Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

13:1-18
cities, as also Kyle’s in to substantiate.
But at the same time it a less of a blight
settled upon the whole hor goes on to
describe that it once was as ‘the garden of Yahweh,’ by
which he must mean the garden of Eden which was in a
special sense Yahweh’s handiwork. , ,The comparison must
have been suitable, else Moses would not have used it. It
is true that, nevertheless, the simile i4 a bit” strong. Conse-
quently, it is toned down by a s nd simile that has a
fine propriety about it from another poiqt of view: ‘as
the land of Egypt.’ . . . The special propriety of this
latter simile lies in this, that the region is like Egypt in
that a deeper lying river winds through a fertile plain en-
closed by mountains of either side.” See Gen, 14:3, 8, 10,
also (JB, 29, n.) : “The author imagines the Dead Sea as
not yet in existence; or else the Valley of Siddim (the
name is not met with elsewhere) occupied only what is
now the southern part of the Dead Sea, a depression of
relatively recent formation.”
V. 12, K.J.V. The old version is so much more force-
ful here: “Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched
his tent toward Sodom.” What tragedy lay in this last
statement, as strongly intimated in v. 13! Cf. JB (29) :
“Lot chooses a life of ease and a region where immorality
flourishes; for this he will be heavily punished, ch. 19.
But the generosity of Abraham in leaving his nephew the
choice is to be rewarded by a renewal of the promise of
12:7.” The choice of this present world above God in-
evitably leads to Divine judgment, just as it did when Lot
chose to pitch his tent tward Sodom (18:20-21, 19:4-11).
Abram’s Reward (vv. 14-18). Smith-Fields (OTH,
69, 70): Abram “now began to feel the evils of prosperity.
The-land could not support his own cattle and Lot’s. Their
herdsmen quarreled, and Lot probably put forward his
rights as ,head of the family. Abram’s faith did not fail
this time. Remembering that he was ‘the heir of better
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