This chapter gives an account of the return of Abram from Egypt to the land of Canaan, and to the same place in it he had been before, Ge 13:1 and of a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, and the occasion of it, Ge 13:5 which was composed by the prudent proposal of Abram, Ge 13:8 upon which they parted; Abram continued in Canaan, and Lot chose the plain of Jordan, and dwelt near Sodom, a place infamous for wickedness, Ge 13:10 after which the Lord renewed to Abram the grant of the land of Canaan to him, and to his seed, Ge 13:14 and then he removed to the plain of Mamre in Hebron, and there set up the worship of God, Ge 13:18.
Ver. 1. And Abram went up out of Egypt,.... That country lying low, and so more easy to be watered by the river Nile, as it was, and Canaan being higher; whither he went, but not till the famine in Canaan ceased: he went out of Egypt, as the Jewish chronologers say, after he had been there three months; but Artapanus an Heathen writer, says, he stayed there twenty years:he and his wife, and all that he had; servants and cattle:and Lot with him: from whence it is clear that he went down with him into Egypt, and it is highly probable had great respect and favour shown him on account of his relation to Abram and Sarai; for it appears by what follows, that he was become very rich: and they all went upinto the south; into the southern part of the land of Canaan, for otherwise they came to the north; for as Egypt lay south with respect to Canaan, Canaan was north from Egypt; but they journeyed to that part of that land which was commonly called the south, either Negeb, as here, or Daroma; See Gill on "Zec 7:7".
Seder Olam Rabba, p. 2. Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 18. p.