The War of Kings: Genesis 14.1-16

Genesis 14 opens with a tense geopolitical situation. The five cities of the Vale of Siddim just south of the Dead Sea were allied together and for twelve years had been in subjection to King Kedorlaomer, the King of Elam in modern Iran. They became tired of the yoke around their necks and rebelled, likely by refusing to pay yearly tribute. The King of Elam organized a coalition of his allies, and they banded together and stole a march towards their former vassals in the Dead Sea Valley, determined to teach them a lesson. En route they laid waste to people groups along the King’s Highway, the main travel route through the Transjordan east of the Jordan River, plundering them as they went. Eventually they reached their rebellious vassals south of the Dead Sea and defeated them at the Battle of Siddim.

The Five Kings of Siddim

The rebellious vassals, and the defenders at the Battle of Siddim, were the kings of the five major cities of the Vale of Siddim just south of the Dead Sea (remember that at this time, the Vale of Siddim was beautiful and lush, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and the Egyptian Nile Delta). Genesis 14 lists the names of four of the five kings, and though these names aren’t found in any extrabiblical sources, they have a genuine Palestinian flavor, which attests to their historicity. The named kings were:

Bera, the King of Sodom

Birsha, the King of Gomorrah

Shinab, the King of Admah, and

Shemeber, the King of Zeboiim

Interestingly, the name of the fifth king, the King of Bela (or Zoar), isn’t mentioned. This speaks to the historicity of the named rulers: if the writer of Genesis was making up kingly names, why not make one up for the ruler of Zoar? The text’s writer didn’t know the name of the last king involved, so he didn’t give a name. 

The Five Kings of the East

The Kings of the East were more likely rulers of city-states who had more in common with powerful chieftains than with ‘kings’ of nations as we understand them today. All four kings of the Eastern Coalition are named. Attempts to link them with known historical figures have been made, but it’s difficult since information for this time period is obscure. Their names are authentic for the regions from which they came, and though none of these kings are known outside the Bible, that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. As mentioned, historical records from this time period are few and far between, and what we do have accords with what the Bible teaches. The kings are identified from the areas from whence they came:

The King of Elam (leader of the Eastern Coalition) ruled in what is now modern Iran

The King of Shinar ruled in the southern Mesopotamian plains known as Sumer (southern Mesopotamia)

The King of Ellesar ruled in what would eventually be ancient Assyria

The King of Goiim (or Goyim) likely ruled among the Hittite cities in present-day Turkey

Marching to Battle

The Eastern Coalition marched south along the north-south King’s Highway, the major north-south artery in the Transjordan east of the Jordan River. Along the way they were opposed by various people groups, and they defeated them one after another. The first to oppose their march were the Rephaites (also known as the Rephaim) at their capital city of Ashtaroth, just east of the Sea of Galilee. Next they defeated the Zuzites in Ham in northern Gilead and the Emites in Shaveh. We will examine the curious identities of these three people groups in a moment, for they pop up a lot in the Old Testament historical narratives. After defeating these peoples, the Eastern Coalition continued into the hill country of Seir and defeated the Horites living there (interestingly, God would give that land to Esau’s descendants; Esau’s descendants would push out the Horites and establish their own kingdom, and they would be known as Edomites). Once the Eastern Coalition reached the Gulf of Aqaba, they turned northwest and pushed into future Amalekite territory, defeating the people living there along with Amorites in the area. They then reached the cities in the plain south and east of the Dead Sea and arrayed themselves for battle against their intended target: the Siddim Coalition of rebellious vassals. 

The Rephaim, Zuzites, and Emites. These peoples are the earliest known inhabitants of the Transjordan, and in Deuteronomy 2 they are identified as ‘giants of the land.’ These people groups were descended from the Nephilim, the half-breed progeny of angelic beings mating with human women in Genesis 6. Their appearance in the narrative is unsettling, because didn’t God send the Flood to wipe them all out? In 1 Enoch, which expounds upon what we have in Genesis 6 and which was alluded to by Jesus and directly quoted by both Peter and Jude, the Flood was sent to snuff out the influence of the rebellious Watchers and their Nephilim brood. While the Watchers were ‘chained in gloomy darkness’ to await their execution at God’s Final Judgment, some of the spirits of the dead Nephilim – ‘demons’ or ‘unclean spirits’ – were destined to wander the earth, causing mischief until the time of their judgment. Genesis tells us, by way of Noah’s genealogy, that he was untouched by this unclean bloodline – so why are descendants of the Nephilim living after the Flood? 

There are two theories to explain this; these theories are based upon one’s interpretation of the Flood in Genesis 6-9. The first theory holds that Noah’s Flood was regional rather than universal. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t catastrophic or world-altering, only that it didn’t cover the entire planet. The actual Hebrew language in the Flood narrative doesn’t demand a global Flood. At the least it demands a total Flood in scope; in other words, the Flood was designed to ‘snuff out’ the influence of the rebellious Watchers. Remember that their influence wasn’t limited to just having half-breed pups; they also poisoned the culture with ungodly practices and sorcery. The Flood wasn’t sent just to kill them of but also to wipe the slate of their wicked practices. This theory holds that the Watchers’ practices were so far limited to the Fertile Crescent, and the Flood destroyed those cultures whilst getting rid of most of the Nephilim. Some Nephilim somehow survived, but they were unable to regain the prominence and power they formerly enjoyed. The survivors were small in number, and though they multiplied, forming ‘giant clans,’ they were crippled in their abilities to do major damage. Their angelic fathers, the Watchers, were imprisoned in a ‘spiritual’ jail, so their influence was completely gone. The end result is that we have descendants of the Nephilim still on the earth during Abram’s day, and they continue to appear in the biblical narratives until the days of the United Monarchy, around 1000 BC, when King David finally wipes them out. 

The second theory holds that the Flood was indeed universal in scope, covering the entire planet, and that all the Nephilim were extinguished. The Nephilim descendants appearing after the Flood are actually the children of new rogue angelic beings populating with human women. While no such event is attested in scripture, this is the only explanation if the Flood was universal. Adherents to this view point out that sometime after the Tower of Babel, the gods set over the nations rebelled against the Creator and went their own way. It’s thus possible that some of these rogue gods mated with human women to create hybrid giant clans. 

How Big Were the Giants? We often assume that the giants of the Old Testament were tried-and-true monsters, truly giant even by our own standards. The Masoretic Text, which is the Hebrew text used for most English translations of the Old Testament, puts Goliath’s height at nine feet, nine inches. The Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament used by the New Testament writers and preferred by many Old Testament scholars, varies in the height given to Goliath, putting it as low as six feet and up to twenty-four feet in height. The Dead Sea Scrolls put his height at six feet six inches. With all these varying readings, which one should we prefer?

The Masoretic text, which is what we have in most Hebrew bibles, was compiled between the seventh and tenth centuries AD, making it a ‘recent’ copy of the Old Testament. For this reason, most scholars prefer the Septuagint, which was compiled around the middle of the third century BC, or the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls weren’t all written at the same time: some were written as far back as the 8th century BC, during the days of the Divided Monarchy, and some are as recent as the 11th century AD, making them even newer than the Masoretic text. Most of the scrolls fall somewhere in the middle of this timeframe. Because they are written in Hebrew, many scholars prefer them to the Septuagint, since the Greek translation is ‘one step removed’ from the original Hebrew text. All this to say, Goliath’s height as originally recorded by the biblical writers was most likely around six and a half feet tall. This contrasts sharply with the popular image of giants erroneously derived from misreadings of scripture:

In the picture here, different sizes of ‘biblical giants’ are portrayed. This is how people tend to view the giants in the Old Testament. This graph takes the most extreme heights we find in the Old Testament. We’ve already examined Goliath, so what do we have to say about ‘Og of Bashan’ and Amos 2.9? Og of Bashan is considered of enormous size because he had a massive bed, but we can’t assume that a huge bed entails a huge sleeper (I sleep in a king sized bed and I’m a squirt!). Amos 2.9 uses descriptive imagery to describe giants, and the sizes given here are what Amos would be describing if he was speaking literally (which he isn’t). 

Is there any evidence of giants? Secular historians scoff at the Bible’s mention of giants, pointing out that nowhere in Canaanite burial grounds do we find skeletal remains of abnormal human size. Such historians are operating off the traditional view that the giants were ten to twelve feet in height, and so such skeletal remains would really stand out. If most giants stood around six to seven and a half feet tall, however, then the secular historians’ boast loses steam. Archaeologists have discovered several remains in this height frame, and there have even been a few discoveries of skeletons up to nine feet in length. We have extrabiblical evidence of such ‘giants’ in Canaan from the time of Pharaoh Ramesses II around 1250 BC: ‘The narrow valley [of the Jordan River in Canaan] is dangerous with Bedouin, hidden under the bushes. Some of them are of four or five cubits from their noses to the heel, and fierce of face. Their hearts are not mild, and they do not listen to wheedling.’ A cubit was eighteen inches, so these Canaanite 'giants' stood between six and seven and a half feet tall.

Such heights are commonplace today; go to any NBA basketball game, and you’ll see ‘giants’ shooting hoops. Such heights are commonplace today because of medical advancements, better diets, and selective breeding (because people tend to find taller people more sexually attractive, genes for ‘tallness’ become more pronounced over time). In the days of ancient Israel, however, these heights would’ve certainly seemed giant. The average Canaanite height in Abram’s day was just five feet (meaning that there were just as many people shorter than five feet as there were people over five feet!). By the days of King David, the average height skyrocketed to five feet two inches. A thousand years later, in the days of the Roman Empire, the height would advance by leaps and bounds to five feet four inches. It’d be fascinating to see historical movies populated by actors who fall within historically accurate heights; it would be both unnerving and hilarious to see a remake of Gladiator with no one standing above five feet six inches. For most of human history, squirts such as myself dominated the world. 

Back to Genesis

Once the four kings of the Eastern Coalition reached the lush and vibrant Vale of Siddim, they arrayed themselves against the combined forces of the five kings of the Dead Sea Valley. A great battle ensued, and the tide of battle turned against the Siddim kings. The defenders were forced to retreat, and the beaten army either fled into the hills or sought sanctuary in the ‘tar pits’ scattered throughout the land. The Eastern Coalition marched triumphantly on the cities of the Dead Sea Valley, plundering them of food and treasure; and then, heavy-laden with booty, they began the northward journey home. Included in their spoils was Abram’s nephew Lot and all his possessions; remember that when he and his uncle split in Genesis 13, Lot chose to dwell in the lush Vale of Siddim and eventually settled near Sodom. 

The Bible tells us that many of the fleeing soldiers of Siddim tried to hide from their pursuers in tar pits. Tar pits are common in this area that is so rich in bitumen (a hydrocarbon mixture used nowadays for road surfacing and roofing), and large amounts of bitumen float to the surface of the ground and even float on the Dead Sea. It’s noteworthy that the word translated ‘pits’ is the same word used for wells of water throughout the Old Testament; thus these ‘tar pits’ were likely purposefully dug out for the economic extraction of bitumen. These man-made tar pits offered sheltered to fleeing Siddim soldiers, who ‘lowered themselves into them’ to hide rather than ‘fell into them’ out of negligence.

One of Lot’s men escaped capture and fled to Abram at the great trees of Mamre, where Abram had settled down for a while. Abram had been there since the end of Genesis 13, and in the meantime he’d made an alliance with Mamre (an Amorite chieftain after whom the trees were named) and his Amorite brothers Eshkol and Abner. Alliances were key to safety and security in the depopulated and bandit-ridden Canaan. Upon learning of Lot’s capture, Abram summoned his 318 ‘trained men’ born in his household.  

That Abram had 318 ‘trained men’ testifies to his wealth and the size of his household. A man’s household in this time didn’t refer only to his wife and kids but also to all his slaves, servants, and retainers. Again we emphasize that Abram is best viewed as a chieftain; indeed, this is likely how others saw him, for why else would Amorite chieftains be willing to ally with him? The word used for Abram’s ‘trained men’ occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament, but it’s used in an Akkadian letter dating to the 15th century BC (about half a millennium after Abram); this word speaks of trained warriors, battle-hardened men skilled in the profession of slaughter. These trained men aren’t sheepherders-turned-fighters but professional warriors, akin to the ‘Delta Force’ or ‘Navy Seals’ of the ancient world. 

Abram and his warriors set out after the Eastern Coalition. They weren’t alone, for Abram’s Amorite allies were with him (Gen 14.24). Abram’s forces traveled lightly and so were able to gain on the slower-moving, booty-laden eastern kings. They caught up with the Eastern Coalition near the ancient city of Dan. There are two cities this could refer to: the first is Laish, which would be renamed Dan in the days of the Judges (Josh 18.29), and which would be the northernmost Israelite city in Canaan. The second and more likely option is the city of Dan-jaan in the area of Gilead (2 Sam 24.6); this one lie on a common-sense trek northwards for the victorious eastern kings. For them to be near the first city of Dan would put them out-of-the-way on their homeward journey.

Abram and his allies decide to launch a night attack on the encamped Eastern Coalition. Night attacks are dreadfully difficult, but the element of surprise makes up for an attacker’s lesser numbers. We can assume that Abram’s forces were outnumbered their opponent, but a night attack would tilt the balance in their favor. A night attack also speaks to the skill and professionalism of Abram’s forces: night attacks are hard, and only skilled warriors can pull them off effectively. The night attack works, and the Eastern Coalition is defeated and put to flight. Abram and his allies pursue the eastern kings north of Damascus, and they recapture all the spoils taken from the eastern kings’ campaign. Lot and all his possessions are rescued, along with multitudes of women and other people who were captured and destined for whoredom and slavery. 

It may seem odd that 318 trained men could defeat the victorious armies of five kings, but a few things should be kept in perspective. First, Abram’s trained men didn’t fight alone: they fought alongside the battle groups of three Amorite allies (Mamre, Eshkol, and Abner). Second, we don’t know the size of the armies they fought against; high estimates would put their numbers around a couple thousand. Third, successful night attacks tilt the battle in favor of the attackers. Fourth, the soldiers of the eastern kings would’ve been battle-weary after a long campaign, arrogant in their own estimation of themselves, and unprepared for a counterattack. And fifth, most important of all, is the fact that Yahweh fought on Abram’s side: though God is mentioned nowhere in this story, we must remember what He promised Abram in Genesis 12.3: ‘I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.’ When Abram went into battle to rescue his nephew Lot, he went with the God of Angel Armies on his side, and that’s got to count for something!

On his way back home, Abram will have an odd encounter with the Melchizedek, the King of Salem (future Jerusalem), which is what we’ll look at next week.