10 And Lot lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the whole circuit of the Jordan that it `is' all a watered country (before Jehovah's destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, as Jehovah's garden, as the land of Egypt,) in thy coming toward Zoar,
and the south, and the circuit of the valley of Jericho, the city of palms, unto Zoar.
For Jehovah hath comforted Zion, He hath comforted all her wastes, And He setteth her wilderness as Eden, And her desert as a garden of Jehovah, Joy, yea, gladness is found in her, Confession, and the voice of song.
Before it consumed hath fire, And after it burn doth a flame, As the garden of Eden `is' the land before it, And after it a wilderness -- a desolation! And also an escape there hath not been to it,
they have made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, which `is' Zoar.
And Jehovah God planteth a garden in Eden, at the east, and He setteth there the man whom He hath formed; and Jehovah God causeth to sprout from the ground every tree desirable for appearance, and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river is going out from Eden to water the garden, and from thence it is parted, and hath become four chief `rivers';
In Eden, the garden of God, thou hast been, Every precious stone thy covering, Ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle, and gold, The workmanship of thy tabrets, and of thy pipes, In thee in the day of thy being produced, have been prepared.
In the circuit of the Jordan hath the king cast them, in the thick soil of the ground, between Succoth and Zarthan.
And much cattle hath been to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad, very many; and they see the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, and lo, the place `is' a place `for' cattle; and the sons of Gad, and the sons of Reuben, come in and speak unto Moses, and unto Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the company, saying: `Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon -- the land which Jehovah hath smitten before the company of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle.' And they say, `If we have found grace in thine eyes, let this land be given to thy servants for a possession; cause us not to pass over the Jordan.' And Moses saith to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, `Do your brethren go in to the battle, and ye -- do ye sit here? and why discourage ye the heart of the sons of Israel from passing over unto the land which Jehovah hath given to them? `Thus did your fathers in my sending them from Kadesh-Barnea to see the land; and they go up unto the valley of Eshcol, and see the land, and discourage the heart of the sons of Israel so as not to go in unto the land which Jehovah hath given to them; and the anger of Jehovah burneth in that day, and He sweareth, saying, They do not see -- the men who are coming up out of Egypt from a son of twenty years and upward -- the ground which I have sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, for they have not been fully after Me; save Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua son of Nun, for they have been fully after Jehovah; and the anger of Jehovah burneth against Israel, and He causeth them to wander in the wilderness forty years, until the consumption of all the generation which is doing the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah. `And lo, ye have risen in the stead of your fathers, an increase of men -- sinners, to add yet to the fury of the anger of Jehovah toward Israel; when ye turn back from after Him, then He hath added yet to leave him in the wilderness, and ye have done corruptly to all this people.' And they come nigh unto him, and say, `Folds for the flock we build for our cattle here, and cities for our infants; and we -- we are armed hasting before the sons of Israel till that we have brought them in unto their place; and our infants have dwelt in the cities of defence because of the inhabitants of the land; we do not turn back unto our houses till the sons of Israel have inherited each his inheritance, for we do not inherit with them beyond the Jordan and yonder, for our inheritance hath come unto us beyond the Jordan at the `sun'-rising.' And Moses saith unto them, `If ye do this thing: if ye are armed before Jehovah for battle, and every armed one of you hath passed over the Jordan before Jehovah, till his dispossessing His enemies from before Him, and the land hath been subdued before Jehovah -- then afterwards ye do turn back, and have been acquitted by Jehovah, and by Israel; and this land hath been to you for a possession before Jehovah. `And if ye do not so, lo, ye have sinned against Jehovah, and know ye your sin, that it doth find you; build for yourselves cities for your infants, and folds for your flock, and that which is going out from your mouth do ye.' And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben speak unto Moses, saying, `Thy servants do as my lord is commanding; our infants, our wives, our cattle, and all our beasts, are there in cities of Gilead, and thy servants pass over, every armed one of the host, before Jehovah, to battle, as my lord is saying.' And Moses commandeth concerning them Eleazar the priest, and Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and Moses saith unto them, `If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben pass over with you the Jordan, every one armed for battle, before Jehovah, and the land hath been subdued before you, then ye have given to them the land of Gilead for a possession; and if they do not pass over armed with you, then they have possessions in your midst in the land of Canaan.' And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answer, saying, `That which Jehovah hath spoken unto thy servants -- so we do; we -- we pass over armed before Jehovah `to' the land of Canaan, and with us `is' the possession of our inheritance beyond the Jordan.' And Moses giveth to them, to the sons of Gad, and to the sons of Reuben, and to the half of the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorite, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land by its cities, in the borders, the cities of the land round about. And the sons of Gad build Dihon, and Ataroth, and Aroer, and Atroth, Shophan, and Jaazer, and Jogbehah, and Beth-Nimrah, and Beth-Haran, cities of defence, and sheepfolds. And the sons of Reuben have build Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim, and Nebo, and Baal-Meon (changed in name), and Shibmah, and they call by `these' names the names of the cities which they have built. And sons of Machir son of Manasseh go to Gilead, and capture it, and dispossess the Amorite, who `is' in it; and Moses giveth Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he dwelleth in it. And Jair son of Manasseh hath gone and captureth their towns, and calleth them `Towns of Jair;' and Nobah hath gone and captureth Kenath, and its villages, and calleth it Nobah, by his own name.
And the woman seeth that the tree `is' good for food, and that it `is' pleasant to the eyes, and the tree is desirable to make `one' wise, and she taketh of its fruit and eateth, and giveth also to her husband with her, and he doth eat;
Love not ye the world, nor the things in the world; if any one doth love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that `is' in the world -- the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the ostentation of the life -- is not of the Father, but of the world,
Because of the cry of Heshbon unto Elealeh, Unto Jahaz they have given their voice, From Zoar unto Horonaim, A heifer of the third `year', For even waters of Nimrim become desolations.
My heart `is' toward Moab, Cry do her fugitives unto Zoar, a heifer of the third `year', For -- the ascent of Luhith -- With weeping he goeth up in it, For, in the way of Horonaim, A cry of destruction they wake up.
And it cometh to pass when he hath brought them out without, that he saith, `Escape for thy life; look not expectingly behind thee, nor stand thou in all the circuit; to the mountain escape, lest thou be consumed.' And Lot saith unto them, `Not `so', I pray thee, my lord; lo, I pray thee, thy servant hath found grace in thine eyes, and thou dost make great thy kindness which thou hast done with me by saving my life, and I am unable to escape to the mountain, lest the evil cleave `to' me, and I have died; lo, I pray thee, this city `is' near to flee thither, and it `is' little; let me escape, I pray thee, thither, (is it not little?) and my soul doth live.' And he saith unto him, `Lo, I have accepted thy face also for this thing, without overthrowing the city `for' which thou hast spoken; haste, escape thither, for I am not able to do anything till thine entering thither;' therefore hath he calleth the name of the city Zoar. The sun hath gone out on the earth, and Lot hath entered into Zoar, and Jehovah hath rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens; and He overthroweth these cities, and all the circuit, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which is shooting up from the ground. And his wife looketh expectingly from behind him, and she is -- a pillar of salt! And Abraham riseth early in the morning, unto the place where he hath stood `before' the face of Jehovah; and he looketh on the face of Sodom and Gomorrah, and on all the face of the land of the circuit, and seeth, and lo, the smoke of the land went up as smoke of the furnace. And it cometh to pass, in God's destroying the cities of the circuit, that God remembereth Abraham, and sendeth Lot out of the midst of the overthrow in the overthrowing of the cities in which Lot dwelt. And Lot goeth up out of Zoar, and dwelleth in the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he hath been afraid of dwelling in Zoar, and he dwelleth in a cave, he and his two daughters.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 13
Commentary on Genesis 13 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Abram, having returned from Egypt to the south of Canaan with his wife and property uninjured, through the gracious protection of God, proceeded with Lot למסּעיו “ according to his journeys ” (lit., with the repeated breaking up of his camp, required by a nomad life; on נסע to break up a tent, to remove, see Exodus 12:37) into the neighbourhood of Bethel and Ai, where he had previously encamped and built an altar (Genesis 12:8), that he might there call upon the name of the Lord again. That ויּקרא (Genesis 13:4) is not a continuation of the relative clause, but a resumption of the main sentence, and therefore corresponds with ויּלך (Genesis 13:3), “ he went...and called upon the name of the Lord there, ” has been correctly concluded by Delitzsch from the repetition of the subject Abram.
But as Abram was very rich ( כּבד , lit., weighty ) in possessions ( מקנה , cattle and slaves ), and Lot also had flocks, and herds, and tents אהלים for אהלים , Ges. §93, 6, 3) for his men, of whom there must have been many therefore, the land did not bear them when dwelling together ( נשׁא , masculine at the commencement of the sentence, as is often the case when the verb precedes the subject, vid., Ges. §147), i.e., the land did not furnish space enough for the numerous herd to graze. Consequently disputes arose between the two parties of herdsmen. The difficulty was increased by the fact that the Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land, so that the space was very contracted. The Perizzites , who are mentioned here and in Genesis 34:30; Judges 1:4, along with the Canaanites, and who are placed in the other lists of the inhabitants of Canaan among the different Canaanitish tribes (Genesis 15:20; Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17, etc.), are not mentioned among the descendants of Canaan (Genesis 10:15-17), and may therefore, like the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, and Rephaim (Genesis 15:19-21), not have been descendants of Ham at all. The common explanation of the name Perizzite as equivalent to פּרזות ארץ ישׁב “inhabitant of the level ground” (Ezekiel 38:11), is at variance not only with the form of the word, the inhabitant of the level ground being called הפּרזי (Deuteronomy 3:5), but with the fact of their combination sometimes with the Canaanites, sometimes with the other tribes of Canaan, whose names were derived from their founders. Moreover, to explain the term “Canaanite,” as denoting “the civilised inhabitants of towns,” or “the trading Phoenicians,” is just as arbitrary as if we were to regard the Kenites, Kenizzites, and the other tribes mentioned Genesis 15:19. along with the Canaanites, as all alike traders or inhabitants of towns. The origin of the name Perizzite is involved in obscurity, like that of the Kenites and other tribes settled in Canaan that were not descended from Ham. But we may infer from the frequency with which they are mentioned in connection with the Hamitic inhabitants of Canaan, that they were widely dispersed among the latter. Vid., Genesis 15:19-21.
To put an end to the strife between their herdsmen, Abram proposed to Lot that they should separate, as strife was unseemly between אחים אנשׁים , men who stood in the relation of brethren, and left him to choose his ground. “ If thou to the left, I will turn to the right; and if thou to the right, I will turn to the left .” Although Abram was the older, and the leader of the company, he was magnanimous enough to leave the choice to his nephew, who was the younger, in the confident assurance that the Lord would so direct the decision, that His promise would be fulfilled.
Lot chose what was apparently the best portion of the land, the whole district of the Jordan, or the valley on both sides of the Jordan from the Lake of Gennesareth to what was then the vale of Siddim. For previous to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, this whole country was well watered, “ as the garden of Jehovah, ” the garden planted by Jehovah in paradise, and “ as Egypt, ” the land rendered so fertile by the overflowing of the Nile, “ in the direction of Zoar .” Abram therefore remained in the land of Canaan, whilst Lot settled in the cities of the plain of the Jordan, and tented (pitched his tents) as far as Sodom. In anticipation of the succeeding history (Gen 19), it is mentioned here (Genesis 13:13), that the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked, and sinful before Jehovah .
After Lot's departure, Jehovah repeated to Abram (by a mental, inward assurance, as we may infer from the fact that אמר “said” is not accompanied by ויּרא “he appeared”) His promise that He would give the land to him and to his seed in its whole extent, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward, and would make his seed innumerable like the dust of the earth. From this we may see that the separation of Lot was in accordance with the will of God, as Lot had no share in the promise of God; though God afterwards saved him from destruction for Abram's sake. The possession of the land is promised עולם עד “ for ever .” The promise of God is unchangeable. As the seed of Abraham was to exist before God for ever, so Canaan was to be its everlasting possession. But this applied not to the lineal posterity of Abram, to his seed according to the flesh, but to the true spiritual seed, which embraced the promise in faith, and held it in a pure believing heart. The promise, therefore, neither precluded the expulsion of the unbelieving seed from the land of Canaan, nor guarantees to existing Jews a return to the earthly Palestine after their conversion to Christ. For as Calvin justly says, “ quam terra in saeculum promittitur, non simpliciter notatur perpetuitas; sed quae finem accepit in Christo .” Through Christ the promise has been exalted from its temporal form to its true essence; through Him the whole earth becomes Canaan (vid., Genesis 17:8). That Abram might appropriate this renewed and now more fully expanded promise, Jehovah directed him to walk through the land in the length of it and the breadth of it. In doing this he came in his “ tenting ,” i.e., his wandering through the land, to Hebron, where he settled by the terebinth of the Amorite Mamre (Genesis 14:13), and built an altar to Jehovah . The term ישׁב (set himself, settled down, sat, dwelt) denotes that Abram made this place the central point of his subsequent stay in Canaan (cf. Genesis 14:13; Genesis 18:1, and Gen 23). On Hebron, see Genesis 23:2.