Genesis 13 explained: Abram and Lot Go Separate Ways

Back to the old altar (vv. 1-4)

Abram leaves Egypt, where he had gone during a famine, and returns rich to the spot near Bethel where he first worshiped after arriving in Canaan. Coming back there to pray reads like a fresh start after his troubled stay in Egypt.

Too much to share (vv. 5-7)

Both men own so many animals that the land cannot support them all, and their herders start fighting, likely over grass and water. The narrator adds that the Canaanites and Perizzites also lived there, which may hint that a family feud was risky or a bad look in front of the neighbors, though the text does not say why it mentions them.

Abram lets Lot choose (vv. 8-9)

As the older man and head of the family, Abram could have taken the best land, but he offers his nephew first pick to keep the peace. He calls them close relatives, family who should not let property come between them.

Lot picks the green valley (vv. 10-13)

From the hills Lot sees the Jordan valley, lush like the garden of Eden or the Nile country of Egypt, and he takes it, settling near the city of Sodom. The narrator quietly warns that Sodom was deeply wicked and would later be destroyed, which many readers take as a sign Lot chose by appearances alone.

God repeats his promise (vv. 14-17)

After Lot has left with the good land, God tells Abram that all the land he can see in every direction will belong to him and his descendants, who will be too many to count. Telling him to walk its length and width may echo an old way of marking a claim to land, though scholars are not certain.

Settling at Hebron (v. 18)

Abram moves to the great trees of Mamre near Hebron, a place that becomes his family's home base in later stories. He builds an altar there, answering the renewed promise with worship.

Key verse: Genesis 13:8

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether God's promise of this land to Abram's descendants forever still applies to a literal territory today or is fulfilled in a broader, spiritual way.

Something to think about

When have you let someone else take the first or better choice, and what did it cost you or give you?