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The Divided Land. As delineated in Genesis, Canaan included a northern pasturage area (in green) centered on Shechem and southern pastures (in orange) surrounding Hebron and Beersheba. The Jordan River and the Dead Sea formed the eastern border (Numbers 34:12). When Abraham offered Lot his choice of portion of “the whole land,” Abraham was referring to Canaan as “the whole land.” But Lot, “seeing that the plain of Jordan was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord” (Genesis 13:10), chose to settle among the Cities of the Plain. Although the exact location of these ancient cities remains uncertain, scholars have suggested that they lay either beneath what is now the southern Dead Sea or just to the southeast (in red). In either case, the Bible clearly states that they were not part of Canaan: “Abraham settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the Cities of the Plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom” (Genesis 13:12). Lot’s departure left Abraham with all of Canaan, but with no apparent heir“