Hebron, situated among the hills in a wooded area, breezy and fresh, was probably Abraham's summer residence. During the winter he went back to Beersheba in the desert, where the climate was milder. So it must have been at the beginning of the hot season, when Abraham, in Hebron, received the news that Sodom had been sacked and Lot kidnapped. It had all started with a raid by "Amphrafel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim. These kings went to war against Bera, king of Sodom, Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, Shember, king of Zeboyim, and Zoar, king of, Bela. All these latter kings joined forces in the Siddim valley. They were five kings against four. The Siddim valley was then full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, and the others fled to the hills. The victors seized all Sodom and Gomorrah’s goods and all their food, then left. They also carried off Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his possessions since he was living in Sodom. One escaped and reported this to Abraham, the Hebrew, who was living near the great trees of Mamre, the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abraham. When Abraham heard that his nephew was taken captive, he armed 318 of his trained servants, all born in his own house, and went in pursuit of these kings as far as Dan. Abraham divided his men into groups and during the night defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and brought back Lot and his possessions, together with the women, and the other people" (Gen. 14,1-16).
In the Bible this episode is narrated with a certain carelessness or indifference, such that the majority of Scriptural Scholars consider it to be of secondary importance, almost on the level of a small brush between Bedouins. But the substance of this story is very different and there is no doubt that the episode is of extreme importance. It concerns an alliance of powerful princes and not a simple band of pillagers; this is proven by the damage they managed to wreak--the devastation of the entire Jordan Valley and the fall of well fortified cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Bible gives all the credit for the final victory to Abraham, but this seems very unlikely. Among the most important duties of every prince of the Empire was to supply armed men and food for the Emperor's military campaigns. Even though his nephew, Lot, was among the prisoners, it is quite inconceivable that Abraham could have decided, on his own initiative, to conduct a military campaign far from the area of his jurisdiction--even beyond Damascus. Neither is it likely that with only three hundred and eighteen men he could have defeated an enemy strong enough to challenge the Egyptian Empire.
The reaction to the sacking of the Pentapolis was probably organized by a certain "Melchizedek, priest of God Most High"--evidently Tuthmosis' viceroy in Palestine. Abraham simply supplied a body of armed men as was his duty as a feudal prince. It appears from Genesis 14,15 that the Imperial forces were divided into groups that went into the attack separately; Abraham, because of his warrior past, was put at the head of one of these groups. The enemy was defeated and dispersed and the booty was recovered. The victorious troops were assembled "in the Valley of Shaveh, that is, also the King's Valley. Then Melchisedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High and he blessed Abraham, saying, 'Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, Lord of heaven and earth and blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.' Then Abraham gave him a tenth of everything" (Gen.14,17-20).
A campaign of these proportions could not be ignored in Tuthmosis III's Annals, so there should be explicit references to it, although we cannot expect that the initial defeats, or the victories in which the Pharaoh did not intervene directly, would be reported. This episode happened after Abraham's investiture, otherwise he would not have been able to supply a body of armed men, and even less likely to command a unit of the army; therefore, it took place subsequent to Tuthmosis' forty-first year. Thus, just one possibility is left: Tuthmosis conducted his last military campaign in his forty-second year.
The Annals of Karnak report that "his Majesty was upon the coast road, in order to overthrow the city of Erkatu (r-k-tw) and the cities of --------------- Kana (K-n) ---------; this city was overthrown, together with his district. (His Majesty) arrived at Tunip (Tw-np), overthrew that city, harvested its grain, and cut down its groves ----------the citizens of the army. Behold, (he) came in safety, arrived at the district of Kadesh (Kd-sw), captured the cites therein."
The Annals do not give any reason for all this destruction, nor do they refer to any pitched battles; but obviously these cities must have rebelled, forming an alliance and carrying out military actions against Egyptian Empire territory. By coincidence, it was an alliance of four great princes, but upon the arrival of Tuthmosis their army no longer existed, so it must have previously been dispersed. The campaign cited by Genesis must refer to this war. It integrates in a coherent manner with the story of the Annals of Karnak, which for reasons of prestige ignores the setback caused initially by the four princes of the alliance, along with the fact that their forces were dispersed by a body of Palestinian troops. The Annals emphasize Tuthmosis' operations, who in any case came by sea with the Egyptian army and had razed the rebel cities to the ground as reprisals.
The detail, reported in the biblical account, that the four princes captured Lot and took him with them is very significant. It gives a valid indication of the real reason for the princes' revolt, and why they ventured so far from their territory to sack no less than the city of Sodom. These princes were originally within the Mithani Empire, but they transferred into the Egyptian Empire by virtue of the treaty concluded at Karkemish between Tuthmosis the Third and Saushsha-Tar, a treaty which they evidently contested. At first they probably tried to induce Saushsha-Tar to break the treaty, but when he refused to do so, they may have decided to become independent and to create a strong kingdom in Northern Syria.
For political reasons they must have planned to put a ruler belonging to a great contemporary dynasty at the head of their alliance, possibly someone who had legal rights in Northern Syria. It was precisely Lot who fit these characteristics and, therefore, we can reasonably presume that the rebel princes raided Sodom with the object of seizing him and placing him at the head of their alliance. Further evidence of this intention is the fact that, as soon as they had sacked Sodom and captured Lot, they immediately set off northward to their own territories.
Abraham evidently found himself in a very critical situation; to avoid suspicions of collusion with the enemy he had to play a most active and important part in the operation to counter this venture. We must presume--as in fact Genesis makes clear--that he rushed to the pursuit of the princes, daring all, to rescue his nephew. He was, therefore, probably the main, if not the only planner behind the project to defeat the rebel alliance, thereby earning the Pharaoh's gratitude.
The Bible gives no indications whatsoever whether or not Lot consented to this action. We must presume, however, that he probably had some preliminary contacts with the rebels and agreed to their action. If he managed to avoid the Pharaoh's vengeance it was probably due to Abraham and the fact that Saushsha-Tar did not intervene to support the rebel alliance.
The fact that the campaign against the Syrian kings happened in Tuthmosis' forty-second year--Abraham's tenth in Palestine--is also confirmed by indications in Genesis. From the context of the account it seems clear that it took place the year before Ishmael’s birth. And there is another, quite explicit indication. The Syrian kings' campaign is closely related with another military episode cited in Genesis, which can be exactly dated in Abraham's twenty-fourth year of residence in Palestine: the definitive destruction of Sodom, which took place the year before the birth of Isaac. The previous episode occurred exactly fourteen years before; we can deduce this from Genesis 14,4-7: "For twelve years they (the five Pentapolis kings) had been subject to Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. The following year, the fourteenth, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in the hill country of Seir, as far as El-Paran near the desert. Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites as well as the Amorites who were living in Azezon-Tamar."
These verses have clearly been altered and inserted in a false context; there are in fact certain things that do not make sense in this version. The first is that the Pentapolis was never subject to Elam's rule, and certainly not in Tuthmosis' time, when it had been under Egyptian domination for almost a century. The second is that the invader-princes came from the north, and to the north they returned immediately after the sack of Sodom, so they had to carry out a fairly rapid raid, restricted to the Jordan Valley alone. Instead, the direction of the trail of destruction listed in these verses is the opposite, that is from the southwest, in Sinai, towards the Jordan Valley.
Therefore, it is clear that the verses refer to a military campaign carried out later, during which the Pharaoh definitely destroyed the Pentapolis. They should be seen as a link between the end of the campaign against Kedorlaomer and the beginning of the episode concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Originally they should have read approximately like this: "After these events--that is, after the defeat of the Syrian rulers and the recovery of the prisoners and the booty--the cities of the Pentapolis remained faithful to Yahweh for 12 years; but in the thirteenth they rebelled and in the fourteenth Yahweh came down to Palestine and with his allied kings defeated the Rephaites at Astaroth-Karnaim, etc." An arrangement such as this was quite incomprehensible for the compiler, who had to make changes to the original text in an effort to render it, if not clear, at least plausible.
However, the mention of this episode escaped him; Deuteronomy 2,19-21, explicitly declares that Yahweh exterminated the Rephaites and their territory given to the Ammonites: "I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot. (...) the Rephaites used to live there (..) They were a people strong and numerous and tall, but Yahweh exterminated them."
Thus it is well demonstrated that the Syrian kings' episode took place fourteen years before the definitive destruction of Sodom, that is, in the tenth year of Abraham's sojourn in Palestine; therefore, it refers to the seventeenth campaign of Tuthmosis, in the forty-second year of his reign.