Rob: As my prior post made clear, Sarah gets pregnant with Isaac, and Abraham moves to GRR, immediately after Lot is reduced to living in a cave (which is years after Hagar bears Ishmael). I agree that YHWH never made any promises to Lot. But Abraham on his own motion could not unilaterally cut out Lot. Rather, the divine promise of all of Canaan to Abraham could not be fulfilled until after YHWH determined that Lot had completely forfeited any claim to Canaan that Lot might otherwise have had, based on Lot failing to affirmatively object to Sodom’s turn to the dark side. [Abram does not split from Lot at Bethel because there’s not enough pasturage. Rather, Abram needs to be by himself so he can righteously live by YHWH’s divine commandments, while Lot for his part will show Lot’s merit or lack thereof by the manner in which Lot, on his own, handles himself in the face of the iniquity of Sodom that begins to occur only after Abram has returned Lot to Sodom at the end of chapter 14 of Genesis.] I agree that Genesis 13: 17 is important. Abram begins the process of walking the length of Canaan by sojourning at the Patriarchs’ XBRWN, in southern Canaan. But Sarah will not get pregnant until Abraham fulfills the divine commandment of Genesis 13: 17 and walks all the long way north to the far northwest corner of Upper Galilee/GRR, the home of Biblical and historical Abimelek (of the Amarna Letters). Abraham cannot go north until Lot’s provisional claim to the northern two-thirds of Canaan has been definitively rejected by YHWH. That’s why all three issues are resolved almost simultaneously: (i) Lot is reduced to living in a cave [chapter 19] and (ii) Abraham moves way up north to GRR [chapter 20] and (iii) Sarah gets pregnant with Isaac (with Isaac’s actual birth, of course, coming 9 months later [chapter 21]). Why do you think that Abraham hurries to watch the destruction of Sodom? Why do you think that Abraham never inquires what happened to Lot when Sodom was destroyed? Why does Abraham move to GRR immediately upon Sodom’s destruction? The reason is that Abraham knew that, at long last, all three problems would now be divinely resolved, all at the same time. That’s what YHWH had in effect foretold, that’s what is demanded by Genesis 13: 17, and that’s exactly what is portrayed as happening in the text. Sarah could not get pregnant with Isaac until Abraham moved way up north to GRR and perfected his claim to all of Canaan, because that move was required by the divine commandment of Genesis 13: 17. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois
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