In the time of the Israelitish conquest the king of Jerusalem was Adoni-zedek (Josh. x. 1).  The name is similar to that of Melchi-zedek, though the exact interpretation of it is a matter of doubt.  It points, however, to a special use of the word zedek, “righteousness,” and it is therefore interesting to find the word actually employed in one of the letters of Ebed-Tob.  He there says of the Pharaoh:  “Behold, the king is righteous (zaduq) towards me.”  What makes the occurrence of the word the more striking is that it was utterly unknown to the Babylonians.  The root zadaq, “to be righteous,” did not exist in the Assyrian language.

There is yet another point in the history of the meeting between Abram and Melchizedek which must not be passed over.  When the patriarch returned after smiting the invading army he was met outside Jerusalem not only by Melchizedek, but also by the new king of Sodom.  It was, therefore, in the mountains and in the shadow of the sanctuary of the Most High God that the newly-appointed prince was to be found, rather than in the vale of Siddim.  Does not this show that the king of Jerusalem already exercised that sovereignty over the surrounding district that Ebed-Tob did in the century before the Exodus?  As we have seen, Ebed-Tob describes himself as repairing the roads in that very “Kikar,” or “plain,” in which Sodom and Gomorrha stood.  It would seem then that the priest-king of the great fortress in the mountains was already acknowledged as the dominant Canaanitish ruler, and that the neighbouring princes had to pay him homage when they first received the crown.  This would be an additional reason for the tithes given to him by Abram.

Long after the defeat of Chedor-laomer and his allies, if we are to accept the traditional belief, Abraham was again destined to visit Jerusalem.  But he had ceased to be “Abram the Hebrew,” the confederate of the Amorite chieftains in the plain of Mamre, and had become Abraham the father of the promised seed.  Isaac had been born to him, and he was called upon to sacrifice his first-born son.

The place of sacrifice was upon one of the mountains in the land of Moriah.  There at the last moment the hand of the father was stayed, and a ram was substituted for the human victim.  “And Abraham called the name of that place Yahveh-yireh; as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”  According to the Hebrew text of the Chronicles (2 Chron. iii. 1), this mount of the Lord where Abraham’s sacrifice was offered was the temple-mount at Jerusalem.  The proverb quoted in Genesis seems to indicate the same fact.  Moreover, the distance of the mountain from Beer-sheba—­three days’ journey—­would be also the distance of Jerusalem from Abraham’s starting-place.

It is even possible that in the name of Yahveh-yireh we have a play upon the first element in the name of Jeru-salem.  The word uru, “city,” became yeru or yiru in Hebrew pronunciation, and between this and yireh the difference is not great.  Yahveh-yireh, “the Lord sees,” might also be interpreted “the Lord of Yeru.”