Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are close relatives. ¹ 

If anyone dares to ¹  challenge you, it will not be my doing! Whoever tries to challenge you will be defeated. ² 

idolatry, sorcery, ¹  hostilities, ²  strife, ³  jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, ⁴  factions,

he is conceited and understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in controversies and verbal disputes. This gives rise to envy, dissension, slanders, evil suspicions,

You hide them with you, where they are safe from the attacks ¹  of men; ²  you conceal them in a shelter, where they are safe from slanderous attacks. ³ 

Look, your fasting is accompanied by ¹  arguments, brawls, and fistfights. ²  Do not fast as you do today, trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

You have made our neighbors dislike us, ¹  and our enemies insult us.

Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.

But reject foolish and ignorant ¹  controversies, because you know they breed infighting. ² 

I said, ¹  “Oh, mother, how I regret ²  that you ever gave birth to me! I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land. ³  I have not lent money to anyone and I have not borrowed from anyone. Yet all of these people are treating me with contempt.” ⁴ 

Who has woe? ¹  Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has dullness ²  of the eyes?

for you are still influenced by the flesh. ¹  For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? ² 

These are the waters of Meribah, because the Israelites contended with the Lord, and his holiness was maintained ¹  among them.

They stalk ¹  and lurk; ²  they watch my every step, ³  as ⁴  they prepare to take my life. ⁵ 

They made him angry by the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered ¹  because of them,

Where there is no wood, a fire goes out, and where there is no gossip, ¹  contention ceases. ² 

For ¹  in the wilderness of Zin when the community rebelled against me, you ²  rebelled against my command ³  to show me as holy ⁴  before their eyes over the water – the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.”

You rescue me from a hostile army; ¹  you preserve me as a leader of nations; people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ² 

Like one who grabs a wild dog by the ears, ¹  so is the person passing by who becomes furious ²  over a quarrel not his own.

Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy.