Genesis 13:1-5

Abram’s Solution to the Strife

13:1 So Abram went up from Egypt into the Negev. He took his wife and all his possessions with him, as well as Lot. 13:2 (Now Abram was very wealthy in livestock, silver, and gold.)

13:3 And he journeyed from place to place from the Negev as far as Bethel. He returned to the place where he had pitched his tent at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai. 13:4 This was the place where he had first built the altar, and there Abram worshiped the Lord. 10 

13:5 Now Lot, who was traveling 11  with Abram, also had 12  flocks, herds, and tents.


tn Or “the South [country]” (also in v. 3).

sn Negev is the name for the southern desert region in the land of Canaan.

tn Heb “And Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all which was his, and Lot with him, to the Negev.”

tn Heb “heavy.”

tn This parenthetical clause, introduced by the vav (ו) disjunctive (translated “now”), provides information necessary to the point of the story.

tn Heb “on his journeys”; the verb and noun combination means to pick up the tents and move from camp to camp.

map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

tn The words “he returned” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

tn Heb “where his tent had been.”

tn Heb “to the place of the altar which he had made there in the beginning” (cf. Gen 12:7-8).

10 tn Heb “he called in the name of the Lord.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 4:26; 12:8; 21:33; 26:25). See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116, 281.

11 tn Heb “was going.”

12 tn The Hebrew idiom is “to Lot…there was,” the preposition here expressing possession.