Genesis 12

God's Call to Abram

1 # Acts 7.2–3; Heb 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 # Gal 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 75 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 travelled 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#Acts 7.5; Gal 3.16The 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 worshipped the LORD. 9Then he moved on from place to place, going towards 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#Gen 20.2; 26.7Tell 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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Genesis 12

The Call of Abram

1Now #Acts 7:3; Heb. 11:8the Lord said#12:1 Or had said to Abram, “Go from your country#12:1 Or land and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2#ch. 17:6; 18:18; [Gal. 3:14]And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3#ch. 27:29; Num. 24:9 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and #ch. 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; Jer. 4:2; Acts 3:25; Gal. 3:16; Cited Gal. 3:8in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”#12:3 Or by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves

4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from #ch. 11:31Haran. 5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6Abram #[Heb. 11:9] passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to #ch. 13:18 the oak#12:6 Or terebinth of #Deut. 11:30; Judg. 7:1 Moreh. At that time #ch. 13:7the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, #ch. 13:15; 17:8; Ex. 33:1; Ps. 105:9-12; [Num. 32:11]; Gal. 3:16“To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved to the hill country on the east of #ch. 28:19Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10Now #ch. 26:1; 43:1there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they #See ch. 20:1-18; 26:6-11will kill me, but they will let you live. 13Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17But the Lord #1 Chr. 16:21; Ps. 105:14afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

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