Genesis 12
12
The Lord chooses Abram
1The LORD said to Abram:#Ac 7.2,3; He 11.8.
Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. 2I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. 3I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.#12.3 Everyone…you: Or “Everyone on earth will ask me to bless them as I have blessed you.”#Ga 3.8.
4-5Abram was seventy-five years old when the LORD told him to leave the city of Haran. He obeyed and left with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and slaves they had got while in Haran.
When they came to the land of Canaan, 6Abram went as far as the sacred tree of Moreh in a place called Shechem. The Canaanites were still living in the land at that time, 7but the LORD appeared to Abram and promised, “I will give this land to your family for ever.” Abram then built an altar there for the LORD.#Ac 7.5; Ga 3.16.
8Abram travelled to the hill country east of Bethel and camped between Bethel and Ai, where he built another altar and worshipped the LORD. 9Later, Abram started out towards the Southern Desert.
Abram in Egypt
10-11The crops failed, and there was no food anywhere in the land. So Abram and his wife Sarai went to live in Egypt for a while. But just before they got there, he said, “Sarai, you are really beautiful! 12When the Egyptians see how lovely you are, they will murder me because I am your husband. But they won't kill you. 13Please save my life by saying that you are my sister.”#Gn 20.2; 26.7.
14As soon as Abram and Sarai arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians noticed how beautiful she was. 15The king's#12.15 the king's: The Hebrew text has “Pharaoh's”, a Hebrew word sometimes used for the king of Egypt. officials told him about her, and she was taken to his house. 16The king was good to Abram because of Sarai, and Abram was given sheep, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.
17Because of Sarai, the LORD struck the king and everyone in his palace with terrible diseases. 18Finally, the king sent for Abram and said to him, “What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me Sarai was your wife? 19Why did you make me believe she was your sister? Now I've married her. Take her and go! She's your wife.”
20So the king told his men to let Abram and Sarai take their possessions and leave.
© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Genesis 12
12
1 Then the Lord said to Abram: "Depart from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
4 And so Abram departed just as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5 And he took his wife Sarai, and Lot, the son of his brother, and all the substance which they had come to possess, and the lives which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed in order to go to the land of Canaan. And when they arrived in it,
6 Abram passed through the land even to the place of Shechem, as far as the famous steep valley. Now at that time, the Canaanite was in the land.
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and he said to him, "To your offspring, I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 And passing on from there to a mountain, which was opposite the east of Bethel, he pitched his tent there, having Bethel to the west, and Hai on the east. He also built an altar there to the Lord, and he called upon his name.
9 And Abram traveled, going out and continuing further on, toward the south.
10 But a famine occurred in the land. And Abram descended to Egypt, to sojourn there. For famine prevailed over the land.
11 And when he was close to entering Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: "I know you to be a beautiful woman.
12 And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'She is his wife.' And they will put me to death, and retain you.
13 Therefore, I beg you to say that you are my sister, so that it may be well with me because of you, and so that my soul may live by your favor."
14 And so, when Abram had arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was exceedingly beautiful.
15 And the princes reported it to Pharaoh, and they praised her to him. And the woman was inducted into the house of Pharaoh.
16 In truth, they treated Abram well because of her. And he had sheep and oxen and male donkeys, and men servants, and women servants, and female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord scourged Pharaoh and his house with great wounds because of Sarai, the wife of Abram.
18 And Pharaoh called Abram, and he said to him: "What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife?
19 For what reason did you claim her to be your sister, so that I would take her to me as a wife? Now therefore, behold your mate, receive her and go."
20 And Pharaoh instructed his men about Abram. And they led him away with his wife and all that he had.