Abram’s Victory and God’s Promise

When Abram heard of their disaster, he was at once afraid for Lot his kinsman, and felt pity for the Sodomites, his friends and neighbors. Thinking it right to help them, he did not delay, but marched in haste, and on the fifth night fell on the Assyrians near Dan — that is the name of the other spring of the Jordan. Before they could arm themselves he killed some in their beds, before they suspected any danger; and others, who had not yet gone to sleep but were too drunk to fight, ran away. Abram pursued them until, on the second day, he drove them in a body to Hobah, a place belonging to Damascus. So he showed that victory does not depend on numbers and the count of hands, but that the eagerness and courage of soldiers overcome the largest bodies of men; for he won the victory over so great an army with no more than three hundred and eighteen of his servants and three of his friends. And all who fled returned home in disgrace.

So Abram, having rescued the captive Sodomites whom the Assyrians had taken, and Lot his kinsman too, returned home in peace. The king of Sodom met him at a place they called the King’s Valley, where Melchizedek, king of the city of Salem, received him. That name means “the righteous king”, and such he was beyond dispute — so much so that for this reason he was made the priest of God. Salem they afterward called Jerusalem. This Melchizedek supplied Abram’s army generously and gave them provisions in abundance; and as they feasted he began to praise Abram, and to bless God for putting his enemies under him. When Abram gave him a tenth of the spoil, he accepted the gift. The king of Sodom urged Abram to keep the spoil, but begged that the men Abram had rescued from the Assyrians be given back to him, since they belonged to him. Abram said he would not keep it, and that no other profit from that spoil would come to him beyond the food his servants had eaten; but he did give a share to his friends who had fought alongside him. The first of them was named Eshcol, and then Aner, and Mamre. [a]

God praised his virtue and said, “All the same, you will not lose the rewards you have earned by such glorious deeds.” He answered, “And what good will such rewards do me, when I have no one to enjoy them after me?” For he was still childless. God promised that he would have a son, and that his descendants would be so many that they would be like the stars in number. When he heard this he offered a sacrifice to God, as God commanded him. The sacrifice was made this way. He took a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a ram also three years old, a turtledove and a pigeon; and as he was told, he divided the first three, but did not divide the birds. After this, before he built his altar, while the birds of prey were flying about as if eager for blood, a divine voice came to him, declaring that their neighbors would be harsh to his descendants while they were in Egypt for four hundred years. During that time they would be oppressed, but afterward they would overcome their enemies, conquer the Canaanites in war, and take possession of their land and their cities. [c]

Abram was living near the oak called Ogyges — the place belongs to Canaan, not far from the city of Hebron. Troubled by his wife’s barrenness, he begged God to grant him a male child. God told him to take courage, and said that to all the other benefits he had given him since he led him out of Mesopotamia he would add the gift of children. So Sarai, at God’s command, brought one of her maidservants, a woman of Egyptian birth named Hagar, to his bed, in order to have children by her. When this maidservant became pregnant, she grew proud and dared to insult Sarai, as if the rule of the household were to pass to a son born of her. But when Abram handed her over to Sarai to punish, she planned to run away, unable to bear Sarai’s harshness toward her, and she begged God to have pity on her. [d]

A divine angel met her as she went on into the wilderness, and told her to go back to her master and mistress: if she accepted that wise advice, she would live better from then on, for the reason she was in such misery was that she had been ungrateful and arrogant toward her mistress. He also told her that if she disobeyed God and kept on her way she would perish, but if she went back she would become the mother of a son who would rule that country. She obeyed these warnings, went back to her master and mistress, and was forgiven. A little while later she gave birth to Ishmael, a name which may be translated “Heard by God”, because God had heard his mother’s prayer.

This son was born to Abram when he was eighty-six years old. But when he was ninety-nine, God appeared to him and promised him that he would have a son by Sarai, and commanded that his name should be Isaac. He showed him that great nations and kings would spring from this son, and that they would win all the land of Canaan by war, from Sidon to Egypt. But to keep his descendants from mixing with others, he charged him that they should be circumcised in the flesh of the foreskin, and that this should be done on the eighth day after birth. The reason for this circumcision I will explain elsewhere. When Abram also asked about Ishmael, whether he would live or not, God made known to him that he would live to be very old and would be the father of great nations. So Abram thanked God for these blessings; and then he and all his household, and his son Ishmael, were circumcised at once — the son being thirteen years old that day, and Abram ninety-nine. [g]