14
Soldiers grabbed Lot and his family and took them away
1-9 This story is about the people in the flat country, and it started before Lot went to live near the town called Sodom. There were 5 tribes in that flat country at that time, and each tribe had a leader. These were the 5 tribes and their leaders,
– A tribe called Sodom, and their leader was called Bera.
– A tribe called Gomorrah, and their leader was called Birsha.
– A tribe called Admah, and their leader was Shinab.
– A tribe called the Zebo mob, and their leader was Shemeber.
– A tribe called Zoar. They are also called Bela.
There were another 4 tribes in the country to the east. These were those 4 tribes and their leaders,
– A tribe called Elam, and their leader was Kedorlayomer.
– A tribe called Babylonia, and their leader was called Amrafel.
– A tribe called Ellasar, and their leader was called Ariok.
– A tribe called the Goy mob, and their leader was Tidal.
And Kedorlayomer was the boss over those 4 tribes in the east. Those 4 tribes sent their soldiers to fight the other 5 tribes, and the 4 tribes from the east won. So Kedorlayomer became the boss over the other 5 tribes too.
Those 5 tribes let him be their boss for 12 years. Then the next year, their leaders told Kedorlayomer that they didn’t want him to be their boss any more. Kedorlayomer got really angry, and the next year, he got soldiers from the 4 tribes in the east, and they went to fight those 5 tribes.
On the way to that fight, Kedorlayomer’s soldiers had other fights with some other tribes, and they won all those fights. They beat the Refa tribe at a place called Ashteroth-Karnayim, and they beat the Zuz tribe at a place called Ham, and they beat the Em tribe at a place called Shaveh-Kiriathayim, and they beat the Hor tribe in the hill country called Edom. They chased the Hor soldiers all the way to a place called El-Paran, near the desert. Then Kedorlayomer and the soldiers from the east, they all went back to a place called En-Mishpat. Another name for that place is Kadesh. Then Kedorlayomer and his mob fought the Amalek tribe and beat them, and took control of their country. Then they fought the Amor tribe in Hazazon-Tamar country, and beat them too.
While Kedorlayomer and his mob were fighting those other people, the 5 tribes that didn’t want Kedorlayomer to be their boss, they went to the valley called Sidim. (Today there is salt water in that valley, and we call it the Dead Sea.) The soldiers of those 5 tribes got ready there to fight against Kedorlayomer and his 4 tribes from the east.
So when Kedorlayomer and his mob got to that Sidim valley there was a big fight. 10 Kedorlayomer and his mob won that fight. They beat those 5 tribes, and their soldiers all ran away. In that flat country there were lots of holes in the ground that were full of sticky black stuff, called tar. So when the soldiers from the 5 tribes ran away, some of them fell into those holes. But the rest of them ran up into the hills.
11 So Kedorlayomer and his soldiers went to Sodom and Gomorrah, and they grabbed all the people that lived there. And they took everything the people owned, even their food, and then they started to go back to their own country. 12 At that time, Abram’s nephew Lot lived in Sodom, so the soldiers grabbed Lot too, and his family, and all their things. Those soldiers took all of Lot’s mob away with them.
Abram saved Lot and his family
13-14 A man got away from Kedorlayomer and his mob, and he went and told Abram that they got Lot. At that time, Abram was living near the big trees that belonged to a man called Mamreh. Abram was a good friend of Mamreh, and also of Mamreh’s 2 brothers. Their names were Eskol and Aner. Mamreh and his brothers belonged to the Amor tribe, and Abram belonged to the Hebrew tribe, but they all looked after each other.
Abram had 318 men that knew how to fight. They worked for Abram all their lives, and Abram really trusted them. So Abram got those men, and Mamreh, Eskol and Aner got their fighting men, and they all went to fight Kedorlayomer and his soldiers. They followed them, and they found them at a place to the north, called Dan. 15 Then, in the night time, Abram split up all the fighting men into groups, and they attacked Kedorlayomer and his soldiers. Abram and his men won that fight, and they chased those other soldiers all the way to a town called Hobah, north of Damascus town. 16 That’s how Abram’s mob saved Lot, and all the women, and the other people from the towns called Sodom and Gomorrah, and they got all their things too. Then they all started to go back south.
Abram met Melkizedek
17 After Abram’s mob beat Kedorlayomer and his mob, and while they were going back south on their way home, the leader of Sodom went out to meet Abram in the valley called Shaveh. Another name for that place is the valley that belongs to the leader.
18 There was a town in that country called Salem, and the boss over that town was called Melkizedek. He was also a leader of God’s ceremonies. He worked for God, the one that is more powerful than any other god. Well, Melkizedek also went out to meet Abram and his men, and he gave them some bread and some wine. 19 Then Melkizedek prayed for Abram. He said,
“God, you are more powerful than any other god.
You are the one that made heaven and earth.
I’m asking you to be really good to Abram.
20 I want everyone to say that you are great, and more powerful than any other god.
You are the one that helped Abram fight with his enemies and win.”
Then Abram got all the things he got after the fight, the things that used to belong to the Sodom and Gomorrah mob, and he split those things up into 10 groups. And he gave one of those groups of things to Melkizedek.*
21 Then the leader of Sodom said to Abram, “I only want my people back. You can keep those other things.”
22 But Abram said, “I made a strong promise to my God. His name is Yahweh. He is more powerful than any other god, and he made heaven and earth. 23 I promised that I will not take anything that belongs to you. I will not even take a bit of string, or anything that belongs to you. You see, I don’t want you to tell everyone that you gave me a lot of things and made me rich. 24 No. The only thing that I will keep is the food that I ate and the food that my fighting men ate. And these men, Mamreh, and Aner, and Eskol, and their fighting men, they helped me save your people and your things too, so you can give them some of those things.”
* 14:20 Hebrews 7:1-10