Bereshit 12:6,7 (Lekh Lekha) – Avraham’s second blessing

After Avraham (Avram) went to the land of Israel, G-d told him a second blessing, which specifies that his descendants would inherit the land of Israel, 12:6,7. Only at this point did Avraham know that he was to recieve the land of Israel. Beforehand, he was merely continuing on his journey that Terah had started, 12:31.

Why was the blessing of 12:7 only to Avraham's descendants and not to Avraham, that Avraham would receive the land of Israel? My guess is that the blessing could not have been for Avraham at that time since Lot was also a potential recipient of the land of Israel, as he had also journeyed with Avraham to the land of Israel, 12:4,5. The promise that Avraham's descendants would receive the land did not rule out Lot since he was Avraham's nephew and could be considered his descendant.

This recognition that the promise here of land was to Avraham's descendants and not to Avraham can explain the puzzling phrase in 12:6 immediately prior to the blessing that "the Canaanites were then in the land." This phrase implies that the Canaanites were no longer living in the land of Israel when the Torah was written, but we know that they were living in Israel when Yehoshua led the people back to the land of Israel. Why was the information mentioned? The answer is that the phrase tells us that the Canaanites were the owners of the land of Israel at that time, which was because Avraham had not yet been promised the land of Israel. When the Torah was written at Mount Sinai, Avraham had already been promised the land of Israel, as recorded in 13:17, and hence the Canaanites were no longer the owners of the land even though they were still living in the land of Israel.