Lot and the War That Was Meant for Abraham

When four kings marched against Sodom with eight hundred thousand men, everyone assumed Lot was an accidental casualty. The Ginzberg tradition corrects that assumption. Lot was the target. And behind Lot, the real target: Abraham.

The chain that led to this war began years earlier, in Babylon. Chedorlaomer, one of Nimrod's generals, had rebelled against his king after the tower of Babel was scattered. He set himself up as ruler of Elam and then extended his reach over the five cities of the Jordan plain -- Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela -- demanding tribute. For twelve years the cities paid. In the thirteenth year they refused. This was the nominal cause of the war.

But the Ginzberg account, drawing on earlier Midrash, identifies Amraphel -- one of Chedorlaomer's four allied kings -- as none other than Nimrod himself. The same Nimrod who had cast Abraham into the furnace at Kasdim. The same king who had dreamed of Abraham coming out of the fire with a sword and woke up with his heart pounding. The war against the Jordan cities was, in part, a mechanism for reaching Abraham's nephew and drawing Abraham into a fight.

Lot had settled in Sodom after parting from Abraham. The Book of Jubilees, composed in the second century BCE, notes quietly that when Lot left, it grieved Abraham -- he had no children, and his nephew had been the closest thing to family he carried through Canaan. Lot had chosen Sodom because the plain was well-watered, beautiful. But the only city that would accept him was Sodom, and the king of Sodom had admitted him specifically out of regard for Abraham. Lot arrived in Sodom as Abraham's man. The four kings knew exactly what they were taking.

When the cities fell in the vale of Siddim, the armies scattered. The five kings of the plain fell into the lime pits or fled to the mountains. The victors stripped Sodom of its goods and its people. They took Lot and announced it openly: we have captured the son of Abraham's brother. No pretense. They wanted Abraham to know.

It was the first evening of Passover, the Ginzberg tradition says, when the news reached Abraham. He was eating unleavened bread when the archangel Michael -- also called Palit, the Escaped, after surviving the casting down of Samael's rebellious host -- brought him the report. Abraham rose immediately. He took three hundred and eighteen of his trained men and pursued the four kings through the night. By dawn he had routed them. He recovered everything: the goods of Sodom, Lot's property, Lot's wives, the children, all of it. Not one of the four kings who had marched against the cities with eight hundred thousand men could hold what they had taken from Abraham's household.

The Book of Jasher, in its account of the battle, notes the aftermath with care. Shem -- called here Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem -- came out to meet Abraham with bread and wine in the valley of Melech and blessed him. Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. Then the king of Sodom arrived, somewhat arrogantly, and made his offer: give me the people, keep the goods for yourself. Abraham refused. He had sworn to God Most High that he would not take a thread or a shoe-lace of what belonged to Sodom. The victory was God's, not his, and he would not let any king later claim that Abraham had grown rich on their property.

Three men had gone with Abraham into battle: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. He insisted they receive their portion. He insisted the men who had stayed behind to guard the baggage receive theirs too. The tradition would not forget this. Centuries later, David would cite Abraham's example when his own hard men objected to sharing spoils with the soldiers who had stayed at the camp. The principle Abraham established in the valley of Siddim became law.

After the battle, God spoke to Abraham in a vision. Do not be afraid. This opening is strange if you read it in isolation -- Abraham had just won. He had routed four kings and their allied armies. What was he afraid of? The Ginzberg tradition suggests the fear was theological, not military. He had just wielded tremendous violence in the name of rescuing his nephew. He had made war with cosmic assistance, with the planet Jupiter burning above the valley and the angel Lailah fighting beside him. He had been offered a throne on the battlefield. He had refused it. But the experience of that kind of power leaves a residue. Do not be afraid is what God says to the man who has just discovered what he is capable of, and needs to hear that the power was not his to keep or claim. Your reward is great. I will multiply you like the stars. Walk before me and be whole. The battle was over. The covenant was still becoming.

Lot went back to Sodom. The text says this plainly, without comment. He had been taken captive, rescued, restored -- and he walked back into the city that had caused all of it. Abraham watched him go. The Midrash notes that when Lot separated from Abraham, he had separated not only from his uncle but from the God of his uncle. The rescue brought Lot back to Abraham for a night. It did not bring him back to Abraham's path. Some rescues, the tradition seems to say, can only reach so far.