Genesis 13
13
Abram and his nephew Lot split up
1So Abram, Sarai, and Lot left Egypt and went back to the dry desert country. They took everything they owned, and all their workers. 2Abram was a very rich man. He had a lot of silver and gold, and a big mob of animals.
3They were in that dry desert country for a while, then they went north from place to place until they got back to the town called Bethel. They camped in the same place that they camped at before. It was between Bethel and the town called Ayi. 4That was the place where Abram built a special stone table to burn animals, to show respect to God. After Abram got back there, he prayed to God, and he called God by his special name Yahweh.
5Abram and his nephew Lot were still together. And Lot also had a big mob of sheep, and goats, and cows, and bulls. And he had a lot of tents for all his workers too. 6-7But there was a problem. There were other people already living in that country. They were called the Canaan mob, and the Periz mob. And they had animals too, and all those animals needed grass and water, as well as Abram’s animals, and Lot’s animals too. But there wasn’t enough grass and water in that place for all those animals. So Abram’s work-men and Lot’s work-men started to argue and fight with each other about whose animals got the grass and water. 8Then Abram said to Lot, “I don’t like this trouble. You and me, we are family, and I don’t want trouble between us. And I don’t want our work-men to argue and fight with each other. 9Look, there is a lot of country here. Just look around, and you will see that there’s plenty of country for both of us. So I reckon we have to split up. I want you to pick the part of the country you want, and then I will go somewhere else. If you pick the country to the east, then I will go to the country to the west, but if you pick the west country, then I will go to the east country.”
10Lot looked to the east, towards a town called Zoar, in the flat country around the Jordan River. He saw that the flat country had plenty of grass and water. It looked just like God’s garden, and like the country in Egypt. (That was before God burned up the towns in the flat country called Sodom and Gomorrah.#Genesis 19:24) 11-12So Lot picked the flat country around the Jordan River, to the east.
Then Abram did what he promised, and he went to the country called Canaan. In that way, Lot’s mob and Abram’s mob went to different places, and there was no more trouble between their work-men.
Lot went to the flat country around the Jordan River. There were some towns there, and Lot camped near the town called Sodom. 13The people that lived in Sodom were very bad. They were always going against God, and they did bad things all the time.
God made a promise to Abram
14Then, after Lot left, God said to Abram, “Look at all the country around you. Look to the north, and to the south, and to the east, and to the west. 15I will give you all the country that you can see. Later on, you will have a son and lots of people will be born into his family, and they will own all this country, for ever.#Acts 7:5 16Look at the ground you are standing on, it has lots of little bits of dirt. Nobody can count all those little bits of dirt on the ground, and just like that, nobody will be able to count all the people that will be in your family later on. 17All right, Abram, I want you to get up and walk all around the country that I’m giving you, and look at it all properly.”
18So Abram went to the big trees that belonged to a man called Mamreh, near a town called Hebron, and he camped there. He piled up stones there and made another special table with a flat top, so that he could burn animals to show respect to God.
© 2021, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. All rights reserved.
Genesis 13
13
1 Abram went up out of Egypt—he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him—into the South. 2Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on the Lord’s name. 5Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, herds, and tents. 6The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together; for their possessions were so great that they couldn’t live together. 7There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land at that time. 8Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen; for we are relatives. 9Isn’t the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
10 Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar. 11So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot travelled east, and they separated themselves from one other. 12Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against the LORD.
14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15for I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring forever. 16I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted. 17Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for I will give it to you.”
18 Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.
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