Abram the Hebrew

The news comes by “the escaped one” (BSB “an escapee”) to Abram ha‘ivri, “the Hebrew,” a gentilic with the article, the first use of the word. The Greek has tō peratē, “the one from across,” reading the title as a description, not as a people-name; that is a Greek-note fact (see LXX Gen 14:13–16: Abram “the one from across” and the night pursuit). The same word, without the article, is later used of Joseph in an Egyptian’s mouth; see Gen 14:13 → Gen 39:14. Abram is dwelling “by the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite” (BSB “near the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite”); here Mamre is a person, brother of Eshcol and Aner, and they are “masters of a covenant of Abram” (BSB “bound by treaty to Abram”). The phrase “by the terebinths of Mamre” repeats 13:18 and adds “the Amorite”; see Gen 14:13 → Gen 13:18. That record is not a reversal of Gen 13:18 → Gen 18:1. The Mamre altar of 13:18 is pointed to in Mamre and the altar and is not taken up again. Whether “Hebrew” marks descent from Eber, one “from across” as the Greek takes it, or a wider class is not explained in the verse; no lean is taken here. See “Abram the Hebrew” and Mamre’s allies.