So Abram moved his tent: Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation make verse 18 a conclusion beginning with So, which is appropriate here. Moved his tent translates the same verb used in verse 12. It refers to moving the entire camp, which included the tents of all his people and not just Abram’s own tent. That is why Good News Translation says “Abram moved his camp.” One translation joins this with the next clause and says “… shifted his camp. He made another camp near….”

Came and dwelt places the viewpoint of the narrator at the destination, the oaks of Mamre. Many languages will prefer “went.” Dwelt is the same verb used in verse 12 and refers to a prolonged stay in the area. It is well expressed in English as “settled” (Good News Translation).

By the oaks of Mamre: as the Revised Standard Version note says, the word may refer to “terebinth” trees, as in 12.6. See there for comments. Oaks is plural and probably refers to a grove or forest of the trees. As at 12.6 Good News Translation has the more general “sacred trees,” and New International Version “great trees.”

Mamre refers here to a person, as in Gen 14.13, 24. It refers to a locality in 23.17, 19; 25.9; 49.30; 50.13. This name is not found outside the book of Genesis. One translation says “… at Hebron on the land of a man named Mamre. Here this man had planted trees to make a sacred place for worship….” Another has “close to the sacred trees in the place [of dreaming] of that man called Mamre.”

Hebron is a town located at a high elevation about 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of Jerusalem. Its Arabic name today is Al Khalil, “the friend,” a reference to Abram as “God’s friend” in 2 Chr 20.7; Isa 41.8; James 2.23. It is also found in the Korʾan, surah 4.124.

And there he built an altar to the LORD is the same as in 12.7. See there and 8.20 for translation comments.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .