Genesis 14

Abram and Melchizedek

Four kings from the east raid the cities of the plain and carry off Lot. Abram rescues him with the men of his own household, and on the way home two kings come out to meet him. From Melchizedek, priest of the most high God, he receives bread, wine, and a blessing, and gives him a tenth of all; from the king of Sodom he will take nothing.

Genesis chaptersChapter 14 of 50

About 2000 B.C., the Bible Dictionary’s date for Melchizedek. Abram is living by the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, and Lot has moved into Sodom. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Genesis 14 is unlike anything else in Abram’s story. For one chapter the herdsman of chapters 12 and 13 is caught up in the wars of kings: an alliance from the east puts down a…

Genesis 14 is unlike anything else in Abram’s story. For one chapter the herdsman of chapters 12 and 13 is caught up in the wars of kings: an alliance from the east puts down a revolt among the cities of the Jordan plain, and Lot, who had pitched his tent toward Sodom (Gen. 13:12) and now “dwelt in Sodom,” is carried off with the spoil. Abram, living by the oaks of Mamre at Hebron (Gen. 13:18), goes after them, brings Lot back, and is met on the way home by two kings.

One of them is Melchizedek. What the Bible says about him “is relatively scarce, being limited to Gen. 14:18–20; Heb. 5:6; 7:1–3,” with his priesthood named in Ps. 110:4. Latter-day revelation “gives us much more about him and his priesthood”: Alma’s sermon in Alma 13, D&C 84:14, D&C 107:1–4, and Joseph Smith’s revision of this chapter, which gives verses 18–20 a longer form (printed as JST Genesis 14:25–40 in the Bible’s appendix) with an insertion “of about 470 words that tells Melchizedek’s story.”

The chapter stands between Abram’s parting from Lot and the covenant of chapter 15, which begins “After these things.” It has three parts: the war of the kings (verses 1–12), the rescue of Lot (13–16), and the two kings who meet Abram (17–24).

The thread through the chapter

The chapter ends with two kings coming out to meet Abram in the same valley (verses 17–18), and it turns on how differently he treats them.

The chapter ends with two kings coming out to meet Abram in the same valley (verses 17–18), and it turns on how differently he treats them. The king of Sodom, whose people Abram has just brought back, offers a bargain: “Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself” (verse 21). Melchizedek, king of Salem, brings bread and wine and a blessing, and he gives the credit for the victory to God: it is “the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand” (verse 20). Abram gives the priest-king a tenth of all. To the king of Sodom he swears, by “the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth” (verse 22), the very title Melchizedek had just used, that he will not take so much as a sandal strap.

The question underneath is who makes Abram rich. He will not have the king of Sodom say, “I have made Abram rich” (verse 23). Joseph Smith’s revision says the tithe came from riches “which God had given him,” and ends the scene, “God blessed Abram, and gave unto him riches” (JST Gen. 14:39–40). And the next chapter opens with the Lord’s own word to Abram: “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen. 15:1).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–12

The war of the kings

In plain words

In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goyim, these kings made war on Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). The five joined forces in the valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). For twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings with him came 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 by the wilderness. Then they turned back to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and conquered all the country of the Amalekites, and the Amorites who lived in Hazezon-tamar.

Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela marched out and drew up for battle in the valley of Siddim against the four kings: four kings against five. The valley was full of tar pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of their men fell into them; the rest fled to the hills. The victors took all the goods and food of Sodom and Gomorrah and went their way. They also took Lot, Abram’s nephew, who was living in Sodom, with his goods.

1 And 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;

Context #

Kings from the east

The invaders came from Mesopotamia and beyond, and their names fit Abraham’s world.

The invaders came from Mesopotamia and beyond, and their names fit Abraham’s world. Shinar is the land of Babel (Gen. 11:2). Elam was “a mountainous country to the east of Babylonia,” and its king Chedorlaomer leads the alliance (verses 4–5, 9, 17). His name is “a known Elamite name: Kudur-Lagamar.” Tidal “is the Hebrew version of the Hittite Tudhaliya,” the name of an early Hittite king. Amraphel’s name is harder: the name of Amud-pi-el, a king of Qatna in Syria, “could easily become Amraphel in Hebrew,” and Amud-pi-el “had an alliance with Elam at this time,” though Qatna “seems somewhat distant to be considered part of Shinar.” These are possible matches, not proven identifications.

The five kings they fought ruled much smaller places. “Anciently the most typical political entity was a small city-state wherein the king presided over one major city and the surrounding area,” so “Sodom had a king, Gomorrah a king, and so on.” For twelve years the cities of the plain served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth they rebelled (verse 4), “presumably because the inhabitants had failed to pay the required yearly tribute.” What followed was not an occupation. The campaign “appears to reflect a quick raid, which was a common military tactic at the time, with the taking of hostages.” Lot was one of them (verse 12).

Sources: “Elam”, Bible Dictionary. John Gee, “The Wanderings of Abraham”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 251–78. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Genesis 12–17: Abraham—Father of the Faithful, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003). RoseAnn Benson, “Lot: Likened to Noah”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 311–34.

2 That 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.

3 All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.

Context #

Old names for later readers

The chapter keeps stopping to explain its place names. Bela “is Zoar” (verses 2, 8), the vale of Siddim “is the salt sea” (verse 3), En-mishpat “is Kadesh” (verse 7), and the…

The chapter keeps stopping to explain its place names. Bela “is Zoar” (verses 2, 8), the vale of Siddim “is the salt sea” (verse 3), En-mishpat “is Kadesh” (verse 7), and the valley of Shaveh “is the king’s dale” (verse 17). Each time an old name is followed by the one later readers knew: to Bela, for instance, “the later name Zoar… is added as being better known.” The Salt Sea is the Dead Sea. In one reading the vale of Siddim “was changed into the Salt Sea on the destruction of its cities” in chapter 19, though where those cities stood “is uncertain.”

Dan, in verse 14, is the same kind of updating, without the old name beside it. “The ancient name for Dan was Laish.” The town took the name Dan only after the tribe of Dan captured it: “they called the name of the city Dan… howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first” (Judg. 18:29). By then it was the northern end of the land, “from Dan even to Beer-sheba.” A name like this shows the story handed down and retold in the names of a later day. Such updates “do not negate the historicity of the event, they simply reflect the sharing of the story over time and the superimposing of information to correspond to information of the respective present.”

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. “Dead Sea”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Dan”, Bible Dictionary. RoseAnn Benson, “Lot: Likened to Noah”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 311–34.

4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

5 And 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,

Context #

Peoples remembered as giants

Before they reached Sodom, the eastern kings struck the old peoples east of the Jordan and in Seir, and Israel remembered several of them as giants.

Before they reached Sodom, the eastern kings struck the old peoples east of the Jordan and in Seir, and Israel remembered several of them as giants. In one reconstruction the march came south “past Damascus,” through peoples who “apparently” were “on the east side of Jordan, involved in the rebellion,” as far as the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, and then turned back against the Amalekites and the five kings (verses 5–8). Ashteroth Karnaim is “generally identified with Tell-‘Ashtara, in the plateau of Bashan.”

The Rephaim were “a pre-Israelite people in Palestine, noted for their great stature,” and the Emims “a race of giants, living east of the Jordan in the time of Abraham; afterwards driven out by Moabites.” Deuteronomy names them again when Israel comes to the same country. The Emims lived in the land the Lord had given “unto the children of Lot for a possession,” and were “a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims” (Deut. 2:9–11); “the Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them” (Deut. 2:12); and “only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants” (Deut. 3:11). The raid that carried Lot off ran through the country his own descendants, Moab and Ammon (Gen. 19:36–38), would later hold.

Sources: Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. “Rephaim”, Bible Dictionary. “Emims”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

6 And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness.

7 And 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.

8 And 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;

9 With 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.

10 And 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.

Language #

Tar pits

The KJV’s “slime” is bitumen or asphalt (Hebrew chemar), “abounding in vale of Siddim.”

The KJV’s “slime” is bitumen or asphalt (Hebrew chemar), “abounding in vale of Siddim.” It is the same word as the “slime” the builders of Babel used for mortar (Gen. 11:3).

“Fell there” need not mean the kings died in the pits. Modern translations read that as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, “some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills.” The king of Sodom, at least, is alive to meet Abram in verse 17.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway.

11 And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.

12 And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

Verses 13–16

Abram rescues Lot

In plain words

A man who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. Abram was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and Aner, who were bound by treaty to Abram. When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he called out his trained men, born in his own household, three hundred and eighteen of them, and chased the enemy as far as Dan. At night he divided his forces against them, attacked, and pursued them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He brought back all the goods, and his kinsman Lot with his goods, and the women and the other people.

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.

Language #

Abram the Hebrew

This is the first time the word Hebrew (‘ivri) appears in the Bible. It “may mean ‘one who had come from beyond (the Euphrates),’ from ʼeber, ‘to cross’; or it may be derived…

This is the first time the word Hebrew (‘ivri) appears in the Bible. It “may mean ‘one who had come from beyond (the Euphrates),’ from ʼeber, ‘to cross’; or it may be derived from” Eber, whom Genesis lists among Abram’s ancestors in the line of Shem (Gen. 11:14–26). The first meaning matches what Joshua told Israel: “Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time,” that is, beyond the river, until the Lord “took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood” (Josh. 24:2–3).

Elsewhere in the Bible the word is either “put into the mouth of foreigners” (Egyptians and Philistines) or “used to distinguish Israel from foreigners.” Here it sets Abram apart from his neighbors: he is called the Hebrew “in distinction from Mamre and his two brothers, who were Amorites, and had made a defensive treaty with him.” The KJV’s “confederate with Abram” is in Hebrew “possessors of a covenant (berit) with Abram.” The newcomer had allies among the people of the land, and they went with him (verse 24).

Sources: “Hebrew”, Bible Dictionary. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

14 And 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.

Context #

Abram’s household goes to war

Abram raised a small army from his own household. The word for “trained servants” (chanikhim) occurs only here and means “trained, tried, experienced”: “his tried and trusty men,…

Abram raised a small army from his own household. The word for “trained servants” (chanikhim) occurs only here and means “trained, tried, experienced”: “his tried and trusty men, born in his house.” The verb “armed” means to “empty out,” the verb used for drawing a sword; here it seems to mean that he “led forth” his men. There were 318 of them, all born in his own household, and his Amorite allies went too (verse 24). He divided them, attacked by night, and chased the enemy as far as Hobah, near Damascus (verse 15).

He went because Lot was family. Lot was his nephew, “Abram’s brother’s son” (verse 12); “brother” in verses 14 and 16 has its wider sense of “relative,” as when Abram told Lot, “we be brethren” (Gen. 13:8). In a raid like this, captives “would be held until they were redeemed by the immediate family, or, if the family could not afford the hostage price, by a temple or the palace of the affected town.” Abram did not ransom Lot; he went after him. Lot’s capture with the goods of Sodom suggests that “by this time, Lot had become associated with Sodom and Gomorrah on more than a superficial level,” and the pursuit “also says much about Lot’s value to Abraham.”

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. John Gee, “The Wanderings of Abraham”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 251–78. RoseAnn Benson, “Lot: Likened to Noah”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 311–34. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

15 And 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.

16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Verses 17–24

Two kings meet Abram

In plain words

After Abram came back from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. He blessed Abram and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Maker and Owner of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, and keep the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand in an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Maker and Owner of heaven and earth: I will not take a thread or a sandal strap, or anything that is yours, so that you can never say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing but what my young men have eaten. As for the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, let them take their share.”

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.

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

Context #

The king of Salem

Melchizedek’s name means “king of righteousness,” and Salem means “peace.”

Melchizedek’s name means “king of righteousness,” and Salem means “peace.” Hebrews puts the two together: he is “first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace” (Heb. 7:2).

Salem is almost certainly Jerusalem. The Tell el-Amarna tablets “of about 1400 B.C. give the name of the city as Uru-Salem,” which is “easily identified as Jerusalem.” In Hebrew, Shalem is a shortened form of the name Jerusalem, and a psalm uses it beside Zion: “In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion” (Ps. 76:2). The meeting place points the same way. The king’s dale (verse 17), where Absalom later set up his pillar (2 Sam. 18:18), is “identified as the confluence of the three valleys southeast of Jerusalem.”

Sources: “Melchizedek”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Salem”, Bible Dictionary. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. RoseAnn Benson, “Lot: Likened to Noah”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 311–34.

Witness of Christ #

Bread and wine

Genesis says only that Melchizedek “brought forth bread and wine.” Joseph Smith’s revision makes it an ordinance: “and he brake bread and blest it; and he blest the wine, he being…

Genesis says only that Melchizedek “brought forth bread and wine.” Joseph Smith’s revision makes it an ordinance: “and he brake bread and blest it; and he blest the wine, he being the priest of the most high God” (JST Gen. 14:17, in the footnote to this verse). Read that way, “it seems clear that the giving of the bread and wine in the narrative was a sacramental act. Melchizedek broke the bread and then blessed the bread and the wine separately, and the text mentions that he had priesthood authority to do so.” It is “a foreshadowing sacramental ordinance,” and “the text gives every indication that it was a Christian event that celebrated in advance the atoning body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

What it says about the sacrament before Christ is less certain. “Aside from this narrative, there is no reference to the sacrament in the Old Testament,” the accounts of the Last Supper “give the impression that he was introducing the ordinance then for the first time,” and there is none in the Book of Mormon until the risen Jesus gives it (3 Ne. 18:1–11). So this meeting “may have been a singular observance among these two extraordinarily great men and perhaps not the perpetuation of an earlier practice or the introduction of a new one.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kent P. Jackson, “Promises and Priesthood in Genesis”, In Kent P. Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022), 61–70. Scripture Central, “How Does the Joseph Smith Translation Teach Us about Melchizedek?”, KnoWhy #643, Sept. 6, 2022.

Related Scriptures #

What Restoration scripture adds

Genesis gives Melchizedek three verses and no family. Restoration scripture tells of his faith and his priesthood.

Genesis gives Melchizedek three verses and no family. Restoration scripture tells of his faith and his priesthood. Joseph Smith’s revision says that “when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire,” and that he was “ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch” (JST Gen. 14:26–27). Alma says his people “had waxed strong in iniquity and abomination,” that he “did preach repentance unto his people. And behold, they did repent,” and that “he was called the prince of peace” (Alma 13:17–18). Of the high priests, “there were many before him, and also there were many afterwards, but none were greater” (Alma 13:19). The higher priesthood, “the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God,” came to be called by his name “out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being” (D&C 107:3–4), and it was from Melchizedek that “Abraham received the priesthood” (D&C 84:14).

His city followed the pattern of Enoch’s. His people “wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken” (JST Gen. 14:34). Read with the story of Enoch in Moses 7, Melchizedek “performed miracles, preached righteousness, and established Zion, as Enoch had done before him,” and the revision gives “a record of a second translated community.”

Was he Shem, the son of Noah? An ancient Jewish tradition says so. The Targum of Palestine, one of the “Aramaic paraphrases on the Books of the Old Testament,” reads, “And Malka Zadika, who was Shem bar Noah, the king of Yerushalem, came forth to meet Abram.” Among Latter-day Saints it is held possible, not taught: “while we cannot say for sure, the possibility is clearly there,” and “the truth is, we do not know the answer.” D&C 84:14 says Melchizedek received the priesthood “through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah,” and “many persons believe D&C 84:14 is proof that there are perhaps several generations between Melchizedek and Noah.” Scripture does not settle the question.

Sources: Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 14, Joseph Smith Translation Appendix, Gospel Library. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Frank F. Judd Jr., “Melchizedek: Seeking After the Zion of Enoch”, In Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 69–82. Kent P. Jackson, “Promises and Priesthood in Genesis”, In Kent P. Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022), 61–70. J. W. Etheridge, The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch, with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum: Genesis and Exodus, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862; scan on the Internet Archive. Genesis 12–17: Abraham—Father of the Faithful, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003). Alma E. Gygi, “Is It Possible That Shem and Melchizedek Are the Same Person?”, Ensign, Nov. 1973, 15–16.

19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

Language #

Maker and owner of heaven and earth

The Hebrew is qoneh shamayim va’arets. The verb qanah usually means to “get, acquire,” and elsewhere to “buy.”

The Hebrew is qoneh shamayim va’arets. The verb qanah usually means to “get, acquire,” and elsewhere to “buy.” Said of God, it means “originating, creating,” the sense it has here and in Deut. 32:6. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, renders it “who made heaven and earth.” In one reading the word keeps both senses, God as “founder and possessor.” He made heaven and earth, and they are His.

Abram repeats the whole title, word for word, when he swears to take nothing from the king of Sodom (verse 22).

20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Related Scriptures #

The first tithe

“The first recorded instance” of a tithe in scripture “is the payment made by Abraham to Melchizedek.”

“The first recorded instance” of a tithe in scripture “is the payment made by Abraham to Melchizedek.” The Hebrew says only “and he gave him a tenth of everything,” so who paid whom “is ambiguous in the Hebrew text.” Later scripture settles it. Hebrews: “unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils” (Heb. 7:4). Alma: “even our father Abraham paid tithes of one-tenth part of all he possessed” (Alma 13:15). Hebrews speaks of the spoils, Alma of all that Abraham owned.

Joseph Smith’s revision agrees with Alma and says what the tithe was for. Melchizedek was “the keeper of the storehouse of God; Him whom God had appointed to receive tithes for the poor,” and “Abram paid unto him tithes of all that he had, of all the riches which he possessed, which God had given him more than that which he had need” (JST Gen. 14:37–39). So “the storehouse was not to provide for him but ‘for the poor.’” Hebrews draws a different lesson from the same act: the one who receives the tithe and gives the blessing is the greater, for “without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better” (Heb. 7:6–7).

Sources: “Tithe”, Bible Dictionary. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Kent P. Jackson, “Promises and Priesthood in Genesis”, In Kent P. Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022), 61–70. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 14, Joseph Smith Translation Appendix, Gospel Library. Frank F. Judd Jr., “Melchizedek: Seeking After the Zion of Enoch”, In Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 69–82.

21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.

22 And 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,

Language #

El Elyon, and the LORD

Melchizedek calls his God El Elyon, “God Most High.” Elyon, “Most High,” is a “name of God” in its own right, and the combined form El Elyon appears in this chapter and in Ps.…

Melchizedek calls his God El Elyon, “God Most High.” Elyon, “Most High,” is a “name of God” in its own right, and the combined form El Elyon appears in this chapter and in Ps. 78:35, “the high God their redeemer.” When Abram swears, he puts the divine name before it: YHWH El Elyon, “the LORD, the most high God.” Some have argued that “Melchizedek worshipped not Jehovah but a different god named El Elyon, or Most High God.” That is one of the “false conclusions” that “result from a lack of adequate sources and information.” Abram’s oath treats them as one God: he swears to the LORD by the title Melchizedek had just used.

“I have lift up mine hand” (harimoti yadi) means “I have sworn, taken an oath with a gesture, symbolizing the appeal to God.” The Lord Himself speaks this way: “For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever” (Deut. 32:40).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Frank F. Judd Jr., “Melchizedek: Seeking After the Zion of Enoch”, In Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 69–82. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

23 That 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:

Related Scriptures #

Why Abram took nothing

Abram had won the goods: “according to the rights of war, all the booty belonged to Abram,” and the king of Sodom asks only for his people (verse 21).

Abram had won the goods: “according to the rights of war, all the booty belonged to Abram,” and the king of Sodom asks only for his people (verse 21). Abram refuses “a thread even to a shoelatchet,” the smallest things, and gives his reason: no one will say that the king of Sodom made him rich. He keeps back only what his young men have eaten, and leaves “an equitable share in the spoil” for his allies (verse 24).

Joseph Smith’s revision closes the scene by saying who did make Abram rich: “God blessed Abram, and gave unto him riches, and honor, and lands for an everlasting possession; according to the covenant which he had made, and according to the blessing wherewith Melchizedek had blessed him” (JST Gen. 14:40). Genesis gives the same answer in its next words: “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen. 15:1).

Sources: Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 14, Joseph Smith Translation Appendix, Gospel Library. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

24 Save 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.

Seeing Christ in Genesis 14

Scripture itself makes Melchizedek a pattern of Christ’s priesthood. A psalm addressed to the one who sits at the Lord’s right hand says, “The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4), and Hebrews applies it to Jesus, “made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 6:20), saying that Melchizedek was “made like unto the Son of God” (Heb. 7:3). In Genesis 14 itself “he is seen in a priestly role, pointing ahead to Jesus Christ,” above all in the bread and wine (see the note on verse 18).

Restoration scripture says the priesthood he held points to Christ too. It is “after the order of the Son of God… neither by father nor mother; neither by beginning of days nor end of years; but of God” (JST Gen. 14:28; compare D&C 107:3), and its ordinances were given “that thereby the people might look forward on the Son of God, it being a type of his order, or it being his order” (Alma 13:16). In Joseph Smith’s revision of Heb. 7:3, “without father, without mother” “clearly refers to the priesthood held by Melchizedek, not to Melchizedek himself.”

Worth exploring next

Alma on Melchizedek. Alma 13:1–19, a sermon on the high priesthood that uses Melchizedek as its example.
Hebrews on Melchizedek. Ps. 110:1–4; Heb. 5:5–10; Heb. 7:1–28.
The priesthood handed down. D&C 84:6–17; D&C 107:1–4.
Joseph Smith’s revision. JST Gen. 14:25–40, in the Joseph Smith Translation appendix. “Melchizedek: Seeking After the Zion of Enoch,” in Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament (BYU Religious Studies Center), reads it beside the story of Enoch.
Lot’s story continued. Gen. 19; 2 Pet. 2:6–9.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.
New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway.
English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway.
Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 14, Joseph Smith Translation Appendix, Gospel Library.
“Melchizedek”, Bible Dictionary.
“Salem”, Bible Dictionary.
“Tithe”, Bible Dictionary.
“Hebrew”, Bible Dictionary.
“Elam”, Bible Dictionary.
“Dan”, Bible Dictionary.
“Dead Sea”, Bible Dictionary.
“Rephaim”, Bible Dictionary.
“Emims”, Bible Dictionary.
Genesis 12–17: Abraham—Father of the Faithful, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003).
John Gee, “The Wanderings of Abraham”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 251–78.
RoseAnn Benson, “Lot: Likened to Noah”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 311–34.
Kent P. Jackson, “Promises and Priesthood in Genesis”, In Kent P. Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022), 61–70.
Frank F. Judd Jr., “Melchizedek: Seeking After the Zion of Enoch”, In Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 69–82.
Scripture Central, “How Does the Joseph Smith Translation Teach Us about Melchizedek?”, KnoWhy #643, Sept. 6, 2022.
Alma E. Gygi, “Is It Possible That Shem and Melchizedek Are the Same Person?”, Ensign, Nov. 1973, 15–16.
J. W. Etheridge, The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch, with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum: Genesis and Exodus, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862; scan on the Internet Archive.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub.

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