Day 5. Genesis 13-15

Genesis 13-15

Genesis 13

¹And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

²And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Apparently the drought had ended. We aren't told exactly how long Abram stayed in Egypt.

³And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai;

Oh hai, welcome to Bethel. Bethel means "House of El" (El is another name for god). Edward Robinson believed that Bethel is now Beitin. There are some significant things that wind up happening at Bethel. It may or may not be the same place. Pretty much anywhere that someone encounters the old testament god, can be named Beth El.

⁵And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.

⁶And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

Lot was traveling with Abram. They were a rather large group.

⁷And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.

Lot and Abram weren't fighting, but their workers were fighting over who would get the best land/watering holes/places to stay.

Abram offers Lot a choice.

⁹Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

If you take the left, I'll take the right.

¹⁰And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

¹¹Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.

Here we see some foreshadowing. The towns of Sodom and Gomorrah were mentioned earlier in Gen 10:19. Their destruction hasn't been brought up yet.

¹²Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

Lot moved into town. Abram stayed as a vagabond rancher. We aren't told what happened to all those herdmen who worked for Lot.

¹³But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

Men of Sodom. This is where the term sodomy comes from. Sodomy covers anal intercourse, oral intercourse, and bestiality.

¹⁴And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:

¹⁵For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

Here we have another covenant between god and a human.

¹⁶And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.

That's a lot of offspring.

¹⁸Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.

Abram will stay at Mamre for a while.

Genesis 14

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;

This should give an exact date.

Amraphel of Shinar. Shinar is a name for Mesopotamia or Babylon. Amraphel is associated with Hammurabi. Drop the H and BI in Hammurabi; drop the EL in Amraphel and you are left with Ammura and Amraph respectively. Remember EL normally means God (beth el). Hammurabi was king of Babylon from 1792 to 1750 BC.

Arioch king of Ellasar. It is believed this is Eri-aku king of Larsa (Assyria).

Chedorlaomer king of Elam. It is believed this is Kudur-Lagamar king of Elam. Others believe it is Kutir-Lagamar.

Tidal king of nations. Tudhaliya was the name of several Hittite kings. They ruled from the 1430s to the 1100's. It wouldn't have been any of them. Bestowing the title of Tidal (Tudhaliya) would have been because at the time, the Hittite kingdom had several nations involved, Ammurru and Mittani.

With the kings named, it is still impossible to put an exact date of this event.

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.

The first four kings attacked the kings of these cities: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela. The historicity of these kings is doubtful.

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

The battle of the Vale of Siddim! Did it happen?

According to Genesis 14, the kings in verse 2 paid tribute to Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but rebelled in the thirteenth. So, the kings from the Babylon area went and attacked the kings of the cities of the plain.

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.

The Jordan River is the only major water source flowing in the Dead Sea. There are small springs under and around it, that creates quicksand pits along the edges. That could be the slimepits mentioned in verse 10.

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.

Lot was captured, along with all his goods.

¹³And 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.

This is the first mention of the word Hebrew. It is used 45 times in the bible. The word Hebrew basically means anyone who is a descendant of Eber. Eber was a great great grandson of Noah.

Noah > Shem > Arphaxad > Shelah > Eber

Hebrews are Semitic.

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.

Wow, pursued them to Dan. That's rather interesting. Abram may have pursued them to the area that became Dan, but Dan wouldn't be named Dan until about a thousand years later. Dan is one of the sons of Jacob; one of the tribes of Israel. Dan (in Israel) is the northernmost town in the kingdom of Israel. Prior to being Dan, the area was known as Laish.

Remember, the book of Genesis is attributed to Moses. It is claimed that each word was written by god. Moses received it on Mount Sinai. In order for this to have been written by Moses (who never made it into Israel) he would have had to have known that Dan was going to take over the northern part of Israel, when they took over the area. It's odd that they didn't use another city name, since they use (practically) made up king names.


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

So, Abram managed to defeat the combined kingdom of what was Babylonia with only 318 people. This event should have been recorded somewhere else. Oddly there is no mention of Abram on the Hammurabi page on Wikipedia.

¹⁷And 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.

Chedorlaomer was the Elamite king. If we read the Hammurabi page on wiki, we see that in 1763 defeated the Elamites.

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

We don't know Melchizedek's lineage for sure. According to the Second Book of Enoch, he was born of a virgin, to Sofonim, the wife of Nir (a married virgin?) who was a brother of Noah. He came out physically developed, clothed, speaking and blessing the lord. (I can see why she died, giving birth to a clothed child) Forty days later he was taken by the archangel Gabriel to the Garden of Eden and was preserved from Noah's flood.

So, according to that story, Melchizedek is Noah's nephew. He's alive during the time of Abraham.

Lamech > Noah > Shem > Arphaxad > Shelah > Eber > Peleg > Reu > Serug > Nachor > Terah > Abram

Lamech > Nir > Melchizedek

Bread and wine? That's the Lord's Supper.

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

Way to go Abram.

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

The Sodom king, (Bera?) who fell in verse 10, unless a new king was crowned, offered Abram whatever he wanted from the things he brought back.

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.

Abram had enough stuff, he didn't even take a shoelace. He did let the people with him take some stuff though.

Did Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre count in the 318?

Genesis 15

¹After 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.

God is now standoffish. Remember, he used to walk around in the garden with Adam and Eve. He used to walk with Noah. Then after the flood he disappeared. He used to accept the offerings directly from Cain and Abel, now they have to be burnt offerings so that the smoke goes up to heaven. God used to talk to people, now he's showing up in visions.

²And Abram said, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

God has already promised that Abram's seed will be like the dust. Abram is now complaining that he hasn't had any kids yet.

God then tells Abram to make him an offering.

⁹And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

Where's the partridge in a pear tree?

Heifers are sacrificed in Numbers 19 for people who come into contact with a corpse.

She goats are sacrificed in Numbers 15 for people who sin through ignorance.

Rams are sacrificed in Leviticus 5 for people who sin through trespass.

Turtledoves are sacrificed for a purifying sin offering, as is the young pigeon in Leviticus 12. They are used for the purifying after the birth of a child. Because giving birth is a sin.

¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

God then gave Abram the dream that his offspring would go into Egypt and serve there.

¹³And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

¹⁸In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

From the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, that's a long way. The river of Egypt is obviously the Nile. Nile to Euphrates... This covers much of Egypt, all of Jordan, some of Syria and some of Iraq. People claim that the blue stripes on Israel's flag represent those two rivers, and not the traditional stripes on the prayer shawl.

Points to ponder from today:

1. Did Abram exist?
2. Who was Melchizedek?
3. Many people claim the bible is an historically accurate document, if the bible can't get the history parts correct, then why do you believe it can get the theological parts correct?