^14:17After Abram⁴³ returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram⁴⁴ in the Valley of Shaveh (known as the King’s Valley).⁴⁵^14:18Melchizedek king of Salem⁴⁶ brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.)⁴⁷^14:19He blessed Abram, saying,

“Blessed be Abram by⁴⁸ the Most High God,

Creator⁴⁹ of heaven and earth.⁵⁰

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Footnotes

43 Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
44 Heb “him”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
45 The King’s Valley is possibly a reference to what came to be known later as the Kidron Valley.
46 Salem is traditionally identified as the Jebusite stronghold of old Jerusalem. Accordingly, there has been much speculation about its king. Though some have identified him with the preincarnate Christ or with Noah’s son Shem, it is far more likely that Melchizedek was a Canaanite royal priest whom God used to renew the promise of the blessing to Abram, perhaps because Abram considered Melchizedek his spiritual superior. But Melchizedek remains an enigma. In a book filled with genealogical records he appears on the scene without a genealogy and then disappears from the narrative. In Psalm 110 the Lord declares that the Davidic king is a royal priest after the pattern of Melchizedek.
47 The parenthetical disjunctive clause significantly identifies Melchizedek as a priest as well as a king. It is his royal priestly status that makes Melchizedek a type of Christ: He was identified with Jerusalem, superior to the ancestor of Israel, and both a king and a priest. Unlike the normal Canaanites, this man served “God Most High” (אֵל עֶלְיוֹן, ’el ’elyon)—one sovereign God, who was the creator of all the universe. Abram had in him a spiritual brother.
48 The preposition לְ (lamed) introduces the agent after the passive participle.
49 Some translate “possessor of heaven and earth” (cf. ). But cognate evidence from Ugaritic indicates that there were two homonymic roots ָקנָה (qanah), one meaning “to create” (as in Gen 4:1) and the other “to obtain, to acquire, to possess.” While “possessor” would fit here, “creator” is the more likely due to the collocation with “heaven and earth.”
50 The terms translated “heaven” and “earth” are both objective genitives after the participle in construct.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

Possessor of heaven and earth;

NIVNew International Version (2011)

After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

Creator of heaven and earth.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Shaveh Valley (that is, the King’s Valley). Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High. He blessed him and said:

Abram is blessed by God Most High,

Creator of heaven and earth,

NLTNew Living Translation

After Abram returned from his victory over Kedorlaomer and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High, brought Abram some bread and wine. Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

Creator of heaven and earth.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

After his return from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the Valley of the King). And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. (He was the priest of God Most High). And he blessed him and said,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

Maker of heaven and earth.

KJV 1900King James Version

And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

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