“There was a quarrel between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. And the Canaanites and the Perizites then lived in the land” (Genesis 13:7). “There was a quarrel between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock” – Rabbi Berekhya said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon: Abraham’s animals would go out muzzled,31To prevent them from eating other people’s vegetation, which would amount to theft. but Lot’s animals would not go out muzzled.
Abraham’s herdsmen would say to them: ‘Has theft now been permitted?’ Lot’s herdsmen would say to them: ‘The Holy One blessed be He said to Abraham: “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). Abraham is [like] a sterile mule and cannot bear children. One day he will die and Lot his nephew will inherit [from] him.
We are not consuming their property, we are consuming our own property.’ The Holy One blessed be He said to them: ‘This is what I said to him: “To your descendants I will give [this land].” When? Only after the seven nations are uprooted from it [the land].’32See Genesis 15:16. “The Canaanites and the Perizites then lived in the land” – as of now, they still maintain their right to the land.