Abram’s return from Egypt to the altar, in early reading

Says “So Abram went up out of Egypt into the Negev”, “extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold” (Gen 13:1–2). He “journeyed from place to place toward Bethel” (13:3; לְמַסָּעָיו, lemassa‘av, “by his stages”) “to the site where he had built the altar”, and “there Abram called on the name of the Lord” (13:4; וַיִּקְרָא שָׁם אַבְרָם בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה).

Calvin reads the opening as Moses’ account of “the goodness of God in protecting Abram”, so that Abram “not only returned in safety, but took with him great wealth”. He adds that “riches proved no sufficient obstacle” to Abram’s course, and that “Abram did not rest till he had returned to Bethel”. At the altar Abram “began anew to call upon the name of the Lord”, from which Calvin draws that “the holy man was always like himself in worshipping God”, and he judges it “proper that invocation should be conjoined with the altar”. This is his reading.

Implies Abram’s return to the place of his first altar, and his calling on the name there (13:4; cf. 12:8), present the return from Egypt as a return to the worship of the Lord who had appeared to him (12:7).

Uncertain How far 13:1–4 is meant to set the Egypt episode right is open. This reading does not fix the meaning of 13:1–4.