Genesis 14:4-6

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 14:4 tn The sentence simply begins with “twelve years”; it serves as an adverbial accusative giving the duration of their bondage.
2. Genesis 14:4 tn This is another adverbial accusative of time.
3. Genesis 14:4 sn The story serves as a foreshadowing of the plight of the kingdom of Israel later. Eastern powers came and forced the western kingdoms into submission. Each year, then, they would send tribute east—to keep them away. Here, in the thirteenth year, they refused to send the tribute (just as later Hezekiah rebelled against Assyria). And so in the fourteenth year the eastern powers came to put them down again. This account from Abram’s life taught future generations that God can give victory over such threats—that people did not have to live in servitude to tyrants from the east.
4. Genesis 14:5 tn The Hebrew verb נָכָה (nakhah) means “to attack, to strike, to smite.” In this context it appears that the strike was successful, and so a translation of “defeated” is preferable.
5. Genesis 14:6 sn The line of attack ran down the eastern side of the Jordan Valley into the desert, and then turned and came up the valley to the cities of the plain.