Chapter 13
[Genesis 13:1] -- Abram went up therefore from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the southern region. He does not mean the southern region of Egypt, but of the promised land: for indeed he did not travel southward from Egypt, which whoever does, goes farther from the promised land: but leaving all of Egypt, part of which he had visited, he first ascended to the southern region of the promised land, which was nearest. It should also be noted according to the letter that Abraham is remembered as having previously descended into Egypt, and now ascending from Egypt, because certainly the land of Egypt is considered inferior not only to the land of Canaan but also to other regions of the world, just as conversely the region of the Scythians is said to be elevated higher than other parts of the earth: which can be easily inferred from the courses of the rivers flowing into it from elsewhere and flowing out from it. It fits however most aptly with the typical senses that the land of Canaan should be higher than Egypt, because this indeed represents the promise of the heavenly homeland, while that signifies the oppressions and labors of present life. For this the Lord both promised and gave as an inheritance to his people Israel: but in that land both Abraham encountered peril, though protected immediately by the Lord, and his progeny were for a long time oppressed by a severe servitude, although they themselves were at last miraculously redeemed and led out from there. Therefore the land of promise is higher than the boundaries of Egypt, although situated nearby, because even if the just and the reprobate appear to live a common life outwardly in this age, yet with the great sublimity of a devoted mind, the citizens of heaven surpass all the lovers of this world. Therefore what is said about Abraham that he went up from Egypt, and came with all his own to the southern region, signifies typically that he himself while living in the flesh, and all the elect, that is the children of the same promise, thus for a time turn their thoughts to caring for bodily necessities in the lowest things, so that soon, having fulfilled the same care of the body, they may recall the whole intention of the mind to contemplate the things that are above, and seek to be renewed by the fervor of love and the light of heavenly grace from the Sun of righteousness: for this is mystically to go up from Egypt to the southern region, after fulfilling the necessities of the flesh, to ask diligently from the Lord for progress in the light of the heavenly and of charity. For with such a desire and purpose of mind it is no doubt that we make our journey to the heavenly homeland: whence it is aptly added.
[Genesis 13:3] -- And he returned by the way he had come from Bethel in the south. For by the south, we indeed tend towards Bethel through the light of heavenly knowledge, and through the inspiration of intimate love, we hasten by frequent steps of good works to the entrance of the house of God, which Bethel signifies; namely, that house which, as the Apostle says, is not made with hands, but is eternal in the heavens (II Cor. V, 1), which the Prophet desired to see, when he said: Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the tabernacle of your glory (Psalm XXVI, 8).
[Genesis 13:3] -- To the place where he had previously pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai: at the place of the altar which he had made formerly, and he called upon the name of the Lord. It is noteworthy that blessed Abraham, progressing in his chosen journey, is said to have returned from Bethel either from the south or through the south, yet it is not added that he entered the same city; but he is said to have reached the area between this place and Ai, and there he invoked the Lord. This place of prayer is mentioned to be situated on a mountain, because obviously, the elect, still restrained by the bond of flesh and set in the progress of virtues, strive with the whole intention of their mind to reach the house of heavenly habitation, hasten to it with continuous steps of good works; but they cannot yet enter it, nor can they see its King and citizens in their beauty: however, between the acceptance of faith by which they are consecrated to the Lord, and the entrance to the kingdom in which they desire to see Him, they climb the height of good action as a peak of a lofty mountain. For Ai indeed, or Aggai, as the ancient translators rendered the name of that city, is interpreted as Question or Festival: which name, evidently, most fittingly suits the time when each of the faithful is consecrated to the Lord with the saving sacraments: about which the Apostle admonishes saying: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). For what great festivity of mind it is to be redeemed from the power of darkness, and by the illumination of the Holy Spirit to be made a seal of the true King? Which city of invincible faith can also rightly be called Question: for by this the elect have learned either to seek the Lord from whom they have strayed farther away, or the Lord Himself, as a good shepherd, has shown Himself to have sought them as His sheep, according to what He says: The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Moreover, the saints build on the aforementioned mountain of good conversation an altar to the Lord, nothing else surely than their body and soul, in which they also invoke His name, knowing that without the help of His name they could neither begin the path of righteousness, nor complete the course of a good intention. We have thus carefully explicated these things about the place of Abraham's altar, lest anyone might think that blessed Moses, out of mere interest in the history rather than with a view to spiritual understanding, wanted to describe so diligently the place of his tent and altar or his repeated prayer. Where it is also noteworthy that Abraham is not described to have made an altar or invoked the Lord in Egypt, nor in Chaldea, nor in Haran, but solely in the land of Canaan, which he received in promise: because evidently, only within the unity of the Catholic faith, only in the hope of the heavenly promise, can we accomplish perfect works and offer vows worthy of God. Bethel itself, which was formerly called Luz, was named Bethel by Jacob, when, sleeping there, he saw heavenly miracles and hosts; the city, like Ai, is located approximately twelve miles from Jerusalem for those traveling to Neapolis.
[Genesis 13:5-9] -- But Lot also, who was with Abram, had flocks of sheep, and herds, and tents; nor could the land bear them so that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, and they could not dwell together: hence there was a quarrel between the herdsmen of Abram's flocks and Lot's, and it is detailed how Lot departed from Abraham with their love preserved, preferring to separate physically from his dearest and most holy brother rather than to remain with him amidst scandals and disputes, which were troubling the weak ones; yet he in no way let his bodily separation from him separate him from the deepest love of his mind, as the following sacred history most clearly proves: where having been captured by enemies, he saved him with all his might with his men, and rightly so because Lot himself did not at all alter the course of virtue and faith, which he had been accustomed to practice with his elder brother, even living apart.
[Genesis 13:10] -- Therefore, Lot, having lifted up his eyes, saw all the region around Jordan, which was all watered before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the paradise of the Lord and like Egypt as you go towards Zoar. And Lot chose for himself the region around Jordan and moved eastward; and the rest up to the point where it says: but the men of Sodom were wicked and great sinners before the Lord. He praises the fertility of the land and at the same time notes the impiety of the inhabitants, so that they may be understood to be deserving of greater damnation, for they turned the greatest gifts of God not to the fruit of piety but to the increase of luxury: where also it is silently added to the praises of blessed Lot, because in that land, living among those natives, neither the wealth of the rich soil nor the example of the inhabitants could in any way corrupt the integrity of his purity. However, concerning which sins the Sodomites were subject to, except for that abominable one which Scripture mentions later, the prophet Ezekiel sufficiently explains, speaking to Jerusalem: Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and idleness were in her and in her daughters; and they did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me (Ezekiel 16:49). From all these, blessed Lot was free, as testified by the sacred history, which declares that he received the angels as guests and that through them he was rescued from the perishing impious ones; and the judgment of blessed Peter the apostle proves, where it is said: And righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, was delivered (2 Peter 2:7). For he was righteous by sight and hearing, dwelling among them who day by day tortured his righteous soul with their lawless deeds. For what good merit could be lacking in him, whom the apostolic voice declares righteous? In him, those present could hear nothing but the fame of righteousness, for the deeds and sight of the wicked known to his pure eyes and ears were nothing but torture and affliction. That which is said about him moving from the east to Haran also signifies Mesopotamia, from where he had already long ago physically departed, led by Abraham; but because a reader might doubt whether his mind was still held by love for his kindred and homeland or whether, like Abraham, he had perfectly departed from his country and kindred and from his father's house, Scripture took care to specifically intimate even concerning him that he departed not only in body but in mind from those places and inhabitants, and because of his faith and hope in divine blessing, he consented to remain a perpetual guest and sojourner wherever Abraham chose. For that Haran, a city located to the east of the promised land, is testified by Scripture, which later says: Then Jacob set out and came to the land of the east, when he had indeed journeyed from Bethel to Haran.
[Genesis 13:14-15] -- And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him: Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward: all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. Some manuscripts have "unto the age," which both translate from the one Greek term Aeonion, αἰὼν. Therefore, if it is read as "unto eternity," it rightly raises the question of how Abraham's offspring can possess that land eternally, whereas human life in this world cannot be everlasting. But if it is read as "unto the age," and thus understood, as we faithfully hold, that the beginning of the future age will commence from the end of the present, no question will arise: because even if the Israelites were expelled from Jerusalem, they still remain in other cities of the land of Canaan, and will remain until the end, and that entire land is inhabited with Christians, and they themselves are the seed of Abraham. It can also be mystically understood to have been said to blessed Abraham, "all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever"; because the region of the heavenly homeland, which that land of promise prefigured, is thus possessed in full by all the elect, namely the seed of Abraham, so that they remain in it without end, according to what is said of the fire of the burnt offering in Exodus: This is a perpetual fire that shall never go out on the altar. For neither could that material fire, by which sacrifices were burnt in the tabernacle, be perpetual, since even the tabernacle itself, the very altar, and the priesthood have long been taken away. But the fire of love, by which the elect are inflamed to offer sacrifices of prayers or good deeds to God, never fails on the altar, that is, from their hearts which were represented by that Mosaic altar: because in this life they fervently love with divine love, and in the future, seeing God more perfectly, they love Him with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their strength. And you will find many such things in the ceremonies of the law, which although they were said to be done or to remain with perpetual right, are yet proven not to have been perpetual except when spiritually understood.
[Genesis 13:18] -- Moving therefore Abram his tent, he came and dwelt by the valley of Mamre, which is in Hebron. Hebron is a city situated about twenty-two miles south of Jerusalem, which in the times of Moses was called Arbe or Kiriath-Arba, that is, the city of the Four, because there three patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—are buried, and Adam the first man, as it is written in the book of Joshua. Later, Hebron received its name from one of the sons of Caleb, as the Words of the days recount. If anyone is moved by how it is now called by this name even before the times of the sons, let him understand that it could have been added in this place by Ezra the priest when he was renewing the sacred Scripture, which had been burned by the Chaldeans, as many such things added by him are found by those skilled in the sacred writings.
[Genesis 13:18] -- And he built an altar to the Lord. And this is the third altar that Abraham built: for the first he built near the place of Shechem, the second between Bethel and Ai. In all of these, it should be noted that nowhere is a sacrifice offered by him, but only the invocation of the name of the Lord is recorded in Scripture; nor in the following Scriptures is it found that he offered any victim or sacrifice to God, except for one ram, which he offered as a burnt offering to the Lord in place of his son, in which the passion of the Mediator between God and men is most clearly figured. Nor is it read that Isaac, his son, offered any victim to God, but only built an altar to the Lord. Similarly, Jacob, though he made an altar at the Lord's command, is not found to have slain any victims, except when, leaving the land of promise, he was about to enter Egypt because of Joseph. Then indeed, arriving in Beersheba, having slain victims there, he is reported to have received a divine oracle; but there both the species and the number of the victims are omitted: nor is any sacrifice offered to God by the fathers found from then until the time of the Passover which was sacrificed in Egypt with the blood of the lamb. Why is it, then, that from the time the promise was made to Abraham until the time the law was given, no victims were offered, except for only one, which the father sacrificed in place of his son in the figure of God the Father, who did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all, and that afterward, in the law, such an abundance of victims did not cease to be offered daily, except because it was clearly foreshadowed that the grace and truth promised to Abraham and his seed were to be given to the world not through the offerings of victims, but through the passion of Christ? By whose faith and sacraments of the passion not only we but also those righteous ones who preceded the times of his passion were saved. And this figure is supported by the fact that Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, who was in the times of the patriarchs, is read to have offered not the blood of victims but bread and wine to the Lord, and to have presented not the form of the legal priesthood, but of the evangelical: who also blessed Abraham himself, to whom and in whom the blessing of all nations was promised, so that it was evident through all things that the promise given to the fathers was to be fulfilled not through the ceremonies of the Mosaic law, but through the grace of the Lord's passion.