Genesis 12:1–9

The Lord’s First Promise to Abram

¹The Lord said to Abram, 

“Leave your land, 

your relatives, 

and your father’s home. 

Go to the land that I will show you. 

²I will make you a great nation, 

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 curses you, I will curse. 

Through you every family on earth will be blessed.” 

The Lord’s Second Promise to Abram

⁴So Abram left, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. ⁵Abram set out for Canaan. He took along his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the servants they had acquired in Haran. 

⁶They arrived in Canaan,and Abram traveled through the land to the oak tree belonging to Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I’m going to give this land to your descendants.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 

⁸He moved on to the hills east of Bethel, and he put up his tent—with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He also built an altar to the Lord there and worshiped the Lord. ⁹Abram kept moving toward the Negev.