Genesischapter 13
18 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
Moses wrote this chapter, by tradition, for Israel in the wilderness, a people who quarrelled over water and pasture on their own march. It follows Abram back from Egypt with more wealth than the land can carry. The chapter sets two men side by side and lets their choices show who they are. Listen for what each man looks at and who tells him to look. Notice where each one pitches his tent. The next chapters follow both tents to their ends, and a reader should keep in mind the city named near the close.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, learning what it costs to hold a promise loosely
- What
- The parting of Abram and Lot over grazing land, followed by God's renewed promise of the whole land to Abram.
- Where
- The hill country between Bethel and Ai, the plain of the Jordan toward Sodom, and Hebron by the Oaks of Mamre.
- When
- The patriarchal age, about 2085 BC on the traditional dating, which some place a few centuries later.
- Why
- To show Abram giving up his right for the sake of peace and God confirming the promise to the man who let his nephew choose first.
Historical context
The chapter stands inside the generations of Terah and follows Abram and Lot after their return from Egypt. God speaks once, after Lot has gone.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The quarrel is an ordinary herdsman's quarrel and a serious one. In semi-arid hill country the grazing and the water set the limit, so two large flocks on one range meant strife among the men who worked them, and a shared well was a standing flashpoint all through Genesis.
Abram gives away the choice, which inverts the custom of the region, where the elder and the patron chose first. Lot looks east at the Jordan plain, described as well watered like the garden of the LORD and like Egypt, which named it as irrigated, green and rich.
That plain held a cluster of cities with Sodom among them, near the southern end of the Dead Sea, in a valley the text says was full of tar pits. Bitumen does seep in that region and was a trade good.
After Lot leaves, God tells Abram to walk the length and the breadth of the land. Walking a boundary was how a claim was made and marked in that world, so Abram is told to survey an inheritance he will hold by promise alone.
Significance
Israel, quarrelling among themselves in the wilderness over water and food, heard how their father handled the same trouble, since he took the poorer share and let God be his portion.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Lot chose by looking, and the chapter says quietly what he was looking at, a city whose men were wicked.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard inside the third portion of the annual cycle, in the same sitting as the call of Abram and the covenant that follows it (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). The parting of Abram and Lot is read without a break from the return out of Egypt. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from the public domain Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, and Radak from the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash.
Rashi reads the journeys of the third verse as the same road taken back. Abram lodged at the inns he had used going down, and Rashi draws from it that "one should not change his inn" (Rashi on Genesis 13:3:1, citing Arakhin 16b). He gives a second reading, that Abram paid on the way back the debts he had run up on the way down (same comment, citing Genesis Rabbah 41:3).
Radak reads the return to the altar as a rule of prayer. Abram came back to the very place where he had prayed before. Radak takes it that a man should fix one place to pray in, because familiar surroundings hold the mind steady (Radak on Genesis 13:4:1).
Rashi reads the quarrel of the seventh verse as a quarrel about robbery. The herdsmen of Lot grazed in other people's fields, and the herdsmen of Abram rebuked them. The answer given was that the land was promised to Abram and that Lot was his heir. Rashi points to the same verse naming the Canaanite and the Perizzite still in the land (Rashi on Genesis 13:7:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 41:5). He reads the offer of the ninth verse as a promise of help. Wherever Lot settled, Abram would stay near him as a shield, and the rescue of the next chapter is where that stood good (Rashi on Genesis 13:9:1).
Ibn Ezra carries five comments on this chapter that the corpus holds by reference alone, because the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out. They are Ibn Ezra on Genesis 13:1:1, 13:2:1, 13:5:1, 13:6:1 and 13:15:1.
What the rabbis say
Rashi carries four sayings of the rabbis on this chapter, and each stands here as what they taught.
The first is on the wealth of Lot. Rashi asks what brought it to him, and reports the answer that it came of his going with Abram (Rashi on Genesis 13:5:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 41:3 and Pesikta Rabbati). The second is on the word for brothers in the eighth verse. He gives kinsmen as the plain sense, and reports the Midrash that the two men were alike in the face (Rashi on Genesis 13:8:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 41:6).
The third is on Lot settling near Sodom. Rashi notes that the men of Sodom were wicked and that Lot moved in among them anyway. He reports that the rabbis read the rotting of the name of the wicked in Proverbs 10:11 from this verse (Rashi on Genesis 13:13:1, citing Yoma 38b).
The fourth is on the word that came after the parting. Rashi reports that God spoke to Abram once Lot had gone, and that while the wicked man was with him the word had kept away (Rashi on Genesis 13:14:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 10). On the promise of the sixteenth verse he reads the dust plainly, that the seed will be past counting as the dust is past counting (Rashi on Genesis 13:16:1).
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty three under Midrash and seven under Talmud, with the locator for each one and no text. Bereshit Rabbah reads the fifth verse at 41:4, the seventh at 41:5 and the eighth at 41:6. It reads the ninth verse at 52:4 and 60:9, the fourteenth at 41:8, and the eighteenth at 39:16 and 54:6.
Aggadat Bereshit reads the second verse at 16:2, 34:1 and 34:2, the seventh at 13:3, the tenth at 25:2 and the thirteenth at 25:1. It reads the fifteenth verse at 82:2 and the seventeenth at 21:1 and 64:1. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the tenth verse at 18:10, the fifteenth at 16:3 and the sixteenth at 14:12. Midrash Lekach Tov reads the first, fourth, sixth and eighth verses at the locators of the same names, and Pesikta Rabbati reads the first five verses at 3:1.
The Talmud is cited at Arakhin 16b:17 and 16b:18 on the third verse, Bava Kamma 93a:2 on the fifth and Avodah Zarah 19a:1 on the thirteenth. It is cited at Megillah 16a:15 on the sixteenth verse, and the Jerusalem Talmud reads the eleventh at Sanhedrin 10:3:4.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 13, in Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, about 1090; Radak, Radak on Genesis 13:4:1 and 13:17:1, in HaChut Hameshulash, translated by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY, about 1200; Ibn Ezra, his five comments on Genesis 13, cited by reference; the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out of the corpus; The Midrash and the Talmud, the forty locators on Genesis 13 in scripts/data/sources/sefaria/genesis/13.json; MannaFest, the annual cycle table at src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Land Cannot Hold Them Both
Genesis 13:1-2
Abram went up out of Egypt: Abram comes up out of Egypt with his wife, his nephew and all he owned. The next line counts the wealth, livestock and silver and gold, and much of it came from Pharaoh's payment for Sarai. The gain of the half-truth travels north with him.
Genesis 13:1
“He came himself and brought all his with him back again to Canaan. Note, Though there may be occasion to go sometimes into places of temptation, yet we must hasten out of them as soon as possible.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Abram had become extremely wealthy: Clarke gives the Hebrew for extremely wealthy as kabed meod, built on the word heavy, and Abram was heavy with livestock and silver and gold. Josephus, he reports, said Abram became wealthy in Egypt by teaching the Egyptians. Calvin held that wealth kept no man from the LORD.
Genesis 13:2
“Abram was very rich - The property of these patriarchal times did not consist in flocks only, but also in silver and gold; and in all these respects Abram was דבד מאד cabed meod, exceeding rich. Josephus says that a part of this property was acquired by teaching the Egyptians arts and sciences. Thus did God fulfill his promises to him, by protecting and giving him a great profusion of temporal blessings, which were to him signs and pledges of spiritual things.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Genesis 13:2
“There is a burden of care in getting them, fear in keeping them, temptation in using them, guilt in abusing them, sorrow in losing them, and a burden of account, at last, to be given up concerning them. Great possessions do but make men heavy and unwieldy. Abram was not only rich in faith and good works, and in the promises, but he was rich in cattle, and in silver and gold.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 13:2
“Yet many fanatics repel rich men from the hope of salvation; as if poverty were the only gate of heaven; which yet, sometimes, involves men in more hindrances than riches. But Augustine wisely teaches us, that the rich and poor are collected together in the same inheritance of life; because poor Lazarus was received into the bosom of rich Abraham.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Genesis 13:2
“An Arab sheik is considered rich who has a hundred or two hundred tents, from sixty to a hundred camels, a thousand sheep and goats respectively. And Abram being very rich, must have far exceeded that amount of pastoral property. "Gold and silver" being rare among these peoples, his probably arose from the sale of his produce in Egypt.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 13:3-4
where his tent had formerly been pitched: Abram goes back up to Bethel and stops on the ground where his tent had formerly been pitched. He comes to the site of the altar he had built, and Gill reads bare ground there with the stones gone. Genesis records no altar and no word from God for the whole time he was in Egypt. He takes his life up where he set it down.
Genesis 13:3
“And he went on in his journeys from the south,.... He took the same tour, went the same road, stopping at the same resting places, as when he went down to Egypt; having learned, as Jarchi observes, the way of the earth, that a man should not change his host. Though some, as Ben Gersom, understand it of his taking his journeys as were suitable for his cattle, as they were able to bear them, and not overdrive them, lest he should kill them, but made short stages, and frequently stopped and rested.”
Abram called on the name of the LORD: Henry notes that with the altar gone Abram could offer nothing on it, and he called on the name of the LORD all the same. Abram had called on the name of the LORD at this place before he went down to Egypt. He takes up the worship where he left it.
Genesis 13:4
“His altar was gone, so that he could not offer sacrifice; but he called on the name of the Lord, as he had done, ch. xii. All God's people are praying people. You may as soon find a living man without breath as a living Christian without prayer.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 13:4
“Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first,.... When he first came to that place, and before he went down to Egypt: it is not said he came to the altar, but "to the place", where it had stood, for it seems now to have been demolished, either having fallen of itself, being made of earth, or had been destroyed by the Canaanites, since Abram left it; or perhaps it might be pulled down by Abram himself before he went from thence, that it might not be used and polluted by the idolatrous Canaanites.”
Genesis 13:5-7
Lot, who was traveling with Abram: Lot's flocks and herds have grown too, and the land cannot carry both households at once. The wealth they brought out of Egypt is what divides them. Their herdsmen quarrel while the Canaanites and the Perizzites are living in the same land, and Wesley notes that those neighbours knew what both men professed.
Genesis 13:5
It remains to be seen if Lot too, his nephew, was rich as one who belonged to the same family. But Scripture says only that he had many cattle. In fact, the text reads, "Lot also, who went with Abraham, had flocks, herds and tents." He had no silver, because he was not yet just; in fact, "the tongue of the just man is like silver purified by fire." He had no gold, which was the possession of the one who saw the posterity of Christ, of whom it is written: "And his posterity shines like gold."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
the land was unable to support both of them: Clarke explains that the flocks and herds were the clothing, food and drink of both households, so the herds grew as the families grew. Ambrose reads the verse of any two who love discord, for whom no land is large enough to support both. The land set the limit.
Genesis 13:6
“In fact, since [Lot] had already deliberately begun to deviate from his uncle, the land could not support both of them dwelling together; indeed, no space can be large enough for those who love discord.… Even limited spaces are more than adequate for those who are meek and peace-loving, while for those whose mentality is one of discord even wide open spaces are too restricted.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 13:6
“Their substance was great - As their families increased, it was necessary their flocks should increase also, as from those flocks they derived their clothing, food, and drink. Many also were offered in sacrifice to God. They could not dwell together - 1. Because their flocks were great. 2. Because the Canaanites and the Perizzites had already occupied a considerable part of the land. 3. Because there appears to have been envy between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land: The quarrel starts with the herdsmen, and Matthew Henry blames servants who sow discord between relatives. Adam Clarke takes the note about the Canaanites and the Perizzites as plain history, the peoples living there when the two men pitched their tents. The same clause stands at 12:6.
Genesis 13:7
“Very scandalous: No doubt the eyes of all the neighbours were upon them, because of the singularity of their religion, and the extraordinary sanctity they professed; and notice would soon be taken of this quarrel, and improvement made of it to their reproach by the Canaanites and Perizzites.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 13:7
“It is a very wicked thing for servants to do ill offices between relations and neighbours, and to sow discord; those that do so are the devil's agents and their masters' worst enemies. The aggravation of the quarrel was that the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land; this made the quarrel, 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Lot Chooses the Jordan Plain
Genesis 13:8-9
let there be no contention: Abram holds the promise and the years, and he hands the first choice to his nephew. He calls Lot his brother, a wide word for an uncle and a nephew, and he uses it to end the quarrel. The whole land is set before Lot, left or right. Abram gives up his right to a kinsman.
Genesis 13:8
“There was all the reason in the world that Abram should choose first; yet he recedes from his right. Note, It is a noble conquest to be willing to yield for peace' sake; it is the conquest of ourselves, and our own pride and passion, Matt. v. 39, 40 . It is not only the punctilios of honour, but even interest itself, that in many cases must be sacrificed to peace.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 13:8
“Abraham made the division, because "the territory"—says Scripture—"was insufficient to contain them both," because they were too rich. It is a worldly vice that land is always insufficient for the rich. Nothing satisfies the greed of the rich. The richer one is, the more greedily one desires possessions. The rich man is eager to extend the boundaries of his field, to exclude his neighbor. Is this what Abraham was like? Not at all, although at the beginning he too was imperfect. For where could perfection have come from before the coming of Christ?”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
Genesis 13:8
“For we be brethren - We are of the same family, worship the same God in the same way, have the same promises, and look for the same end. Why then should there be strife? If it appear to be unavoidable from our present situation, let that situation be instantly changed, for no secular advantages can counterbalance the loss of peace.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Is not the whole land before you?: Henry hears Abram asking why the two of them should quarrel over land while the whole land lay before them. He wants them to separate as brothers. Clarke traces the offer to the love of Abram for the son of his brother Haran.
Genesis 13:9
“Is not the whole land before thee - As the patriarch or head of the family, Abram, by prescriptive right, might have chosen his own portion first, and appointed Lot his; but intent upon peace, and feeling pure and parental affection for his nephew, he permitted him to make his choice first.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 13:9
“As if he had said, "Why should we quarrel for room, while there is room enough for us both?" (1.) He concludes that they must part, and is very desirous that they should part friends: Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 13:10-11
the whole plain of the Jordan: Lot decides by looking, and what he sees is water, the whole plain of the Jordan well watered as far as Zoar. The writer measures it by the garden of the LORD and by the land of Egypt. Then he gives the end before Lot has chosen, that the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The same looking and taking runs back to Eve at 3:6.
Genesis 13:10
“Like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar - There is an obscurity in this verse which Houbigant has removed by the following translation: Ea autem, priusquam Sodomam Gornorrhamque Do minus delerit, erat, qua itur Segor, tota irrigua, quasi hortus Domini, et quasi terra Aegypti. “But before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was, as thou goest to Zoar, well watered, like the garden of the Lord, and like the land of Egypt.””
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 13:10
“While he lived among them, he vexed his righteous soul with their conversation, and never had a good day with them, till, at last, God fired the town over his head, and forced him to the mountain for safety who chose the plain for wealth and pleasure. Note, Sensual choices are sinful choices, and seldom speed well.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 13:10
“Haughtiness is the companion of those who deviate from the truth. In fact, as Abraham was quite humble in that he offered the choice, so Lot was rather insolent in presuming to choose. Virtue humbles itself, whereas wickedness becomes arrogant. Lot should rather have relied on one more wise than he, to be on the safe side. Indeed, he did not have the knowledge to make a choice.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · ON ABRAHAM 2.6.33patristic
Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself: Clarke faults Lot, who took the first choice for himself and left Abram the rest of the land. Ambrose reads the name Lot as turning aside. Henry notes that the man who chose the plain of the Jordan for its wealth fled at last to the mountains to save his life.
Genesis 13:11
“How appropriately then Scripture says, "Lot," that is, deviation, "chose for himself." Indeed, God has placed before us good and evil, so that each may choose what he wishes. Let us not then choose that which is more pleasing at first sight but that which is truly better, so that, having been granted the ability to choose what is preferable, we lift up our eyes and be attracted by false beauty while we leave concealed the truth of nature, as one who looks the other way.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 13:11
“Then Lot chose him all the plain - A little civility or good breeding is of great importance in the concerns of life. Lot either had none, or did not profit by it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 13:12-13
pitched his tent toward Sodom: The move happens by degrees. He pitches his tent toward Sodom here, lives in Sodom by 14:12, and sits in the gate of Sodom by 19:1, where a city did its business and gave its judgments. The next verse says what the place was, that the men of Sodom sinned greatly against the LORD. Peter still calls him righteous Lot at 2 Peter 2:7.
Genesis 13:12
“Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan,.... In that part of the land strictly so called, where the family of the Canaanites had their abode; for otherwise taking Canaan in a more general sense, the plain of Jordan, and cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, were in the land of Canaan.”
the men of Sodom were wicked: Clarke derives the word for wicked from a root that means to break in pieces, men who broke down right and wrong. Henry reads sinning greatly against the LORD as sin done openly before the LORD. The men of Sodom meet the LORD in chapter 19.
Genesis 13:13
“The men of Sodom were wicked - רעים raim, from רע, ra, to break in pieces, destroy, and afflict; meaning persons who broke the established order of things, destroyed and confounded the distinctions between right and wrong, and who afflicted and tormented both themselves and others.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 13:13
“Though all are sinners, yet some are greater sinners than others. The men of Sodom were sinners of the first magnitude, sinners before the Lord, that is, impudent daring sinners; they were so to a proverb.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Look North, South, East, and West
Genesis 13:14-15
lift up your eyes: God tells Abram to lift up his eyes, the same thing Lot did for himself four verses earlier, and He says it only after Lot has gone. Lot took one plain, and Abram is told to look north and south and east and west, with all of it given to him. The grant runs to Abram and his offspring forever. Stephen says at Acts 7:5 that God gave him no ground of his own in it.
Genesis 13:14
“And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him,.... The Lord appeared unto him as he had before, and with an articulate voice spoke unto him, to comfort him upon the separation of his kinsman from him, and to renew the grant of the land of Canaan to him and his seed, and to assure him, that though Lot had chosen the most delightful and fruitful part of the country, yet it should not be an inheritance to him and his posterity, but the whole land should be Abraham's and his seed's.”
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 13:14
“The Lord said unto Abram - It is very likely that the angel of the covenant appeared to Abram in open day, when he could take a distinct view of the length and the breadth of this good land. The revelation made Gen 15:5, was evidently made in the night; for then he was called to number the stars, which could not be seen but in the night season: here he is called on to number the dust of the earth, Gen 13:16, which could not be seen but in the day-light.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 13:14
“The prospects of an eye of faith are much more rich and beautiful than those of an eye of sense. Those for whom the heavenly Canaan is designed in the other world have sometimes, by faith, a comfortable prospect of it in their present state; for we look at the things that are not seen, as real, though distant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
all the land that you see: Clarke reads the land given to Abram and his offspring as a gift that passes to his offspring, held by them until Christ came. Henry takes forever as pointing past the land to a better country, Hebrews 11. Abram himself holds all the land as a promise.
Genesis 13:15
“To thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever - This land was given to Abram, that it might lineally and legally descend to his posterity; and though Abram himself cannot be said to have possessed it, Act 7:5, yet it was the gift of God to him in behalf of his seed; and this was always the design of God, not that Abram himself should possess it, but that his posterity should, till the manifestation of Christ in the flesh.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 13:16-17
like the dust of the earth: The offspring are measured three times in Abraham's story, dust here, the stars at 15:5, and the sand on the seashore at 22:17. Then he is told to get up and walk the land through its length and breadth, which was how a man took possession of ground in that world. Hebrews 11:13 says the patriarchs died in faith without receiving what was promised. The land is given by word first.
Genesis 13:16
“Note, The same God that provides the inheritance provides the heirs. He that has prepared the holy land prepares the holy seed; he that gives glory gives grace to make meet for glory.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 13:16
“They were so in Solomon's time, 1 Kings iv, 20. Judah and Israel were many as the land which is by the sea in multitude. This God here gives him the promise of.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
walk around the land, through its length and breadth: Henry reads the command to walk around the land in two ways, to see the land for himself and to live in it as one who has no fixed place there. Abram moved his tent at once. He walked the land through its length and breadth and owned none of it.
Genesis 13:17
“God bade him walk through the land, that is, "Do not think of fixing in it, but expect to be always unsettled, and walking through it to a better Canaan:" in compliance with God's will herein, he removes his tent, confirming himself to the condition of a pilgrim.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Abram moved his tent: He settles by the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron and builds a third altar, after Shechem at 12:7 and Bethel at 12:8. Hebron holds the one piece of ground he ever buys, the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron, paid for with four hundred shekels of silver in chapter 23. The man given the whole land pays for a grave.
Genesis 13:18
“Abram removed his tent - Continued to travel and pitch in different places, till at last he fixed his tent in the plain, or by the oak, of Mamre, see Gen 12:6, which is in Hebron; i.e., the district in which Mamre was situated was called Hebron. Mamre was an Amorite then living, with whom Abram made a league, Gen 14:13; and the oak probably went by his name, because he was the possessor of the ground.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a quarrel ended by the elder man receding from his own right for the sake of peace, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Two men lifting their eyes | Lot looks out at verse 10 and takes what he sees, and at verse 14, after Lot has gone, the LORD tells Abram to lift up his eyes and look in four directions. The site's published exposition of verses 14 and 15 sets the two lookings side by side and notes that Lot took one plain while Abram was given all of it. Matthew Henry reads the second looking as the eye of faith, whose prospects are richer than those of the eye of sense, since what it looks at is real though distant.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 13:14. | Genesis 13:10, Genesis 13:14 |
| The land measured out in every direction | Verse 14 names the four directions one by one and verse 17 sends Abram through the length and the breadth of the land, which the site's published exposition of verses 16 and 17 notes was how a man took possession of ground in that world. Adam Clarke marks the hour of the two promises by what each one asks Abram to count: here he is called to number the dust of the earth, which can only be seen by daylight, while at 15:5 he is called to number the stars, which shows that revelation was made at night.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 13:14. | Genesis 13:14, Genesis 13:16, Genesis 13:17 |
| Back to the altar, on to the next altar | The chapter begins with Abram returning to the ground he had camped on between Bethel and Ai, to the site of the altar he built there, and calling on the LORD by name, and it ends with him settling by the oaks of Mamre near Hebron and building another altar. John Gill holds that at verse 4 he came to the place of the altar rather than to the altar itself, since it had fallen or been destroyed while he was away. Adam Clarke notes that Mamre was an Amorite then living, with whom Abram made a league at 14:13, and that the oak probably carried his name because he owned the ground.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 13:18. | Genesis 13:3, Genesis 13:4, Genesis 13:18 |
| The uncle who calls his nephew brother | The only human speech in the chapter is Abram's at verses 8 and 9, and he opens it by calling Lot his brother, a wide family word for an uncle and a nephew. Adam Clarke reads the word as the whole argument: they are of one family, worship the same God in the same way, hold the same promises and look for the same end, so if their situation makes strife unavoidable the situation must be changed, since no secular advantage counterbalances the loss of peace. Matthew Henry hears the same reasoning behind the offer, that there is room enough for both and no cause to quarrel for room.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 13:8. | Genesis 13:8, Genesis 13:9 |
The debate over Lot's choice
13 more paragraphs on the patterns
The text records the choice and passes no sentence on the man who made it, and the commentators divide over how hard to press it.
Matthew Henry reads it as a sin of the senses. He holds that sensual choices are sinful choices and seldom speed well, and he follows the outcome to its end, that Lot vexed his righteous soul among the men of Sodom, never had a good day with them, and was at last driven to the mountain for safety by the fire that fell on the town he had chosen for wealth and pleasure. The strength of the reading is that the chapter itself supplies the end before the choice, since verse 10 tells the reader what became of the plain before it tells him what Lot decided.
Adam Clarke presses manners rather than morals. He notes that Abram, as head of the family, might by prescriptive right have chosen first, and says of Lot that a little civility is of great importance in the concerns of life, and that Lot either had none or did not profit by it. The strength of that reading is that it keeps to what the text shows, a younger man taking the best of an offer he should not have received. The objection is that the chapter never rebukes him and the second letter of Peter calls him righteous Lot at 2 Peter 2:7, which the site's published exposition of verses 12 and 13 records.
A third reading holds the choice to be a plain transaction that the text reports without blame, and finds the chapter's interest in Abram's yielding rather than in Lot's taking. Its ground is the shape of the passage, which spends its weight on the offer at verses 8 and 9 and on the promise at verses 14 to 17. The objection is the narrator's own aside at verse 13 about the men of Sodom, which sits between the choice and the promise and colours both.
The debate over Abram's wealth
Matthew Henry reads great possessions as a weight. He lists the burden of care in getting them, fear in keeping them, temptation in using them, guilt in abusing them, sorrow in losing them and a final account to give of them, and holds that they make men heavy and unwieldy, while granting that Abram was rich in faith and in the promises as well as in cattle and in silver and gold.
John Calvin answers that line of teaching directly. He holds that many fanatics shut rich men out from the hope of salvation, as though poverty were the only gate of heaven, when poverty sometimes involves men in more hindrances than riches do, and he cites Augustine's wiser teaching that the rich and the poor are gathered into the same inheritance of life, since poor Lazarus was received into the bosom of rich Abraham. The strength of Calvin's position is that the chapter treats Abram's wealth as a fact and a blessing, and that the man he was carried into the next world was poor.
Adam Clarke takes a third line, that the wealth was a sign. He reads the property as God fulfilling His promises by protecting Abram and giving him a great profusion of temporal blessings, which were to him signs and pledges of spiritual things, and he reports Josephus saying that part of the property was acquired by teaching the Egyptians arts and sciences. The objection that runs against all three is the chapter's own plot, since the wealth is what divides the family in verse 6.
The New Testament's use
The apostles use this chapter twice and a commentator's reading joins a third passage to it.
The site's published exposition of verses 14 and 15 records Stephen's statement at Acts 7:5 that God gave Abraham no ground in the land, which is set against the grant of all the land in this chapter, and Adam Clarke reads the two together at verse 15: the land was given to Abram so that it might lineally and legally descend to his posterity, and the design was that his offspring should hold it rather than the man himself.
The site's published exposition of verses 12 and 13 records that Peter calls him righteous Lot at 2 Peter 2:7, a verdict passed on the man whose tent is pitched toward Sodom here.
John Calvin brings a third passage in as an argument rather than as a citation, reading the rich Abraham of Luke's parable, into whose bosom poor Lazarus was received, as the answer to those who bar rich men from salvation.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 13:9; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 13:7 and Matthew Henry.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, On Abraham; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.