Genesis 12
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.
Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
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.