The land promise after Lot departs

After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram (the subject stands first; the verb is a perfect, not the usual narrative form; BSB: “After Lot had departed, the Lord said to Abram”). He tells Abram to lift up his eyes and see from the place where he is, north, south, east, and west, answering Lot’s look in 13:10. All the land he sees will be given to him and to his seed forever; he is to arise and walk about in the land, its length and its breadth. At 13:17 the Greek adds a further forever for the seed, which the Hebrew and the Samaritan text lack; that line is a Greek-note fact. This speech unfolds the grant of 12:7 after Lot departs. What 13:14–17 adds is set out in Gen 13:14–17 → Gen 12:7; that record is not a reversal of Gen 12:7 → Gen 13:14–17. Calvin writes that “divine consolation was administered for the appeasing of his mind”, and he sees “the admirable design of God, in the departure of Lot” Driver says Abram is encouraged to “move about freely in the country” Skinner takes 13:14–17 as the work of a later hand and holds that “Lot left Abram the sole heir of Canaan”; that source view is pointed once to Reading Genesis 2:4–25 alongside Genesis 1: from Josephus and Philo to Keil, Driver and Skinner and is not argued again. The promise is God’s initiative. Zera' and forever are taken up in the next note. See Look, walk, and settle at Mamre and The land promise after Lot’s departure, in early reading.