And blessed be God Most High: blessed in this verse clearly has a different meaning than in the previous verse. Although the same Hebrew verb is used, the sense is now “praise”: “May God the Most High be praised.” The usage here parallels that of 9.26 in Good News Translation, where the sense is “praise” or “give praise to the LORD.” It is often necessary to express this in a way that makes God the object of the blessing; for example, “Let everyone praise God Most High,” “Let people say that God Most High is wonderful,” “Give praise to God….”
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand: delivered translates a word meaning to hand over. Good News Translation translates “gave you victory over.” Enemies refers to the four kings who had invaded Canaan and carried off Lot and his possessions. Your enemies, meaning Abram’s enemies, may not be used in this way in some languages, since “enemies” is not a term that may be grammatically possessed. Accordingly it may be necessary to say, for example, “who has handed over to you the foreigners you fought and defeated.” Into your hand means “into your power” or “into your control.”
Although the word “because” is not used in the Hebrew text or in English translations, the expression who has delivered really gives the reason for praising God on this occasion. In some languages it will be necessary to make this clear; for example, one translation restructures the first part of the verse to say “God Most High, he is the one who has made you defeat your enemies. We [inclusive] must praise him!” Another translation has “We must lift up his name, because you were fighting against your enemies and he helped you to win.”
And Abram gave him is literally “and he gave him,” but the context makes clear that it is Abram who gives to Melchizedek, as in Good News Translation.
A tenth of everything means a tenth part of the loot that Abram had brought back after defeating the four kings. The narrator does not say why Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth, or as New English Bible, Revised English Bible say, “a tithe.” However, it appears that in receiving Melchizedek’s blessing and giving him a tenth, Abram was seen by later Israelites to be practicing the custom of tithing and securing the blessing given to the people by the priests. See also the example of Jacob in 28.22. For further discussion translators may consult the commentaries.
In translation it may be necessary to make clear what everything refers to. One translation says, for instance, “Abram gave Melchizedek a part of everything he took from those enemies when he beat them. He gave him one tenth of everything.” The translation of a tenth may also be quite difficult in some languages and may require a fuller description of how Abram divided up the loot in order to give this part to Melchizedek. One example of the way this may be handled is “Abram took everything that he had got back from the four kings, then he divided it into ten heaps and gave one heap to King Melchizedek.”
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 .