Discovery BoxGenesis 14:19-23 
Context14:19 He blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by 1 the Most High God,
Creator 2 of heaven and earth. 3
14:20 Worthy of praise is 4 the Most High God,
who delivered 5 your enemies into your hand.”
Abram gave Melchizedek 6 a tenth of everything.
14:21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and take the possessions for yourself.” 14:22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand 7 to the Lord, the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth, and vow 8 14:23 that I will take nothing 9 belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal. That way you can never say, ‘It is I 10 who made Abram rich.’
1 tn The preposition לְ (lamed) introduces the agent after the passive participle.
2 tn Some translate “possessor of heaven and earth” (cf. NASB). But cognate evidence from Ugaritic indicates that there were two homonymic roots ָקנָה (qanah), one meaning “to create” (as in Gen 4:1) and the other “to obtain, to acquire, to possess.” While “possessor” would fit here, “creator” is the more likely due to the collocation with “heaven and earth.”
3 tn The terms translated “heaven” and “earth” are both objective genitives after the participle in construct.
4 tn Heb “blessed be.” For God to be “blessed” means that is praised. His reputation is enriched in the world as his name is praised.
5 sn Who delivered. The Hebrew verb מִגֵּן (miggen, “delivered”) foreshadows the statement by God to Abram in Gen 15:1, “I am your shield” (מָגֵן, magen). Melchizedek provided a theological interpretation of Abram’s military victory.
6 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Melchizedek) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Abram takes an oath, raising his hand as a solemn gesture. The translation understands the perfect tense as having an instantaneous nuance: “Here and now I raise my hand.”
8 tn The words “and vow” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.
9 tn The oath formula is elliptical, reading simply: “…if I take.” It is as if Abram says, “[May the
10 tn The Hebrew text adds the independent pronoun (“I”) to the verb form for emphasis.
