B'resheet (Gen) 12
12
Parashah 3: Lekh L’kha (Get yourself out) 12:1–17:27
1Now Adonai said to Avram, “Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great; and you are to be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
4So Avram went, as Adonai had said to him, and Lot went with him. Avram was 75 years old when he left Haran. 5Avram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, as well as the people they had acquired in Haran; then they set out for the land of Kena‘an and entered the land of Kena‘an.
6Avram passed through the land to the place called Sh’khem, to the oak of Moreh. The Kena‘ani were then in the land. 7Adonai appeared to Avram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to Adonai, who had appeared to him.
8He left that place, went to the hill east of Beit-El and pitched his tent. With Beit-El to the west and ‘Ai to the east, he built an altar there and called on the name of Adonai. 9Then Avram traveled on, continuing toward the Negev. 10But there was a famine in the land, so Avram went down into Egypt to stay there, because the famine in the land was severe.
11When he came close to Egypt and was about to enter, he said to Sarai his wife, “Here now, I know that you are a good-looking woman; 12so that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ and kill me but keep you alive. 13Please say that you are my sister, so that it will go well with me for your sake, and so that I will stay alive because of you.”
(ii) 14When Avram entered Egypt, the Egyptians did notice that the woman was very beautiful. 15Pharaoh’s princes saw her and commended her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16He treated Avram well for her sake, giving him sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.
17But Adonai inflicted great plagues on Pharaoh and his household because of Sarai Avram’s wife. 18Pharaoh called Avram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my own wife? Now therefore, here is your wife! Take her, and go away!” 20So Pharaoh gave orders concerning him to his men, and they sent him on his way with his wife and everything he had.
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12
God's Call to Abram
1 #
Ws 10.5;
Ac 7.2,3; He 11.8 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. 2I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.
3 #
Ga 3.8
I will bless those who bless you,
But I will curse those who curse you.
And through you I will bless all the nations.”#12.3: And through … nations; or All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed you.
4When Abram was seventy-five years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him. 5Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan.
When they arrived in Canaan, 6Abram traveled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.) 7#Ac 7.5; Ga 3.16 The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants.” Then Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshiped the Lord. 9Then he moved on from place to place, going toward the southern part of Canaan.
Abram in Egypt
10But there was a famine in Canaan, and it was so bad that Abram went farther south to Egypt, to live there for a while. 11When he was about to cross the border into Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “You are a beautiful woman. 12When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live. 13#Gn 20.2; 26.7 Tell them that you are my sister; then because of you they will let me live and treat me well.” 14When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful. 15Some of the court officials saw her and told the king how beautiful she was; so she was taken to his palace. 16Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.
17But because the king had taken Sarai, the Lord sent terrible diseases on him and on the people of his palace. 18Then the king sent for Abram and asked him, “What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife? 19Why did you say that she was your sister, and let me take her as my wife? Here is your wife; take her and get out!” 20The king gave orders to his men, so they took Abram and put him out of the country, together with his wife and everything he owned.
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