And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
The king of Sodom ... Give ... persons. According to the war customs still existing among the Arab tribes, Abram might have retained the recovered goods, and his right was acknowledged by the King of Sodom; but with honest pride and a generosity unknown in that part of the world, he replied, in strong phraseology, common to the East, 'I have lifted up mine hand (i:e., I have sworn unto the Lord that I will not take from a thread even to a sandal-thong - i:e., neither a thread nor a sandal thong-that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.
It remains to consider where the interviews of these two distinguished personages took place. Those who fix the locality of Salem on the banks of the Jordan suppose that the course of Abram, on returning from Damascus, would be along the highway which, at the Sea of Tiberias, leads into the valley of the Jordan;-that Salem being situated eight miles south of Scythopolis, along the line of road by which Abram was traveling, he must pass in its immediate neighbourhood; and it was becoming and proper for Melchizedek, its king, as representing the lately desolated districts, to meet the conqueror and give him a public tribute of thanks for his services;-that at the conclusion of this scene Abram proceeded in a southern direction as far as Sodom, to whose petty ruler he restored the prisoners and the plundered property; and that, having thus successfully accomplished his undertaking, he turned his face homeward to Hebron.
But there are objections to this view. Since Abram showed so firm a determination to keep aloof from the King of Sodom, and not to lay himself under obligations either to him or to his people, it can scarcely be thought that he would have chosen a circuitous route for the express purpose of visiting that place. It is much more probable that he returned from Damascus, across the Gaulau plain in the present Haj route, down the ravine of the Jabbok, and southward by the central road, which runs through Jerusalem to Hebron; and consequently, in approaching that intermediate place, he had to pass the king's dale (2 Samuel 18:18) (the valley of Jehoshaphat), which lay on the north of it. In that spacious and beautiful vale the two kings, as they came from their respective capitals, would meet the victor. 'The King of Sodom passed up through the modern Wady en-Nar, which is a continuation of the valley of Kedron, and leads to the Dead Sea; while Melchizedek descended toward that valley from his neighbouring mountain fortress of Salem' (Kraff, quoted by Kurtz, 'Hist. of Old Cov.' 1:, p. 219).
Viewed in its relation to this sacred history, the incident which forms the subject of this chapter is peculiarly interesting and important. Abram in Canaan was only a private individual, and, living beyond the range of the invasion, had no natural call nor political right to take vengeance into his own hands. But as the destined lord of the country, constituted by the promise of God, he exercised the royal prerogative of making war. It was a just war, undertaken in a righteous cause. Since there can be no doubt, from his previous character, that he prosecuted it in a believing dependence on the aid and blessing of God, it must be considered typical of the spiritual warfare; and his triumphal success foreshadowed the victory of faith over the world and the powers that rule in the world.