Genesis 12:6

12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree ¹  of Moreh ²  at Shechem. ³  (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) ⁴ 

Genesis 13:7

13:7 So there were quarrels ⁵  between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. ⁶  (Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.) ⁷ 

[12:6]  ¹ tn Or “terebinth.”

[12:6]  ² sn The Hebrew word Moreh (מוֹרֶה, moreh) means “teacher.” It may well be that the place of this great oak tree was a Canaanite shrine where instruction took place.

[12:6]  ³ tn Heb “as far as the place of Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh.”

[12:6]  ⁴ tn The disjunctive clause gives important information parenthetical in nature – the promised land was occupied by Canaanites.

[13:7]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term רִיב (riv) means “strife, conflict, quarreling.” In later texts it has the meaning of “legal controversy, dispute.” See B. Gemser, “The rîb – or Controversy – Pattern in Hebrew Mentality,” Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East [VTSup], 120-37.

[13:7]  ⁶ sn Since the quarreling was between the herdsmen, the dispute was no doubt over water and vegetation for the animals.

[13:7]  ⁷ tn This parenthetical clause, introduced with the vav (ו) disjunctive (translated “now”), again provides critical information. It tells in part why the land cannot sustain these two bedouins, and it also hints of the danger of weakening the family by inner strife.