Abram Returns to Canaan: Genesis 13

Genesis 12 told us about how Yahweh called Abram and how Abram obeyed God by traveling to Canaan. That chapter detailed Abram’s journey from Ur of Mesopotamia to the city of Haran, where his father died, and then his journey to Canaan. When in Canaan, Abram built altars to Yahweh outside the ghost cities of Shechem, Bethel, and Ai. By this act he was claiming these territories for Yahweh. At the end of the chapter, Abram has a lapse of faith and migrates to Egypt to survive a bad drought. While there, Pharaoh takes his wife as one of his concubines, and Yahweh afflicts Pharaoh’s household with sickness. This demonstrates Yahweh’s power over the Egyptian gods. Pharaoh is happy to be rid of Abram and to appease Yahweh, so he sends him packing laden down with treasures. 

Genesis 13 serves as a ‘transition piece’ between Abram’s first journeys in Canaan and some high highs and low lows. The next few chapters are outlined as follows:

Genesis 14: The War of Five Kings (where Abram rescues Lot)

   Genesis 15: Yahweh Establishes the Abrahamic Covenant

     Genesis 16: Abram Impregnates a Slave Girl

   Genesis 17: Yahweh Gives Circumcision as Sign of the Covenant

Genesis 18-19: The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

Here we have the poetic structure known as a chiasm, in which attention is drawn to that which is found at the center. The ‘bookends’ of the chiasm are episodes where Abram rescues Lot, and in both the War of the Five Kings and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abram’s intercession results in Lot’s rescue. These stories, however, aren’t the main thrust of the chiasm. The main thrust of the chiasm is the establishment of God’s covenant with Abram (and circumcision as the sign of that covenant) and Abram’s failure to trust in God’s power and promise. It’s good for Abram that Yahweh is gracious and merciful, for he doesn’t reject Abram after he impregnates a slave girl but forgives him and further confirms His covenant with him.  

Genesis 13.1-13: Family Drama

Abram’s entourage came out of Egypt laden with booty. He was ‘very rich’ in livestock, in servants, in silver, and in gold. Before seeking sanctuary from famine in Egypt, Abram had already been wealthy: now he was in the top 1% in ancient Canaan, a man to be reckoned with. He led his people out of Egypt, traveled back into the Negev, and kept heading north until he reached Bethel – a journey of over two hundred miles. Remember that he’d built an altar to Yahweh between the ruined cities of Bethel and Ai. 

"Who were the Perizzites?" Genesis 13.7 tells us that both the Canaanites and ‘Perizzites’ were in the land. Historians aren’t sure who the Perizzites were. It’s possible that they were an ethnic group distinct from the Amorite culture that eventually became Canaanite, but it’s also possible that they this is a sociological term. If this is the case, then the term ‘Canaanite’ may refer to the peoples who lived permanently in Canaan whereas the term ‘Perizzites’ refers to nomadic peoples who passed in and out of the land. Another theory is that these were a race of giants, similar to the Rephaim and Anakim; in support of this theory is Joshua 17.15, which places the Perizzites alongside the Rephaim – a known ‘giant clan’ – as living in the dark forests of Canaan. We will learn more about the giant Rephaim next week. 

Abram and his nephew Lot staked out an encampment near Bethel, but their flocks had grown so large off their Egyptian bounty that the land couldn’t support all of them. In Genesis 13.7 we learn that Abram’s herdsmen ‘quarreled’ with Lot’s herdsmen over access to the best pasturage and water sources. That conflict arose isn’t surprising: livestock needed grazing land and water to survive, and these were rare in the best of times; add onto this the fact that Abram and Lot’s herds had grown significantly larger, and you have a recipe for serious infighting. The Hebrew word used for ‘quarreling’ can imply violence, and so it’s possible that this wasn’t a quarrel of words but an actual outburst of violence. 

Whatever the nature of the herdsmen’s quarrel, it prompted Abram and Lot to meet face-to-face. Bear in mind that Abram’s nephew wasn’t a boy anymore; he was a grown man. Abram lamented the strife developing between their herdsmen and insisted he wanted no part of it, for such strife would color their familial relationship. Abram had a special affection for Lot, as will be evident in the next several chapters. Abram awkwardly suggested they part ways; this would’ve been awkward since they’d been together since leaving Ur. Abram tried to soften the blow by giving Lot the first pick of the land: he’d let his nephew choose the choicest land, and Abram would be content with the lesser land.

Lot climbed the hills around Bethel, and from that vantage point he could see into the Jordan Valley and the northern area of the Dead Sea. Lot decided to shift his flocks to the lush Jordan Valley. It was ‘well-watered everywhere,’ reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and Egypt’s Nile Delta. The text clarifies that this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and virtually ‘salted’ the landscape around the Dead Sea. Lot moved to the Jordan Valley, pitching his tents as far as the ancient city of Sodom. The Bible tells us that ‘the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against Yahweh,’ foretelling the destruction to come. 

Genesis 13.14-18: Another Encounter with Yahweh

By moving into the lush Vale of Siddim, Lot left Canaan proper to Abram. Once Lot and his people had left, Yahweh came to Abram and told him, ‘Look around where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring would be counted.’ In Genesis 12, God had promised the land to Abram’s descendants; now He adds that the land would belong to Abram’s descendants ‘forever.’ In Genesis 12, God had promised that Abram’s descendants would become a great nation; now He adds that Abram’s descendants would be as numerous as ‘the dust of the earth,’ a hyperbolic expression that means his descendants would be far more numerous than a mere ‘great nation.’ God then commands Abram to ‘walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.’

The text implies that Abram obeys God, traveling the length and breadth of Canaan. This is an act not only of discovery but also of warfare: by treading upon the land, inch-by-inch, Abram is not only seeing what God will give him but is claiming the land for Yahweh – and by doing so he’s implying that the gods currently reigning in Canaan will be overthrown. Eventually Abram arrives near the ‘great trees of Mamre’ at the future site of the Israelite city of Hebron (no city existed here in Abram’s time); there he built an altar to Yahweh, which, as we have seen, is a way of him claiming the land for his Yahweh and stripping the title from any other gods who might claim it.

Interestingly, many believe that the 'Oak of Mamre' under which Abram settled remains to this day (though, sadly, it has recently died). While most scholars disabuse the notion that the particular oak lived so long, many have revered it as a holy site. The oak was located near Hebron, Israel: