Genesis 12
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.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)
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Genesis 12
12
1And Jehovah had said to Abram, Go out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to the land that I will shew thee. 2And I will make of thee a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. 3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4And Abram departed as Jehovah had said to him. And Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls that they had obtained in Haran, and they went out to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
6And Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7And Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there he built an altar to Jehovah who had appeared to him. 8And he removed thence towards the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel toward the west, and Ai toward the east; and there he built an altar to Jehovah, and called on the name of Jehovah. 9And Abram moved onward, going on still toward the south.
10And there was a famine in the land. And Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. 11And it came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a woman fair to look upon. 12And it will come to pass when the Egyptians see thee, that they will say, She is his wife; and they will slay me, and save thee alive. 13Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me on thy account, and my soul may live because of thee.
14And it came to pass when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. 15And the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16And he treated Abram well on her account; and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and bondmen, and bondwomen, and she-asses, and camels. 17And Jehovah plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife. 18And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this thou hast done to me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? 19Why didst thou say, She is my sister, so that I took her as my wife. And now, behold, there is thy wife: take her, and go away. 20And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.