Genesis 14:5 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 14:5
And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emins in Shaveh Kiriathaim,
ten (only in combination) · cardinal number, both genders singular construct
year
שָׁנָ֜הsha.Nah
H8141
a year (as a revolution of time) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
came
בָּ֣אba'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Chedorlaomer
כְדָרְלָעֹ֗מֶרkhe.da.re.la.'O.mer
H3540
Kedorlaomer · proper noun, a man's name
kings
וְהַמְּלָכִים֙ve.ha.me.la.Khim
H4428
a king · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
smote
וַיַּכּ֤וּvai.ya.Ku
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Rephaims
רְפָאִים֙re.fa.'Im
H7497
a giant · noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
Karnaim
בְּעַשְׁתְּרֹ֣תbe.'ash.te.Rot
H6255
Ashteroth-Karnaim · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Zuzims
הַזּוּזִ֖יםha.zu.Zim
H2104
Zuzites · definite article + proper noun, a place name
Ham
בְּהָ֑םbe.Ham
H1990
Ham · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Emims
הָֽאֵימִ֔יםha.'ei.Mim
H368
Emim · definite article + proper noun, a place name
Kiriathaim
שָׁוֵה קִרְיָתַיִםShâvêh Qiryâthayim
H7741
Shaveh-Kirjathajim
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 15:20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
Deuteronomy 1:4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:
Deuteronomy 2:10-11 The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;
Deuteronomy 3:11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the child…
Deuteronomy 3:22 Ye shall not fear them: for the LORD your God he shall fight for you.
Deuteronomy 2:20-23 (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;
Deuteronomy 3:20 Until the LORD have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the land which the LORD your God hath gi…
Joshua 12:4 And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 14:1-12
We have here an account of the first war that ever we read of in scripture, which (though the wars of the nations make the greatest figure in history) we should not have had the history of if Abram and Lot had not been concerned in it. Now, concerning this war, we may observe,
I. The parties engaged in it. The invaders were four kings, two of them no less than kings of Shinar and Elam (that is, Chaldea and Persia), yet probably not the sovereign princes of those great kingdoms in their own persons, but either officers under them, or rather the heads and leaders of some colonies which came out of those great nations, and settled themselves near Sodom, but retained the names of the countries f…
Rephaims - A people of Canaan: Gen 15:20.
Ashteroth - A city of Basan, where Og afterwards reigned; Jos 13:31.
Zuzims - Nowhere else spoken of, unless they were the same with the Zamzummims, Deu 2:20, as some imagine.
Emims - A people great and many in the days of Moses, and tall as the Anakim. They dwelt among the Moabites, by whom they were reputed giants; Deu 2:10, Deu 2:11.
Shaveh Kiriathaim - Rather, as the margin, the plain of Kiriathaim, which was a city afterwards belonging to Sihon king of Heshbon; Jos 13:19.
John Gill on Genesis 14:5
And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer,.... Not in the fourteenth year of their rebellion against him, as Jarchi, but from their becoming vassals to him:
and the kings that were with him; those kings before mentioned:
and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim; which were in their way to Sodom, &c. and very probably were confederates with the five kings; the Targum, and so the Septuagint, render the word "giants", as it is in Deuteronomy 2:11; but they were one of the nations or tribes of the Canaanites, Genesis 15:20; and had their name either from the Hebrew word which signifies to be healthful and robust, as those people might be, or from Rephas, the Remphan of Stephen, Acts 7:4…
(Verse 5.) And the giants settled in Astaroth Carnaim, and strong nations along with them: and Ominaeos in the city of Save, before they came to Sodom. Four kings who came from Babylon killed the giants, that is, the strong ones of Arabia, and the Zozim in Hom, and the Emim in the city of Save, which is still called by that name today. But the Zuzim and the Emim are interpreted as terrifying and horrifying: for this reason, the Seventy [translators], conveying the sense rather than word for word, translated them as the strongest nations. Furthermore, Baem, for which they said, 'with them', they thought it was written with He (), guided by the similarity of the elements, while it is written with Heth. Baem () is written with three letters: if it has the middle He, it is interpreted as 'in them'; but if it has Heth, as in the present case, it signifies a place, that is, 'in Hom ()'.
And they struck the Rephaim in Ashtaroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim with them, and the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, Rephaim in Hebrew, in Greek are called Giants: in the singular number, however, a Rephaim is called a Giant. Now their land, which was called Ashtaroth-karnaim, was at the edge of Sodom. Moreover, until today a village across the streams of the Jordan called Carnea is shown. Ashtaroth-karnaim is interpreted as "Flocks of Horns," because indeed they were the dwellings of strong men. But Shaveh is a city of the Emim situated above the region of Sodom, which is still called by that name today. What is added as Cariathaim is interpreted as "Their City"; and the meaning is, they also struck the Emim in Shaveh their city, just as the Seventy Translators have translated. Emim undoubtedly, as well as Zuzim, were proven to be a very strong people even by their name itself. For Zuzim are called "The Terrible Ones," Emim are called "The Horrifying Ones."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ammonite — The usual name of the descendants of Ammon, the son of Lot (Gen. 19:38). From the very beginning (Deut. 2:16-20) of their history till they are lost sight of (Judg. 5:2), this tribe is closely…
Amraphel — King of Shinar, southern Chaldea, one of the confederates of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, in a war against Sodom and cities of the plain (Gen. 14:1, 4). It is now found that Amraphel (or Ammirapaltu)…
Anakim — The descendants of Anak (Josh. 11:21; Num. 13:33; Deut. 9:2). They dwelt in the south of Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Hebron (Gen. 23:2; Josh. 15:13). In the days of Abraham (Gen. 14:5, 6) they…
Ashteroth Karnaim — Ashteroth of the two horns, the abode of the Rephaim (Gen. 14:5). It may be identified with Ashtaroth preceding; called “Karnaim”, i.e., the “two-horned” (the crescent moon). The Samaritan version…
Bashan — Light soil, first mentioned in Gen. 14:5, where it is said that Chedorlaomer and his confederates “smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth,” where Og the king of Bashan had his residence. At the time of…
Emims — Terrors, a warlike tribe of giants who were defeated by Chedorlaomer and his allies in the plain of Kiriathaim. In the time of Abraham they occupied the country east of Jordan, afterwards the land of…
Giants — (1.) Heb. nephilim, meaning “violent” or “causing to fall” (Gen. 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of those days, those who fell upon others. The word may also be derived from a root signifying…
Gomorrah — Submersion, one of the five cities of the plain of Siddim (q.v.) which were destroyed by fire (Gen. 10:19; 13:10; 19:24, 28). These cities probably stood close together, and were near the northern…
Ham — Warm, hot, and hence the south; also an Egyptian word meaning “black”, the youngest son of Noah (Gen. 5:32; comp. 9:22, 24). The curse pronounced by Noah against Ham, properly against Canaan his…
Kirjathaim — Two cities; a double city. (1.) A city of refuge in Naphtali (1 Chr. 6:76). (2.) A town on the east of Jordan (Gen. 14:5; Deut. 2:9, 10). It was assigned to the tribe of Reuben (Num. 32:37). In the…
John Calvin on Genesis 14:1-9
And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel. The history related in this chapter is chiefly worthy of remembrance, for three reasons: first, because Lot, with a gentle reproof, exhorted the men of Sodom to repentance; they had, however, become altogether unteachable, and desperately perverse in their wickedness. But Lot was beaten with these scourges, because, having been allured and deceived by the richness of the soil, he had mixed himself with unholy and wicked men. Secondly, because God, out of compassion to him, raised up Abram as his avenger and liberator, to rescue him, when a captive, from the hand of the enemy; in which act the incredible goodness and benevolence of God towards his…
The war, which furnished Abram with an opportunity, while in the promised land of which as yet he could not really call a single rood his own, to prove himself a valiant warrior, and not only to smite the existing chiefs of the imperial power of Asia, but to bring back to the kings of Canaan the booty that had been carried off, is circumstantially described, not so much in the interests of secular history as on account of its significance in relation to the kingdom of God. It is of importance, however, as a simple historical fact, to see that in the statement in Gen 14:1, the king of Shinar occupies the first place, although the king of Edom, Chedorlaomer, not only took the lead in the exped…
The invaders came down the King’s Highway on the east side of the Jordan Valley to the Gulf of Aqaba, then circled back to the valley of the Dead Sea.
Rashi on Genesis 14:5
ובארבע עשרה שנה AND IN THE FOURTEENTH YEAR of their rebellion
בא כדרלעמר CHEDORLAOMER CAME — Because the matter concerned him mostly, “he bore the heavier side of the beam" (Genesis Rabbah 42:6).
והמלכים AND THE KINGS [THAT WERE WITH HIM] — These are the other three kings.
הזוזים These are the Zamzumim (see Deuteronomy 2:10 and Deuteronomy 2:20).
Lot — (Heb. goral, a “pebble”), a small stone used in casting lots (Num. 33:54; Jonah 1:7). The lot was always resorted to by the Hebrews with strictest reference to the interposition of God, and as a…
Rephaim — Lofty men; giants, (Gen. 14:5; 2 Sam. 21:16, 18, marg. A.V., Rapha, marg. R.V., Raphah; Deut. 3:13, R.V.; A.V., “giants”). The aborigines of Palestine, afterwards conquered and dispossessed by the…
Shaveh Kiriathaim — (plain of the double city), mentioned (Genesis 14:5) as the residence of the Emim at the time of Chedorlaomer’s incursion. Kiriathaim is named in the later history, though it has not been identified;…
Shaveh-Kiriathaim — Plain of Kirja-thaim where Chedorlaomer defeated the Emims, the original inhabitants (Gen. 14:5). Now Kureiyat, north of Dibon, in the land of Moab.
Sodom — Burning; the walled, a city in the vale of Siddim (Gen. 13:10; 14:1-16). The wickedness of its inhabitants brought down upon it fire from heaven, by which it was destroyed (18:16-33; 19:1-29; Deut.…
Tidal — (in the LXX. called “Thorgal”), styled the “king of nations” (Gen. 14:1-9). Mentioned as Tudkhula on Arioch’s brick (see facing page 139). Goyyim, translated “nations,” is the country called Gutium,…
Zamzummims — A race of giants; “a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims” (Deut. 2:20, 21). They were overcome by the Ammonites, “who called them Zamzummims.” They belonged to the Rephaim, and inhabited…
Zuzim, The — An ancient people who, lying in the path of Chedorlaomer and his allies, were attacked and overthrown by them. (Genesis 14:5) The Zuzim perhaps inhabited the country of the Ammonites, who were…
Zuzims — Restless; sprouting, were smitten “in Ham” by Chedorlaomer and his allies (Gen. 14:5). Some have identified this tribe with the Zamzummims (q.v.).
Abraham · General references — General references
Armies · Antiquity of — Antiquity of
Ashtaroth · .Possibly i — .Possibly i
Ashteroth Karnaim · An ancient city of Palestine taken by Chedorlaomer — An ancient city of Palestine taken by Chedorlaomer
Bashan · A region east of the Jordan River and north of the Arnon River — A region east of the Jordan River and north of the Arnon River
Birsha · A king of Gomorrah — A king of Gomorrah
Chedorlaomer · King of Elam — King of Elam
Emims · A race of giants — A race of giants
Ham · 3. Place where Chedorlaomer struck down the Zuzims — 3. Place where Chedorlaomer struck down the Zuzims
Lot · .Taken — .Taken
Rephaim · 1. An ancient people of Palestine, of great stature — 1. An ancient people of Palestine, of great stature
Rephaim, Or Giants, The · Subdued by Chedorlaomer — Subdued by Chedorlaomer
Shaveh Kiriathaim · A valley in Moab — A valley in Moab
Sodom · of Chedorlaomer — of Chedorlaomer
Zamzummims · A race of giants — A race of giants
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
