

וישבו ויבאו, after they had first spread out as far as the edge of the desert, they changed direction and marched towards Sodom encountering in their path a place called עין משפט. They were familiar with the history of these places and knew why they bore such names. All of these place-names referred to events that had occurred there at one time or another. There is a Midrash quoted by Rashi in which these names are understood as allusions to events in the future, such as the time when Moses and Aaron would be judged there for hitting the rock instead of speaking to it. At that time the place was called מי מריבה, “waters of the strife.”

שדה העמלקי, [this name supports Rashi’s opinion that the names referred to events in the future, seeing that Amalek, a grandson of Esau, had not been born yet for at least another hundred years. Ed.] When a plain is large enough so that cities can be built in it, it is called שדה. One such example is שדה אדום in Genesis 32,3; another is found in Ruth 1,6 שדה מואב.

ויצא מלך סדום...ויערכו אתם מלחמה. The five kings that went out from their cities and prepared plans for a battle were confident that they would win, and they may have thought that others might join them. Their rebellion had been inspired by the hope that other kingdoms that were similarly subservient to Kedorleomer would make common cause with them. They believed that they would enjoy a numerical advantage, seeing the opposing kings were only four in number. If the four kings proved victorious over greater numbers than themselves, this was due to G’d wanting that Avram acquire the reputation of being a mighty warrior, if need be. This is part of the way in which G’d fulfilled His promise to Avram “I will make your name great.” (12,2) It was also designed to demonstrate to the people at large Avram’s righteousness and his abiding trust in the Lord, without whose help such a victory by 318 men over the mightiest armies of that period had been inconceivable. Concerning Avram and men of his ilk, Solomon wrote in Proverbs 29,25: “ובוטח בה' ישגב, he who trusts in the Lord will be safeguarded.” In order to underscore the point still further, the Torah describes the victory of Kedorleomer as the “victory of four kings versus five.”

ועמק השדים בארות בארות חמר, the vowel pattern of the construct mode of the word בארות in our verse is different from the ordinary plural mode of the same word in Genesis 26,18 where it also appears in the construct mode, i.e. בארות המים, “the wells of water.”

The word חמר is equivalent to what we know as טיט, (11,3) where it means mortar. It is unbaked clay, binding bricks together, loam.

וינסו מלך סדום ועמורה, the other kings fled toward the mountains, as we are told והנשארים הרה נסו. “those remaining fled towards the mountain.” The letter ה at the end of the word הרה is equivalent to the prefix ל.

ויקחו את כל רכוש סדום ועמורה, the עמק השדים was within the boundaries of those 2 kingdoms, whereas the satellite towns Admah and Tzoyim and Bela were not situated in that part of the terrain. The word רכוש includes both chattels which are inert and animals which can walk on their own.

ואת כל אכלם, and all the food they had stored up at home as well as all the inhabitants.

ויקחו ..והוא יושב בסדום. The Torah had already told us in 13,12 where Lot had settled. This was only meant to tell us that he had not moved from these since he took up residence there in the first place. Or, whereas at the beginning he had actually not resided within the city, by now he had moved into Sodom proper.

ויבא הפליט, after that individual had escaped from captivity he came and told Avram that his nephew had been taken captive, also.

העברי, a member of the tribe of Ever, he and all his descendants proudly regarded Ever as their ancestor. They were the only people who still spoke Hebrew, the original language of man. Subsequent descendants, other than the line which ran through Avraham and the Israelites, changed their language to Aramaic, and were called Aramim, i.e. members of the people of Aram, in recognition of their specific language. Even Lavan, a third or fourth generation descendant of Ever, was already known as לבן הארמי, Lavan who spoke Aramaic. The tribe called עברים was Yaakov and his offspring.

והא שוכן באלוני ממרא, this escaped captive lived with the brothers who were allies of Avram and had helped him. He lived on the lands of one of the brothers i.e. that of Mamre.

וישמע...אחיו, the word אחיו here is used in the sense of “his relative.” Nephews are often considered as like “brothers.” Avram himself had used this term when he spoke to his nephew in 13,8 and said כי אנשים אחים אנחנו, “we are men who are brothers.”

וירק, he issued weapons to them, the verb is in the transitive mode. We encounter it in a similar meaning in Psalms 35,3 והרק חנית, “make ready the spear.”

חניכיו, an adjective, similar to שרידיו and פליטיו, his trainees, people whom he had instructed in true monotheism. The word occurs in this sense in Proverbs 22,6 חנוך לנער על פי דרכו, train the lad in an appropriate manner, in accordance with his natural talents.”

ילידי ביתו, people born in his household, to parents who had come with him already from Charan as well as those later in the land of Canaan. They totaled שמונה עשר ושלש מאות, 318. According to a Midrash quoted by Rashi, he took only Eliezer with him, the numerical value of the letters in his name amounting to a total of 318. If so, why did the Torah have to tell us that he took with him people born in his household? The Torah must have meant that he took an undisclosed number of people of his household with him, plus Eliezer, who was equivalent to 318 trained men.

וירדף עד דן, the place was not called Dan until much later, when the tribe of Dan expanded its territory under Joshua in the north of the country. At that time the Danites named the place after their tribe’s founding father.

ויחלק עליהם לילה, “when it was midnight, they attacked them. The word עליהם refers to the armies of the four kings, not as if it was midnight only for Avram and his men. As to the unusual expression עליהם, instead of the normative expression ויהי בחצי הלילה, “it was at midnight,” this tells us that until midnight on that night the four kings had felt absolutely safe and secure. Starting at that moment, they began to flee for their lives as soon as they found themselves under surprise attack by Avram and his men. He smote them as soon as he caught up with them, and those whom he did not catch continued fleeing all the way to Chovah, close to Damascus. The defeat was especially great, seeing that the fleeing armies left behind all their belongings, aiming only to save their lives. After having chased them such a great distance, Avram turned back and restored all the loot these kings had captured to their rightful owners.

וישב...וגם את לוט...וגם את הנשים ואת העם , they first of all restored all the captives to show that they had not killed any of them.

ויצא...אל עמק שוה, this was a spot reserved for horse racing as it was a flat piece of land without hills or depressions. The reason it was also called עמק המלך, valley of the king, was that the king and his riders used it as a training ground for their race horses. Onkelos translates it as למישר מפונא, meaning that this plain was free from obstacles such as stones, tree stumps, etc. He translates the words עמק המלך as בית ריסא דמלכא, describing the size of the 180 cubits, the distances over which horses raced.

ומלכי צדק מלך שלם, the word שלם is another word for ירושלים, and we find it referred to as such in Psalms 76,3 ויהי בשלם סכו, “Salem became His abode.” It was customary to give the title Malki Tzedek or Adoni Tzedek, to kings of Jerusalem in those days, just as the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh. Compare Joshua 10,1 where we find אדני צדק מלך ירושלים. Jerusalem traditionally represented the center of righteousness and peace. It is a place in which iniquity is less tolerated than anywhere else. This is why the Torah warned in Leviticus 18,28 that the Israelites should take care that the land not spew them out just as it had spewed out previous inhabitants because they had defiled it. The reason the Torah in Deuteronomy 31,16 uses the somewhat enigmatic expression אלוהי נכר הארץ, is that the kind of conduct by the people in that city that were spewed out, was a conduct that was irreconcilable (alien) with the very nature, spiritual climate, prevailing in, and being part of that holy city. The sons of Korach already recognised and extolled this spiritual climate of the very city when they said in Psalms 48,3 יפה נוף משוש כל הארץ הר ציון ירכתי צפון קרית מלך רב, “fair-crested, joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, summit of Tzafon, city of the great King.” In the Midrash quoted by Rashi, Malki Tzedek is identified as Shem, the son of Noach.

הוציא לחם ויין, seeing that these people came back from battle tired, he brought them bread and wine to strengthen and refresh them.

והוא כהן לאל עליון, he did not worship the stars or other celestial phenomena but only the supreme and invisible G’d. In this respect he was like Avram and those who had joined him.

ויברכהו...קונה שמים וארץ, the word קונה here must not be understood in the customary sense of acquiring something from a third party. Malki Tzedek most certainly did not think that “the G’d of heaven and earth” had “bought” his position from some other force. The word is used in the sense of “having created, or having invented.” It was used in this sense by Chavah when she gave birth to Kayin and said קניתי איש את ה', “I have produced, brought forth a man, with G’d,” when she meant that she was now a partner to G’d.” Genesis 4,1)

וברוך אל עליון, he described G’d in terms of a different attribute, i.e. “the supreme G’d.” In due course, Avraham also used this attribute to describe G’d in order to make plain to any listener that any other so-called deities are all subservient to this G’d, so that they are totally unfree and cannot be considered deities.

מגן צריך, “He delivered them into your hands.” We find this verb used in a similar sense in Hoseah 11,8 אמגנך ישראל, “How can I surrender you, Israel? The choice of the word צריך”your oppressors,” is strange, seeing that no one had mistreated Avram or oppressed him. Since the 4 kings had singled out one of Avram’s relatives their action was interpreted as a potential attack on Avram, to lure him to come to the defense of his nephew.

ויתן לו מעשר מכל, according to most commentators, Avram was the subject in this verse and Malki Tzedek was the recipient. Avraham supposedly gave Malki Tzedek 10% of the cattle captured, in his capacity of being a priest of G’d. My late revered father, Rabbi Joseph Kimchi, explained that actually Malki Tzedek “gave” Avram the tithe as a legal claim. He pronounced it as Avram’s by right, seeing that the King of Sodom had had the effrontery to claim that which Avram had captured as his. In the conversation between Avram and the King, Avram had insisted that he would not accept anything for himself from the King of Sodom, not even a shoelace. What he meant was that the King was in no position to even make an offer of something that was not his. (verse 21) At that point, Malki Tzedek intervened, telling Avram (and the King) that at least 10% of the loot was Avram’s by right, as it is the right of anyone who frees property stolen or forcefully taken from its rightful owner to retain this as a kind of fee for services rendered. This interpretation is correct; if we accept the interpretation of the commentators, by what legal right Avram could give away to Malki Tzedek property that legally belonged to the King of Sodom an d had been illegally taken from him? If he did not think it was right for him to accept same, why would it be in order to give it instead to Malki Tzedek?