Chapter 13

Chapter 13

1 So Abram left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev, along with his wife, everything he owned, and Lot.

2 Abram was now exceptionally wealthy in livestock, silver, and gold.

3 From the Negev, he moved from camp to camp until he reached Bethel, returning to the exact site between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been pinned before,

4 and where he had previously built an altar. There Abram called upon the name of The Sovereign, The Self-Existent.

5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also owned flocks, herds, and tents.

6 But the land could not support both of them living together, because their combined possessions were too vast for the territory to sustain them.

7 Consequently, a dispute arose between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. At that time, the Canaanites and Perizzites were also occupying the land.

8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no dispute between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, because we are close relatives.

9 Isn’t the entire land open before you? Let us separate. If you take the left, I will go to the right; if you take the right, I will go to the left.”

10 Lot looked up and saw that the entire basin of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was thoroughly irrigated—like the garden of The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, or like the land of Egypt. (This was before The Sovereign devastated Sodom and Gomorrah.)

11 So Lot selected the entire basin of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. The two men separated.

12 Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the basin, moving his tents as far as Sodom.

13 Now the men of Sodom were radically wicked, committing severe offenses against The Sovereign, The Self-Existent.

14 After Lot had separated from him, The Sovereign, The Self-Existent said to Abram:

“Look up from where you are standing and scan north, south, east, and west.

15 All the land you see, I will give to you and your offspring permanently.

16 I will make your offspring as numerous as the dust of the ground, so that if anyone could count the dust of the ground, your offspring could also be counted.

17 Get up, walk through the length and breadth of the land, because I am giving it to you.”

18 So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the Great Trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to The Sovereign, The Self-Existent.