Genesis 14:5

5 Then in the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings with him came and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, and the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim.

Genesis 14:5 Meaning and Commentary

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 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 (apr) , which signifies to be healthful and robust, as those people might be, or from Rephas, the Remphan of Stephen, ( Acts 7:43 ) ; called Chiun, ( Amos 5:26 ) ; and with Cronus or Ham the father of Canaan, as Bishop Cumberland ^F3 observes; and these dwelt in Ashteroth Karnaim, which was a place in Bashan, ( Deuteronomy 1:4 ) ; it is about six miles, as Eusebius

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 says, from Adraa or Edrei, and in the Apocrypha: ``Then Maccabeus marched forth to Carnion, and to the temple of Atargatis, and there he slew five and twenty thousand persons.'' (2 Maccabees 12:26) mention is made of a place called Carnion, where was a temple of Atergates, a Phoenician deity, as Ashteroth or Astarte, was; and this city here had its first name from Astarte the wife of Cronus or Ham, and whose name may be preserved in Carnaim, as Bishop Cumberland thinks; though as Astarte is said by Sanchoniatho ^F5 to put on her head the mark of her sovereignty, a bull's head, that is, with its horns, this might be another of her names retained in this city; and it is certain that she was a Phoenician goddess, called the goddess of the Zidonians, ( 1 Kings 11:5 ) ; and Sanchoniatho relates ^F6, that the Phoenicians say, that Astarte is she, who among the Greeks is called Aphrodite or Venus; and Astarte is called by Lucian ^F7 the Phoenician Venus, and by Cicero ^F8 the Syrian Venus; and if she was the same with Diana or the moon, as some think, she might have the name of Carnaim from its two horns, as the word signifies: our English poet ^F9 seems to have this in his thoughts, when he speaks of Astoreth as the goddess of the Phoenicians: however the in habitants of this place who belonged to the Canaanites were first attacked by the four kings and routed, though not utterly destroyed, because we hear of them afterwards, as well as they that follow: and the Zuzims in Ham;
or Hemtha, as Onkelos and Jonathan render it, a place so called from Ham the father of Canaan, and was somewhere in the land of Canaan or near it, and near the former place; for it can hardly be thought the land of Egypt, sometimes called the land of Ham, is meant; these Zuzim are supposed by Jarchi to the same with the Zamzummim in ( Deuteronomy 2:20 ) ; the word is by Onkelos and Jonathan rendered strong and mighty ones, as also by the Septuagint, mighty nations: and the Enims in Shaveh Kiriathaim:
a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim, and were accounted giants as they, and who in later times were by the Moabites called Emim, ( Deuteronomy 2:10 Deuteronomy 2:11 ) ; and therefore Moses gives them the same name here, which they had from the dread and terror they injected into men, and so the word in all the three Targums is rendered terrible ones; and these dwelt in Kiriathaim, a city in the tribe of Reuben, taken from Sihon, king of the Amorites, and which seems to be situated in a plain, see ( Joshua 13:19 ) .
F3 Sanchoniatho's Phoenician History, p. 220, 221.
F4 Apud Reland. Palest. illustrata, tom. 2. p. 5. 98.
F5 Sanchoniatho's Phoenician History, p. 35.
F6 Ibid. p. 36.
F7 De Dea Syria.
F8 De Natura Deorum, l. 3.
F9 ------------with these in troop Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd Astarte queen of heav'n, with crescent horns. --Milton's Paradise Lost, B. 1. l. 437, 438, 439.

Genesis 14:5 In-Context

3 These kings who were attacked united their armies in the Valley of Siddim (now the Dead Sea).

4 They had served Kedorlaomer for twelve years, but in the thirteenth year, they all turned against him.

5 Then in the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings with him came and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, and the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim.

6 They also defeated the Horites in the mountains of Edom to El Paran (near the desert).

7 Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh). They defeated all the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.