Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan,.... In that part of the land strictly so called, where the family of the Canaanites had their abode; for otherwise taking Canaan in a more general sense, the plain of Jordan, and cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, were in the land of Canaan.
And Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain; in the neighbourhood of them, or near those cities, which were built on the plain of Jordan, for he could not dwell in more than one, if in one; for it looks as if at his first settlement he did not dwell in any, but near them all, especially Sodom: since it follows,
and pitched [his] tent toward Sodom, or "even unto Sodom" a; and it may be rendered, as it is by some, "he pitched his tents" b, for himself, his family, and his servants, his shepherds and his herdsmen, which reached unto Sodom, and where he afterwards dwelt, at least at the gate of it.
a עד סדם "usque Sodom", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt. b ויאהל "movens tentoria", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator & Tigurine version so Jarchi.