Abram rallied 318 trained fighting men from his camp. Since they didn’t have a police department to call or a national militia to summon in case of attack, Abram and his growing community had to fight for themselves, so they fashioned weapons and were trained to use them. The expression translated “mobilized” is much more picturesque in Hebrew; it has the connotation of unsheathing his trained men. It portrays Abram’s servants as a blade that had been forged, sharpened, and polished into a gleaming, razor-sharp instrument of death.
