Genesis · chapter 13 of 50
Updated on
Genesis 13 tells how Abram returns from Egypt to Canaan and how his herdsmen and those of his nephew Lot quarrel for lack of pasture. Abram lets Lot choose, and Lot picks the Jordan valley near Sodom, while Abram stays in Canaan. Then God renews his promise to give him the whole land and offspring like the dust, and Abram settles at Hebron.
Genesis 13 follows Abram's trip to Egypt in the previous chapter. Here God's blessing, which has made Abram and Lot prosper, creates a practical problem: they no longer fit together. The chapter shows how a believer faces a conflict with generosity and trust, and how God responds by renewing his promises.
Abram goes up from Egypt to the Negeb with his wife, Lot and everything he had, very rich in livestock, silver and gold. He returns to Bethel, to the place where he had earlier built an altar, and there calls on the name of the Lord. Lot also has flocks, herds and tents, and the land cannot support them living together, so a quarrel arises between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's.
Abram proposes to Lot that there be no strife between them, for they are kinsmen, and offers to separate: if Lot goes left, he will go right, and the other way around. Lot lifts up his eyes and sees that the whole Jordan valley was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot chooses that valley and journeys east, and he lives among the cities of the valley, pitching his tents as far as Sodom, whose people were wicked and sinners against the Lord.
After Lot separates from him, the Lord speaks to Abram: he tells him to lift up his eyes and look in every direction, for all the land he sees he will give to him and his offspring forever. He will make his offspring like the dust of the earth, and he tells him to walk through the land, its length and breadth. Abram moves his tents, comes to dwell by the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, and builds an altar there to the Lord.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Abram proposes to Lot that there be no strife between them because they are kinsmen, and lets him choose the land first. Abram, who had the right to choose as the elder and the one called by God, yields for love of peace and trusts that God will care for him.
Lot lifts up his eyes and sees that the Jordan valley was well watered, like the garden of the Lord. Lot chooses by what he sees, without considering the people of the region, and his decision will draw him closer and closer to Sodom.
After Lot leaves, the Lord tells Abram to lift up his eyes and look, and promises him all that land for him and his offspring forever. God answers Abram's generosity with a promise greater than what Lot chose.
Abram moves to Hebron, by the oaks of Mamre, and builds an altar to the Lord there. Each time Abram arrives at a new place he worships, which shows that his life revolves around God and not around his riches.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Because they had so many possessions and livestock that the land could not support them living together. — Genesis 13:6-7
Answer: To part in peace and let Lot choose first which way to go, left or right. — Genesis 13:8-9
Answer: The Jordan valley, well watered like the garden of the Lord, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. — Genesis 13:10-11
Answer: They were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. — Genesis 13:13
Answer: All the land he could see for him and his offspring forever, with offspring like the dust of the earth. — Genesis 13:14-16
Answer: By the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord. — Genesis 13:18
Genesis 13 teaches us to resolve conflicts by putting the relationship above our own rights. Abram could have demanded the best, but he chose peace. In a group you can ask in which current situations of family, work or church we can yield with generosity, trusting that God takes care of us.
Lot's choice shows the risk of deciding only by what we see: fertile ground, good opportunities, comfort. Ask what criteria you use for important decisions, and whether you consider the effect of those decisions on your faith and your family.
Genesis 13 ends with Abram worshiping at Hebron, the promised land before him, while Lot lives ever closer to Sodom. In Genesis 14 that nearness will have consequences, and Abram will have to rescue Lot.
The text does not condemn him at once, but it describes him choosing by what his eyes saw, near cities whose people were wicked. The following chapters show that this decision exposed him to grave dangers, which is why many readers see a warning in it.
In Hebrew the word can mean a long time or a lasting way. Christians understand the promise in different ways: some see it partly fulfilled in Israel, others see its full sense extending to the inheritance received by all who are in Christ, according to Romans 4:13.
Because it recalls that the promised land was not empty. Abram lives as a foreigner among peoples who inhabit it, and his faith consists in waiting for God to fulfill what he promised in his own time.