- 1And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;
- 2That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.
- 3All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.
- 4Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
- 5And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim,
- 6And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness.
- 7And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar.
- 8And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim;
- 9With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five.
- 10And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.
- 11And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.
- 12And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
- 13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.
- 14And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
- 15And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
- 16And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
- 17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale.
- 18And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
- 19And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
- 20And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
- 21And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
- 22And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
- 23That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:
- 24Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
KING JAMES VERSION
GENESIS 14
Read the chapter, follow a linked verse, and continue into related Watchman 33 teaching.
CHAPTER VISUAL
Genesis 14 — After rescuing Lot from the eastern kings, Abram receives Melchizedek’s blessing and refuses the king of Sodom’s wealth.
About this illustration
The scene focuses on the chapter’s moral and spiritual climax after the battle. The completed night pursuit is suggested only in the distant returning company, keeping violence non-graphic.
Scripture basis: Genesis 14:1–24King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom
EXPLORE THE MESSAGE
Related Watchman 33 Resources
Archaeological Evidence
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Approximately 1350–1330 BC
The Amarna Letters from Canaan and Jerusalem
Clay tablets from Egypt's fourteenth-century BC royal archive preserve the actual diplomatic voices of Canaanite rulers, including six appeals from Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, documenting a literate city-state under Egyptian authority centuries before the Israelite monarchy.
Genesis 14:18 · Joshua 10:1–5 · Joshua 15:63
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Nineteenth–eighteenth centuries BC
Egyptian Execration Texts Naming Jerusalem
Middle Kingdom Egyptian enemy lists preserve a toponym widely read as Jerusalem and associate two rulers with it, providing early evidence for a Canaanite highland polity while saying nothing about Abraham or Israelite rule.
Genesis 14:18–20 · Joshua 10:1–5 · Joshua 15:63
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
First half of the sixth century AD
The Vienna Genesis
The Vienna Genesis preserves twenty-four leaves of a lavish sixth-century Greek Genesis, pairing silver Septuagint text with forty-eight narrative miniatures whose materials, multiple painters, corrosion, and fragmentary sequence illuminate late-antique biblical reading.
Genesis 14:17–24 · Genesis 39:1–23
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Late second or early third century AD
P.Oxy. IV 656: An Early Greek Genesis Codex
Four papyrus leaves from a late-second- or early-third-century Genesis codex preserve Abraham, Lot, Isaac, and Jacob passages together with revealing gaps and later additions at divine-name locations.
Genesis 14:21–23 · Genesis 15:5–9 · Genesis 19:32–38
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
approximately twenty-fourth century BC, Early Bronze Age
The Royal Archives of Ebla
Thousands of cuneiform tablets and fragments found in Palace G at Ebla preserve administration, diplomacy, ritual, lexical learning, and literature from a north Syrian kingdom of the third millennium BC. They illuminate the depth of scribal and palace culture long before Israel.
Genesis 14:1–12 · Genesis 41:46–49
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArchaeological site
Middle Bronze Age II, approximately 1800-1600 BC
Tel Kabri’s Canaanite Palace and Wine Complex
A vast Middle Bronze palace at Tel Kabri combined ceremonial halls, Aegean-style painted plaster, imported materials, and storerooms whose jars preserved chemically identified spiced wine.
Genesis 14:17–24 · Genesis 18:1–8 · Genesis 43:31–34
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