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.
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Bereshis 13
13
1And Avram went up out of Mitzrayim, he, and his isha, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negev.
2And Avram was very rich in cattle, in kesef, and in zahav.
3And he went on his journeys from the Negev even to Beit-El, unto the makom where his ohel had been at the beginning, between Beit-El and Ai;
4Unto the makom of the Mizbe'ach, which he had built there at the first; and there Avram called on the Shem of Hashem.
5And Lot also, which walked with Avram, had tzon, and herds, and ohalim.
6And ha'aretz was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together; for their rechush was rav, so that they could not dwell together.
7And there was a riv between the ro'im of the herd of Avram and the ro'im of the herd of Lot; and the Kena'ani and the Perizzi dwelt then in ha'aretz.
8And Avram said unto Lot, Let there be no merivah now between me and thee, and between my ro'im and thy ro'im; for we are achim.
9Is not the kol ha'aretz before thee? Separate thyself, now, from me; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
10And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Yarden, that it was well watered everywhere, before Hashem destroyed Sodom and Amora, even as the Gan Hashem, like Eretz Mitzrayim, as you go to Tzoar.
11Then Lot chose for him all the plain of Yarden; and Lot journeyed mikedem (east); and they separated themselves the one from his brother.
12Avram dwelled in Eretz Kena'an, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his ohel toward Sodom.
13But the men of Sodom were ra'im and chatta'im before Hashem exceedingly.
14And Hashem said unto Avram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the makom where thou art northward, and southward and eastward, and westward:
15For kol ha'aretz which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy zera ad olam (forever).
16And I will make thy zera as the dust of ha'aretz; so that if a man can number the aphar of ha'aretz, then shall thy zera also be numbered.
17Arise, walk through ha'aretz in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
18Then Avram moved his ohel, and came and dwelt in Elonei Mamre, which is in Chevron, and built there a Mizbe'ach unto Hashem.
THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.