Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

13;1-18 1
14 And Jehovah said unto
sepawdted from him, Lift up
from the place where thou art, nor4
and eastward und westward: 15 for ull the land which1 thou
seest, to thee will I give it, grid t
I will make thy seed as the dust
man can number the dust of the
also be numbered. 17 Arise, wa
length of it and in the breadth of ib; fm uizto thee will I
give it. 18 And Abram moved his teat, and came and
dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which ’pre @ Hebron, a d
built there an ultar unto Jehovah.
2. The Sepurtrati0.n from Lot
We now find Abram back at Bethel, “the place where
his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
unto the place of the altar”; and we are told that “there
Abram called on the name of Jehovah.’’ We have learned
that this last statement means that he renewed the public
worship of Yahweh on behalf of his household (retinue).
It should be emphasized at this point that wherever Abram
sojourned, there we find the altar, the sacrifice, and the
priest (the patriarch himself) , the elements of Biblical
religion. It is impossible to harmonize this very important
fact with the notion that Abram came out of Ur of the
Chaldees contaminated by pagan idolatry. Abram and
his household are now back at their second stopping-place
after their entrance into the Promised Land.
At this point a matter of some significance takes
place. “The land was not able to bear” the tents, flocks,
and herds of both Abram and Lot. Hence, a separation
became the feasible solution of the problem. Murphy
(MG, 274, 275): “Lot has been hitherto kept in associa-
tion.with Abram by the ties of kinship. But it becomes
gradually manifest that he has an independent interest, and
is no longer disposed to follow the fortunes of the chosen
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