Genesis 13

Abram and his nephew Lot split up

1So Abram, Sarai, and Lot left Egypt and went back to the dry desert country. They took everything they owned, and all their workers. 2Abram was a very rich man. He had a lot of silver and gold, and a big mob of animals.

3They were in that dry desert country for a while, then they went north from place to place until they got back to the town called Bethel. They camped in the same place that they camped at before. It was between Bethel and the town called Ayi. 4That was the place where Abram built a special stone table to burn animals, to show respect to God. After Abram got back there, he prayed to God, and he called God by his special name Yahweh.

5Abram and his nephew Lot were still together. And Lot also had a big mob of sheep, and goats, and cows, and bulls. And he had a lot of tents for all his workers, too. 6-7But there was a problem. There were other people already living in that country. They were called the Canaan mob, and the Periz mob. And they had animals too, and all those animals needed grass and water, as well as Abram’s animals, and Lot’s animals too. But there wasn’t enough grass and water in that place for all those animals. So Abram’s work-men and Lot’s work-men started to argue and fight with each other about whose animals got the grass and water. 8Then Abram said to Lot, “I don’t like this trouble. You and me, we are family, and I don’t want trouble between us. And I don’t want our work-men to argue and fight with each other. 9Look, there is a lot of country here. Just look around, and you will see that there’s plenty of country for both of us. So I reckon we have to split up. I want you to pick the part of the country you want, and then I will go somewhere else. If you pick the country to the east, then I will go to the country to the west, but if you pick the west country, then I will go to the east country.”

10Lot looked to the east, towards a town called Zoar, in the flat country around the Jordan River. He saw that the flat country had plenty of grass and water. It looked just like God’s garden, and like the country in Egypt. (That was before God burned up the towns in the flat country called Sodom and Gomorrah.#Genesis 19:24) 11-12So Lot picked the flat country around the Jordan River, to the east.

Then Abram did what he promised, and he went to the country called Canaan. In that way, Lot’s mob and Abram’s mob went to different places, and there was no more trouble between their work-men.

Lot went to the flat country around the Jordan River. There were some towns there, and Lot camped near the town called Sodom. 13The people that lived in Sodom were very bad. They were always going against God, and they did bad things all the time.

God made a promise to Abram

14Then, after Lot left, God said to Abram, “Look at all the country around you. Look to the north, and to the south, and to the east, and to the west. 15I will give you all the country that you can see. Later on, you will have a son and lots of people will be born into his family, and they will own all this country, for ever.#Acts 7:5 16Look at the ground you are standing on, it has lots of little bits of dirt. Nobody can count all those little bits of dirt on the ground, and just like that, nobody will be able to count all the people that will be in your family later on. 17All right, Abram, I want you to get up and walk all around the country that I’m giving you, and look at it all properly.”

18So Abram went to the big trees that belonged to a man called Mamreh, near a town called Hebron, and he camped there. He piled up stones there and made another special table with a flat top, so that he could burn animals to show respect to God.

Genesis 13

1And Abram goeth up from Egypt (he and his wife, and all that he hath, and Lot with him) towards the south;

2and Abram [is] exceedingly wealthy in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

3And he goeth on his journeyings from the south, even unto Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the commencement, between Bethel and Hai —

4unto the place of the altar which he made there at the first, and there doth Abram preach in the name of Jehovah.

5And also to Lot, who is going with Abram, there hath been sheep and oxen and tents;

6and the land hath not suffered them to dwell together, for their substance hath been much, and they have not been able to dwell together;

7and there is a strife between those feeding Abram's cattle and those feeding Lot's cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite [are] then dwelling in the land.

8And Abram saith unto Lot, ‘Let there not, I pray thee, be strife between me and thee, and between my shepherds and thy shepherds, for we [are] men — brethren.

9Is not all the land before thee? be parted, I pray thee, from me; if to the left, then I to the right; and if to the right, then I to the left.’

10And Lot lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the whole circuit of the Jordan that it [is] all a watered country (before Jehovah's destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, as Jehovah's garden, as the land of Egypt,) in thy coming toward Zoar,

11and Lot chooseth for himself the whole circuit of the Jordan; and Lot journeyeth from the east, and they are parted — a man from his companion;

12Abram hath dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot hath dwelt in the cities of the circuit, and tenteth unto Sodom;

13and the men of Sodom [are] evil, and sinners before Jehovah exceedingly.

14And Jehovah said unto Abram, after Lot's being parted from him, ‘Lift up, I pray thee, thine eyes, and look from the place where thou [art], northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward;

15for the whole of the land which thou are seeing, to thee I give it, and to thy seed — to the age.

16And I have set thy seed as dust of the earth, so that, if one is able to number the dust of the earth, even thy seed is numbered;

17rise, go up and down through the land, to its length, and to its breadth, for to thee I give it.’

18And Abram tenteth, and cometh, and dwelleth among the oaks of Mamre, which [are] in Hebron, and buildeth there an altar to Jehovah.

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Genesis 13

Genesis 13