What Does Genesis 13:8 Mean?
And Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray you, between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.
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 Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for strife can mean a dispute brought against another, so Abram refuses to let a disagreement turn kin into opposing parties.
THE MEANING
The conflict has material stakes: two groups of herdsmen cannot keep sharing the same ground. Yet Lot remains kin before he becomes a rival, and a boundary between households can exist without severing the bond.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a conflict of interests makes the other person your enemy.
THE ROOT
מְרִיבָה
merivah
GROWS FROM
ריב
rîb
To contend, dispute, or bring a case against another.
“strife” in this verse is merivah. This word names contention as a contest between parties, not merely private irritation. Abram is stopping the relationship from becoming a case one side must win.
ALSO GROWS
rîb: Dispute, quarrel, or legal contention.
רִיב
This noun shows the force of Abram’s request: he wants to prevent the dispute from defining the relationship.
yārîb: He contends or pleads a case.
יָרִיב
This verb makes the relational shift vivid: kin can become adversaries when each side takes up a case against the other.
THE PATTERN
Shared belonging can interrupt escalation: conflict does not have to recast people as enemies.
A Song of degrees of David. Look, how good and how sweet it is for brothers to settle also together!If it is possible, as far as your reach extends, live in wholeness with all people.Already then, there is altogether a yielding among you, because you hold judgments with one another. Why not rather be bent out of alignment? Why not rather be stripped?THE THREAD
The beginning of strife is the opening of waters, so let it go before contention is uncovered.Proverbs uses the same root, ריב (rîb), meaning contention or dispute, and pictures conflict as water escaping through a breach. Abram names that breach while it can still be prevented; the kinship remains intact without pretending the material conflict has disappeared.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us