And he divided his forces against them by night: divided is literally “divided himself,” which means he divided his men into smaller units, or separated them into groups. Revised Standard Version supplies his forces, but divided his forces against them is awkward English. The sense is, as in Good News Translation, “He divided his men into groups.” The purpose of dividing his men into groups was to spread them out and attack from several sides. See Judges 7.16 for a similar division of three hundred soldiers by Gideon. New English Bible translates “His followers surrounded the enemy by night.” The purpose in making a night attack is to give Abram’s men the advantage of surprise and to conceal their small number.

He and his servants refers to Abram and his men. No new information is supplied through this phrase, since in the first part of the verse it is Abram who divides his men.

Routed them and pursued them is literally “struck them and chased them.” The idea is that Abram’s soldiers defeated the armies of the four kings so that they fled, and Abram followed them in hot pursuit.

Hobah, north of Damascus is the only reference to Hobah in the Bible, and although various places have been identified as Hobah, there is no certainty. Damascus, the capital of modern Syria, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities known to archaeologists (see the map, page 18). This indicates that Abram did not recover Lot in the night raid at Dan, but only later at Hobah.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .