Genesis Chapter 13

Abram lets Lot choose first as their growing herds force the two men apart.

Genesis 13: Abram and Lot Separate

Back from Egypt with great wealth in livestock, silver, and gold, Abram returns to the land between Bethel and Hai described in Genesis 12, where the size of his and Lot's flocks leads to conflict between their herdsmen. Rather than force the issue, Abram lets Lot choose his land first, and Lot picks the well-watered plain of Jordan toward Sodom while Abram remains in Canaan.


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

and Abram `is' exceedingly wealthy in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

And 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 --

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

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

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

and 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.

And 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.

Is 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.'

And 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,

and 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;

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

and the men of Sodom `are' evil, and sinners before Jehovah exceedingly.

And 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;

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

And 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;

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

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

After Lot departs, God renews his promise to Abram, telling him to look in every direction because all the land he sees will belong to his descendants, who will be as countless as the dust of the earth. Abram's generosity toward his nephew here echoes the description of his friendship with God found in <a href="/bible/ylt/2-chronicles/chapter-20/7">2 Chronicles 20:7</a>, and the rescue of Lot follows in <a href="/bible/ylt/genesis/chapter-14">Genesis 14</a>.