“And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.”
During the night Abram divides his men and attacks — he and his servants — routing the enemy and pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. The night attack is a classic military tactic: the element of surprise compensates for numerical disadvantage. Abram divides his forces — a further strategic sophistication — and the attack is successful enough to rout the four-king coalition that had just swept through the entire region of Canaan. The military victory of 318 trained men over a coalition that had defeated multiple peoples and armies is extraordinary. Judges 7:22 shows the same dynamic in Gideon's victory: God routing an overwhelming enemy force through a small, well-directed intervention. The application: the size of the force is not the measure of the victory when God's purposes are in play. Abram's 318 routed the coalition not because of superior numbers but because of surprise, strategy, and the sovereign hand of God on the mission.
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