Machpelah, which has as good claims to be considered authentic. The present 'Oak of Abraham,' about 2 m. NW, is as old as the 16th cent. See Robinson, BR, i. 216; Buhl, GP, 160, 162; Baedeker, Pal. and Syr.3 138, 142; Dri. DB, iii. 224 f.; v. Gall, CSt. 52.
Ch. XIV.—Abram's Victory over Four Kings.
While Abram was at Hebron, a revolt of five petty kings in the Jordan valley against their over-lord Chedorlaomer of Elam brought from the East a great punitive expedition, in which no fewer than four powerful monarchs took part. A successful campaign—the course of which is traced in detail—ended in the complete defeat of the rebels in a pitched battle in what is now the Dead Sea basin, followed by the sack of Sodom, and the capture of Lot (1-12). Abram, with a handful of slaves, pursues the victorious allies to Dan, routs them in a night attack, and rescues the captives, including Lot (13-16). On his homeward journey he is met by Melchizedek, king of Salem, who blesses him in the name of God Most High, and to whom he pays tithes (18-20}); and by the king of Sodom, whose offer of the spoil Abram rejects with proud and almost disdainful magnanimity (17. 21-24).—Such is in brief the content of this strange and perplexing chapter, in its present form and setting. It is obvious that the first half is merely introductory, and that the purpose of the whole is to illustrate the singular dignity of Abram's position among the potentates of the earth. Essentially peaceful, yet ready on the call of duty to take the field against overwhelming odds, disinterested and considerate of others in the hour of victory, reverential towards the name and representative of the true God, he moves as a 'great prince' amongst his contemporaries, combining the highest earthly success with a certain detachment and unworldliness of character.—Whether the picture be historically true or not—a question reserved for a concluding note—it is unfair to deny to it nobility of conception; and it is perhaps an exaggeration to assert that it stands in absolute and unrelieved opposition to all we elsewhere read of Abram. The story does not give the
