Lech Lecha - Shlishi
"This Town's Not Big Enough for the Two of Us"
Avram had many flocks and so did Lot, so resources were stretched thin between the two of them. The shepherds who worked for them often clashed, so Avram told Lot that he could choose which direction to go and Avram would take the other. Lot selected the Jordan plain eastward, towards a place called Tzoar, which the Torah compares to "G-d's own garden." Avram stayed in Canaan, while Lot headed toward Sodom, a city inhabited by evil residents who antagonized G-d. (A comment in verse 10 that this was before G-d destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah foreshadows troubling events to come.)
G-d appeared to Avram and told him to look north, south, east and west. As far as the eye could see would be the land of Avram's descendants, forever. His progeny would be as numerous and uncountable as the grains of dust, G-d said. G-d then told Avram to walk throughout the land; after all, it's his!
Avram relocated to Hebron, where he built another altar to G-d.