And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
Ver. 7. And there was a strife between.] How oft do servants set masters at variance! But the devil is in it, when good folk fall out especially. He is restless himself, and doth what he can to disquiet others. He loves to fish in troubled waters; and well knows out of his "devilish wisdom," saith St James, that "where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work". Jam 3:15-16 But what was it that made the herdsmen fall out, but penury of pasture? and what bred penury of pasture, but plenty of cattle? Great riches many times breed great brabbles. This the heathen found, and therefore feigned that Mars was the son of Juno, a because Juno is the goddess of riches, which prove the cause of strife and stirs among many.
And the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelled then in the land.] This is added, either as a cause of their being straitened of fit pasture, because the Canaanites possessed the better grounds; or else to set forth how unseasonable and unsavoury it was, for such men to jar, and so to expose themselves to the scandal and scorn of such wicked neighbours as desired no better sport than to see them falling out. This latter is Lyra's b gloss, and I like it well. One of the main scandals the Jews take at this day from Protestants, is their dissensions. Error condonari potest, modo fides adsit in Christum: discordiam, neque si sanguinem fundamus, expiabimus, said reverend Oecolampadius in a letter to the litigious Lutherans of Sueveland. c
a Natalis Comes.
b Nisi Lyra lyrasset &c.
c Scultet. Annal. Cyprianus inexpiabilem discordiae maculam martyrii sanguine ablui, et passione purgari negat.