Genesis 12:1–9

THE CALL OF ABRAM

12The Lord said to Abram:

Go from your land,

your relatives,

and your father’s house

to the land that I will show you.^f

²I will make you into a great nation,^g

I will bless you,^h

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.ⁱ

³I will bless those who bless you,

I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,^j

and all the peoples on earth

will be blessed^A through you.^Bk

⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.^{l 5}He 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. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem,^m at the oak of Moreh. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) ⁷The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringⁿ,^C I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the Lord there, and he called on the name of the Lord.^{o 9}Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.