1Abram left Egypt and he travelled north to the Negev. He took his wife and everything that belonged to him. Lot also went with him. 2Abram had many valuable things. He had many cows, and much silver and gold.

3Then Abram left the Negev and he went to different places. He arrived at Bethel. He returned to the place where he had put up his tent before. That place was between Bethel and Ai. 4It was where Abram had first built an altar to worship the Lord.

5Lot was travelling with Abram. Lot also had many cows, sheep and tents. 6But the land could not grow enough food for all of them to eat. They could not all live together in the same place, because they had so many animals and people with them. 7Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds began to quarrel with each other. (At that time, Canaanites and Perizzites also lived in the land.) #13:7 The Canaanites and Perizzites did not worship God. It was not good for them to see people who worship God quarrelling with each other.

8Abram said to Lot, ‘We must not quarrel with each other. Your shepherds and my shepherds must not quarrel with each other. Remember that we belong to the same family. 9Look everywhere! There is enough land for all of us. We must go different ways. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.’

10Lot looked up and he saw the flat land of Jordan, as far as Zoar. He saw that it had lots of water, like the garden of the Lord. It was good land, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed the cities there called Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11So Lot chose for himself the valley of the Jordan River. He travelled towards the east. #13:11 Lot chose the land that he thought was the best.

12Abram stayed in the land of Canaan and he lived there. But Lot lived near the cities that were in the Jordan Valley. He put up his tents near the city of Sodom. 13The people of Sodom were very wicked. They did not obey the Lord at all.

14After Lot had gone away, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Stand where you are and look all around! Look to the north, the south, the east and the west. 15I will give you all the land that you can see. I will give it to you and your descendants. It will belong to them for ever. 16I will make your descendants become very many. Like the dust of the ground, people will not be able to count them all. 17Go and travel round all this land. Look at it, because I am giving it to you!’

18So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the special oak trees of Mamre. That place is at Hebron. Abram built an altar to worship the Lord there.

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Genesis 13

Abram and Lot

1So Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot [his nephew] with him, into the Negev (the South country of Judah).

2Now Abram was extremely rich in livestock and in silver and in gold. 3He journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4where he had first built an altar; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord [in prayer]. 5But Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6Now the land was not able to support them [that is, sustain all their grazing and water needs] while they lived near one another, for their possessions were too great for them to stay together. 7And there was strife and quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were living in the land at that same time [making grazing of the livestock difficult].

8So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife and disagreement between you and me, nor between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, because we are relatives. 9Is not the entire land before you? Please separate [yourself] from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or if you choose the right, then I will go to the left.” 10So Lot looked and saw that the valley of the Jordan was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; [it was all] like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar [at the south end of the Dead Sea]. 11Then Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and he traveled east. So they separated from each other. 12Abram settled in the land of Canaan, and Lot settled in the cities of the valley and camped as far as Sodom and lived there. 13But the men of Sodom were extremely wicked and sinful against the Lord [unashamed in their open sin before Him].

14The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had left him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are standing, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. 16I will make your descendants [as numerous] as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could count the [grains of] dust of the earth, then your descendants could also be counted. 17Arise, walk (make a thorough reconnaissance) around in the land, through its length and its width, for I will give it to you.” 18Then Abram broke camp and moved his tent, and came and settled by the [grove of the great] terebinths (oak trees) of Mamre [the Amorite], which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to [honor] the Lord.

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Genesis 13

Genesis 13