Genesis 13
13
1-2So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold.
3-4He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God.
5-7Lot, who was traveling with Abram, was also rich in sheep and cattle and tents. But the land couldn’t support both of them; they had too many possessions. They couldn’t both live there—quarrels broke out between Abram’s shepherds and Lot’s shepherds. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living on the land at the time.
8-9Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we’re family. Look around. Isn’t there plenty of land out there? Let’s separate. If you go left, I’ll go right; if you go right, I’ll go left.”
10-11a Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of the Jordan spread out, well watered (this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like God’s garden, like Egypt, and stretching all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east.
11b-12 That’s how they came to part company, uncle and nephew. Abram settled in Canaan; Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.
13The people of Sodom were evil—flagrant sinners against God.
14-17After Lot separated from him, God said to Abram, “Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever. I’ll make your descendants like dust—counting your descendants will be as impossible as counting the dust of the Earth. So—on your feet, get moving! Walk through the country, its length and breadth; I’m giving it all to you.”
18Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Genesis 13
13
1Then Abram went vp from Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him toward the South. 2And Abram was very rich in cattell, in siluer and in golde. 3And he went on his iourney from ye South toward Beth-el, to the place where his tent had bene at ye beginning, betweene Beth-el and Haai, 4Vnto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the Name of the Lord. 5And Lot also, who went with Abram, had sheepe, and cattell and tentes, 6So that the land coulde not beare them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they coulde not dwell together. 7Also there was debate betweene ye heardmen of Abrams cattell, and the heardmen of Lots cattell. (and the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelled at that time in the land.) 8Then saide Abram vnto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, betweene thee and me, neither betweene mine heardmen and thine heardmen: for we be brethren. 9Is not the whole land before thee? depart I pray thee from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will goe to the right: or if thou goe to the right hand, then I will take the left. 10So when Lot lifted vp his eyes, he saw that all the plaine of Iorden was watered euery where: (for before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorah, it was as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest vnto Zoar) 11Then Lot chose vnto him all the plaine of Iorden, and tooke his iourney from the East: and they departed the one from the other. 12Abram dwelled in the lande of Canaan, and Lot abode in the cities of the plaine, and pitched his tent euen to Sodom. 13Now the men of Sodom were wicked and exceeding sinners against the Lord. 14Then the Lord saide vnto Abram, (after that Lot was departed from him) Lift vp thine eyes nowe, and looke from the place where thou art, Northward, and Southward, and Eastwarde, and Westward: 15For all the land, which thou seest, will I giue vnto thee and to thy seede for euer, 16And I will make thy seede, as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seede be numbred. 17Arise, walke through the land, in ye length thereof, and breadth thereof: for I will giue it vnto thee. 18Then Abram remoued his tent, and came and dwelled in the plaine of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and builded there an altar vnto ye Lord.
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