Genesis 13:12

The passage opens just after Abram has come back from Egypt to the place between Bethel and Ai, where he had built an altar and called on the name of the LORD (Genesis 13:1–4). He has come back very rich in livestock, silver and gold, and verse 5 adds, “And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.” Lot, Lôwṭ, is Abram’s nephew. The verb “went”, hâlak, is the everyday word for walking or going, and here it describes Lot travelling at Abram’s side.

Lot’s wealth grew while he went with Abram, and God had promised to bless Abram and make him a blessing (Genesis 12:2–3). Lot shared in that blessing because he was with the man God had called. The covenant promises themselves, of land, of a great nation and of blessing for all the families of the earth, stayed with Abram alone.

Among herdsmen like Abram and Lot, wealth was counted in animals. Flocks are sheep and goats, herds are cattle, and together they gave food, milk, clothing and goods to trade. The word for tent, ʼôhel, is explained by Strong’s as a tent “clearly conspicuous from a distance”. Every tent meant people, servants and dependents as well as family, so a man’s tents showed the size of his household. Land was mostly held in common, and what a herdsman needed was the right to graze it, with good pasture always in demand.

Verse 6 gives the result: “the land was not able to bear them.” The word for land is ʼerets, and the verb “bear”, nâsâʼ, means to lift, carry or support a load. The pasture and water could carry only so much, and two such households were too heavy a load for them. The cause is given plainly: “for their substance was great”. The word rᵉkûwsh means property or goods, the things of value a person has acquired, and here it is above all livestock. The verse says twice that “they could not dwell together”, and the repeated words settle the matter.

So the trouble began with God’s blessing. The land had reached its limit before anyone quarrelled, even within the land God had promised, and the strife of verse 7 grew out of that limit. “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 10:22). The blessing was good, and the hard part was the handling of so much. Jesus warns, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15), and Hebrews joins contentment with the promise of God’s presence (Hebrews 13:5). Proverbs ties contention to pride (Proverbs 13:10), and the verses that follow show which of these two men held his possessions loosely.

The quarrel broke out among the herdmen, the servants who drove and watered the animals, Abram’s men against Lot’s. The word for strife, rîyb, means a contest or dispute, whether personal or legal, and this was a real contention over grass and water. It touched the two masters as well, because their men were quarrelling on their behalf and the family’s unity was at stake.

Then comes the note, “and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.” The verb yâshab means to sit down, and so to settle or dwell. These peoples were settled in the land with their own claim on its pasture and wells, which left even less for Abram and Lot. The Kᵉnaʻanîy, the Canaanites, were a broad people often connected with trade, and the Pᵉrizzîy, the Perizzites, were the people of the open country.

Their presence also meant that the quarrel went on in front of neighbours who did not know the LORD. Abram’s household was the family God had called, and the way it lived was watched. Israel would later be told that keeping God’s law would show its wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations (Deuteronomy 4:6–8), and Peter tells believers to live so honestly among unbelievers that, seeing their good works, they glorify God (1 Peter 2:12). The same note reminds us that the land God had promised Abram was still in other hands, and the promise waited on God to fulfil it, as he assured Abram once Lot had gone (Genesis 13:14–18).

Abram speaks first. He is the elder and the one to whom God has given the promises, and he takes the matter up himself before it grows worse. “Let there be no strife, I pray thee” is a request, softened by “I pray thee”, the Hebrew word naʼ, which means please. “Let there be” is the verb hâyâh, to be or to come to pass, and Abram asks for an end to strife between them. The word for strife here is mᵉrîybâh, a quarrel or provocation. It is a different Hebrew word from the rîyb of verse 7, though the KJV gives “strife” for both.

Abram names himself first: “between me and thee”. He takes his share of the trouble along with Lot, and only then names “my herdmen and thy herdmen”. The servants’ quarrel has become a matter between the two kinsmen, and Abram deals with it there.

His reason is “for we be brethren”. The word ʼâch means brother, and Scripture uses it widely, for a brother born of the same parents, for a near kinsman and for others bound by close ties. Lot was Abram’s nephew, and Abram reaches for the word that binds them most closely. In a patriarch’s household kin owed one another loyalty and help, all the more when they lived as strangers among other peoples.

Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Paul writes, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18), and he tells the Corinthians that it would be better to suffer wrong than to go to law against a brother (1 Corinthians 6:7). Proverbs says that the man who is slow to anger calms a quarrel (Proverbs 15:18). Abram is that man here. He takes the first step toward peace, and he is ready to lose something to keep it.

“Is not the whole land before thee?” Abram asks. “Land” is ʼerets, the same word as in verse 6, and “before thee” is built on pânîym, the face, a word plural in form that is always used as a singular. The land lay open before Lot’s face, and the question expects the answer yes: there is room enough for both if they part.

“Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me” uses pârad, which means to break through, to spread out or to separate. Abram proposes a clear parting, and once again he asks with “I pray thee”. Then he makes his offer: “if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.” The right hand was the side of strength, honour and preference, and the left could stand for the north, though here the two simply name the ways open to them. Abram turns the offer round so that it covers every choice Lot might make, and he binds himself in advance to take whatever Lot leaves.

“And Lot lifted up his eyes” is a common Hebrew way of saying that someone looked deliberately, taking in the whole view. He “beheld all the plain of Jordan”. The word for plain, kikkâr, means a circle, and so a round district, here the flat, fertile land around the Jordan.

It was “well watered every where”. The word mashqeh comes from a root meaning to cause to drink. The plain drew on a steady supply of water, while the highlands waited on the rain, and for a man with great flocks and herds that was the strongest pull of all.

Two comparisons show how rich the plain looked. It was “even as the garden of the LORD”, and the word gan, garden, comes from a verb meaning to fence in or protect, so it is an enclosed and cultivated place. The garden of the LORD is Eden (Genesis 2:8–9). It was also “like the land of Egypt”, the well-watered Nile Delta that Lot had just left. “As thou comest unto Zoar” marks how far the plain reached, toward its southern end.

Lot weighed the land by what he could see, while Abram rested on what God had said. Eden was where man lived with God in obedience, and what drew Lot to the plain was its fruitfulness alone. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12). John reminds believers that the world passes away, and he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever (1 John 2:15–17).

“Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan.” The verb bâchar means to try, and so to select after weighing what is offered. Lot chose deliberately, he took all of it, and he took it “him”, for himself.

“And Lot journeyed east.” Twice before in Genesis, going east has meant going away from God. The cherubim were placed at the east of the garden when man was driven out of Eden (Genesis 3:24), and Cain went out from the presence of the LORD to dwell in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden (Genesis 4:16). Lot’s move east fits that pattern as a step away from the place of God’s promise, and it brought him nearer to the wicked cities.

“And they separated themselves the one from the other.” This is pârad again, the same verb Abram used in verse 9. The parting he proposed now took place, and from here the two men’s lives run in different directions. Lot’s road would end in his flight from Sodom on the day it was destroyed (Genesis 19:1–26).

Verse 12 sets the two men side by side. “Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan”, the land God had called him to (Genesis 12:1) and promised to give him. The verb is yâshab, the same word used of the Canaanite and the Perizzite in verse 7. Abram lived on in the land of promise among its peoples, trusting God for what he could see and what he could not yet hold. “Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain”, the towns of that well-watered district: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela, which is Zoar. They were rich cities and deeply corrupt ones.

Verse 13 follows straight after Lot’s choice: “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.” The plain looked like the garden of the LORD, and its people were evil, so this verse shows Lot’s shrewd-looking choice for the danger it was.

“Wicked” is raʻ, the common word for evil or bad, from a root meaning to break or to be evil. “Sinners” is chaṭṭâʼ, from the verb meaning to miss the mark, and it names a person, “a criminal, or one accounted guilty”. The plural speaks of the whole people. Together the two words describe men who were evil in character and guilty before God. “Before the LORD” means in his sight and under his judgment, and all they did lay open to him. “Exceedingly” is mᵉʼôd, very, greatly, exceedingly, and it marks the great degree of their sin.

God saw it all, he was patient, and his judgment came at last. Later he tells Abraham that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin very grievous, and that he will go down and see (Genesis 18:20–21). The whole account of that judgment, and of Lot’s rescue, follows in Genesis 18–19. Proverbs says that he that walketh with wise men shall be wise (Proverbs 13:20), and Lot had chosen his neighbours by their pasture.

Abram’s offer points ahead to Christ. Abram gave up his rights to make peace with his kinsman, and Christ, “being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6–7). He made peace between God and those who were his enemies (Romans 5:10), breaking down “the middle wall of partition” between peoples (Ephesians 2:14–16) and reconciling all things to himself by the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20). In him believers are made brethren: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). He has given his people the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18–20).

The promise Abram trusted when he let Lot choose also finds its answer in Christ. Paul says the seed promised to Abraham is Christ (Galatians 3:16), and all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Lot chose the best of the world for himself, and Christ chose the cross, giving himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil world (Galatians 1:4).

Sodom’s judgment points ahead as well. Christ bore the punishment of our sin, as Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 53:5–6), and those justified by his blood are saved from wrath through him (Romans 5:8–9). He will come again in glory to judge the nations (Matthew 25:31–33), and God sent him so that whoever believes in him should have everlasting life (John 3:16–18). Paul’s call to “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17) speaks to the danger Lot walked into. Paul also says that “the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18), and “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

These verses set two blessed men side by side, each facing a land too small for what God had given them. Abram held his rights loosely because he held God’s promise firmly, and he gave away the first choice for the sake of peace with his brother. Lot looked at the plain and took the best of what he could see. As soon as Lot had gone, God spoke to Abram again and renewed his promise of the land and of numerous descendants (Genesis 13:14–18).

So the passage shows us a God who blesses his people richly, and whose gifts call for wisdom and humility in those who hold them. He sees what the eye misses, and the plain that looked like Eden was known to him as the home of men who were sinners before him exceedingly. He keeps faith with the one who gives way for peace. Jesus’ word to us rests on the same truth: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).