Genesis 13

Returning to the Land

1Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev with his wife and everything he had. Lot went with him. 2Abram was very wealthy in livestock, silver, and gold.

3He traveled in stages from the Negev to Bethel, back to the place between Bethel and Ai where he had first pitched his tent, 4where he had built the altar before. There Abram called on the LORD's name.

Abram and Lot Separate

5Lot, who traveled with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. 6The land could not support them living together. Their possessions were so great that they could no longer stay together. 7Quarrels broke out between Abram's herders and Lot's herders. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land then.

8Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no quarrel between us or between our herders. We are family. 9The whole land is before you. Please separate from me. If you go left, I will go right; if you go right, I will go left.”

10Lot looked out over the whole Jordan plain. It was well watered all the way to Zoar, like the LORD's garden, like the land of Egypt. This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. 11Lot chose the whole Jordan plain for himself and traveled east. So the two separated.

12Abram settled in Canaan, while Lot settled among the towns of the plain and pitched his tents as far as Sodom. 13The people of Sodom were wicked and sinned greatly against the LORD.

The Land and the Descendants

14After Lot had separated from Abram, the LORD said to Abram, “Look from where you are: north, south, east, and west. 15All the land you see I will give to you and your descendants forever.

16I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth. Only if someone could count the earth's dust could your descendants be counted. 17Get up and walk through the land, its length and its breadth, because I will give it to you.”

18Abram moved his tents and settled by the oaks of Mamre at Hebron. There he built an altar to the LORD.