HE, AND HIS WIFE, AND ALL THAT HE HAD. The purport thereof is to let us know that they did not rob him of any of all the great gifts they gave him on account of Sarah who was to be for the king. They did not say, “You have tricked us, and the gift was given by mistake.” This was a miraculous event.

AND THERE WAS A QUARREL. Rashi wrote, “Because Lot’s shepherds grazed their cattle in other people’s fields, Abram’s shepherds rebuked them for this act of robbery, but they replied, ‘The land has been given to Abram, and he has no [son as an] heir, and so Lot will be his heir. Hence this is not robbery.’ Scripture however states, And the Canaanite and the Perrizite abode then in the land, so that Abram was not yet the legitimate owner.” This is a Midrash of our Rabbis.⁹⁹ But I wonder: The gift of the Land declared to Abram was for his children, as it is said above, Unto thy seed will I give this land,¹⁰⁰ so how can Lot inherit it? Perhaps the shepherds heard of the gift and they mistook its meaning, for Scripture states that in the meantime, the land belonged neither to Abram nor to Lot. Accordingly, the verse stating at the outset, for their possessions were great,¹⁰¹ intended to say that because of their extensive possessions, the land could not support them, and Lot’s shepherds therefore found it necessary to bring their cattle into fields that had owners. This was the cause of the quarrel. By way of the plain meaning of Scripture the quarrel concerned the pasture as the land could not support them both. When Abram’s cattle were grazing in the pasture, Lot’s shepherds would come into their territory and graze their cattle there. Now Abram and Lot were both strangers and sojourners in the land. Abram, therefore, feared that the Canaanite and the Perrizite, who inhabit the land, might hear of the abundance of their cattle, [whose great number was made apparent when Lot’s shepherds encroached on Abram’s land, thereby combining the flocks], and drive them out of the land or slay them by sword and take their cattle and wealth since the mastery of the land belonged to them, not to Abram. This is the purport of the verse, And the Canaanite and the Perrizite. Scripture thus mentioned that there were many peoples dwelling in that land, they and their cattle being innumerable, and the land could not support them and Abram and Lot. From the word oz (then) — [And the Canaanite and the Perrizite abode ‘then’ in the land] — it appears to me that the nations dwelling in the land at that time were those who live in tents and have cattle, some of them converging on one district and grazing there for a year or two and then journeying from there to another district in which they had not previously pastured. And so they continued to do, as is customary among “the children of the east.”¹⁰² The Canaanite and the Perrizite were thus “then” in the land of the south, and in the following years the Jebusite and the Amorite would come there.

footnotes: ⁹⁹ Bereshith Rabbah 41:6. ¹⁰⁰ Above, 12:7. ¹⁰¹ Verse 6 here. ¹⁰² See Judges 6:3.

AS THE GARDEN OF THE ETERNAL, LIKE THE LAND OF EGYPT. The verse states that the whole land of the Plain was adequately irrigated from the Jordan by working with the foot, just as was done with the garden of G-d, concerning which it is stated, And a river went out of Eden to water the garden,¹⁰³ and as is the way in the land of Egypt, concerning which it is stated, And thou didst water it with thy foot.¹⁰⁴ The verse mentions both places: it says that the land of the Plain was as adequately irrigated as the garden of the Eternal, which is the most perfect place on this earth, and it also mentions, like the land of Egypt, a place well known for pasture. Our Rabbis have said,¹⁰⁵, 38. The Sifre is a Tannaitic Midrash on the book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy. “As the garden of the Eternal for trees; Like the land of Egypt — for herbs.” Their intent was to explain that there were large rivers in the Plain, which watered the trees of the gardens, as was the case in the garden of G-d, and that there were also ponds in it, as in the land of Egypt, from which vegetable gardens were watered. Lot chose this part, for a land which is so irrigated is unlikely to suffer from a drought and is good for pasture.

footnotes: ¹⁰³ Above, 2:10. ¹⁰⁴ Deuteronomy 11:10. ¹⁰⁵ Sifre Ekev

ABRAM DWELT IN THE LAND OF CANAAN. The meaning thereof is that he dwelt in the remainder of the entire land of Canaan; he did not stay in one place but abode in the entire land of Canaan while Lot settled in one place thereof, namely, the cities of the Plain, for the cities of the Plain are part of the land of Canaan. The meaning of [the plural “cities” in the expression, and Lot dwelt in] the cities of the Plain, is that he dwelt for a time in this city and a time in the other on account of his many cattle. This is the reason that the verse says, *So Lot chose him all the plain of the Jordan;*¹⁰⁶ he made a condition with Abram that he [Abram] should not come into the entire Plain.

footnotes: ¹⁰⁶ Verse 11 here.

NOW THE MEN OF SODOM WERE WICKED AND SINNERS. The purport thereof, as Rashi wrote, is that Scripture accuses Lot for not restraining himself from dwelling with them and also speaks of the merit of the righteous one [Abraham] whose lot did not fall in a place of wickedness for the rod of wickedness shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous.¹⁰⁷ And all the cities of the Plain were wicked and sinners against the Eternal exceedingly. This was why they alone were overthrown even though all the Canaanites were people of great abominations, for so it is written.¹⁰⁸

footnotes: ¹⁰⁷ Psalms 125:3. ¹⁰⁸ Leviticus 18:3.

ARISE, WALK THROUGH THE LAND IN THE LENGTH AND IN THE BREADTH OF IT. It is possible that this is a matter of option, depending on his will.¹⁰⁹ The Eternal thus told Abraham, “Go wherever you wish to go in the land for I will be with you and guard you from the evil of the nations, for unto thee will I give it, that is to say, the land will be yours.” And if it be a command that Abraham should traverse the length and breadth of the land in order to take possession of his gift, as I have explained,¹¹⁰ he was not commanded to do this immediately. He did so ultimately for he was now in the east, and afterwards he went to the land of the Philistines which is in the west, and thus he fulfilled the command during his lifetime. The meaning of the expression, to thee… and to thy children,¹¹¹ is that you are to take possession of the gift now, in order to transmit it to your children, even as our Rabbis have said:¹¹² “The land of Israel is an inheritance to the people of Israel from their patriarchs.” By way of the plain meaning of Scripture, it is possible that the meaning of the verse is that Abraham was to be a ruler over the land and a prince of G-d in its midst,¹¹³ wherever he will go in this land.

footnotes: ¹⁰⁹ It is not a command that he go through the entire land, rather it is a promise that he need not fear whenever and wherever he will go. ¹¹⁰ Above, 12:6. ¹¹¹ Verse 15 here. ¹¹² Baba Bathra 119b. ¹¹³ See Genesis 23:6.