Abraham and Lot Separate
Abram let Lot choose first. Lot chose the well-watered plain near Sodom, and God gave Abram all the land his eyes could see.
After returning from Egypt, Abram and his nephew Lot had grown so rich in flocks, herds, and tents that the land could not bear them both, and strife broke out between their herdmen. Abram, the elder, gave up his right to choose first: 'Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.' Lot lifted up his eyes, saw that the plain of Jordan was well watered everywhere, and chose it for himself, pitching his tent toward Sodom, whose men were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly. Then God told Abram to look northward, southward, eastward, and westward, promising all the land he could see to him and to his seed for ever, and Abram moved to the plain of Mamre in Hebron and built an altar there. The story sets a choice made by sight beside a life lived by promise.
Did You Know?
The quarrel began because 'the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together.'
Lot's choice took him first toward Sodom and then into it, where he was living when he was taken captive in Genesis 14.
Right after the separation, God promised Abram a seed as countless as the dust of the earth.
Key Passage
Abraham and Lot Separate
Genesis 13:5-18
5nd Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
Meanwhile in the World
Egypt's Old Kingdom builds the pyramids (c. 2600-2100 BC). Mesopotamia is dominated by Akkad and then Ur III. The Indus Valley civilization flourishes. Stonehenge is being constructed in Britain. This is the era of the great ziggurats and the first law codes (Ur-Nammu).