Abram and Lot Part Ways

Back from Egypt, Abram travels up to Bethel, to the altar he had built there, and calls on the name of the LORD. He and his nephew Lot have so many possessions that the land can no longer support them both, and their herdsmen begin to quarrel. Abram takes the initiative for peace: “Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee … for we be brethren.” He lets Lot choose first: “if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right.” Lot lifts up his eyes and sees the plain of the Jordan, well watered “as the garden of the LORD,” and takes it. He pitches his tents toward Sodom, a city of notorious sinners. Then the LORD says to Abram: “all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” Abram settles by the oaks of Mamre, near Hebron, and builds an altar there.