Genesis 13: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Abram comes up from Egypt with his wife, his possessions, and Lot, and returns to the altar he had built between Bethel and Ai, where he calls on the name of the LORD. Both men have so much livestock that the land cannot support them together, their herdsmen quarrel, and Abram offers Lot his choice of direction; Lot picks the well-watered plain of the Jordan and settles near Sodom, whose men are wicked. After Lot leaves, the LORD tells Abram to look in every direction and promises the land to him and his offspring forever, and Abram moves his tent to Mamre at Hebron and builds an altar there.

Claim by Claim

1. 13:1
   • Abram went up out of Egypt.
   • Abram's wife went up with him.
   • All that Abram had went up with him.
   • Lot went up with Abram.
   • They went into the Negev.
2. 13:2
   • Abram was very heavy with livestock.
   • Abram was very heavy with silver.
   • Abram was very heavy with gold.
3. 13:3
   • Abram went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel.
   • He went to the place where his tent had been at the beginning.
   • That place was between Bethel and Ai.
4. 13:4
   • The place was where the altar was that Abram had made there at the first.
   • Abram called there on the name of the LORD.
5. 13:5
   • Lot went with Abram.
   • Lot also had flocks.
   • Lot also had herds.
   • Lot also had tents.
6. 13:6
   • The land was not able to bear them dwelling together.
   • Their possessions were great.
   • They were not able to dwell together.
7. 13:7
   • There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.
   • The Canaanite was dwelling in the land at that time.
   • The Perizzite was dwelling in the land at that time.
8. 13:8
   • Abram said to Lot that there should be no strife between him and Lot.
   • Abram said there should be no strife between his herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen.
   • Abram said they were men who were brothers.
9. 13:9
   • Abram asked whether the whole land was not before Lot.
   • Abram told Lot to separate himself from him.
   • Abram said that if Lot took the left, he would go to the right.
   • Abram said that if Lot took the right, he would go to the left.
10. 13:10
    • Lot lifted up his eyes.
    • Lot saw all the plain of the Jordan.
    • The whole plain was well watered.
    • This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
    • The plain was like the garden of the LORD.
    • The plain was like the land of Egypt.
    • The plain extended as far as Zoar.
11. 13:11
    • Lot chose all the plain of the Jordan for himself.
    • Lot journeyed eastward.
    • The two men separated from each other.
12. 13:12
    • Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan.
    • Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain.
    • Lot pitched his tent as far as Sodom.
13. 13:13
    • The men of Sodom were wicked.
    • The men of Sodom were sinners against the LORD exceedingly.
14. 13:14
    • The LORD spoke to Abram after Lot separated from him.
    • The LORD told Abram to lift up his eyes and look from the place where he was.
    • The LORD told him to look northward, southward, eastward, and westward.
15. 13:15
    • The LORD said he would give all the land Abram saw to him.
    • The LORD said he would give it to Abram's seed forever.
16. 13:16
    • The LORD said he would make Abram's seed as the dust of the earth.
    • The LORD said that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then Abram's seed also would be numbered.
17. 13:17
    • The LORD told Abram to arise and walk through the land in its length and its breadth.
    • The LORD said he would give the land to Abram.
18. 13:18
    • Abram moved his tent.
    • Abram came and dwelt by the great trees of Mamre.
    • Mamre is in Hebron.
    • Abram built an altar there to the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

13:1

"Went up" is geography, not direction on a map: the land of Canaan sits on high ground compared with the Nile valley, so travelers always "go up" from Egypt and "go down" into it. The Negev is the dry grazing country at the southern edge of Canaan; its name means roughly "the parched land."

13:2

Wealth here is not money in a modern sense. There were no coins yet; silver and gold were carried as bars, rings or lumps and weighed out at each transaction. Livestock was the main form of capital, which is why the size of the herds drives the rest of the chapter.

13:3

Bethel and Ai are towns in the hill country north of Jerusalem, about ten miles apart. The King James spells Ai as "Hai" here, keeping the Hebrew letter that begins the name; it is the same place called Ai elsewhere. Abram is retracing the route he took in chapter 12 and returning to a camp he had used before.

13:4

An altar was a platform of earth or unworked stone on which animals or grain were burned as offerings. Abram builds them at points along his route rather than at one fixed sanctuary. "Called on the name of the LORD" means he worshiped there publicly, proclaiming the name aloud, not simply that he prayed privately.

13:5

"Flocks and herds" is a standard pairing that covers the two kinds of animal separately: flocks are sheep and goats, herds are cattle. "Tents" here stands for the households and servants needed to move and manage them.

13:6

The limit is grazing and water, not living space. Semi-desert pasture supports only so many animals within reach of a given well or spring, and two large operations working the same range would exhaust it.

13:7

The Canaanites and Perizzites were the settled peoples already occupying the land, farming the valleys and holding the towns. The detail matters practically: Abram and Lot are outsiders moving their animals through country that already has owners, so the open range available to them is limited and a quarrel between their crews is dangerous.

13:8

Lot was Abram's nephew, his brother's son. The Hebrew word translated "brethren" covers relatives generally, not just brothers in the narrow sense, so the point is that they are kin and kin do not fight over pasture.

13:9

Hebrew directions are given as if facing east, so "the left hand" is the north and "the right hand" is the south. Abram is offering Lot the first choice of territory, which normally would have been the older man's right.

13:10

The "plain of the Jordan" translates a Hebrew word meaning a round basin or circle: the broad, low valley floor at the southern end of the Jordan, watered by the river and by springs. Zoar was a small town at the far south of that basin. The "garden of the LORD" is Eden. The remark about Sodom and Gomorrah is the narrator stepping outside the story to tell readers that the fertile plain Lot is looking at will not stay that way; the destruction he refers to happens in chapter 19.

13:11

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities in that valley. The writer tells us here that God later destroyed them, which happens in Genesis 19, so readers know what kind of place Lot was choosing.

13:12

"Pitched his tent toward Sodom" describes a drift, not an arrival: Lot is still living in tents like a herdsman, but he has moved his camp up against a city rather than staying out on the open range. Later chapters show him living inside the town.

13:13

The King James "sinners before the LORD" uses "before" in the sense of "in the sight of" or "against." The line is placed here to tell the reader what kind of neighborhood Lot has chosen; the specific charges come later.

13:14

"Lift up now thine eyes" is the same phrase used of Lot in verse 10, where Lot lifted up his eyes and picked the best land for himself. The repetition is deliberate: Abram is told to look only after he has let the choice go.

13:15

"Seed" in the King James means descendants, a whole line of people, not a single child; English kept this collective sense of the word for centuries. The Hebrew word behind "for ever" means an age or a span of time stretching out of sight, rather than a philosophical eternity.

13:16

Dust is a stock comparison for a number too large to count, like sand or stars. The force of the image is uncountability, not smallness.

13:17

Walking the length and breadth of a territory was a recognized legal act in the ancient Near East: a person took formal possession of land by traversing it, much as one might walk the boundaries of a property. Abram is being told to perform that act over the whole country.

13:18

The King James "plain of Mamre" is a mistranslation; the Hebrew word means great trees, oaks or terebinths. A grove of large trees was a landmark and a shaded camping place, and Mamre was the name of the local man or clan associated with it. Hebron is a town about nineteen miles south of Jerusalem, high in the hill country.