Eliezer is a snake, as is Abram himself. Ten times they have cheated us and smiled in our faces when we came to complain. Between the Canaanite, the Perizzite, and Abram, there is no place for the flocks and the herds, no, not even for the tents, of Lot among them.
Let Abram say that Lot is his son, but his actions tell a different story, in cheating us all day long. His flocks grow larger and healthier by the day while he sits calmly at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, meanwhile Lot breaks his back in the noonday sun and his animals languish.
Finally Lot could take no more, and he went to Abram personally with his complaint against Eliezer and the rest of Abram’s retched herdsman. I was there in the midst of their congress when Abram pleaded with Lot that there be no strife between them or between the herdsman. In my anger I declared that there would always be strife unless Eliezer be deposed to the lowliest position and taught to keep his mouth shut. Abram seemed not to hear my words and addressed his nephew peaceably again, “for”, he said to him, “we are brothers.”
What a snake is that man, Abram. Inasmuch as Sarai is his sister, Lot is his brother, whereas in truth they are not his brother and his sister but his slaves. And yet, what Abram said next I could not believe, for it was admittedly a most gracious offer, if indeed it could be trusted. “Is not the whole land before us? Depart from me then, wherever you will. If you go to the left hand, I will go to the right; if you go to the right hand I will to the left.”
And so my master’s sweetest dreams were fulfilled, and the land of El Elyon lay before him so that wherever he might choose for his foot to trod should be his.