1 Moreover, in that time it happened that Amraphel the king of Sennaar, and Arioch the king of Pontus, and Chodorlahomor the king of the Elamites, and Thadal the king of the gentiles 2 began a war against Bara, king of Sodom, and against Sennaab king of Adama, and against Semeber king of Seboim, and against Bala, who is Segor. 3 All these assembled into the Silvestre Valley, which now is a salt sea. 

4 Verily, for twelve years they served Chodorlahomor, and in the thirteenth year they withdrew from him. 5 Consequently in the forteenth year, Chodorlahomor came, and the kings who were with him; and they killed Raphaim in Asteroth Carnaim, and Zuzim with him, and Emim in Save-Cariathaim, 6 And Charræos in Mount Seir, all the way to the plains of Pharan, which are in the desert.

7 And they had returned and they came to the spring of Misphat, that is Cades, and they killed everyone of the region of Amalek, and Amorrha who swelled in Asason-Thamar. 8 And the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrha, and the king of Adam, and the King of Seboim and also the King of Bale, which is Segor, went out; and they laid out a battle line against them in the Valley of Silvestrus. 9 That is to say against Chodorlahomor the king of Elemita, and Thadal the king of Gentium, and Amraphel the king of Senaar, and Arioch the king of Pontus: four kings against five.

10 Moreover the valley of Silvestris had many pits of bitumin. Therefore the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrha, turned back and they were defeated in battle there; and those who had remained behind, fled to the mountain. 11 Moreover they took all the fortune of Sodom, and of Gomorrha, and all which belonged to the sustenance and they departed; 12 And also even Lot and his possessions, the son of the brother of Abram, who lived in Sodom. 13 And behold one who escaped, announced to Abram the Hebrew who lived in the Mambre valley of Amorrha, the brother of Essod and the brother of Amer; indeed these had settled a pact with Abram.

14 Which when Abram heard. Lot his brother evidently was captured, he counted out his native soldiers as three-hundred and eighteen; and he pursued up to Dan. 15 And the allies being divided, he rushed in over them at night; and killed them, and he pursued them all the way to Hoba, which is to the left of Damascus. 16 And he brought back al the belongings, and Lot his brother with his belongings, likewise women and people. 17 Moreover the king of Sodom went out into his meeting, after he returned from the defeat of Chodorlahomor, and the king who was with him in the Save Valley, which is the valley of the king.

18 And truly Melchisadech, the king of Salem, offering bread and wine, was indeed a priest of God most high, 19 He blessed him and said: Blessed is Abram by the elevated God who created heaven and earth; 20 And blessed is the elevated God, by whom protecting armies are in your hand. And he gave him a tenth out of everything.

21 Moreover the king of Sodom said to Abram: Give to us the souls remaining to take for you.

22 He answered him: I lift my hand to the Lord the elevated God possessor of heaven and hearth, 23 Which by a thread of yours in keeping with the lace of a boot I will not accept out of all which is yours, do not say : I Abram am enriched.

24 This being received, which which the youths had consumed, and by the share of the men, who came with me, Aner, Escol, and Mambre; these accepted their shares.

Linguistic notes

Jerome’s Latin gets a bit elliptical here and while I generally try to preserve the grammatical structure of the Latin as much as possible, there were a few cases where I felt compelled to insert a few missing words for the translation to make sense.

Theological notes

The natural thing to do here is to go after Melchisadech, an odd appearance out of nowhere who subsequently disappears, but to be honest, most of the kings here are mysterious entities as is the whole war at hand. It is worth noting that Abram is a bit more than the humble shepherd that we tend to think of, being able to raise a significant army to rescue his nephew.

Speaking of which, it’s worth noting that the relationship between Lot and Abram is described as both the son of Abram’s brother and also Abram’s brother, following the Hebrew original. It’s worth noting that the contemporary terms we have for consanguinity tend not to have exact analogs in classical languages. The Latin nepos, for example, can mean any of nephew/niece and also grandson/granddaughter and descendant. The Hebrew אַחְיָן is a post-Biblical coinage and we see instead both brother and son of my brother for the relationship as here. Score one for the Mary-ever-virgin apologists vs the brothers and sisters of Jesus.