Genesis is a story of brotherly violence. Cain kills Abel. Jacob flees from Esau, his brother, to live with Laban, his mother’s brother, and ends up in a conflict with him too. Joseph’s brothers assault him, sell him away as a slave, and fake his death. All of this frames the conflict between the serpent’s seed and woman’s seed as a brotherly conflict. The serpent’s seed is the seed of the woman, turned to violence by sin. For the woman’s seed to crush the serpent’s head, he’ll need to get through a fight with his brother.
This brotherly conflict also works on a larger level with nations. When Genesis 10 describes the world’s nations after the flood, they’re framed as a family tree, all sons descending from three brothers who just had a fight. Because of Ham’s rebellion, Shem will rule over Canaan, with Japheth living in Shem’s tent. In the shadow of this brotherly tension, seventy nations branch out to fill the earth. And what happened last time God preferred one brother over another? Violence. So what should we expect from these nations? More violence. We get that with Cain-like Nimrod, a violent city-builder whose small empire is torn down by God. Like before the flood, the world is again filled with violence: seventy squabbling brother-nations spread out over the face of the earth.
With this background, in Genesis 11:26–27, we meet three new brothers: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. We’re also introduced to Haran’s son Lot. These details aren’t just there to give us a complete picture of Abram’s family life—the text is giving us a mirror image of Noah’s sons. We have a new Shem, Japheth, Ham, and Ham’s son Canaan. Even more, this new set of brothers is heading out of their father’s land to the land of Canaan, the servant-brother of their father Shem.
So Abram, a new Shem, travels with Lot, a new Canaan, into the land of Canaan. What should we expect to happen? A whole lot of violence—nation against nation and brother against brother. The scene is so loaded with tension that it seems like God is provoking violence. In spite of this, in 12:2–3 God promises not only to defend Abram, but to somehow work this out as a blessing to all the nations involved.
Almost immediately, violence breaks out. Egypt, Canaan’s brother (Genesis 10:6), takes Sarai, and as promised, God steps in to protect both her and Abram, plaguing Egypt. Abram leaves, rich with possessions, but he immediately runs into another conflict. In Genesis 13:5–7, we find Abram and Lot, (1) two brothers, (2) out in a field, (3) with their flocks. Lo and behold, there’s strife. In case that wasn’t enough, the text reminds us, “the Canaanites are there, too.” New Shem and new Canaan, old Shem and old Canaan. A fight is brewing.
But it doesn’t happen. Abram steps in and appeals to Lot: “Let there be no strife between me and you!” Why? “We are brothers!” Instead of letting the conflict build up to bloodshed, Abram stops the fight. He defers to Lot, offering him his choice of land, and instead of violence, we have peace. The two brothers separate, and God appears, repeating his blessing to Abram (13:14–18).1
Remember, though, we’re still in the land of the Canaanites. The peace doesn’t last long. In the next chapter, a new fight breaks out, this time between nations. Five Canaanite kings rebel against Chedorlaomer and his allies. This conflict echoes the conflict of Noah’s sons—Chedorlaomer is a Shemite king ruling over Canaanite kings.2 The brother-nations are still fighting, and Lot is taken up in the violence.
When a messenger comes to tell Abram in verse 13, we learn something interesting. Abram is dwelling with Mamre, the Amorite, and his two brothers, Eshkol and Aner. These are three Canaanite brothers, and Abram has made a covenant with them.3 Abram, the one who brought peace to a conflict with his brother Lot, has also made peace with three other brothers, and the covenant is strong enough that they come to Abram’s assistance to rescue his brother, Lot. Abram and his three covenant-brothers come to rescue Abram’s brother from the war of the brother-nations.
Abram here is both a faithful brother to Lot and a faithful brother to his Canaanite nation-brothers. Unlike the Shemite king Chedorlaomer, who brings violence, when Abram gets involved, the war stops. He rescues Lot, makes sure his Canaanite brothers get their share (Genesis 14:24), and returns home. Again, he is blessed for his faithfulness, both by Melchizedek (14:18–20) and by God (chapter 15).
In Genesis 18, Abraham is back in Mamre’s land (v. 1), where he talks to three men (v. 2) who he’s covenanted with about how to save his brother Lot. Instead of leading men into battle, Abraham is a prophet entreating God on behalf of his brother. He doesn’t save Sodom, but God remembers his intercessions and rescues Lot (19:29). Abraham saves his brother again, this time with prayer.
After Sodom is destroyed, Abraham has one more brotherly conflict to navigate. He travels to Gerar, and Abimelech takes Sarah. Like with Pharoah, God defends Abraham, but unlike Pharoah, Abimelech doesn’t drive Abraham out. Instead, he welcomes Abraham to stay and dwell where he pleases. As with Lot after they left Egypt, the two find themselves in a conflict over land in 21:25, and as before, Abraham navigates the conflict. The two brother nations make a covenant and remain at peace. Through his sojournings, Abraham navigated conflict after conflict, remaining faithful to his brother’s son, Lot, and accumulating covenants with Canaanite brother-nations. God sent Abraham traveling into a land full of violent nations, and he doesn’t just survive: he brings peace. Instead of following the patterns of brotherly violence so far in Genesis, Abraham is a brotherly peacemaker, blessing the violent nations around him by carving out small oases of peace.
NOTES
- The Hebrew in verse 8 translated “brothers” is awkwardly emphatic, anashiym (men) ahiym (brothers). Everett Fox translates the sentence “for we are brother men!” The Five Books of Moses (Schocken Books, 1983), 59. ↩︎
- Chedorlaomer is king of Elam. Elam is a son of Shem (Genesis 10:22). James Jordan points out that Tidal “king of nations” is likely a reference to the coastland nations of 10:5, which would make Tidal a Japhethite king. Since Chedorlaomer is the leader of the alliance, this is a reference to Japheth dwelling in the tents of Shem. See his lecture in “The Life of Abraham” on chapter 14, episode 610: https://soundcloud.com/user-812874628/episode-610-conquest-genesis-14the-life-of-abraham.
↩︎ - Amorites are sons of Canaan (Genesis 10:16). ↩︎