Genesis Chapter 13

Abram and Lot Separate

            ¹ Abram, his wife, Lot, and everything he had, went up from Egypt to the Negev. ² He was wealthy in livestock, silver, and gold. ³ From the Negev he traveled back to the place between Bethel and Ai where he’d pitched his tent before. ⁴ He went to the altar he’d built there and called on Yahveh.

            ⁵ Lot had flocks, herds, and tents too, ⁶ and the land couldn’t support them both. They had too many possessions, ⁷ and conflict kept breaking out between their herdsmen. There were Canaanites and Perizzites in the land as well. ⁸ Abram told Lot,

“Let’s not have conflicts between us or our herdsmen; we’re relatives. ⁹ The whole land lies open to you. Separate from me. If you go left, I’ll go right; or vice versa.”

¹⁰ Lot could see that the Jordan valley was well-watered—like Yahveh’s orchard, like Egypt on the way to Zoar. (That was before Yahveh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah). ¹¹ So Lot chose the Jordan valley and moved east. ¹² Abram settled in Canaan; Lot settled in the towns in the valley and moved his tents as far as Sodom. ¹³ The men in Sodom were especially wicked.                         Gen 13:1-13           

¹⁴ After Lot separated from Abram, Yahveh said,

“Look around in every direction. ¹⁵ I’m going to give your descendants permanently the land you see. ¹⁶ I’ll make them like dust; if you could count it, that’s how many there’d be. ¹⁷ Travel around all over it.”

¹⁸ Abram moved and settled by the grove of oaks that belonged to Mamre at Hebron and built an altar to Yahveh.          

Gen 13:14-18