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Abraham was a son of Tharah and had two brothers, Nahor and Haran. Haran died and left a son named Lot. Abraham and Lot lived in a land called Mesopotamia and were very rich in herds, silver and gold.

But Abraham had a much greater inner wealth in his spirit. For he was a God-fearing man, upright and generous towards everyone who had anything to do with him, full of trust in God and good faith towards people, because he himself was upright with God and with people. Because of these beautiful qualities of his disposition, he was pleasing to God, worthy of men and at peace with himself. This is the great wealth that makes more happy and reaches further than gold and silver.

God said to this Abraham: “Go from your fatherland and from your friendship and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will multiply your descendants into a great nation and I will bless you, and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” This was a great and mysterious promise, and there will be another from the line of Abraham in whom the promise will come true. Abraham believed and obeyed God and left his home with his wife Sarah - as yet he had no children - and with all his servants and all his possessions. He also took his nephew Lot with him. He did not want to be separated from him; he did not want to leave his brother's son alone in the land from which he was departing.

God has placed this love in the hearts of men; it does not die in our friends, but belongs to their children after death. Whoever deprives them of this love and care denies them their most beautiful and sacred inheritance.

So Abraham and Lot, led by God, came to the land of Canaan as strangers. But when Abraham looked at the beautiful landscape into which he had come and could not get enough of the fertile fields, the rich meadows, the watery river, the Jordan, and the sunny hills, God announced a new blessing to him: “To your descendants,” he said, “I will give this land as a possession. Abraham and Lot were warmly welcomed by the inhabitants of the land to which they had come. Pious, honorable people find a good reception everywhere.

But the flocks of Abraham and the herds of Lot were too large; they could not stay together in such a confined space as they were at first. There were daily quarrels between their shepherds. People other than these two would have taken part in the quarrels of their shepherds out of pride or self-interest and would have become enemies among themselves. It almost seems as if Lot had wanted to start it.

But reason and peaceableness always choose the best. Abraham said to Lot: “Dear one, let there be no quarrel between me and you, for we are brothers. Is not all the land open before you? Dear one, separate yourself from me! If you want to go to the left, I want to go to the right, or if you want to go to the right, I want to go to the left.”

This is how nobly the older and more powerful Abraham acted towards his brother's son. Lot chose the water-rich landscape by the River Jordan, the beautiful valley of Sittim, where the rich cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood at the time, and from that time on he lived in the city of Sodom.