Genesis 13:2-4

"And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been in the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah."

"Abram was very rich ..." The strategic placement of this statement brings into view the vast wealth that Pharaoh had given Abram as a dowry for Sarai. Von Rad discerned that, "Abram's great wealth must be connected with the reward that he received in Egypt."[6]

"Into the South ..." as it appears in Genesis 13:1, must be understood in the light of the fact here that Abram was really journeying from the South. What is meant in Genesis 13:1 is that he journeyed into the South of the land of Canaan, thence north to Bethel. This trip was, in all probability, undertaken by Abram as a move "to get right with God," following his disastrous mistake in Egypt. The excursion into Egypt was a departure from the land of which God had told Abram that it would be his. In these verses, Abram is simply getting back on course.

"And he went on his journeys ..." Leupold translated this, "He went in stages," indicating that he traveled slowly, waiting for the flocks and herds to graze on the way, and thus avoiding overdriving them. This was a procedure followed by all the patriarchs, as indicated by the case of Jacob (Genesis 33:17).

"There Abram called upon the name of Jehovah ..." This is a rather comprehensive statement indicating that Abram worshiped Jehovah, prayed in the name of Jehovah, and preached in the name of Jehovah to his household and to any of the native population who were willing to hear it. The true God of the land of Palestine (and of the whole world) was honored in a social setting that was rife with paganism. By such conduct, coupled with the repentance and rededication indicated by the very fact of his return to this altar, "Abram was becoming through his obedient faith the kind of man through whom (in the future) God would build his church."[7]