Genesis 13

Genesis 13: Abram and Lot separate

Synopsis

Abram and Lot were still travelling together, at the beginning of this chapter, but starting to have problems: their possessions were so great that the land was not able to support them, and quarrelling started to arise between the herdsmen of Abram and of Lot (verses 5–7).

So they decided to part ways:

So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.” (verses 8–9)

So Lot decided to pitch his tents near the city of Sodom, and Abram lived in Canaan.

The chapter ends with the LORD reiterating to Abram that He will give Abram (and his descendants) the land where he is currently living:

The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

That promise, however, won’t be fulfilled in the book of Genesis.

Thoughts

This is another fairly straightforward chapter.

Warning bells should be going off in our heads when we hear that Lot is going to live near Sodom—even if we don’t know the story, we’re all familiar with the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah are going to be destroyed by fire. Even verse 13 foreshadows it a bit:

Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.

So we’ll see in a later chapter how that works out. (Chapter 19, with a bit of talk about it in 18:16–33.)