Kejadian 14:18-19

14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem ¹  brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.) ²  14:19 He blessed Abram, saying,

“Blessed be Abram by ³  the Most High God,

Creator ⁴  of heaven and earth. ⁵ 

Kejadian 31:29

31:29 I have ⁶  the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, ‘Be careful ⁷  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.’ ⁸ 

Kejadian 35:1

The Return to Bethel

35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once ⁹  to Bethel ¹⁰  and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ¹¹ 

Kejadian 35:3

35:3 Let us go up at once ¹²  to Bethel. Then I will make ¹³  an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress ¹⁴  and has been with me wherever I went.” ¹⁵ 

[14:18]  ¹ sn Salem is traditionally identified as the Jebusite stronghold of old Jerusalem. Accordingly, there has been much speculation about its king. Though some have identified him with the preincarnate Christ or with Noah’s son Shem, it is far more likely that Melchizedek was a Canaanite royal priest whom God used to renew the promise of the blessing to Abram, perhaps because Abram considered Melchizedek his spiritual superior. But Melchizedek remains an enigma. In a book filled with genealogical records he appears on the scene without a genealogy and then disappears from the narrative. In Psalm 110 the Lord declares that the Davidic king is a royal priest after the pattern of Melchizedek.

[14:18]  ² tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause significantly identifies Melchizedek as a priest as well as a king.

[14:18]  sn It is his royal priestly status that makes Melchizedek a type of Christ: He was identified with Jerusalem, superior to the ancestor of Israel, and both a king and a priest. Unlike the normal Canaanites, this man served “God Most High” (אֵל עֶלְיוֹן, ’el ’elyon) – one sovereign God, who was the creator of all the universe. Abram had in him a spiritual brother.

[14:19]  ³ tn The preposition לְ (lamed) introduces the agent after the passive participle.

[14:19]  ⁴ 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.”

[14:19]  ⁵ tn The terms translated “heaven” and “earth” are both objective genitives after the participle in construct.

[31:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “there is to my hand.”

[31:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “watch yourself,” which is a warning to be on guard against doing something that is inappropriate.

[31:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “from speaking with Jacob from good to evil.” The precise meaning of the expression, which occurs only here and in v. 24, is uncertain. See the note on the same phrase in v. 24.

[35:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “arise, go up.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.

[35:1]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[35:1]  ¹¹ sn God is calling on Jacob to fulfill his vow he made when he fled from…Esau (see Gen 28:20-22).

[35:3]  ¹² tn Heb “let us arise and let us go up.” The first cohortative gives the statement a sense of urgency.

[35:3]  ¹³ tn The cohortative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or consequence.

[35:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “day of distress.” See Ps 20:1 which utilizes similar language.

[35:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the way in which I went.” Jacob alludes here to God’s promise to be with him (see Gen 28:20).