So Abram came back from Egypt into the south country, with his wife and all that belonged to him; Lot, too, went in his company.

Abram was by now the master of rich possessions, with abundance of gold and silver.

He took the same road northwards by which he had come, and reached Bethel, and the place between Bethel and Hai where he had pitched his tent before,

with the altar still standing there, as he had built it, commemorating the Lord’s name.✻

Lot, his companion, had flocks and herds and a camp of his own,

so that there was no room for them to live together on the same land; they could not share a camping-ground, with such great possessions,

and already a quarrel had broken out between Abram’s shepherds and Lot’s. In those days, there were Chanaanites and Pherezites living all around,

and Abram said to Lot, Pray let us have no strife between us two, between my shepherds and thine; are we not brethren?

See, here is the whole land before thee; come, our ways must part. Turn leftwards, and I will keep to the right, or choose the right, and I will go leftwards.

Whereupon Lot looked about him, and the great hollow of Jordan met his eye, well watered, in those days before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha, like the garden of the Lord itself, or the land of Egypt approached by way of Segor.

So Lot chose the hollow of Jordan, and went away to the east, and the two kinsmen parted company.

Abram made his dwelling in the land of Chanaan, while Lot found a home among the cities round Jordan, camping at Sodom.

They were evil folk that lived at Sodom, wicked in the Lord’s sight beyond all measure.

When Abram had parted from Lot, the Lord said to him, Look about thee, turn thy eyes from where thou art to north and south, to east and west.

All the land thou seest I make over to thee, and to thy posterity for ever.

And to that posterity I will grant increase, till it lies like dust on the ground, past all counting.

Up, then, and journey through the land at thy ease, the length and breadth of it; to thee I will give it.

So Abram moved his tent, and went to live by the valley of Mambre,✻ at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.