What Does Genesis 14:2 Mean?
These made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.THE KEY
Even the city called “Little” is inside the kings’ war; smallness does not make a place invisible to power.
THE MEANING
This verse shows war as a geography of power: each ruler is identified by a city drawn into the conflict. Even the place named Zoar, “little,” belongs to the list. The fighting is not abstract; it is attached to named places.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that war remains between rulers alone: each ruler is bound to a named city, showing how conflict reaches the places people inhabit.
THE ROOT
מִלְחָמָה
milḥāmāh
GROWS FROM
לחם
fight, engage in combat
The word for war grows from the same root as the verb “fight”: the text names combat as an action made by these kings. That same root appears in Exodus 14:14, where the LORD fights for the reader.
ALSO GROWS
lāḥam: to fight or wage combat
לָחַם
The verb shows the action contained in the noun for war.
milḥāmāh: organized combat
מִלְחָמָה
This is the verse’s word for the conflict joining the named kings and cities.
צֹעַר
ṣōʿar
GROWS FROM
צער
be small, be little
The verse gives the city a second name, Zoar, associated with smallness. The name’s meaning remains visible in Genesis 19:20, where it is called “a little one,” even as this verse places it among the kings at war.
ALSO GROWS
ṣōʿar: the city-name associated with “little”
צֹעַר
The verse itself supplies both names, Bela and Zoar, so the smallness is part of the place’s identity.
ṣāʿîr: small, little, or young
צָעִיר
This related word makes the scale carried by Zoar’s name clearer: the “little” place is still within the field of conflict.
מֶלֶךְ
melekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
reign, rule
The root connects “king” to the act of ruling. Repeated beside each city, the title turns the list into a map of powers: every ruler is located in a place, and those places are drawn into war.
ALSO GROWS
mālak: to reign or become king
מָלַךְ
The verb makes the ruling behind each title active.
malkhūt: kingship, rule, or kingdom
מַלְכוּת
This branch shows the broader structure represented by the repeated kings in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Rival claims become war when power organizes them into opposing sides, whether among rulers or within a person.
That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.From where do wars and battles come among you? Do they not come from here, from your pleasures that wage war in your limbs?THE THREAD
The LORD will fight for you, and you will hold your tongue.The Hebrew word for “war” here and the verb translated “fight” in Exodus share the root לחם (l-ḥ-m, fight). Genesis names kings as the ones making war; Exodus uses the same root for fighting on the reader’s behalf.
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