‘And he went on his journeys from the Negev, even to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at the beginning, and there Abram called on the name of Yahweh.'
Relieved and full of praise in his heart to God for his preservation Abram takes his tribe back to the cult's altar, and there he leads the tribe in worship. At this stage Bethel (the area not the city) is clearly looked on as their permanent ‘home', in as far as a tribe, whose main activity was herding, and who thus had to continually seek pasturage, could have a permanent home.
This establishes that Abram and his family tribe are now semi-nomads. They make some place their centre but move out from that place to pasture their flocks and herds. They must seek places where there is water. At times they must seek higher ground. When the fields in the lowlands have been harvested they can, by agreement, pasture their flocks on the stubble. At the same time, as we shall see later, they are not averse to planting crops and to some extent settling down. Thus they must remain within touch of civilisation, for cities are built where there is a good supply of water, and fields are usually sown where there are men to eat its produce, and civilisation has much to offer in the way of culture and education. Yet they avoid becoming too involved and they stay away from places where they will not be welcome.