Abram and his nephew Lot have too many flocks to stay together. Lot chooses the well-watered plain near Sodom. God promises Abram the land and descendants as countless as the dust of the earth.
1 And Abram went up out of Egypt , he, and his wife , and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south .
2 And Abram was very rich in cattle , in silver , and in gold .
3 And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel , unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning , between Bethel and Hai ;
4 Unto the place of the altar , which he had made there at the first : and there Abram called on the name of the LORD .
5 And Lot also, which went with Abram , had flocks , and herds , and tents .
6 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together : for their substance was great , so that they could not dwell together .
7 And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle : and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land .
8 And Abram said unto Lot , Let there be no strife , I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we be brethren .
9 Is not the whole land before thee ? separate thyself , I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand , then I will go to the right ; or if thou depart to the right hand , then I will go to the left .
10 And Lot lifted up his eyes , and beheld all the plain of Jordan , that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah , even as the garden of the LORD , like the land of Egypt , as thou comest unto Zoar .
11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan ; and Lot journeyed east : and they separated themselves the one from the other .
12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan , and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain , and pitched his tent toward Sodom .
13 But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly .
14 And the LORD said unto Abram , after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes , and look from the place where thou art northward , and southward , and eastward , and westward :
15 For all the land which thou seest , to thee will I give it , and to thy seed for ever .
16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth : so that if a man can number the dust of the earth , then shall thy seed also be numbered .
17 Arise , walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
18 Then Abram removed his tent , and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre , which is in Hebron , and built there an altar unto the LORD .