Kejadian 14:18
Konteks14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem 1 brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.) 2
Ester 3:15
Konteks3:15 The messengers 3 scurried forth 4 with the king’s order. 5 The edict was issued in Susa the citadel. While the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was in an uproar! 6
[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
[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.
[3:15] 3 tn Heb “runners.” So also in 8:10, 14. Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “couriers.”
[3:15] 4 tn Or “went forth in haste” (so ASV).
[3:15] 5 tn Heb “with the word of the king.”
[3:15] 6 sn The city of Susa was in an uproar. This final statement of v. 15 is a sad commentary on the pathetic disregard of despots for the human misery and suffering that they sometimes inflict on those who are helpless to resist their power. Here, while common people braced for the reckless loss of life and property that was about to begin, the perpetrators went about their mundane activities as though nothing of importance was happening.