Genesis 13

Abram and Lot

Abram and Lot separate

1Abram and Sarai took everything they owned and went to the Southern Desert. Lot went with them.

2Abram was very rich. He owned many cattle, sheep, and goats, and had a lot of silver and gold. 3Abram moved from place to place in the Southern Desert. And finally, he went north and set up his tents between Bethel and Ai, 4where he had earlier camped and built an altar. There he worshipped the LORD.

5Lot, who was travelling with him, also had sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as his own family and slaves. 6-7At this time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the same area, and so there wasn't enough pasture land left for Abram and Lot with all their animals. Besides this, the men who took care of Abram's animals and the ones who took care of Lot's animals started quarrelling.

8Abram said to Lot, “We are close relatives. We shouldn't argue, and our men shouldn't be fighting one another. 9There is plenty of land for you to choose from. Let's separate. If you go north, I'll go south; if you go south, I'll go north.”

10This happened before the LORD had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And when Lot looked around, he saw there was plenty of water in the Jordan Valley. All the way to Zoar the valley was as green as the garden of the LORD or the land of Egypt.#Gn 2.10. 11So Lot chose the whole Jordan Valley for himself, and as he started towards the east, he and Abram separated. 12Abram stayed in the land of Canaan. But Lot settled near the cities of the valley and put up his tents not far from Sodom, 13where the people were evil and sinned terribly against the LORD.

Abram moves to Hebron

14After Abram and Lot had gone their separate ways, the LORD said to Abram:

Look around to the north, south, east, and west. 15I will give you and your family all the land you can see. It will be theirs for ever!#Ac 7.5. 16I will give you more descendants than there are specks of dust on the earth, and some day it will be easier to count the specks of dust than to count your descendants. 17Now walk back and forth across the land, because I am giving it to you.

18Abram took down his tents and went to live near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar in honour of the LORD.

Berĕshith (Genesis) 13

1And Aḇram went up from Mitsrayim into the South, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him.

2And Aḇram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

3And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bĕyth Ěl, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bĕyth Ěl and Ai,

4to the place of the slaughter-place which he had made there at first. And there Aḇram called on the Name of יהוה.

5Now Lot, who went with Aḇram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

6And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were great, so that they could not dwell together.

7And there was strife between the herdsmen of Aḇram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. And at that time the Kena‛anites and the Perizzites dwelt in the land.

8Then Aḇram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.

9“Is not all the land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I go to the left.”

10And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of the Yardĕn, that it was well watered everywhere – before יהוה destroyed Seḏom and Amorah – like the garden of יהוה, like the land of Mitsrayim as you go toward Tso‛ar.

11So Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Yardĕn, and Lot moved east. Thus they separated from each other,

12Aḇram dwelling in the land of Kena‛an, and Lot dwelling in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent as far as Seḏom.

13But the men of Seḏom were evil and sinned before יהוה, exceedingly so.

14And after Lot had separated from him, יהוה said to Aḇram, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,

15for all the land which you see I shall give to you and your seed forever.

16“And I shall make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that, if a man could count the dust of the earth, then your seed also could be counted.

17“Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

18So Aḇram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamrĕ, which are in Ḥeḇron, and built a slaughter-place there to יהוה.

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Genesis 13

Berĕshith (Genesis) 13