INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 13 This chapter gives an account of the return of Abram from Egypt to the land of Canaan, and to the same place in it he had been before, Genesis 13:1 and of a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, and the occasion of it, Genesis 13:5 which was composed by the prude... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ABRAM WENT UP OUT OF EGYPT,.... That country lying low, and so more easy to be watered by the river Nile, as it was, and Canaan being higher; whither he went, but not till the famine in Canaan ceased: he went out of Egypt, as the Jewish p chronologers say, after he had been there three months; b... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ABRAM WAS VERY RICH,.... He was rich in spiritual things, in faith, and in all other graces, and was an heir of the kingdom of heaven; and in temporal things, as it sometimes is the lot of good men to be, though but rarely, at least to be exceeding rich, as Abram was; or "very heavy" r, as the w... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LOT ALSO, WHICH WENT WITH ABRAM,.... into Egypt, and was now come back with him; HAD FLOCKS, AND HERDS, AND TENTS; flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle, of oxen, asses and camels, and tents for himself and his servants to dwell in, and put his substance in.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LAND WAS NOT ABLE TO BEAR THEM, THAT THEY MIGHT DWELL TOGETHER,.... That part of the country where Abram and Lot were could not afford them room enough for their several tents; or however could not furnish them with sufficient pasturage for their flocks and herds, they were so numerous; at l... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE WAS A STRIFE BETWEEN THE HERDMEN OF ABRAM'S CATTLE AND THE HERDMEN OF LOT'S CATTLE,.... Not between the two masters, but between their servants, their upper servants, that had the care of their herds to feed them, and water them; and it is very probable their strife was about pasturage and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ABRAM SAID UNTO LOT,.... Being either an ear witness himself of the contentions of their servants, or having it reported to him by credible persons, he applied himself to Lot, in order to make peace, being a wise and good man; and though he was senior in years, and superior in substance, and hig... [ Continue Reading ]
[IS] NOT THE WHOLE LAND BEFORE THEE?.... Signifying, that though there were not room and convenience for them both in that part of the country in which they were, yet there were in other parts; and though the land was given to Abram, he did not desire Lot to depart out of it; nay, he sets it all bef... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LOT LIFTED UP HIS EYES,.... He immediately fell in with Abram's proposal, but had not the ingenuity to return back the choice to Abram which he gave him, but took the advantage of it; nor did he show any uneasiness or unwillingness to part from Abram, though so near a relation, and so wise and g... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN LOT CHOSE HIM ALL THE PLAIN OF JORDAN,.... Because of its good pasturage, and because of the plenty of water there; the want of both which was the inconvenience he had laboured under, and had occasioned the strife between his and Abram's servants: AND LOT JOURNEYED EAST, or "eastward"; for the... [ Continue Reading ]
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. AND LOT DWELT IN THE CITIES... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THE MEN OF SODOM [WERE] WICKED,.... Which either he knew not, and so ignorantly made this bad choice, to take up his abode among such very wicked men, which occasioned a great deal of grief, trouble, and vexation to him; or if he knew it, the pleasing prospect of convenience for his cattle, and... [ Continue Reading ]
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 assu... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL THE LAND WHICH THOU SEEST, TO THEE WILL I GIVE IT,.... Not only so much of it as his eye could reach, but all of it, as far as it went, which way soever he looked; and this he gave him to sojourn in now where he pleased, and for his posterity to dwell in hereafter; he gave him the title to i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL MAKE THY SEED AS THE DUST OF THE EARTH,.... An hyperbolical expression denoting the great multitude of Abram's posterity, as they were in the days of Solomon, and as they will be in the latter day; and especially as this may respect all the spiritual seed of Abram, Jews and Gentiles, and... [ Continue Reading ]
ARISE, WALK THROUGH THE LAND,.... And take a survey of it, and see what a land it is, how good and how large, and take possession of it for himself and his, though he was only to be a sojourner in it; and so the Targum of Jonathan adds, and making in it a possession, which in civil law was done by w... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN ABRAM REMOVED [HIS] TENT,.... From the mountain between Bethel and Hai, Genesis 13:3; AND CAME AND DWELT IN THE PLAIN OF MAMRE, or "in the oaks of Mamre" e; in a grove of oaks there, as being shady and pleasant to dwell among or under, and not through any superstitious regard to such trees and... [ Continue Reading ]