Genesis 13:2

Abram was very rich. The word here translated “rich” literally means “heavy” or “weighty,” used in the sense of being “loaded” with possessions. A wealthy man before he went to Egypt, Abram came back greatly increased in goods, owing to the generosity of Pharaoh. For the first time the Bible mentions silver and gold as precious metals, and their possession as making a man wealthy. Abram may have had silver when he left Mesopotamia, a country rich in this metal; but the gold probably came to him in Egypt, the richest gold-mining country of antiquity. About the middle of the second millennium B.C. Asiatic rulers begged for gold in almost every letter they wrote to the Pharaohs. It was commonly believed that “gold was as plentiful in Egypt as stones.” The tombs of some Phoenician rulers of Byblos, discovered in the 1920’s, contained many precious gifts from Egyptian kings of the 19th and 18th centuries B.C. Beautiful vessels, boxes, ornaments, and other luxury objects may have been included in the present Abram received from Pharaoh.