It appears that fourteen years before this time the south and east of Palestine had been invaded by a king called Chedorlaomer, from beyond the Euphrates, who brought several of the small disunited states of those quarters under tribute (comp. Josephus, Ant. i, 10, 1). Among them were the live cities of the plain of Sod- om, to which Lot had withdrawn. This burden was borne impatiently by these states, and they at length withheld their tribute. This brought upon them a ravaging visitation from Chedorlaomer and four other (perhaps tributary) kings, who scoured the whole coun- try east of the Jordan, and ended by defeating the kings of the plain, plundering their towns, and carry- ing the people away as slaves. Lot was among the sufferers. When this came to the cars of Abraham he immediately armed such of his slaves as were lit for war, in number 318, and being joined by the friendly Amoritish chiefs, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, pursued the retiring invaders. They were overtaken near the springs of the Jordan ; and their camp being attacked on opposite sides by night, they were thrown into dis- order, and fled (see Thomson's Land and Bonk, i, 320 sq.). Abraham and his men pursued them as far as the neighborhood of Damascus, and then returned with all the men and goods which had been taken away (comp. Buckingham, Mesop. i, 274). Although Abra- ham had no doubt been chiefly induced to undertake this exploit by his regard for Lot, it involved so large a benefit that, as the act of a sojourner, it must have tended greatly to enhance the character and power of the patriarch in the view of the inhabitants at large. When they had arrived as far as Salem on their return (see Thomson, ii, 211 sq.), the king of that place, Melchizedek, who was one of the few native princes, if not the only one, that retained the knowl- edge and worship of "the Most High God," whom Abraham served, came forth to meet them with re- freshments, in acknowledgment for which, and in rec- ognition of his character, Abraham presented him with a tenth of the spoils. By strict right, founded on the war usages which still subsist in Arabia (Burckhardt's Notes, p. 97), the recovered goods became the property of Abraham, and not of those to whom they originally belonged. This was acknowledged by the king of Sodom, who met the victors in the valley near Salem. He said, " Give me the persons, and keep the goods to thyself." But with becoming pride, and with a disin- terestedness which in that country would now be most unusual in similar circumstances, he answered, " I have lifted up mine hand [i. e. I have sworn] unto Je- hovah, the most high God, that I will not take from a thread even to a sandal-thong, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, 1 have made Abram rich" (On. xiv). The history of his at- tack on Chedorlaomer gives us a specimen of the view which would be taken of him by the external world. By the way in which it speaks of him as "Abram the
ABRAHAM
3d
ABRAHAM
Hebrew," it would seem to be an older document, a fragment of Canaanitish history preserved and sanc- tioned by Moses. The invasion was clearly another northern immigration or foray, for the chiefs or kings ■were of Shinar (Babylonia), Ellasar (Assyria?), Elam (Persia), etc. ; that it was not the first is evident from the vassalage of the kings of the cities of the plain ; and it extended (see Gen. xiv, 5-7) far to the south, over a wide tract of country. The patriarch appears here as the head of a small confederacy of chiefs, pow- erful enough to venture on a long pursuit to the head of the valley of the Jordan, to attack with success a large force, and not only to rescue Lot, but to roll back for a time the stream of northern immigration. His high position is seen in the gratitude of the peo- ple, and the dignity with which he refuses the charac- ter of a hireling. That it did not elate him above measure is evident from his reverence to Melehizedek, in whom he recognised one whose call was equal and consecrated rank superior to his own. See Melchize-
DEK.
Soon after his return to Mamre the faith of Abra- ham was rewarded and encouraged, not only by a more distinct and detailed repetition of the promises former- ly made to him, but by the confirmation of a solemn covenant contracted, as nearly as might be, "after the manner of men," between him and God. Sec ( 'ovicnan't. It was now that he first understood that his promised posterity were to grow up into a nation under foreign bondage ; and that, in 400 years after (or, strictly, 405 years, counting from the birth of Isaac to the exode), they should come forth from that bondage as a nation, to take possession of the land in which he sojourned (Gen. xiv). After ten years' res- idence in Canaan (B.C. 2078), Sarai being then 75 years old, and having long been accounted barren, chose to put her own interpretation upon the promised blessing of a progeny to Abraham, and persuaded him to take her woman-slave Hagar, an Egyptian, as a secondary, or concubine-wife, with the view that what- ever child might proceed from this union should be ac- counted her own. See Hagar. The son who was born to Abraham by Hagar, and who received the name of Ishmael [see Ishmael], was accordingly brought up as the heir of his father and of the prom- ises (Gen. xvi). Thirteen years after, when Abraham was 99 years old, he was favored with still more ex- plicit declarations of the Divine purposes. He was reminded that the promise to him was that he should be the father of man;) nations ; and to indicate this in- tention his name was now changed (see C. Iken, De mutation," nomvnum Abrakami et fiarce, in his Dissert. Philol. i) from Abram to Abraham (see Philo, Opp. i, 588; comp. Alian. Var. Il/'st. ii, 32; Euseb. Prcep. Ev. xi, 6; Ewald, Isr, Gesch. i, 373; Lengerke, Ken. i, 227). See Name. The Divine Being then solemn- ly renewed the coven mt to be a God to him and to the race that should spring from him ; and in token of that covenant directed that he and his should receive in their flesh the sign of circumcision. See Circum- cision. Abundant blessings were promised to Ish- mael ; but it was then first announced, in distinct terms, that the heir of the special promises was not yet born, and that the barren Sarai, then 90 years old, should twelve months thence be his mother. Then also her nune was changed from Sarai to Sarah (prin- cess); and, to commemorate the laughter with which the prostrate patriarch received such strange tidings, it was directed that the name of Isaac (Jauqhter) should be given to the future child. The very 'same day, in obedience to the Divine ordinance, Abraham himself, his son Ishmael, and his house-born and purchased slaves, were all circumcised (Gen. xvii), spring, B.C. 2004. Three mouths after this, as Abraham sat in his tent door during the heat of the day, he saw three travellers approaching, and hastened to meet them, and hospitably pressed upon them refreshment and rest