Avraham tells Lot (v.9) to choose any direction he wishes to settle. He explains that he has limited options, as he must seek isolation. But, he tells Lot, “since you have dissociated from my view of life (see 13B), you have no need to be so particular in your choice of where to live”.
And so we see (v.12) that while Lot chose a place of prosperity, where his herds and tents stretched all the way to Sodom, Avraham continued to dwell apart, avoiding all contact with the Canaanite cities. He only drew near to society to fulfill his mission of proclaiming the name of Hashem.
Avraham had just undergone a painful experience of failing to win over to his way of life his closest relative.
Only after God encouraged him to look beyond his isolation and to become involved, without fear, with the inhabitants of the land, for his own sake and for the sake of his principles, did Avraham enter the well-inhabited are and settle in Chevron (later in this chapter, verses 17-18).
Beraishis 13:8-12
pages 315-318
