UST GEN Chapter 13

Abram and Lot Go Separate Ways

13:1-13

13 So Abram left the country of Egypt and traveled back to the Negev Desert. He took with him his wife and everything that they owned, and also his nephew Lot. 2 By that time Abram had become very rich, so that he owned many livestock and much silver and gold. 3 From the Negev Desert he and his family traveled from place to place northward until they came to the town of Bethel, to the place where he had lived in tents before, between the towns of Bethel and Ai. 4 That was the same place where he had previously built an altar. There again he sacrificed animals on the altar and worshiped Yahweh by name.

5 Lot was traveling with his uncle Abram, and he and his family also owned many sheep and cattle, as well as many tents. 6 In fact, there was not enough land to have enough food and water for both families and their animals if they lived in the same area. They each owned so many servants and animals that it was not possible for them to all live near each other. 7 As a result, the men who took care of Abram’s livestock and the men who took care of Lot’s livestock started to argue with each other. Besides that, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in that land at that time.

8 Finally one day Abram said to Lot, “Please, since we are close relatives, we need to do something so that you and I and our herdsmen will not argue. 9 Look, the entire land is available to you to choose from. Please choose where you want to live, and let’s live in separate places. If you choose the land to the left of here, then I will take the land to the right. Or if you choose the land to the right of here, then I will take the land to the left.”

10 Lot looked all around and he noticed that the entire Jordan River Valley, all the way to the town of Zoar, had plenty of water. It was lush and green like the garden that Yahweh had planted or like the country of Egypt. That is what it was like before Yahweh destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah which were also in that valley. 11 So Lot chose the entire Jordan River Valley for himself. Then he left Abram and moved to the east to live there. That is how Abram and Lot ended up living in different places. 12 Abram stayed where he was in the region of Canaan, while Lot lived in another part of the region among the cities in the Jordan River valley and eventually moved his tents to the city of Sodom and stayed there. 13 But the people who lived in the city of Sodom were extremely wicked and were always sinning against Yahweh.

God Promises to Give Abram the Land of Canaan and Many Descendants

13:14-18

14 After Lot had left Abram, Yahweh said to Abram, “Look all around you from the place where you live. Look north, south, east, and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your descendants to own forever. 16 In fact, I will give you so many descendants that they will be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth. No one will be able to count how many descendants you have, just as no one can count how many specks of dust there are. 17 So now, start walking through the land in all directions. Go throughout the entire land and look it over, because I am giving it all to you.” 18 Then Abram obeyed Yahweh and moved his tents and settled near the oak trees on the land owned by a man named Mamre, near the city of Hebron. There he built an altar out of stones and burned sacrifices on it to thank and worship Yahweh.