the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Genesis 13:18
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So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord .
And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar to Yahweh.
So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord .
So Abram moved his tents and went to live by the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, and he built an altar to the Lord there.
Then Abram removed [his] tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which [is] in Hebron, and built there an altar to the LORD.
Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.
Therfor Abram, mouynge his tabernacle, cam and dwellide bisidis the valei of Mambre, which is in Ebron; and he bildide there an auter to the Lord.
And Abram tenteth, and cometh, and dwelleth among the oaks of Mamre, which [are] in Hebron, and buildeth there an altar to Jehovah.
So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
Abram took down his tents and went to live near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar in honor of the Lord .
Avram moved his tent and came to live by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hevron. There he built an altar to Adonai .
And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto Jehovah.
And Abram, moving his tent, came and made his living-place by the holy tree of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and made an altar there to the Lord.
Then Abram taking downe his tent, came and dwelled in the playne of Mamre, which is in Hebron, & buylded there an aulter vnto the Lorde.
Then Abram moved [his] tents, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron. And he built there an altar to Jehovah.
So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the big trees of Mamre. This was near the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to honor the Lord .
And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the terebinths of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
Then Abram remoued his tent, and came and dwelt in the plaine of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar vnto the LORD.
Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord .
Then Abram moved his tent and came to live among the oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.
So Abram moved his tent, and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord .
So Abram moved his tent and came in and dwelt among the oaks of Mamre, which were in Hebron, - and built there an altar to Yahweh.
Then Abram remoued his tent, and came and dwelled in the plaine of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and builded there an altar vnto ye Lorde.
Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt by the oak of Mamre which is in Hebron, and built there an altar to the LORD
So Abram moved his camp and settled near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord .
So Abram removing his tent, came, and dwelt by the vale of Mambre, which is in Hebron: and he built there an altar to the Lord.
So Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the LORD.
And Abram having removed his tent, came and dwelt by the oak of Mambre, which was in Chebrom, and he there built an altar to the Lord.
And Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord.
Avram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hevron, and built an altar there to the LORD.
So Abram pitched his tent, and he came and settled at the oaks of Mamre, which were at Hebron. And there he built an altar to Yahweh.
Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived among the oaks of Mamre, which were in Hebron; and he built an altar to Jehovah there.
So Abram remoued his tent, and wente and dwelt in ye Okegroue of Mamre, which is in Ebron, and buylded there an altare vnto the LORDE.
Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God .
Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron; and there he built an altar to the LORD.
18 Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, [fn] which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord.
So Abram moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. There he built another altar to the Lord .
Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.
Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to Yahweh.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
plain: Heb. plains
Mamre: Genesis 14:13, Genesis 18:1
Hebron: Genesis 23:2, Genesis 35:27, Genesis 37:14, Numbers 13:22, Joshua 14:13
altar: Genesis 13:4, Genesis 8:20, Genesis 12:7, Genesis 12:8, Psalms 16:8, 1 Timothy 2:8
Reciprocal: Genesis 26:25 - builded Genesis 33:20 - altar Exodus 6:3 - Jehovah Joshua 10:36 - Hebron Hebrews 11:9 - dwelling
Cross-References
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every [ceremonially] clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
where he had first built an altar; and there Abram called on the name of the LORD [in prayer].
And there was strife and quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were living in the land at that same time [making grazing of the livestock difficult].
So Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife and disagreement between you and me, nor between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, because we are relatives.
Then a survivor who had escaped [from the invading forces on the other side of the Jordan] came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now he was living by the terebinths (oaks) of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner—they were allies of Abram.
Now the LORD appeared to Abraham by the terebinth trees of Mamre [in Hebron], while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.
Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
Jacob came to Isaac his father at Mamre of Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had lived temporarily.
Then Jacob said to him, "Please go and see whether everything is all right with your brothers and all right with the flock; then bring word [back] to me." So he sent him from the Hebron Valley, and he went to Shechem.
When they had gone up into the Negev (the South country), they came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai the descendants of Anak were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Then Abram removed [his] tent,.... From the mountain between Bethel and Hai, Genesis 13:3;
and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, or "in the oaks of Mamre" e; in a grove of oaks there, as being shady and pleasant to dwell among or under, and not through any superstitious regard to such trees and places where they grew; which has obtained since among the Heathens, and particularly among the Druids, who have their name from thence. Indeed such superstitions might take their rise from hence, being improved and abused to such purposes; and both Jerom f and Sozomen g speak of the oak of Abram being there in the times of Constantine, and greatly resorted to, and had in great veneration; and they and others make mention of a turpentine tree, which it is pretended sprung from a walking stick of one of the angels that appeared to Abram at this place, greatly regarded in a superstitious way by all sorts of persons: this plain or grove of oaks, here spoken of, was called after a man whose name was Mamre, an Amorite, a friend and confederate of Abram:
which [is] in Hebron; or near it, an ancient city built seven years before Zoan or Tanis in Egypt, Numbers 13:22; it was first called Kirjath Arbab, but, in the times of Moses, Hebron, Genesis 23:2. The place they call the Turpentine, from the tree that grows there, according to Sozomen h, was fifteen furlongs distant from Hebron to the south; but Josephus i says it was but six furlongs, or three quarters of a mile; who speaking of Hebron says,
"the inhabitants of it say, that it is not only more ancient than the cities of that country, but than Memphis in Egypt, and is reckoned to be of 2300 years standing: they report, that it was the habitation of Abram, the ancestor of the Jews, after he came out of Mesopotamia, and that from hence his children descended into Egypt, whose monuments are now shown in this little city, made of beautiful marble, and elegantly wrought; and there is shown, six furlongs from it, a large turpentine tree, which they say remained from the creation to that time.''
A certain traveller j tells us, that the valley of Mamre was about half a mile from old Hebron; from Bethel, whence Abram removed to Mamre, according to Sir Walter Raleigh k, was about twenty four miles; but Bunting l makes it thirty two:
and built there an altar unto the Lord; and gave thanks for the prevention of strife between Lot and him, and for the renewal of the grant of the land of Canaan to him and his seed; and performed all acts of religious worship, which the building of an altar is expressive of.
e ×××× × ×××¨× "juxta quercetum Mamre", Tigurine version, Pagninus, Montanus; so Ainsworth. f De loc. Heb. fol. 87. E. tom. 3. g Eccles. Hist. l. 2. c. 4. p. 447. h lbid. i De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 9. sect. 7. j Baumgarten. Peregrinatio, l. 2. c. 4. p. 79. k History of the World, par. 1. B. 2. sect. 3. p. 132. l Travels, p. 57.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Abram and Lot Separate
7. פר×× perıÌzıÌy, Perizzi, âdescendant of Paraz.â ×¤×¨× paÌraÌz, âleader,â or inhabitant of the plain or open country.
10. ××ר kıÌkar, âcircle, border, vale, cake, talent;â related: âbow, bend, go round, dance.â ×ר×× yardeÌn, Jardan, âdescending.â Usually with the article in prose. צער tsoâar, Tsoâar, âsmallness.â
18. ×××¨× mamreÌ', Mamre, âfat, strong, ruler.â ××ר×× chebroÌn, Chebron, âconjunction, confederacy.â
Lot has been hitherto kept in association with Abram by the ties of kinmanship. But it becomes gradually manifest that he has an independent interest, and is no longer disposed to follow the fortunes of the chosen of God. In the natural course of things, this under-feeling comes to the surface. Their serfs come into collision; and as Abram makes no claim of authority over Lot, he offers him the choice of a dwelling-place in the land. This issues in a peaceable separation, in which Abram appears to great advantage. The chosen of the Lord is now in the course of providence isolated from all associations of kindred. He stands alone, in a strange land. He again obeys the summons to survey the land promised to him and his seed in perpetuity.
Genesis 13:1-4
Went up out of Mizraim. - Egypt is a low-lying valley, out of which the traveler ascends into Arabia Petraea and the hill-country of Kenaan. Abram returns, a wiser and a better man. When called to leave his native land, he had immediately obeyed. Such obedience evinced the existence of the new power of godliness in his breast. But he gets beyond the land of promise into a land of carnality, and out of the way of truth into a way of deceit. Such a course betrays the struggle between moral good and evil which has begun within him. This discovery humbles and vexes him. Self-condemnation and repentance are at work within him. We do not know that all these feelings rise into consciousness, but we have no doubt that their result, in a subdued, sobered, chastened spirit, is here, and will soon manifest itself.
And Lot with him. - Lot accompanied him into Egypt, because he comes with him out of it. The south is so called in respect, not to Egypt, but to the land of promise. It acquired this title before the times of the patriarch, among the Hebrew-speaking tribes inhabiting it. The great riches of Abram consist in cattle and the precious metals. The former is the chief form of wealth in the East. Abramâs flocks are mentioned in preparation for the following occurrence. He advances north to the place between Bethel and Ai, and perhaps still further, according to Genesis 13:4, to the place of Shekem, where he built the first altar in the land. He now calls on the name of the Lord. The process of contrition in a new heart, has come to its right issue in confession and supplication. The sense of acceptance with God, which he had before experienced in these places of meeting with God, he has now recovered. The spirit of adoption, therefore, speaks within him.
Genesis 13:5-7
The collision. Lot now also abounded in the wealth of the East. The two opulent sheiks (elders, heads of houses) cannot dwell together anymore. Their serfs come to strife. The carnal temper comes out among their dependents. Such disputes were unavoidable in the circumstances. Neither party had any title to the land. Landed property was not yet clearly defined or secured by law. The land therefore was in common - wherever anybody availed himself of the best spot for grazing that he could find unoccupied. We can easily understand what facilities and temptations this would offer for the strong to overbear the weak. We meet with many incidental notices of such oppression Genesis 21:25; Genesis 26:15-22; Exodus 2:16-19. The folly and impropriety of quarreling among kinsmen about pasture grounds on the present occasion is enhanced by the circumstance that Abram and Lot are mere strangers among the Kenaanites and the Perizzites, the settled occupants of the country.
Custom had no doubt already given the possessor a prior claim. Abram and Lot were there merely on sufferance, because the country was thinly populated, and many fertile spots were still unoccupied. The Perizzite is generally associated with, and invariably distinguished from, the Kenaanite Genesis 15:20; Genesis 34:30; Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17. This tribe is not found among the descendants of Kenaan in the table of nations. They stand side by side with them, and seem therefore not to be a subject, but an independent race. They may have been a Shemite clan, roaming over the land before the arrival of the Hamites. They seem to have been by name and custom rather wanderers or nomads than dwellers in the plain or in the villages. They dwelt in the mountains of Judah and Ephraim Judges 1:4; Joshua 17:15. They are noticed even so late as in the time of Ezra Ezra 9:1. The presence of two powerful tribes, independent of each other, was favorable to the quiet and peaceful residence of Abram and Lot, but not certainly to their living at feud with each other.
Genesis 13:8-9
The strife among the underlings does not alienate their masters. Abram appeals to the obligations of brotherhood. He proposes to obviate any further difference by yielding to Lot the choice of all the land. The heavenly principle of forbearance evidently holds the supremacy in Abramâs breast. He walks in the moral atmosphere of the sermon on the mount Matthew 5:28-42.
Genesis 13:10-13
Lot accepts the offer of his noble-hearted kinsman. He cannot do otherwise, as he is the companion, while his uncle is the principal. He willingly concedes to Abram his present position, and, after a lingering attendance on his kinsman, retires to take the ground of self-dependence. Outward and earthly motives prevail with him in the selection of his new abode. He is charmed by the well-watered lowlands bordering on the Jordan and its affluents. He is here less liable to a periodical famine, and he roams with his serfs and herds in the direction of Sodom. This town and Amorah (Gomorrah), were still flourishing at the time of Lotâs arrival. The country in which they stood was of extraordinary beauty and fertility. The River Jordan, one of the sources of which is at Panium, after flowing through the waters of Merom, or the lake Semechonitis (Huleh), falls into the Sea of Galilee or Kinnereth, which is six hundred and fifty-three feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and thence descends into the basin of the Salt Sea, which is now thirteen hundred and sixteen feet beneath the same level, by a winding course of about two hundred miles, over twenty-seven threatening rapids.
This river may well be called the Descender. We do not know on what part of the border of Jordan Lot looked down from the heights about Shekem or Ai, as the country underwent a great change at a later period. But its appearance was then so attractive as to bear comparison with the garden of the Lord and the land of Egypt. The garden of Eden still dwelt in the recollections of men. The fertility of Egypt had been recently witnessed by the two kinsmen. It was a valley fertilized by the overflowing of the Nile, as this valley was by the Jordan and its tributary streams. âAs thou goest unto Zoar.â The origin of this name is given in Genesis 19:20-22. It lay probably to the south of the Salt Sea, in the wady Kerak. âAnd Lot journeyed eastâ ×ק×× mıÌqedem. From the hill-country of Shekem or Ai the Jordan lay to the east.
Genesis 13:12
The men of Sodom were wicked. - The higher blessing of good society, then, was missing in the choice of Lot. It is probable he was a single man when he parted from Abram, and therefore that he married a woman of Sodom. He has in that case fallen into the snare of matching, or, at all events, mingling with the ungodly. This was the damning sin of the antediluvians Genesis 6:1-7. âSinners before the Lord exceedingly.â Their country was as the garden of the Lord. But the beauty of the landscape and the superabundance of the luxuries it afforded, did not abate the sinful disposition of the inhabitants. Their moral corruption only broke forth into greater vileness of lust, and more daring defiance of heaven. They sinned âexceedingly and before the Lord.â Lot had fallen into the very vortex of vice and blasphemy.
Genesis 13:14-18
The man chosen of God now stands alone. He has evinced an humble and self-renouncing spirit. This presents a suitable occasion for the Lord to draw near and speak to His servant. His works are re-assuring. The Lord was not yet done with showing him the land. He therefore calls upon him to look northward and southward and eastward and westward. He then promises again to give all the land which he saw, as far as his eye could reach, to him and to his seed forever. Abram is here regarded as the head of a chosen seed, and hence, the bestowment of this fair territory on the race is an actual grant of it to the head of the race. The term âforever,â for a perpetual possession, means as long as the order of things to which it belongs lasts. The holder of a promise has his duties to perform, and the neglect of these really cancels the obligation to perpetuate the covenant. This is a plain point of equity between parties to a covenant, and regulates all that depends on the personal acts of the covenanter. Thirdly, He announces that He will make his seed âas the dust of the earth.â This multitude of seed, even when we take the ordinary sense which the form of expression bears in popular use, far transcends the productive powers of the promised land in its utmost extent. Yet to Abram, who was accustomed to the petty tribes that then roved over the pastures of Mesopotamia and Palestine, this disproportion would not be apparent. A people who should fill the land of Canaan, would seem to him innumerable. But we see that the promise begins already to enlarge itself beyond the bounds of the natural seed of Abram. He is again enjoined to walk over his inheritance, and contemplate it in all its length and breadth, with the reiterated assurance that it will be his.
Genesis 13:18
Abram obeys the voice of heaven. He moves his tent from the northern station, where he had parted with Lot, and encamps by the oaks of Mamre, an Amorite sheik. He loves the open country, as he is a stranger, and deals in flocks and herds. The oaks, otherwise rendered by Onkelos and the Vulgate âplains of Mamre,â are said to be in Hebron, a place and town about twenty miles south of Jerusalem, on the way to Beersheba. It is a town of great antiquity, having been built seven years before Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt Numbers 13:22. It was sometimes called Mamre in Abramâs time, from his confederate of that name. It was also named Kiriath Arba, the city of Arba, a great man among the Anakim Joshua 15:13-14. But upon being taken by Kaleb it recovered the name of Hebron. It is now el-Khulil (the friend, that is, of God; a designation of Abram). The variety of name indicates variety of masters; first, a Shemite it may be, then the Amorites, then the Hittites Genesis 23:0, then the Anakim, then Judah, and lastly the Muslims.
A third altar is here built by Abram. His wandering course requires a varying place of worship. It is the Omnipresent One whom he adores. The previous visits of the Lord had completed the restoration of his inward peace, security, and liberty of access to God, which had been disturbed by his descent to Egypt, and the temptation that had overcome him there. He feels himself again at peace with God, and his fortitude is renewed. He grows in spiritual knowledge and practice under the great Teacher.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Genesis 13:18. Abram removed his tent — Continued to travel and pitch in different places, till at last he fixed his tent in the plain, or by the oak, of Mamre, see Genesis 12:6, which is in Hebron; i.e., the district in which Mamre was situated was called Hebron. Mamre was an Amorite then living, with whom Abram made a league, Genesis 14:13; and the oak probably went by his name, because he was the possessor of the ground. Hebron is called Kirjath-arba, Genesis 23:2; but it is very likely that Hebron was its primitive name, and that it had the above appellation from being the residence of four gigantic or powerful Anakim, for Kirjath-arba literally signifies the city of the four; Genesis 23:2.
Built there an altar unto the Lord. — On which he offered sacrifice, as the word ×××× mizbach, from ××× zabach, to slay, imports.
THE increase of riches in the family of Abram must, in the opinion of many, be a source of felicity to them. If earthly possessions could produce happiness, it must be granted that they had now a considerable share of it in their power. But happiness must have its seat in the mind, and, like that, be of a spiritual nature; consequently earthly goods cannot give it; so far are they from either producing or procuring it, that they always engender care and anxiety, and often strifes and contentions. The peace of this amiable family had nearly been destroyed by the largeness of their possessions. To prevent the most serious misunderstandings, Abram and his nephew were obliged to separate. He who has much in general wishes to have more, for the eye is not satisfied with seeing. Lot, for the better accommodation of his flocks and family, chooses the most fertile district in that country, and even sacrifices reverence and filial affection at the shrine of worldly advantage; but the issue proved that a pleasant worldly prospect may not be the most advantageous, even to our secular affairs. Abram prospered greatly in the comparatively barren part of the land, while Lot lost all his possessions, and nearly the lives of himself and family, in that land which appeared to him like the garden of the Lord, like a second paradise. Rich and fertile countries have generally luxurious, effeminate, and profligate inhabitants; so it was in this case. The inhabitants of Sodom were sinners, and exceedingly wicked, and their profligacy was of that kind which luxury produces; they fed themselves without fear, and they acted without shame. Lot however was, through the mercy of God, preserved from this contagion: he retained his religion; and this supported his soul and saved his life, when his goods and his wife perished. Let us learn from this to be jealous over our own wills and wishes; to distrust flattering prospects, and seek and secure a heavenly inheritance. "Man wants but little; nor that little long." A man's life - the comfort and happiness of it - does not consist in the multitude of the things he possesses. "One house, one day's food, and one suit of raiment," says the Arabic proverb, "are sufficient for thee; and if thou die before noon, thou hast one half too much." The example of Abram, in constantly erecting an altar wherever he settled, is worthy of serious regard; he knew the path of duty was the way of safety, and that, if he acknowledged God in all his ways, he might expect him to direct all his steps: he felt his dependence on God, he invoked him through a Mediator, and offered sacrifices in faith of the coming Saviour; he found blessedness in this work - it was not an empty service; he rejoiced to see the day of Christ - he saw it and was glad. Genesis 12:8. Reader, has God an altar in thy house? Dost thou sacrifice to him? Dost thou offer up daily by faith, in behalf of thy soul and the souls of thy family, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world? No man cometh unto the Father but by me, said Christ: this was true, not only from the incarnation, but from the foundation of the world. And to this another truth, not less comfortable, may be added: Whosoever cometh unto me I will in no-wise cast out.
