Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar; Arioch, king of Ellasar; Chedorlaomer, king of Elam; and Tidal, king of Goiim, they made war with Bera, king of Sodom; Birsha, king of Gomorrah; Shinab, king of Admah; Shemeber, king of Zeboiim; and the king of Bela (also called Zoar). All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (also called the Salt Sea). They served Chedorlaomer for twelve years, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.”
(Genesis 14:1-4)

There was a lot of history in this area. About two hundred years previously, the Tower of Babel had been constructed in Shinar. The regions ruled by these kinds also included the area Lot had chosen for his parcel. In fact, Lot chose the area because it was so lush. However, after the events Lot lived in the climate changed. Today it is a hot and arid region, not a lush garden.

The sage Tur HaAroch writes: ‘ל, “It was in the days of Amrafel, etc.” Although Kedorleomer was the heavyweight among these Kings as we know from verses 4 and 9 in which he is always mentioned as the major figure, the other Kings being his subordinates, “the Kings who were with him,” in this instance Amrafel, is mentioned first, perhaps because he was senior in years, This war too may be viewed as מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, that events in which our forefathers were involved served as a preview of what would happen in the lives of their descendants. Four Kingdoms would emerge in human history, each one of whom would enslave Avraham’s descendants at one time or another. In the end, Avraham;s descendants would prevail over all of them and they would be forced to make full restitution of everything they had ever robbed the Jewish people of. In our chapter, the first King would correspond to the King of Babylon, Nevuchadnezzar, seeing that he was the King of Shinor, the same general area. King Aryoch would be a prototype of the Kingdom of the Medes who supplanted the Babylonians as the ruling Empire in Mesopotamia and Persia. Elassar may be the name of a city rather than the name of a King. It would describe an important city in that country. Eylom would describe what eventually would become Greece, whereas Tidal may be an early allusion to the eventual Rome. The word גויים reflects that the Roman Empire would consist of many nations all under a single Emperor.’

The sage Radak writes: ‘ויהי בימי אמרפל, these wars took place during the reigns of the kings described in these verse; details of them will follow. We find a similar construction in Esther 1,1,ויהי בימי אחשורש, where the words ויהי בימי also serve as an introduction to what is to follow. The main reason why the Torah gives us details of these wars, something that does not appear to be too relevant to our times, is to demonstrate the righteousness, courage, and sense of responsibility even for a nephew who had suffered a setback, as well as captivity due to his greed in settling near the Sodomites. When Avram knew that what he was about to do was something that morality demanded, i.e. not to allow a next of kin even one such as Lot to remain in captivity, he mobilised the few men he had, and tackled the greatest contemporary war machine to liberate his nephew, being sure that G’d would assist him in such an endeavour. The word כדרלעומר is one word. The words מלך גוים mean “king of a people known as גוים. The reason may well be that in that land members of different nations had decided to live together under a single king.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘For twelve years they served Kedorlaomer, who is singled out probably because he was the strongest member of the coalition of northern kings. It can be assumed that these areas had been conquered by the kings of the north prior to Abram’s arrival in Canaan. And in the thirteenth year, they rebelled. It appears that in addition to the kings of the five cities previously mentioned, the entire region revolted against these foreign rulers with their strange language and culture, who had come from afar with imperialist aspirations. Similarly, many years later, when Nebuchadnezzar took control of the Land of Israel, its various leaders came together and established alliances in order to strengthen one another against the foreign ruler and restore their independence.’