1
亚伯兰带着他的妻子与罗得，并一切所有的，都从埃及上南地去。
3
他从南地渐渐往伯特利去，到了伯特利和艾的中间，就是从前支搭帐棚的地方，
7
当时，迦南人与比利洗人在那地居住。亚伯兰的牧人和罗得的牧人相争。
8
亚伯兰就对罗得说：你我不可相争，你的牧人和我的牧人也不可相争，因为我们是骨肉(原文作弟兄)。
9
遍地不都在你眼前麽？请你离开我：你向左，我就向右；你向右，我就向左。
10
罗得举目看见约但河的全平原，直到琐珥，都是滋润的，那地在耶和华未灭所多玛、蛾摩拉以先如同耶和华的园子，也像埃及地。
11
於是罗得选择约但河的全平原，往东迁移；他们就彼此分离了。
12
亚伯兰住在迦南地，罗得住在平原的城邑，渐渐挪移帐棚，直到所多玛。
14
罗得离别亚伯兰以後，耶和华对亚伯兰说：从你所在的地方，你举目向东西南北观看；
15
凡你所看见的一切地，我都要赐给你和你的後裔，直到永远。
1608. 'And to your seed even for ever' means people who were to have faith in Him. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as faith, and indeed faith that is the expression of charity, dealt with already in 255, 256, 1025. That it was to His 'seed', that is, to those who have faith in Him, that the heavenly kingdom would be given, is quite clear from the Lord's own words in John,
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life. John 3:35-36.
[2] And in the same gospel,
As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. John 1:12-13.
From these places it is clear what faith, or believing in Him, is, that is to say, that it resides with those who receive Him and believe in Him, and who are born 'not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man'. 'The will of the flesh' is that which-is contrary to love and charity, for that is what 'flesh'' means, 999; and 'the will of man (vir)' is that which is contrary to faith stemming from love or charity, for this is what 'man' means. Indeed the will of the flesh and the will of man are such as cause division, whereas love and the faith that comes from it are such as serve to join. People therefore with whom love and the faith that comes from it reside are those who are 'born of God'. And because they are born of God they are called 'the sons of God' and are His 'seed' to whom the heavenly kingdom is given, which is the meaning in this verse of the statement, 'All the land which you see I will give to you, and to your seed even for ever'.
[3] The fact that the heavenly kingdom cannot be given to people whose faith is devoid of charity, that is, who say they have faith but hate their neighbour, may become clear to anyone provided he is willing to reflect on the matter. For there can be no life to such faith when hatred, that is, hell, constitutes the life, for hell consists solely of forms of hatred, not of those forms of it which a person receives through heredity but of the forms of the hatred which he has acquired to himself through his own actions in life.
