Genesis 12

The Call of Abram

1Yahweh said to Abram, “Go from your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, to the land I will show you. 2I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever treats you with contempt I will curse; and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” 4So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the great tree of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on the name of Yahweh. 9Then Abram set out, continuing on toward the Negev.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while, because the famine was severe. 11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman. 12When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ and they will kill me but let you live. 13Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and my life will be spared because of you.” 14When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s household. 16He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep, cattle, donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17But Yahweh struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What is this you have done 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 as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go.” 20Pharaoh gave orders to his men concerning Abram, and they sent him away with his wife and everything he had.