And, for our farther understanding thereof, it will be necessary that we take a view of the government of other nations, with whom they were often conversant. We read almost of as many kings in scripture, as there were cities in several of those countries which lay round about them; thus, in Gen. xxxvi. we read of many dukes and kings, (whose power was much the same) who descended from Esau. These had very small dominions, each of them being, as it is probable, the chief governor of one city, or, at most, of a little tract of land round about it; and, indeed, besides the Assyrian, and other monarchies, that were of a very large extent, and had none who stood in competition with them, under that character, while they subsisted; all other kingdoms were very small; therefore four kings were obliged to enter into a confederacy, to make war with Sodom, and the four neighbouring cities, which a very inconsiderable army might, without much difficulty, have subdued, Gen. xiv. 1, _&c._ One of them, indeed, is called king of nations; not as though he had large dominions, but because he was the chief governor of a mixed people, from divers nations, who were settled together in one distinct colony; and the king of Shinar, there spoken of, is not the king of Babylon, who was too potent a prince to have stood in need of others to join with him in this expedition; but it was a petty king, who reigned in some city near Babylon, and was tributary to the Assyrian empire. These four kings, with all their forces, were so few in number, that Abraham was not afraid to attack them; which he did with success.