Avoiding Discord

Dixit ergo Abram ad Lot: Ne, quaeso, sit  jurgium inter me et te, et inter pastores meos et pastores tuos, fratres enim sumus. Ecce universa terra coram te est; recede a me, obsecro. Si ad sinistram ieris, ego dexteram tenebo; si tu dexteram elegeris, ego ad sinistram pergam.   Typice autem beatus Abram discordiam pastorum suorum ac pastorum Lot vitare cupiens, et ob hoc secessum abinvincem eligens, nos ad admonet ut nihil charitati et concordiae praeponamus, sed semper parati simus, sive per prospera, quod dextra significat, sive per adversa, quae per sinistram exprimuntur, in pace et dilectione perseverare. Rabanus Maurus, In Genesim Libri Quatour, Liber II, Cap XIV Source: Migne PL 107.536b

Therefore Abram said to Lot: Let there not be strife between me and you and between my shepherds and your shepherds, for we are brothers. Behold all the world is before you, withdraw from me, I beg. If you go to the left, I shall hold to the right; if you chose the right, I shall take the left.' 1   Figuratively the blessed Abram desiring to avoid discord between his shepherds and the shepherds of Lot, and the choosing of separation between them, admonishes us not to prefer anything before love and harmony, that we should always be prepared, whether for prosperity, which the right hand signifies, or for adversity, which the left expresses, to persevere in peace and love. Rabanus Maurus, from the Commentary On Genesis, Book 2, Chap 14 1 Gen 13.8-9