Verse 4 gives the historical background as to why the five kings went to war against the four foreign kings. Verses 5-7 turn the attention away from the main story line to follow the invasion route and mention other battles that have not been introduced before now. Translators may find it necessary to preface verse 4 with something like “The reason why the kings were going to war was that the five kings had been forced to pay tribute for twelve years to….”

In some languages there is a problem in the order of events in verses 3-7, since verse 4 is a “flashback” or reference to something that happened earlier than what is reported in Gen 14.3. The order of events in strict time sequence is: verse 4, then verse 3 and verses 5-7. If it is necessary for the narrative to follow this sequence, we may say, for example:

(4) Chedorlaomer was a powerful king who ruled over many cities, including … He ruled over these cities for twelve years, and then after that they rebelled. (3) In the year after that (when Chedorlaomer and his allies set out to put down the rebellion) the five kings made an alliance and joined their armies together in the Siddim Valley. (5-7) Chedorlaomer and his allies defeated and subdued…. (Then they came to Siddim Valley.)

The statements in parentheses give details of the story that are not directly given in the Hebrew text but may be required in the narrative in other languages.

For some languages it may be necessary to include verses 1-2 in this kind of restructuring. For example, the following is what one team of translators has produced for verses 1-4. This translation not only brings the events into their proper time sequence, but it also gives the prominence to Chedorlaomer as the most powerful king in the group of four:

• Chedorlaomer was the head-boss of Elam. For twelve years he was the boss of other bosses too, Bera, Birsha, Shinab, Shemeber, and the boss of that town Bela (or Zoar). Bera was the boss of Sodom, … When the next year came, all those second-bosses spoke to that head-boss, they stood up for themselves and they gathered their soldiers together in the place called Siddim Valley. (Today that place is called the Dead Sea.) They got themselves ready to fight against Chedorlaomer and the three other bosses who were his friends, Amraphel, Arioch, and Tidal. Amraphel was the boss of Babylonia, ….

One other translation follows essentially the same restructuring as this, but in addition it eliminates the repetition of verses 1 and 2 that occurs in verses 8 and 9. In this case a single verse number indication (1-9) is placed at the beginning of this whole block of text.

Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer: it is clear from this verse onward that Chedorlaomer is the principal king. In this context served has the sense of being subject to, being under the dominance of, being controlled by, forced to pay tribute to. The subject kings and their people would be forced to pay tribute in the form of taxes (money and goods) each year to Chedorlaomer. New Jerusalem Bible says “had been under the yoke of….” In some languages this thought is expressed in figurative language; for example, “Their bodies had been tied up by…” or “their necks were under the feet of….”

But in the thirteenth year they rebelled: in the thirteenth year may also be rendered “but the next year” or “after one more year.” Rebelled, which means to resist authority by force, may be expressed “decided to disobey Chedorlaomer,” “refused to do what Chedorlaomer told them to do,” or “decided to take Chedorlaomer’s foot off their necks.” They showed that they were rebelling by refusing to pay tribute.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .