Genesis 12

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.