Abram and Lot go different ways

13 Abram left Egypt and he travelled north to the Negev. He took his wife and everything that belonged to him. Lot also went with him. ² Abram had many valuable things. He had many cows, and much silver and gold.

³ Then Abram left the Negev and he went to different places. He arrived at Bethel. He returned to the place where he had put up his tent before. That place was between Bethel and Ai. ⁴ It was where Abram had first built an altar to worship the Lord.

⁵ Lot was travelling with Abram. Lot also had many cows, sheep and tents. ⁶ But the land could not grow enough food for all of them to eat. They could not all live together in the same place, because they had so many animals and people with them. ⁷ Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds began to quarrel with each other. (At that time, Canaanites and Perizzites also lived in the land.)^[a]

⁸ Abram said to Lot, ‘We must not quarrel with each other. Your shepherds and my shepherds must not quarrel with each other. Remember that we belong to the same family. ⁹ Look everywhere! There is enough land for all of us. We must go different ways. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.’

¹⁰ Lot looked up and he saw the flat land of Jordan, as far as Zoar. He saw that it had lots of water, like the garden of the Lord. It was good land, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed the cities there called Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose for himself the valley of the Jordan River. He travelled towards the east.^[b]

¹² Abram stayed in the land of Canaan and he lived there. But Lot lived near the cities that were in the Jordan Valley. He put up his tents near the city of Sodom. ¹³ The people of Sodom were very wicked. They did not obey the Lord at all.

¹⁴ After Lot had gone away, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Stand where you are and look all around! Look to the north, the south, the east and the west. ¹⁵ I will give you all the land that you can see. I will give it to you and your descendants. It will belong to them for ever. ¹⁶ I will make your descendants become very many. Like the dust of the ground, people will not be able to count them all. ¹⁷ Go and travel round all this land. Look at it, because I am giving it to you!’

¹⁸ So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the special oak trees of Mamre. That place is at Hebron. Abram built an altar to worship the Lord there.