The LORD said to Abram: this is the first time since 12.7 that the LORD has addressed Abram. There too the LORD’s words were a promise of the land. The promise is now repeated and given in more detail. Some languages will prefer to reverse the order of the two clauses here and place the time clause first; for example, “After Lot and Abram had separated, the LORD said to Abram…” or “When Lot had left, the LORD said….”

Lift up your eyes is the same expression used in verse 10, except it is now in the form of a command addressed to Abram.

Look from the place where you are: this may be the same site that Lot had looked from in verse 10, or another place with a different view. Abram is commanded to look in four directions beginning with northward, which is a different word than used in Gen 13.9. The instructions to Abram are given in pairs of opposite directions: north and south, east and west. The Hebrew here is literally “toward Zaphon [a location in the north] and toward the Negev [in the south] and frontward [east] and toward the sea [west].” In languages in which these directions are expressed as long phrases, translators may wish to follow Good News Translation, “Look carefully in all directions,” or say “Look all around you.”

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 .