Abraham and the Rescue of Lot

Abraham, whose father was Terah, was born in the one thousand and seventeenth year after the flood. His wife was called Sarai, and at first he lived in the country of the Chaldeans. Then he lived with his father at Haran. Spoken to by God at this time, he left his country and his father, and taking with him Lot, his brother’s son, he came into the country of the Canaanites and settled at a place called Shechem. Soon afterward, because of a shortage of grain, he went down into Egypt, and came back again. Because their households had grown so large, Lot parted from his uncle so that he could take advantage of more spacious lands in what was then an empty region, and he settled at Sodom. That town was notorious because of its people, for men forced themselves on men, and for that reason it is said to have been hateful to God. [a]

At that time the kings of the neighboring peoples took up arms, although until then there had been no war among mankind. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and of the nearby lands went out to fight against those who were making war on the surrounding regions, but they were routed at the first clash and left the victory to the other side. Then Sodom was plundered and stripped by the victorious enemy, and Lot was led away captive. When Abraham heard of this, he quickly armed his servants, three hundred and eighteen in number, put the kings to flight while they were still flushed with victory, and stripped them of their spoils and their weapons. Then he was blessed by Melchizedek the priest and gave him a tenth of the spoil. The rest he gave back to those it had been taken from.