shall give to thee this land and to thine heirs. Then Abram did raise an
altar on which he did sacrifice, and blessed and thanked our Lord. Abram
beheld all the land toward the south, and saw the beauty thereof, and
found it like as our Lord told him. But he had not been long in the land
but that there fell great hunger therein, wherefore he left that country
and went into Egypt and took with him Sara his wife. And as they went by
the way Abram said to his wife: I fear and dread sore that when we come
to this people, which be lawless, that they shall take thee for thy
beauty and slay me, because they would use thee. Wherefore say thou art
my sister, and I thy brother, and she agreed thereto. And when they
were come in to that country the people saw that she was so fair, and
anon they told the king, which anon commanded that she should be brought
into his presence. And when she was come, God of his good grace so
purveyed for her, that no man had power to do her villany. Wherefore the
king was feared that God would have taken vengeance on him for her, and
sent for Abram and said to him that he should take his wife, and that he
had evil done to say, that she was his sister, and so delivered her
again, and gave him gold and silver, and bade that men should worship
him in all his land, and he should freely at his pleasure depart with
all his goods. Then after this Abram took his wife Sara and went home
again, and came unto Bethel, and set there an altar of stone, and there
he adored and worshipped the name of God. His store and beasts began to
multiply, and Lot with his meiny was also there. And their beasts began
so sore to increase and multiply, that unnethe [hardly] the country
might suffice to their pasture, in so much that rumor and grudging began
to sourde and arise between the herdmen of Abram and the herdmen of Lot.
Then Abram said to Lot: Lo! this country is great and wide, I pray thee
to choose on which hand thou wilt go, and take it for thy meiny and thy
beasts. And let no strife be between me and thee, ne between my herdmen
ne thy herdmen. Lo! behold all the country is tofore thee, take which