Genesis 12–22

Chapter 12

Abram Journeys to Egypt

¹Now ^athe Lord said to Abram,

“¹Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you;

²And ^aI will make you a great nation,

And ^bI will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so ^1cyou shall be a blessing;

³And ^aI will bless those who bless you,

And the one who ¹curses you I will ²curse.

^bAnd in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

⁴So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and ^aLot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

⁵Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their ^apossessions which they had accumulated, and ^bthe ¹persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they ²set out for the land of Canaan; ^cthus they came to the land of Canaan.

⁶Abram passed through the land as far as the site of ^aShechem, to the ¹oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.

⁷The Lord ^aappeared to Abram and said, “^bTo your ¹descendants I will give this land.” So he built ^can altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

⁸Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with ^aBethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and ^bcalled upon the name of the Lord.

⁹Abram journeyed on, continuing toward ^athe ¹Negev.

¹⁰Now there was ^aa famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was ^bsevere in the land.

¹¹It came about when he ¹came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a ^2abeautiful woman;

^12aand when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

¹³“Please say that you are ^amy sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that ^1bI may live on account of you.”

¹⁴It came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians ¹saw that the woman was very beautiful.

¹⁵Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and ^athe woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

¹⁶Therefore ^ahe treated Abram well for her sake; and ^1bgave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.

¹⁷But the Lord ^astruck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

¹⁸Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “^aWhat is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

¹⁹“Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, ¹here is your wife, take her and go.”

²⁰Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they ¹escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.

Chapter 13

Abram and Lot

¹So Abram went up from Egypt to ^athe ¹Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him.

²Now Abram was ^avery rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.

³He went ¹on his journeys from the ²Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, ^abetween Bethel and Ai,

⁴to the place of the ^aaltar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

⁵Now ^aLot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

⁶And ^athe land could not ¹sustain them ²while dwelling together, ^bfor their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.

^7aAnd there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now ^bthe Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land.

^8aSo Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.

⁹“Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.”

¹⁰Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the ^1avalley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord ^bdestroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like ^cthe garden of the Lord, ^dlike the land of Egypt as you go to ^eZoar.

¹¹So Lot chose for himself all the ¹valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other.

¹²Abram ¹settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in ^athe cities of the ²valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom.

¹³Now ^athe men of Sodom were wicked ¹exceedingly and ^bsinners against the Lord.

¹⁴The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “^aNow lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, ^bnorthward and southward and eastward and westward;

^15afor all the land which you see, ^bI will give it to you and to your ¹descendants forever.

¹⁶“I will make your ¹descendants ^aas the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.

¹⁷“Arise, ^awalk about the land through its length and breadth; for ^bI will give it to you.”

¹⁸Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the ^1aoaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built ^ban altar to the Lord.

Chapter 14

War of the Kings

¹And it came about in the days of Amraphel king of ^aShinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of ^bElam, and Tidal king of ¹Goiim,

²that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of ^aAdmah, and Shemeber king of ^bZeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, ^cZoar).

³All these ¹came as allies to ^athe valley of Siddim (that is, ^bthe Salt Sea).

⁴Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but the thirteenth year they rebelled.

⁵In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, came and ¹defeated the ^aRephaim in ^bAshteroth-karnaim and the Zuzim in Ham and the Emim in ^2cShaveh-kiriathaim,

⁶and the ^aHorites in their Mount Seir, as far as ^bEl-paran, which is by the wilderness.

⁷Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, ^aKadesh), and ¹conquered all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who lived in ^bHazazon-tamar.

⁸And the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) came out; and they arrayed for battle against them in ^athe valley of Siddim,

⁹against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of ¹Goiim and Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five.

¹⁰Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and ^athe kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell ¹into them. But those who survived fled to the ^bhill country.

¹¹Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply, and departed.

¹²They also took Lot, ^aAbram’s nephew, and his possessions and departed, ^bfor he was living in Sodom.

¹³Then ¹a fugitive came and told Abram the ^aHebrew. Now he was ²living by the ^3boaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner, and these were ^4callies with Abram.

¹⁴When Abram heard that ^ahis ¹relative had been taken captive, he ²led out his trained men, ^bborn in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as ^cDan.

^15aHe divided ¹his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and ²defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is ³north of ^bDamascus.

¹⁶He ^abrought back all the goods, and also brought back ^bhis ¹relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the people.

God’s Promise to Abram

¹⁷Then after his return from the ¹defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, ^athe king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh (that is, ^bthe King’s Valley).

¹⁸And ^aMelchizedek king of Salem brought out ^bbread and wine; now he was a ^cpriest of ¹God Most High.

¹⁹He blessed him and said,

“Blessed be Abram of ¹God Most High,

^2aPossessor of heaven and earth;

²⁰And blessed be ¹God Most High,

Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”

^aHe gave him a tenth of all.

²¹The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give the ¹people to me and take the goods for yourself.”

²²Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have ¹sworn to the Lord ^2aGod Most High, ^3bpossessor of heaven and earth,

²³that ^aI will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours, for fear you would say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’

²⁴“¹I will take nothing except what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, ^aAner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their share.”

Chapter 15

Abram Promised a Son

¹After these things ^athe word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,

“^bDo not fear, Abram,

I am ^ca shield to you;

¹Your ^dreward shall be very great.”

²Abram said, “O Lord ¹God, what will You give me, since I ²am childless, and the ³heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

³And Abram said, “¹Since You have given no ²offspring to me, ³one ^aborn in my house is my heir.”

⁴Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; ^abut one who will come forth from your own ¹body, he shall be your heir.”

⁵And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and ^acount the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “^bSo shall your ¹descendants be.”

^6aThen he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

⁷And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of ^aUr of the Chaldeans, to ^bgive you this land to ¹possess it.”

⁸He said, “O Lord ¹God, ^ahow may I know that I will ²possess it?”

⁹So He said to him, “¹Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰Then he ¹brought all these to Him and ^acut them ²in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he ^bdid not cut the birds.

¹¹The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹²Now when the sun was going down, ^aa deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, ¹terror and great darkness fell upon him.

¹³God said to Abram, “Know for certain that ^ayour ¹descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, ²where ^bthey will be enslaved and oppressed ^cfour hundred years.

¹⁴“But I will also judge…