Genesis 13
Big idea: Wealth, not famine, causes the next crisis: Abram and Lot have too much livestock for one stretch of land, and their herdsmen start fighting. Abram — the elder, the one holding the promise — hands the choice to his nephew: you go left, I'll go right. Lot lifts up his eyes and picks by sight, choosing the well-watered Jordan plain that looked like Eden, and pitches his tent toward Sodom, which the narrator immediately notes was exceedingly wicked. Then Yahweh tells Abram to lift up his eyes — and gives him, by word, everything in every direction, forever.
Chapter 13 leaves Lot living in the cities of the plain and Abram settled at Mamre. Chapter 14 makes Lot's location a liability at once: a coalition of kings sacks Sodom and takes him captive.
13:1–7 — Too rich to stay together
Abram comes up out of Egypt very rich in livestock, silver, and gold, and retraces his route to the altar between Bethel and Ai, where he calls on Yahweh's name. But Lot is wealthy too, and the land cannot support both households: strife breaks out between the two sets of herdsmen — with the Canaanite and the Perizzite living in the land, watching.
1 Abram went up out of Egypt—he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him—into the South. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on Yahweh’s name. 5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together; for their possessions were so great that they couldn’t live together. 7 There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land at that time.
13:8–13 — You choose first
Abram refuses to let the quarrel stand — we are relatives — and does something his rank never required: he gives the younger man first pick of the whole land. Lot lifts up his eyes, sees the Jordan plain well watered like the garden of Yahweh, and takes it. He journeys east and pitches his tent toward Sodom. The narrator adds the fact Lot's eyes could not see: the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked, sinners against Yahweh.
8 Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen; for we are relatives. 9 Isn’t the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar. 11 So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves from one another. 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.
13:14–18 — Lift up your eyes
After Lot has gone, Yahweh tells Abram to do exactly what Lot did — lift up his eyes and look — but in every direction, and to a different end: all the land you see, I give to you and your offspring forever. Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, uncountable. Walk its length and breadth. Abram moves to the oaks of Mamre in Hebron and builds another altar.
14 Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for I will give it to you.” 18 Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).