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Genesis 13
Abraham and Lot separate
1 From Egypt Abram returned to the Negeb with his wife and all he possessed, and Lot with him.
2 Abram was a very rich man, with livestock, silver and gold.
3 By stages he went from the Negeb to Bethel, where he had first pitched his tent, between Bethel and Al,
4 at the place where he had formerly erected the altar. Here Abram invoked the name of Yahweh.
5 Lot, who was travelling with Abram, had flocks and cattle of his own, and tents too.
6 The land was not sufficient to accommodate them both at once, for they had too many possessions to be able to live together.
7 Dispute broke out between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and those of Lot’s. (The Canaanites and the Perizzites were then living in the land.)
8 Accordingly Abram said to Lot, ‘Let there be no dispute between me and you, nor between
my herdsmen and yours, for we are brothers.
9 Is not the whole land open before you? Part company with me: if you take the left, I will go right; if you take the, right, I will go left.’
10 Looking round, Lot saw all the Jordan plain, irrigated everywhere-this was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah-like the garden of Yahweh or the land of Egypt, as far as Zoar.[*a]
11 So Lot chose all the Jordan plain for himself and moved off eastwards. Thus they parted company:
12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan; Lot settled among the towns of the plain, pitching his tents on the outskirts of Sodom.
13 Now the people of Sodom were vicious men, great sinners against Yahweh.
14 Yahweh said to Abram after Lot had parted company with him, ‘Look all round from where you are towards the north and the south, towards the east and the west.
16 I will make your descendants like the dust on the ground: when men succeed in counting the specks of dust on the ground, then they will be able to count your descendants!
17 Come, travel through the length and breadth of the land, for I mean to give it to you.’
18 So Abram went with his tents to settle at the Oak of Mamre; at Hebron, and there he built an altar to Yahweh.