a Chorite or aboriginal Idumaean · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
mount
הָרָרhârâr
H2042
a mountain
Seir
שֵׂעִ֑ירse.'Ir
H8165
Seir · proper noun, a place name
El-paran
אֵ֣יל'eil
H364
El-Paran · proper noun, a place name
by
עַל'al-
H5921
above · preposition
wilderness
הַמִּדְבָּֽרha.mid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Deuteronomy 2:22 As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in…
Genesis 21:21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 2:12 The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt…
Numbers 12:16 And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.
Numbers 13:3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
Genesis 16:7 And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
Genesis 36:8 Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.
Genesis 36:20-30 These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah,
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…
The Horites - A people that dwelt in Mount Seir, till Esau and his sons drove them thence; Deu 2:22.
El-paran - The plain or oak of Paran, which was a city in the wilderness of Paran; Gen 21:21.
John Gill on Genesis 14:6
And the Horites in their Mount Seir,.... Or the Horim who dwelt in Mount Seir, so called from Seir the Horite, who continued here till they were drove out by the sons of Esau or Edom, from whom their country was afterwards called Edom or Idumea, see Genesis 36:20 Deuteronomy 2:12,
unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness; so far these Horites inhabited, and the four kings smote all they met with unto this place, which was either the plain or oak of Paran, near a wilderness of the same name; the wilderness of Arabia, through which the Israelites travelled forty years, in their way to Canaan.
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 Church Fathers
And the Horites in the mountains of Seir. Indeed, these mountains, along with the neighboring regions, were possessed by the sons of Esau, who was also called Seir, because he was hairy, after the Horites were expelled. However, it seems likely that it was not he (i.e., Esau) himself, but another Seir from whom the mountains of Seir took their name: namely, the patriarch of the Horites, from whose lineage Esau took a wife. The Scripture says in the following: "Esau took wives from the daughters of Canaan, Ada the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the son of Zibeon the Hivite" (Genesis 36:2). What this lineage was or from where it originated is revealed shortly after, when, enumerating the lineage of Esau, it concludes thus: "These are the chiefs of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, wife of Esau, these are the sons of Esau, and these are their chiefs. He is Edom"; and immediately a new title is attached, which says: "These are the sons of Seir the Horite, inhabitants of the land, Lotan, Shobal, and Zibeon." And soon after: "And these are the sons of Zibeon, Aiah and Anah. This is Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness while he was pasturing the donkeys of Zibeon, his father, and he had a son Dishan and a daughter Oholibamah." Therefore, when Esau had a wife from the lineage of the Horites, Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the son of Zibeon the son of Seir, it is established that the mountains of Seir, where the Horites were struck down, did not take their name from Esau who began to possess those places long after he was born, but from Seir the patriarch of those same Horites.
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
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…
Arabia — Arid, an extensive region in the south-west of Asia. It is bounded on the west by the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the east by the Persian Gulf and the…
Elparan — Oak of Paran, a place on the edge of the wilderness bordering the territory of the Horites (Gen. 14:6). This was the farthest point to which Chedorlaomer’s expedition extended. It is identified with…
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…
Horim — and Ho’rites (descendants of Hori), the aboriginal inhabitants of Mount Seir, (Genesis 14:6) and probably allied to the Emim and Raphaim. The name Horite appears to have been derived from their…
Horites — Cave-men, a race of Troglodytes who dwelt in the limestone caves which abounded in Edom. Their ancestor was “Seir,” who probably gave his name to the district where he lived. They were a branch of…
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…
Oak — There are six Hebrew words rendered “oak.” (1.) ‘El occurs only in the word El-paran (Gen. 14:6). The LXX. renders by “terebinth.” In the plural form this word occurs in Isa. 1:29; 57:5 (A.V. marg.…
Paran, Elparan — (peace of caverns), a desert or wilderness, bounded on the north by Palestine, on the east by the valley of Arabah, on the south by the desert of Sinai, and on the west by the wilderness of Etham,…
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 14:6
בהררם means IN THEIR MOUNT (i. e.הרר is a form of הר — really an earlier form — with pronominal suffix ָ מ ;cf. הררי קדש etc.)
איל פארן EL-PARAN — As it is translated in the Targum: Plain of Paran. But I hold that איל does not signify a plain in general but that the lowland of Paran bore the name of El, and that of Mamre was named Elone; that of the Jordan was called Kikkar, whilst that of Shittim was called Abel — Abel-Shittim — and so, too, the lowland of [Baal] Gad was named Baal. All these are translated in the Targum by מישור, but each really had its own particular name.
על המדבר BY THE WILDERNESS — next to the wilderness; a similar use of על is (Numbers 2:20) “and next unto him (עליו…
Seir — Rough; hairy. (1.) A Horite; one of the “dukes” of Edom (Gen. 36:20-30). (2.) The name of a mountainous region occupied by the Edomites, extending along the eastern side of the Arabah from the…
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,…
Abraham · General references — General references
Armies · Antiquity of — Antiquity of
Birsha · A king of Gomorrah — A king of Gomorrah
Chedorlaomer · King of Elam — King of Elam
Elparan · A place in the wil — A place in the wil
Lot · .Taken — .Taken
Mountains · Mentioned in scripture: Seir — Mentioned in scripture: Seir
Seir · .Originally inhabited by Horites — .Originally inhabited by Horites
Sodom · of Chedorlaomer — of Chedorlaomer
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).
