ואברם כבד מאד, he was very wealthy both in herds and flocks, as well as in other possessions, all chattels. The attribute כבד for great wealth has been chosen since, seeing it consists of chattels, it is “weighty” in the truest sense of the words. Similar literary formulations are found in Isaiah 1,30 כאלה נובלת עליה, “as a terebinth wilted of its leaf,” the prophet uses the word עלה, leaf, as something descriptive of a small tree like the terebinth whose leaf patterns account for its character. Its leaves make it such an outstanding tree. Similarly, the expression קרועי בגדים. In Samuel II 13,31 “with their clothes rent,” or מגולחי זקן, “shorn of beard,” in Jeremiah 41,5. The adjectives used fit the noun they describe, so here too the adjective כבד “heavy,” fits such metals as silver and gold, so that wealth may be appropriately described in such terms. [The author explains why a simple term such as עשיר, “rich,” was not used instead of the adjective כבד, literally “heavy.” Ed.]

וילך למסעיו, one journey after another; he traveled small distances each time, due to the enormous possessions he had. He continued from a southerly location. The word מנגב means that having already arrived in the south, i.e. Egypt, he now had to travel in a northerly direction to reach the place in the land of Canaan from which he had traveled to Egypt. He now resumed what we had already become familiar with as “his journeys, i.e. in a southerly direction. He continued as far as a place called Beyt El. Eventually, he came to the site of his altar where he gave thanks to G’d for his deliverance from Egypt. He had retraced his steps all the way to Beyt El.

אל מקום המזבח, the Torah details further that Avram did not only return to the mountainous region of which we had been told in 12,8 but that he returned to exactly the place where he had prayed previously. We are to learn from this how important it is for a person to appoint a definitive spot from where to offer his prayers on a regular basis. It is easier to concentrate when one is in familiar surroundings. Now that he had returned to this altar, Avram preached a second time in the name of the Lord, [no doubt telling people of his miraculous escape from Egypt, laden with new riches. Ed.]

וגם ללוט, the word וגם is meant to add that even Lot, who had only been a member of Avram’s entourage, was showered with wealth while Avram stayed in Egypt. [clearly a very short time if G’d punished Pharaoh already on the same night that he had taken Sarai. Ed.]

ההולך את אברם, his new found wealth was due only to the fact that he was an fellow traveler of Avram.

ואהלים, an indication that he had so many chattels that it required many tents to accommodate them. The word אהלים is spelled with the vowel cholem on the letter aleph, as it is also in Samuel I 4,10 and in Deut. 33,18 ויששכר באהליך According to the regular rules of grammar, the letter א in אהל should have the vowel chataf kametz as is the case in Jeremiah 35,7 and in Judges 8,11. Perhaps when the letter א has the vowel cholem, this is an indication that the noun is in a different declination, a declination known as גוזל תולע. [I confess not to know what this is. Ed.]

ולא נשא אותם הארץ, in this instance the noun ארץ is treated as a masculine noun, as it is also in Isaiah 9,18 נעתם ארץ, “the earth was shaken.”

לשבת יחדו, for there was not enough grazing land to support their herds as well as those of the other inhabitants of the land. כי היה, for the possessions of Avram and Lot together was too great. As a result, a quarrel broke out among the respective shepherds. Each group of shepherds wanted to use the same meadows on which to graze their flocks.

ויהי ריב, we already explained the meaning of the words והכנעני אז בארץ on 12,6. In this verse the tribe פריזי has been mentioned which had not been featured previously. This tribe also resided in the region of Beyt El and Ai.

ויאמר...ביני ובינך, if our shepherds keep on quarrelling it will not be long before we start quarrelling ourselves.

הלא כל הארץ לפניך, you have the same options as I have, as no one will object to the area which we will choose to graze our herds on. G’d’s assistance will be at your side on my account, and on account of the fact that you had joined me on my search for the true Creator in order to come closer to Him.

הפרד נאת, from me; seeing that you are in this country on my account and not vice versa, it is up to you to move away. It is not my duty to move away from you and abandon this land to you. Avram considered himself as the principal and his nephew as a mere follower, so that the choice of who would go where was his. He added, that seeing he was a generous person, all the more so when the other person involved was his brother, he therefore offered the choice to Lot.

אם השמאל ואימינה ואם הימין ואשמאילה, what he meant was “if you will move north I will be south of you, whereas if you move south, I will be north of you, in the very location that I am now, which was in the south of the country as we know from 12,9 and 13,3.

ואם הימין, if you prefer to remain here, i.e. in the south, I will be forced to move north from here.

וישא לוט את עיניו, from the mountain where they were staying, as we know from 12,8. Seeing that this was a high point in the country, it afforded Lot an opportunity to survey much of the rest of the country all around him. As a result, he observed כי כלה משקה, that the Jordan valley was very well irrigated. When the Torah uses the word כלה after having already said כל when describing the valley, this is a way of emphasising the word כל still further. We find a similar construction in Isaiah 14,18 כל מלכי גוים כולם, “all the kings of the nations, all of them.”

ככר, a valley; the word occurs in a similar sense in Kings I 7,46 בככר הירדן יצקם, “he had them cast in the valley of the Jordan.” This particular valley was very close to the city of Sodom and prior to that city’s destruction it was known as being “like a garden of G’d.” (19,25) The “garden” people used as the metaphor to describe is was the “garden of Eden.” We know that that garden had been irrigated by four rivers. Alternately, the comparison made here is to Egypt which is thoroughly irrigated by the river Nile.

באכה צוער, all the way to the town of Tzoar. The letter ה at the end of the word באכה, is used in the same way as the same letter in Samuel I 1,26 הנצבת עמכה, “who was standing next to you.” There are other examples of this type in the Holy Scriptures. The letter כ at the beginning of the word ככר is not something that has been added, as many commentators believe, but is similar to that same letter in Leviticus 27,2 בערכך, describing proximity to the priest in that instance, and proximity to the river in this instance. (compare Ibn Ezra on that verse) The Jordan valley was thoroughly irrigated all the way south to Tzoar.

ויבחר לו לוט את כל ככר הירדן, the reference is to one area within the Jordan valley, the use of the word כל here meaning that all the areas within that region were equally good as grazing land for his flocks.

ויסע לוט מקדם, in an easterly direction from the location where he had been with Avram. The river Jordan is east of the land of Canaan, being its eastern boundary. We already explained the letter מ in the word מנגב in 13,3 as meaning “in a southerly direction,” here too the letter מ in the word מקדם means “in an easterly direction.” [the author does not want us to think that the letter מ in either word means “away from,” as if it did the verse would not make sense. Ed.]

ויפרדו איש מעל אחיו, Lot’s traveling towards the Jordan valley resulted in these two brothers separating from one another. Seeing that it was Lot who severed the relationship, it seems strange that the Torah describes it as איש מעל אחיו, “one from another,” as if they were both separating from one another. The Torah describes not the parting, but the result of the parting; after Lot had moved they were in effect apart from one another. Now Avram was a resident of the land of Canaan, whereas Lot had become a resident of the cities in that valley, i.e. he no longer shared Avram’s destiny in the land of Canaan. Even though both were essentially nomads, moving with their herds and flocks, their home bases were different from one another. Lot, although aware of the evil reputation of the people in the cities of that valley, had decided to ignore this, preferring to concentrate on the advantages offered by the land itself.

ויאהל עד סדום, he moved his tent from place to place, almost as far as the city of Sodom.

ואנשי סדום רעים וחטאים, the inhabitants of Sodom were evil and wicked. The word רעים describes their attitude to G’d, whereas the word חטאים describes their attitude to fellow human beings (non-residents.) They ignored all the seven Noachide laws, including idolatry, the other 6 laws dealing with inter-personal relations. The Torah, underlining the severity of these people’s wickedness, adds: מאד, “very much so.” They did not bother to conceal their evil deeds but carried them out in the open, brazenly.

וה' אמר אל אברם, this occurred while Lot was still with him. [otherwise the Torah would have used the mode of the immediate past, i.e. ויאמר. Ed.] If not, you might have thought that Lot and his descendants could also have staked a claim to part of the land of Canaan, seeing he was a blood relative of Avram. Now G’d wanted to correct Avram who had said to Lot in verse 9 “the whole land is in front of you, i.e. at your disposal.” Now that Lot had separated from Avram, away from the land of Canaan, G’d wanted to make certain that His promise to Avraham of the land of Canaan applied exclusively to direct offspring of Avram, not to relatives who were descendants of his father Terach. G’d‘s. words contained an implied criticism of Avram having offered Lot a choice which would have made him owner of part of the land of Canaan, when he had said to him: “if to the left, I will go to the right, and if to the right, I will go to the left.” Both the left and the right, i.e. north and south from where he stood, will be his and his descendants. Also east and west would be his. The reason why G’d mentioned north and south first, was because those were the areas which Avram had spoken to Lot about. In Deuteronomy 20,19 Moses quotes the lands which will be the inheritance of Lot’s descendants.

כי את כל הארץ, even though Avram could not see the whole of the land of Canaan from where he stood, G’d told him to look in all the four directions of the globe to tell him that just as the land extended beyond his range of physical vision in every direction, so G’d would give to his descendants all of this as an inheritance, after at this time already having given it to Avram as a gift. The fact that at the moment this land was under the sovereignty of the Canaanites was legally irrelevant. He, Avram, would transfer title to his descendants as his heirs. [an inheritance cannot be revoked, whereas a gift can be revoked by the donor. Ed.]

עד עולם, they would expel the nations living here from this land. Even though, eventually, the Israelites themselves would be exiled from their land, in the end they would return there on a permanent enduring basis.

ושמתי את זרעך כעפר הארץ, a figure of speech, poetic license, exaggeration. We find more such metaphors, such as in Genesis 22,17 ככוכבי השמים, “as numerous as the stars in heaven.” According to the Midrash Aggadah, Vayetze 25,13 the reason why on occasion the Jewish people and their numbers are compared to dust and on other occasions to the stars, is that when they deserve it they are comparable to the stars in heaven, whereas at times when they do not deserve it, they are compared to the dust of the earth which everyone steps on.

גם זרעך ימנה, if one part of the metaphor comes true so does the other. Just as it is inconceivable to have a world without stars or dust, so it is inconceivable to have a world without Jews. (compare Jeremiah 13,23)

לארכה, according to its length, from east to west; ולרחבה, and to its width from north to south.

ויאהל אברם, he moved his tent from there and pitched it from one place to another until he arrived at Eloney Mamre. This is not the same אלון מורה mentioned in 12,6. The previous place was located in the plain, and the owner of that site was called Moreh. Here we speak of at least two plains belonging to a person called Mamre, the brother of Eshkol and the brother of Aner.

אשר בחברון, within the general area of Chevron.

ויבן שם מזבח, in order to call people to worship the Lord G’d at the altar he had built there. Wherever Avram made a permanent halt, stayed for a period, he used to build an altar and preach in the name of the Lord.