Month: July 2025

Genesis 13

Genesis 13:1 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negev.

Genesis 13:2 Abram had become very heavy in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

Genesis 13:3 And he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

Genesis 13:4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of Yahveh.

Genesis 13:5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents,

Genesis 13:6 so that the land could not support both of them living together; because their possessions were so great that they could not live together,

Genesis 13:7 and there was conflict between the tenders of Abram’s livestock and the tenders of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

Genesis 13:8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no conflict between you and me, and between your tenders and my tenders, because we are kinsmen.

Genesis 13:9 Is not the whole land before you? detach yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

Genesis 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of Yahveh, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before Yahveh had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

Genesis 13:11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot traveled east. So, they detached themselves from each other.

Genesis 13:12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

Genesis 13:13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, greatly failing Yahveh.

Genesis 13:14 Yahveh said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, to the north and south and east and west,

Genesis 13:15 because all the land that you now see I am promising to you and to your seed permanently.

Genesis 13:16 I will make your seed like the dust of the land, so that if one can calculate the amount of dust there is in the land, your seed also can be calculated.

Genesis 13:17 Get up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, because I am promising it to you.”

Genesis 13:18 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 worship Yahveh.

Genesis 13 quotes:

“When Abram prospered, Lot benefited as well: “Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and many tents” (Genesis 13:5). Don’t overlook the specific mention of his many tents. This will be a significant detail later in the story. But prosperity brought its own challenges. Expanding flocks and herds require increasing amounts of food and water. The land may not have fully recovered from the earlier famine, so available resources could not sustain both men’s livestock. Besides that, they had to contend with the existing inhabitants, the Canaanites and the Perizzites.”

Swindoll, Charles R. Abraham : One Nomad’s Amazing Journey of Faith. Tyndale House Publishers, 2014. p. 30.

“Then there came the strife between their respective herdsmen, leading Abraham to offer Lot his freedom and the choice of the whole land before them. How magnanimous it was of Abraham to give Lot the first pick, which, by right of seniority, should have been his! (See Genesis 13:7—9.) Greedily, Lot chose the well-watered plain before him, where Sodom was situated; and in so doing, he separated himself from his revered relative and friend, whose assistance he was yet to need. “

Lockyer, Herbert. Lives of Fame & Shame : Fascinating Figures in Bible History : Enoch, Lot, Rachel, Elijah, Saul, David and Jonathan, Asa, Herod, Barnabas, Timothy. Whitaker House, 2014. p. 29.

“Lot followed his selfish, ambitious desires. He lived for a while on the plain but then moved into the city, where he became wealthy and respected. Lot became a man of great political influence in Sodomite society.”

Stedman, Ray C. Friend of God : The Legacy of Abraham, Man of Faith. Discovery House, 2010. p. 148.

Genesis 13 links:

Abram- competition
like Abram
The important questions
The promise of permanence

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Maranatha Daily Devotional – May 23, 2015
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, January 7, 2019
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, January 7, 2021
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, January 24, 2018

GENESIS in Jeff’s library

Genesis 12

Genesis 12:1 Then Yahveh said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kin and your father’s household to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 12:2 And I will make of you an influential nation, and I will bless you and make your name important and be a blessing.

Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the land will be blessed.”

Genesis 12:4 So Abram went, as Yahveh had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Genesis 12:5 So Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had accumulated, and the throats that they had made in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

Genesis 12:6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were still occupying the land.

Genesis 12:7 Then Yahveh appeared to Abram and said, “To your seed I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to worship Yahveh, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 12:8 From there he traveled to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to Yahveh and called upon the name of Yahveh.

Genesis 12:9 And Abram journeyed on, setting out toward the Negev.

Genesis 12:10 But there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to stay there as a guest, because the famine in the land was heavy.[1]

Genesis 12:11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Notice, I know that you are a woman who looks beautiful,

Genesis 12:12 so when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Genesis 12:13 Say you are my sister, that things may go well with me because of you, and that my throat may be kept alive for your sake.”

Genesis 12:14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

Genesis 12:15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they bragged about her to Pharaoh. So, the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

Genesis 12:16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he was given sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male slaves, female slaves,[2] female donkeys, and camels.

Genesis 12:17 But Yahveh cursed Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of the presence of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

Genesis 12:18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

Genesis 12:19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, notice your wife; take her, and go.”

Genesis 12:20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

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[1] כָּבֵד = heavy. Genesis 12:10; 13:2; 41:31; 43:1; 47:4, 13; 50:9, 10, 11.

[2] שִׁפְחָה = female slave. Genesis 12:16; 16:1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8; 20:14; 24:35; 25:12; 29:24, 29; 30:4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 18, 43; 32:5, 22; 33:1, 2, 6; 35:25, 26.

Genesis 12 quotes:

“Thus in Abraham the failure of Adam is partially reversed, and through his seed God promises to bless all humanity again. In Genesis 12:1-3 God promises Abram three things: nationhood (see 12:1-2), a dynastic kingdom (see 12:2, “a great name”) and a worldwide family (see 12:3).”

Hahn, Kimberly, and Michael Barber. Genesis to Jesus : Studying Scripture from the Heart of the Church. St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2007. p. 94.

“Yahweh now seems to center his attention on one man—from the men of one family, from among all the families on earth—to set him apart and interact with him for what will be an extended period of time and a significant block of our narrative (Gen. 12:1-25:10). We note that in what is said by the narrator about Abram, and in what Yahweh says to him in what follows, we learn nothing about this man that specifically motivates or justifies Yahweh’s particular attention. Unlike Noah, he is not described in moral or ethical terms. Nor is he said to have “walked with God.” He is not depicted as having done anything especially to attract Yahweh’s attention. In fact, if God is concerned with the generation of life, as he is in Genesis, for example, Abram is an unlikely choice for special attention. Genesis 12 opens with a remarkably unmotivated and thereby all the more remarkable speech by Yahweh.”

Humphreys, W. Lee. The Character of God in the Book of Genesis : A Narrative Appraisal. 1st ed., Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. p.82.

“Despite this repeated offer in the past, beginning with the word to Adam and Eve where he blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28), humanity insisted on seeking meaning on its own terms by questing for a “name.” That is why the bold announcement in Genesis 12:2, where God declared that he would freely give a “name” to Abram, was so unexpected. Rather than it being a human achievement that came by means of Abram’s own works, it would come as a gift from God’s free grace.”

Kaiser, Walter C. Mission in the Old Testament: Israel As a Light to the Nations. 2nd ed., Baker Academic, 2012. p. 9.

Genesis 12 links:

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Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Genesis 11

Genesis 11:1 Now the whole land had one language and used the same words.

Genesis 11:2 And as people set out from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Genesis 11:3 And they said every man to his friend, “Come, let us make bricks, and bake them completely.” So, they had brick for stone, and asphalt for mortar.

Genesis 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and let us make a name for ourselves, or else we will be scattered over the face of the whole land.”

Genesis 11:5 And Yahveh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam had built.

Genesis 11:6 And Yahveh said, “Notice, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Genesis 11:7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

Genesis 11:8 So Yahveh scattered them from there over the face of all the land, and they stopped building the city.

Genesis 11:9 That is why its name was called Babel, because there Yahveh confused the language of all the land. And from there Yahveh scattered them over the face of all the land.

Genesis 11:10 These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old (two years after the flood) he fathered Arpachshad.

Genesis 11:11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah.

Genesis 11:13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:14 After Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber.

Genesis 11:15 then Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:16 After Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg.

Genesis 11:17 then Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:18 After Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu.

Genesis 11:19 then Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:20 After Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug.

Genesis 11:21 then Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:22 After Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor.

Genesis 11:23 then Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:24 After Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah.

Genesis 11:25 Then Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Genesis 11:27 Here are the generations from Terah: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.

Genesis 11:28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

Genesis 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.

Genesis 11:30 But Sarai was without offspring; she had no child.

Genesis 11:31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans purposing to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Genesis 11:32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 11 quotes:

“There are, of course, various lines of evidence in the Bible itself which militate against the strict-chronology interpretation of the genealogy of Genesis 11:10-26.’ But although the Biblical text does not appear to speak unequivocally as to the date of the Flood, it does give strong witness that this date is on the order of magnitude of only some several thousands of years ago.”

Whitcomb, John C. The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications. Presbyterian and Reformed Pub, 1964. p. 391.

“They had a particular goal in mind. “Come, let’s build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves so that we won’t be dispersed over all the earth” (Genesis 11:4). A fascinating kind of isolationism was at work. They had no way of knowing if there were other humans in other places, and they didn’t want to know. They saw themselves as the earth’s only occupants. They had no idea what lay beyond the farther reach of hills, and they didn’t care to find out. Perhaps they were haunted by the memory of a tradition, that their human assignment was to “fill the earth and master it” (1:28), and they really didn’t care to get involved with all of the earth. Or, on the other hand, perhaps they had a mythic memory of an Eden from which their ancestors had been expelled, and they didn’t intend to suffer that kind of fate again.”

Kalas, J. Ellsworth. Genesis. Abingdon Press, 2011. p. 42.

“The uniqueness of the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 lies in the fact that they include a complete list of each person’s birth, age at procreation, and life span even though they lived four thousand to six thousand years ago. The completeness of the genealogies affirms that God’s redemptive work did not cease in any generation, but continued throughout history.”

Park, Abraham. Genesis Genealogies: God’s Administration in the History of Redemption (Book 1). Periplus Editions, 2016. p. 38.

Genesis 11 links:

ACST 28. Sin- The War
Faith, obedience and worship
first look at the nation God chose
let us build a city
Only one Abram
The language barrier

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Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, January 4, 2019
Maranatha Daily Devotional – May 21, 2015
Maranatha Daily Devotional – May 22, 2015
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, January 22, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, January 5, 2023

GENESIS in Jeff’s library