1So Abram and his wife and all his possessions left Egypt and went to the Negreb and Lot went with him.
2Abram was now very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
3He journeyed on from the Negreb in stages towards Bethel, to the place where he had earlier pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai
4and had set up the alter to worship the Lord .
5Lot, who went with Abram, also had so many flocks and herds and tents
6that the land was not fertile enough to support them both. They had too many animals to live in the same place.
7At that time, the Canaanites and Perizzites were living in the land. So when there was a quarrel between Lot’s herdsmen and Abram’s herdsmen,
8Abram said to Lot, “There should be no quarrels between me and you, or between my herdsmen and yours, because we are relatives.
9Is not the whole land before you? Let’s separate. If you go to the left, then I will go to the right; or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
10Then Lot looked about and saw that all the plain of the Jordan, as far as Zoar, was well watered everywhere, like a garden of the Lord . (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
11So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan and went on to the east; and they separated from one another.
12Abram lived in the land of Canaan and Lot lived in the cities of the plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
13(But the men of Sodom were very wicked and sinned against the Lord .)
14The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had gone away from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward, southward, eastward and westward,
15for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever.
16I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth, so that if someone could count the dust of the earth, then your descendants could also be counted.
17Rise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
18Then Abram moved his tent and lived in the oak grove of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar to the Lord .