ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף בראשית 14:10

No less than his modern counterpart, the Biblical Jew was part of a small and vulnerable community. As such, necessity required that he have dealings with foreigners. To take the earliest example, Avraham needed to interact with Pharaoh, (Bereshit 12:14–20)¹⁴⁴Bereshit 12:14–20. Avimelech (Bereshit 20),¹⁴⁵Ibid., 20. Efron (Bereshit 23:3-19),¹⁴⁶Ibid., 23:3–19. and the various leaders involved in the Sodomite wars (Bereshit 14:10-24).¹⁴⁷Ibid., 14:10–24. Happily, most of these encounters ended up positively enough. Thus, at first glance, they give us early hope for the coexistence of nations. At the same time, a more careful examination of these encounters reveals that all of them are characterized by a palpable sense of quid pro quo. Pharaoh is willing to give Avraham back his wife and even to enrich him because he has already seen that Avraham has unusual powers that can be used against those who mistreat him. Likewise, Efron is gracious to him only in order to help him secure a very lucrative deal for the burial plot being solicited. For his part, Avraham likely realizes that even with all of the Divine aid he receives, he is ultimately alone. That being the case, he must somehow get along with the lords of whatever place he finds himself.

scattered over the mountains For when they flee from battle, they flee on the mountains to a refuge, like (Gen. 14:10): “and those who remained fled to the mountains.” In addition, the battle was on the heights of Gilead, a mountainous and hilly terrain.

As a result, the fact that Abraham had not intervened with the intention of sharing the spoils with the prisoners had no legal basis. After all, the king of Sodom had not overheard Abraham's declaration that he acted on his own behalf. How could he therefore be accused of having remained silent at the crucial moment? This is why he claimed that the spoils should be shared between Abraham and himself. Evidently, the king thought very highly of himself and his abilities. This is why the Torah describes him as: ויצא מלך סדום, "the king of Sodom came forth," he gave himself airs. According to the Midrash he compared his own experience when he fell into the clay pits (14,10) and was saved, with Abraham's having been saved from the furnace of Nimrod. The fact was, of course, that the situation of the king of Sodom who had already fought and lost, was entirely diferent from the situation described in the Talmud by Rav Ashi. When Rav Ashi said that the person rescuing the caravan's property has to declare beforehand that he does so on the understanding that if successful the property will be his, this is only in a situation where the other travellers are able to assist. Since the king of Sodom had certainly not been in a position to assist Abraham, his claim was totally spurious. Rambam and Rosh both rule like this.