18:1 The Lord appeared to Abraham 5 by the oaks 6 of Mamre while 7 he was sitting at the entrance 8 to his tent during the hottest time of the day.
14:13 A fugitive 9 came and told Abram the Hebrew. 10 Now Abram was living by the oaks 11 of Mamre the Amorite, the brother 12 of Eshcol and Aner. (All these were allied by treaty 13 with Abram.) 14
6:13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, 15 like one of the large sacred trees 16 or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. 17 That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.” 18
1 tn Heb “nevertheless good things are found with you.”
2 tn Here בָּעַר (ba’ar) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער.
3 tn Heb “and you set your heart to seek the
4 tn Heb “lift up,” perhaps in the sense of “bear with” (cf. NRSV “forgive”).
5 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Or “terebinths.”
7 tn The disjunctive clause here is circumstantial to the main clause.
8 tn The Hebrew noun translated “entrance” is an adverbial accusative of place.
9 tn Heb “the fugitive.” The article carries a generic force or indicates that this fugitive is definite in the mind of the speaker.
10 sn E. A. Speiser (Genesis [AB], 103) suggests that part of this chapter came from an outside source since it refers to Abram the Hebrew. That is not impossible, given that the narrator likely utilized traditions and genealogies that had been collected and transmitted over the years. The meaning of the word “Hebrew” has proved elusive. It may be related to the verb “to cross over,” perhaps meaning “immigrant.” Or it might be derived from the name of Abram’s ancestor Eber (see Gen 11:14-16).
11 tn Or “terebinths.”
12 tn Or “a brother”; or “a relative”; or perhaps “an ally.”
13 tn Heb “possessors of a treaty with.” Since it is likely that the qualifying statement refers to all three (Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner) the words “all these” have been supplied in the translation to make this clear.
14 tn This parenthetical disjunctive clause explains how Abram came to be living in their territory, but it also explains why they must go to war with Abram.
15 tn Or “be burned” (NRSV); NIV “laid waste.”
16 tn Heb “like a massive tree or like a big tree” (perhaps, “like a terebinth or like an oak”).
17 tn The Hebrew text has “which in the felling, a sacred pillar in them.” Some take מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) as “stump,” and translate, “which, when chopped down, have a stump remaining in them.” But elsewhere מַצֶּבֶת refers to a memorial pillar (2 Sam 18:18) and the word resembles מַצֶּבָה (matsevah, “sacred pillar”). בָּם (bam, “in them”) may be a corruption of בָּמָה (bamah, “high place”; the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has במה). אֳשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) becomes a problem in this case, but one might emend the form to וּכְּאֲשֵׁרָה (ukÿ’asherah, “or like an Asherah pole”) and translate, “like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole.” Though the text is difficult, the references to sacred trees and a sacred pillar suggest that the destruction of a high place is in view, an apt metaphor for the judgment of idolatrous Judah.
18 tn Heb “a holy offspring [is] its sacred pillar.” If מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) is taken as “stump,” one can see in this statement a brief glimpse of hope. The tree (the nation) is chopped down, but the stump (a righteous remnant) remains from which God can restore the nation. However, if מַצֶּבֶת is taken as “sacred pillar” (מַצֶּבָה, matsevah; see the previous note), it is much more difficult to take the final statement in a positive sense. In this case “holy offspring” alludes to God’s ideal for his covenant people, the offspring of the patriarchs. Ironically that “holy” nation is more like a “sacred pillar” and it will be thrown down like a sacred pillar from a high place and its land destroyed like the sacred trees located at such shrines. Understood in this way, the ironic statement is entirely negative in tone, just like the rest of the preceding announcement of judgment. It also reminds the people of their failure; they did not oppose pagan religion, instead they embraced it. Now they will be destroyed in the same way they should have destroyed paganism.