Genesis 12
12
Abram’s Call and Migration. 1The Lord said to Abram: Go forth#Go forth…find blessing in you: the syntax of the Hebrew suggests that the blessings promised to Abraham are contingent on his going to Canaan. from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.#Acts 7:3; Heb 11:8. 2#The call of Abraham begins a new history of blessing (18:18; 22:15–18), which is passed on in each instance to the chosen successor (26:2–4; 28:14). This call evokes the last story in the primeval history (11:1–9) by reversing its themes: Abraham goes forth rather than settle down; it is God rather than Abraham who will make a name for him; the families of the earth will find blessing in him. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.#Gn 17:6; Sir 44:20–21; Rom 4:17–22. 3#Gn 18:18; 22:18; Acts 3:25; Gal 3:8. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.#Will find blessing in you: the Hebrew conjugation of the verb here and in 18:18 and 28:14 can be either reflexive (“shall bless themselves by you” = people will invoke Abraham as an example of someone blessed by God) or passive (“by you all the families of earth will be blessed” = the religious privileges of Abraham and his descendants ultimately will be extended to the nations). In 22:18 and 26:4, another conjugation of the same verb is used in a similar context that is undoubtedly reflexive (“bless themselves”). Many scholars suggest that the two passages in which the sense is clear should determine the interpretation of the three ambiguous passages: the privileged blessing enjoyed by Abraham and his descendants will awaken in all peoples the desire to enjoy those same blessings. Since the term is understood in a passive sense in the New Testament (Acts 3:25; Gal 3:8), it is rendered here by a neutral expression that admits of both meanings.
4#Gn 11:31; Jos 24:3; Acts 7:4. Abram went as the Lord directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5#The ancestors appear in Genesis as pastoral nomads living at the edge of settled society, and having occasional dealings with the inhabitants, sometimes even moving into towns for brief periods. Unlike modern nomads such as the Bedouin, however, ancient pastoralists fluctuated between following the herds and sedentary life, depending on circumstances. Pastoralists could settle down and farm and later resume a pastoral way of life. Indeed, there was a symbiotic relationship between pastoralists and villagers, each providing goods to the other. Persons: servants and others who formed the larger household under the leadership of Abraham; cf. 14:14. Abram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all the possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6#Abraham’s journey to the center of the land, Shechem, then to Bethel, and then to the Negeb, is duplicated in Jacob’s journeys (33:18; 35:1, 6, 27; 46:1) and in the general route of the conquest under Joshua (Jos 7:2; 8:9, 30). Abraham’s journey is a symbolic “conquest” of the land he has been promised. In building altars here (vv. 7, 8) and elsewhere, Abraham acknowledges his God as Lord of the land. Abram passed through the land as far as the sacred place at Shechem, by the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land.
7The Lord appeared to Abram and said: To your descendants I will give this land. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.#Ex 33:1; Dt 34:4; Acts 7:5. 8From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there to the Lord and invoked the Lord by name. 9Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.#The Negeb: the semidesert land south of Judah.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt.#12:10–13:1] Abraham and Sarah’s sojourn in Egypt and encounter with Pharaoh foreshadow their descendants’ experience, suggesting a divine design in which they must learn to trust. The story of Sarah, the ancestor in danger, is told again in chap. 20, and also in 26:1–11 with Rebekah instead of Sarah. Repetition of similar events is not unusual in literature that has been orally shaped. 10There was famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, since the famine in the land was severe.#Gn 26:1. 11When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: “I know that you are a beautiful woman. 12When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife’; then they will kill me, but let you live. 13Please say, therefore, that you are my sister,#You are my sister: the text does not try to excuse Abraham’s deception, though in 20:12 a similar deception is somewhat excused. so that I may fare well on your account and my life may be spared for your sake.”#Gn 20:12–13; 26:7. 14When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15When Pharaoh’s officials saw her they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16Abram fared well on her account, and he acquired sheep, oxen, male and female servants, male and female donkeys, and camels.#Camels: domesticated camels did not come into common use in the ancient Near East until the end of the second millennium B.C. Thus the mention of camels here (24:11–64; 30:43; 31:17, 34; 32:8, 16; 37:25) is seemingly an anachronism.
17But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.#Ps 105:14. 18Then Pharaoh summoned Abram and said to him: “How could you do this to me! Why did you not tell me she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and leave!”
20Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.
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Genesis 12: NABRE
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Genesis 12
12
The Call of Abram
1Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, your family, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. # Ge 15:7; Heb 11:8
2I will make of you a great nation;
I will bless you
and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing. # Ge 15:5; 18:18; Dt 26:5
3I will bless those who bless you
and curse him who curses you, # Ge 27:29 # 12:3 Or treats you lightly.
and in you all families of the earth
will be blessed.” # Ge 22:18; 26:4
4So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Harran. # Ge 11:31 5Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had accumulated, and the people that they had acquired in Harran, # Ge 14:14 and they set out for the land of Canaan. They came to the land of Canaan. # Ge 11:31
6Then Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. # Ge 35:4; Dt 11:30 The Canaanites were in the land at that time. # Ge 13:7 7The Lord appeared to Abram # Ge 17:1 and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” # Ge 13:15 So he built an altar to the Lord, # Ge 13:4 who had appeared to him.
8From there he continued on to a mountain to the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. # Ge 4:26 9Then Abram continued his journey toward the Negev. # Ge 13:3; 24:62
Abram in Egypt
Ge 20:1–18; 26:1–11
10Now there was a famine in the land, # Ge 43:1 so Abram went down to Egypt to live there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11When he was getting near to Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know you are a beautiful woman. # Ge 26:7; 29:17; Est 2:7 12Therefore, when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will then kill me, but they will let you live. # Ge 20:11; 26:7 13Say you are my sister so that I may be treated well for your sake. Then my life will be spared because of you.” # Ge 20:2
14So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was very beautiful. 15The princes of Pharaoh saw her and commended her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16He treated Abram well for her sake, and he had sheep and livestock, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels. # Ge 13:2; 20:14
17But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Abram’s wife, Sarai. # Ge 20:18; 1Ch 16:21 18So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, “What have you done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? # Ge 20:9–10 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now here is your wife; take her and leave.” 20Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
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The Holy Bible, Modern English Version
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