Genesis 13
13
Chapter 13
Abram and Lot go different ways
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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MissionAssist 2018
Genesis 13
13
1-2So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold.
3-4He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God.
5-7Lot, who was traveling with Abram, was also rich in sheep and cattle and tents. But the land couldn’t support both of them; they had too many possessions. They couldn’t both live there—quarrels broke out between Abram’s shepherds and Lot’s shepherds. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living on the land at the time.
8-9Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we’re family. Look around. Isn’t there plenty of land out there? Let’s separate. If you go left, I’ll go right; if you go right, I’ll go left.”
10-11a Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of the Jordan spread out, well watered (this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like God’s garden, like Egypt, and stretching all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east.
11b-12 That’s how they came to part company, uncle and nephew. Abram settled in Canaan; Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.
13The people of Sodom were evil—flagrant sinners against God.
14-17After Lot separated from him, God said to Abram, “Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever. I’ll make your descendants like dust—counting your descendants will be as impossible as counting the dust of the Earth. So—on your feet, get moving! Walk through the country, its length and breadth; I’m giving it all to you.”
18Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.