What Does Genesis 13:7 Mean?
And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then settled in the land.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “strife” carries the sense of a dispute pressed between parties, so this is conflict with claims, not just a flare of temper.
THE MEANING
Shared life can hold contention among the people tending its abundance, even while the wider land is already inhabited by others. The verse places the household’s internal dispute beside that larger reality: no one in the scene occupies an empty world. Rîb (רִיב, dispute or contention) presents the conflict as something pressed between parties, not merely a passing mood.
THE ROOT
רִיב
rîb
GROWS FROM
ריב
To contend, plead, or bring a dispute forward.
“strife” in this verse is rîb. Rîb can name both the act of contending and the dispute itself. The word reveals a conflict taking shape between parties, with something being pressed or contested, not simply a burst of anger.
ALSO GROWS
merivah: Quarrel, contention.
מְרִיבָה
This branch names contention as a condition between people, showing how a dispute can become part of shared life.
wayyārîbû: And they contended.
וַיָּרִיבוּ
This form appears in Genesis 26:20, where herdsmen contend over a well, making the shared resource behind the dispute explicit.
THE PATTERN
Contention comes into view where people depend on the same shared ground or provision.
And the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, The waters are ours. And he called the name of the well Esek, the contending, because they strove with him.And in those days, when the disciples multiplied, a grumbling of the Greek-speakers against the Hebrews arose, because their widows were overlooked in the daily serving.The beginning of strife is the opening of waters, so let it go before contention is uncovered.THE THREAD
And the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, The waters are ours. And he called the name of the well Esek, the contending, because they strove with him.Genesis 13:7 uses rîb (רִיב, dispute or contention) for “strife”; Genesis 26:20 uses a form of that same root in “did strive.” Both scenes place contention among herdsmen sharing the land, while the well in Genesis 26 makes the contested provision explicit.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us