Genesis 13:1-11

1 So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him.

2 By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold.

3 He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai

4 and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God.

5 Lot, who was traveling with Abram, was also rich in sheep and cattle and tents.

6 But the land couldn't support both of them; they had too many possessions. They couldn't both live there -

7 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 Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we're family.

9 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 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.

11 Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east.

Genesis 13:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 13

This chapter gives an account of the return of Abram from Egypt to the land of Canaan, and to the same place in it he had been before, Ge 13:1-4 and of a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, and the occasion of it, Ge 13:5-7 which was composed by the prudent proposal of Abram, Ge 13:8,9 upon which they parted; Abram continued in Canaan, and Lot chose the plain of Jordan, and dwelt near Sodom, a place infamous for wickedness, Ge 13:10-13 after which the Lord renewed to Abram the grant of the land of Canaan to him, and to his seed, Ge 13:14-17 and then he removed to the plain of Mamre in Hebron, and there set up the worship of God, Ge 13:18.