5 And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
(For Og, king of Bashan, was the last of all the Rephaim; his bed was made of iron; is it not in Rabbah, in the land of the children of Ammon? It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by the common cubit.)
(In the past the Emim were living there; a great people, equal in numbers to the Anakim and as tall; They are numbered among the Rephaim, like the Anakim; but are named Emim by the Moabites.
Now the Philistines had come, and had gone out in every direction in the valley of Rephaim.
Of Moab. The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Sorrow on Nebo, for it has been made waste; Kiriathaim has been put to shame and is taken: the strong place is put to shame and broken down.
And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his grain, pulling together the heads of the grain with his arm; even as when they get in the grain in the valley of Rephaim.
He let his signs be seen among the people, and his wonders in the land of Ham.
Then Israel came into Egypt, and Jacob was living in the land of Ham.
(That land is said to have been a land of the Rephaim, for Rephaim had been living there in earlier times, but they were named Zamzummim by the Ammonites; They were a great people, tall as the Anakim, and equal to them in number; but the Lord sent destruction on them and the children of Ammon took their place, living in their land; As he did for the children of Esau living in Seir, when he sent destruction on the Horites before them, and they took their land where they are living to this day: And the Avvim, living in the small towns as far as Gaza, came to destruction by the hands of the Caphtorim who came out from Caphtor and took their land.)
And three of the thirty went down to David, to the rock, into the strong place of Adullam; and the army of the Philistines had taken up their position in the valley of Rephaim.
And three of the thirty went down at the start of the grain-cutting, and they came to David at the strong place of Adullam; and the band of Philistines had taken up their position in the valley of Rephaim.
And the Philistines came up again, and went in every direction in the valley of Rephaim.
And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, for half of the children of Machir by their families.
And Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar in the mountain of the valley;
And the land of Og, king of Bashan, of the rest of the Rephaim, who was living at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,
Have no fear of them, for the Lord your God will be fighting for you.
Till the Lord has given rest to your brothers as to you, and till they have taken for themselves the land which the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of Jordan: then you may go back, every man of you, to the heritage which I have given you.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 14
Commentary on Genesis 14 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 14
We have four things in the story of this chapter.
Gen 14:1-12
We have here an account of the first war that ever we read of in scripture, which (though the wars of the nations make the greatest figure in history) we should not have had the history of if Abram and Lot had not been concerned in it. Now, concerning this war, we may observe,
Gen 14:13-16
We have here an account of the only military action we ever find Abram engaged in, and this he was prompted to, not by his avarice or ambition, but purely by a principle of charity; it was not to enrich himself, but to help his friend. Never was any military expedition undertaken, prosecuted, and finished, more honourably than this of Abram's. Here we have,
Gen 14:17-20
This paragraph begins with the mention of the respect which the king of Sodom paid to Abram at his return from the slaughter of the kings; but, before a particular account is given of this, the story of Melchizedek is briefly related, concerning whom observe,
Gen 14:21-24
We have here an account of what passed between Abram and the king of Sodom, who succeeded him that fell in the battle (v. 10), and thought himself obliged to do this honour to Abram, in return for the good services he had done him. Here is,