Chapter 13

He goes back to the Negeb.  It says he was very rich.  God had enriched Abram while he was in Egypt.  He left there with much more than he had entered with, because of Sarai.  This is the same thing that will happen later.  Jacob will enter, but 400 years later, his descendants will leave with the riches of Egypt. 

He goes on from Negeb to the altar he built between Ai and Bethel.  He and Lot are very wealthy in herds and flocks, so much so that there is not enough room for both.  Their herdsmen sort of "war" with each other over grazing land and such - I imagine.  Abram gives Lot first choice, and Lot chooses the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar.  Abram goes to Canaan while Lot settles "among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom".  Sodom's men "...were wicked, great sinners against the Lord."  The map below shows Bethel, where Lot and Abram were in competition.  To the right is south of them, as they looked west, with the Dead Sea and the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Zoar, and at the south end of the Dead Sea, the Valley of Siddim - apparently a very fertile place, and so Lot chose the right.  Abram stays in Canaan, where there are more mountains and highlands and great fertile valleys.

2024 - Don't recall where I found this map.  Notice, however, that it shows roads from Chaldea/Shinar into Israel in the West.  Two routes, one north of the desert, one south.  You can still trace these routes out on Google Earth, but I note that other roads are now the "main" roads. The ancient routes are still visible, they still have roads, but the more modern roads are more direct, likely because there are no longer camels that must be watered in crossing the deserts. 

14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. [Gen 13:14-16 ESV]

These verses are the second time God has promised the land to Abram.  This time, it is to Abram and his offspring forever.  I note that God doesn't say "This is all the land I will give you".  It does say that whatever Abram can see from that spot will belong to him and to his descendants.  Perhaps this is the land that Abram himself controlled, and yet add'l lands will be given to Israel as God looks after it.  This verse is pretty specific that Abram will be given this land:

17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you." [Gen 13:17 ESV]

Abram sets up his tent (establishes a settlement?) near the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron.  He builds a third altar here. 

2021 - So we might assume that Lot's chosen area is "over the horizon" to the south of Hebron.