Genesis 14:15

15 And when his fellows were separated (into groups), he felled on them in the night, and smote them, and pursued them till to Hobah, and Phenice, which is at the left side of Damascus (which is north of Damascus).

Genesis 14:15 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 14:15

And he divided himself against them, he and his servants by
night
Together with his confederates; and very probably their whole three was divided into four parts, under their four leaders; and this might be done in order to attack the four kings and their soldiers, who might be in four separate bodies; or to fall upon their camp in the four quarters of it, and to make a show of a greater army, thereby to intimidate the enemy: Abram seems to have understood the art of war, and the use of stratagems in it; and, as it might be night before he could come up to them, he took the advantage of that, and fell upon them unawares, when some were asleep in their beds, and others drunk, as Josephus ^F7 relates; and who also says, it was on the fifth night after Abram had knowledge of what had happened at Sodom: and smote them, and pursued them unto Hoba, which [is] on the left
hand of Damascus;
a famous city in Syria; it was in later times the metropolis of that country, ( Isaiah 7:8 ) ; and was most delightfully situated in a vale, (See Gill on Jeremiah 49:25); according to Josephus ^F8 it was built by Uz, the son of Aram and grandson of Shem, and some say

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 by Shem himself, and that it is to this day called Sem in the Saracene language, and lay between Palestine and Coelesyria; on the left hand of this city, or on the north of it, as all the Targums paraphrase it, lay a place called Hoba, and is completed to be eighty miles from Dan, from whence he pursued them hither, after he had discomfited them there.
F7 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 10. sect. 1.
F8 lbid. c. 6. sect. 4.
F9 Baumgarten. Peregrinatio, l. 3. c. 4. p. 111.

Genesis 14:15 In-Context

13 And, lo! one that escaped, told to Abram the Hebrew, that dwelled in the valley of Mamre of (the) Amorites, [the] brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; for these [had] made (a) covenant of peace with Abram. (And, lo! one who escaped, went and told all of this to Abram the Hebrew, who lived by the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol, and the brother of Aner; for they had made a covenant of peace with Abram.)

14 And when Abram had heard this thing, that is, (that) Lot, (the son of) his brother, (was) taken, he numbered his born servants made ready, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them till to Dan. (And when Abram had heard this, that is, that Lot, his kinsman, was taken captive, he called together the three hundred and eighteen men who were born in his household, and pursued after the four kings as far as Dan.)

15 And when his fellows were separated (into groups), he felled on them in the night, and smote them, and pursued them till to Hobah, and Phenice, which is at the left side of Damascus (which is north of Damascus).

16 And he brought again all the chattel, and Lot, (the son of) his brother, with his chattel, also (the) women, and the people./And he brought again all the cattle, and Lot, (the son of) his brother, with his cattle, also (the) women, and the people. (And he brought back all of the possessions that had been taken, and Lot, his kinsman, and all of his possessions, and all of the women, and the other prisoners./And he brought back all of the livestock that had been taken, and Lot, his kinsman, and all of his livestock, and all of the women, and the other prisoners.)

17 Soothly the king of Sodom went out into the meeting of him, after that he turned again from [the] slaying of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, in the valley of Shaveh, which is the valley of the king. (And Sodom's king went out to meet him, after that he had returned from killing Chedorlaomer, and the other kings who were with him, in the Shaveh Valley, which is now called the King's Valley.)