Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Praise God Who Creates and Saves

Abram and Lot Separate

13 So Abram, his wife and Lot left Egypt. They took everything they owned and traveled to southern Canaan. ² Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold.

³ He left southern Canaan and went back to Bethel. He went where he had camped before, between Bethel and Ai. ⁴ It was the place where Abram had built an altar before. So he worshiped the Lord there.

⁵ During this time Lot was traveling with Abram. Lot also had many sheep, cattle and tents. ⁶ Abram and Lot had so many animals that the land could not support both of them together. ⁷ Abram’s herders and Lot’s herders began to argue. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at this time.

⁸ So Abram said to Lot, “There should be no arguing between you and me. Your herders and mine should not argue either. We are brothers. ⁹ We should separate. The whole land is there in front of you. 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 all around and saw the whole Jordan Valley. He saw that there was much water there. It was like the Lord’s garden, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose to move east and live in the Jordan Valley. In this way Abram and Lot separated. ¹² Abram lived in the land of Canaan. But Lot lived among the cities in the Jordan Valley. He moved very near to Sodom. ¹³ Now the people of Sodom were very evil. They were always sinning against the Lord.

¹⁴ After Lot left, the Lord said to Abram, “Look all around you. Look north and south and east and west. ¹⁵ All this land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. ¹⁶ I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people. ¹⁷ Get up! Walk through all this land. I am now giving it to you.”

¹⁸ So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the great trees of Mamre. This was at the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.

¹⁷ Those false teachers are like rivers that have no water. They are like clouds blown by a storm. A place in the blackest darkness has been kept for them. ¹⁸ They brag with words that mean nothing. By their evil desires they lead people into the trap of sin. They lead away people who are just beginning to escape from other people who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are not free. They are slaves of things that will be destroyed. For a person is a slave of anything that controls him. ²⁰ They were made free from the evil in the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if they return to evil things and those things control them, then it is worse for them than it was before. ²¹ Yes, it would be better for them to have never known the right way. That would be better than to know the right way and then to turn away from the holy teaching that was given to them. ²² What they did is like this true saying: “A dog eats what it throws up.”^[a] And, “After a pig is washed, it goes back and rolls in the mud.”