[Avodah] Parshat Lech Lecha Question

[Liron Kopinsky]

I was learning through the Chizkuni on the brit bein habetarim (
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=39852&st=&pgnum=22 pasuk zayin)
over shabbat and I'm having trouble figuring out the chronology he is
describing.

He says that Avraham avinu came to c'naan 5 years prior to "lech lecha"
and brit bein habetarim happened then, when he was 70 years old. He then
says that the war with the 4 kings and the 5 kings happened when Avraham
was 74 or 75. Lech Lecha was when Avraham was 75.

What I'm trying to figure out is when the Chizkuni says "the war was when
Avraham was 74 or 75" does he mean that really it happened after Lech
Lecha, when Avraham was 75, and that the timing allows for that, or does he
assume that the war could have happened before Lech Lecha. If it happened
before Lech Lecha, how could Avraham and Lot have already separated with
Avraham living in Elonei Mamrei?

I had been thinking about the implications of the war being before Avraham
went down to Mitzrayim - refusing anything from Melech S'dom even though he
wasn't rich from Mitzrayim yet - but I can't figure out how that could work
in the pesukim.


A second small question: does anyone know how long Avraham Avinu was in
Mitzrayim for? If the war was when Avraham was 75, then he had a very busy
year. Leave Charan, go to Israel, go to Egypt, leave Egypt (suddenly rich),
split with Lot, go to Elonei Mamrei, win the war in Damascus... Really
racking up the frequent flier miles.

Kol Tuv,

-- 
Liron Kopinsky
liron.kopinsky at gmail.com
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