Genesis 14
14
Soldiers grabbed Lot and his family and took them away
1-9This story is about the people in the flat country, and it started before Lot went to live near the town called Sodom. There were 5 tribes in that flat country at that time, and each tribe had a leader. These were the 5 tribes and their leaders,
– A tribe called Sodom, and their leader was called Bera.
– A tribe called Gomorrah, and their leader was called Birsha.
– A tribe called Admah, and their leader was Shinab.
– A tribe called the Zebo mob, and their leader was Shemeber.
– A tribe called Zoar. They are also called Bela.
There were another 4 tribes in the country to the east. These were those 4 tribes and their leaders,
– A tribe called Elam, and their leader was Kedorlayomer.
– A tribe called Babylonia, and their leader was called Amrafel.
– A tribe called Ellasar, and their leader was called Ariok.
– A tribe called the Goy mob, and their leader was Tidal.
And Kedorlayomer was the boss over those 4 tribes in the east. Those 4 tribes sent their soldiers to fight the other 5 tribes, and the 4 tribes from the east won. So Kedorlayomer became the boss over the other 5 tribes too.
Those 5 tribes let him be their boss for 12 years. Then the next year, their leaders told Kedorlayomer that they didn’t want him to be their boss any more. Kedorlayomer got really angry, and the next year, he got soldiers from the 4 tribes in the east, and they went to fight those 5 tribes.
On the way to that fight, Kedorlayomer’s soldiers had other fights with some other tribes, and they won all those fights. They beat the Refa tribe at a place called Ashteroth-Karnayim, and they beat the Zuz tribe at a place called Ham, and they beat the Em tribe at a place called Shaveh-Kiriathayim, and they beat the Hor tribe in the hill country called Edom. They chased the Hor soldiers all the way to a place called El-Paran, near the desert. Then Kedorlayomer and the soldiers from the east, they all went back to a place called En-Mishpat. Another name for that place is Kadesh. Then Kedorlayomer and his mob fought the Amalek tribe and beat them, and took control of their country. Then they fought the Amor tribe in Hazazon-Tamar country, and beat them too.
While Kedorlayomer and his mob were fighting those other people, the 5 tribes that didn’t want Kedorlayomer to be their boss, they went to the valley called Sidim. (Today there is salt water in that valley, and we call it the Dead Sea.) The soldiers of those 5 tribes got ready there to fight against Kedorlayomer and his 4 tribes from the east.
So when Kedorlayomer and his mob got to that Sidim valley there was a big fight. 10Kedorlayomer and his mob won that fight. They beat those 5 tribes, and their soldiers all ran away. In that flat country there were lots of holes in the ground that were full of sticky black stuff, called tar. So when the soldiers from the 5 tribes ran away, some of them fell into those holes. But the rest of them ran up into the hills.
11So Kedorlayomer and his soldiers went to Sodom and Gomorrah, and they grabbed all the people that lived there. And they took everything the people owned, even their food, and then they started to go back to their own country. 12At that time, Abram’s nephew, Lot, lived in Sodom, so the soldiers grabbed Lot too, and his family, and all their things. Those soldiers took all of Lot’s mob away with them.
Abram saved Lot and his family
13-14A man got away from Kedorlayomer and his mob, and he went and told Abram that they got Lot. At that time, Abram was living near the big trees that belonged to a man called Mamreh. Abram was a good friend of Mamreh, and also of Mamreh’s 2 brothers. Their names were Eskol and Aner. Mamreh and his brothers belonged to the Amor tribe, and Abram belonged to the Hebrew tribe, but they all looked after each other.
Abram had 318 men that knew how to fight. They worked for Abram all their lives, and Abram really trusted them. So Abram got those men, and Mamreh, Eskol and Aner got their fighting men, and they all went to fight Kedorlayomer and his soldiers. They followed them, and they found them at a place to the north, called Dan. 15Then, in the night time, Abram split up all the fighting men into groups, and they attacked Kedorlayomer and his soldiers. Abram and his men won that fight, and they chased those other soldiers all the way to a place called Hobah, north of Damascus town. 16That’s how Abram’s mob saved Lot, and all the women, and the other people from the towns called Sodom and Gomorrah, and they got all their things too. Then they all started to go back south.
Abram met Melkizedek
17After Abram’s mob beat Kedorlayomer and his mob, and while they were going back south on their way home, the leader of Sodom went out to meet Abram in the valley called Shaveh. Another name for that place is the valley that belongs to the leader.
18There was a town in that country called Salem, and the boss over that town was called Melkizedek. He was also a leader of God’s ceremonies. He worked for God, the one that is more powerful than any other god. Well, Melkizedek also went out to meet Abram and his men, and he gave them some bread and some wine. 19Then Melkizedek prayed for Abram. He said,
“God, you are more powerful than any other god.
You are the one that made heaven and earth.
I’m asking you to be really good to Abram.
20I want everyone to say that you are great, and more powerful than any other god.
You are the one that helped Abram fight with his enemies and win.”
Then Abram got all the things he got after the fight, the things that used to belong to the Sodom and Gomorrah mob, and he split those things up into 10 groups. And he gave one of those groups of things to Melkizedek.#Hebrews 7:1-10
21Then the leader of Sodom said to Abram, “I only want my people back. You can keep those other things.”
22But Abram said, “I made a strong promise to my God, the one that is more powerful than any other god, and the one that made heaven and earth. 23I promised that I will not take anything that belongs to you. I will not even take a bit of string, or anything that belongs to you. You see, I don’t want you to tell everyone that you gave me a lot of things and made me rich. 24No. The only thing that I will keep is the food that I ate and the food that my fighting men ate. And these men, Mamreh, and Aner, and Eskol, and their fighting men, they helped me save your people and your things too, so you can give them some of those things.”
© 2021, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. All rights reserved.
Genesis 14
14
1-2Then this: Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim went off to war to fight Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar.
3-4This second group of kings, the attacked, came together at the Valley of Siddim, that is, the Salt Sea. They had been under the thumb of Kedorlaomer for twelve years. In the thirteenth year, they revolted.
5-7In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him set out and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El Paran on the far edge of the desert. On their way back they stopped at En Mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and conquered the whole region of the Amalekites as well as that of the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.
8-9That’s when the king of Sodom marched out with the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar. They drew up in battle formation against their enemies in the Valley of Siddim—against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five.
10-12The Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into the tar pits, but the rest escaped into the mountains. The four kings captured all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their food and equipment, and went on their way. They captured Lot, Abram’s nephew who was living in Sodom at the time, taking everything he owned with them.
13-16A fugitive came and reported to Abram the Hebrew. Abram was living at the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and Aner. They were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken prisoner, he lined up his servants, all of them born in his household—there were 318 of them—and chased after the captors all the way to Dan. Abram and his men split into small groups and attacked by night. They chased them as far as Hobah, just north of Damascus. They recovered all the plunder along with nephew Lot and his possessions, including the women and the people.
17-20After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and his allied kings, the king of Sodom came out to greet him in the Valley of Shaveh, the King’s Valley. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine—he was priest of The High God—and blessed him:
Blessed be Abram by The High God,
Creator of Heaven and Earth.
And blessed be The High God,
who handed your enemies over to you.
Abram gave him a tenth of all the recovered plunder.
21The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me back the people but keep all the plunder for yourself.”
22-24But Abram told the king of Sodom, “I swear to God, The High God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, this solemn oath, that I’ll take nothing from you, not so much as a thread or a shoestring. I’m not going to have you go around saying, ‘I made Abram rich.’ Nothing for me other than what the young men ate and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; they’re to get their share of the plunder.”
* * *
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.