Genesis 12–13

¹And Jehovah saith unto Abram, ‘Go for thyself, from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from the house of thy father, unto the land which I shew thee. ²And I make thee become a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing. ³And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground.’

⁴And Abram goeth on, as Jehovah hath spoken unto him, and Lot goeth with him, and Abram is a son of five and seventy years in his going out from Charan. ⁵And Abram taketh Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they have gained, and the persons that they have obtained in Charan; and they go out to go towards the land of Canaan; and they come in to the land of Canaan.

⁶And Abram passeth over into the land, unto the place Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh; and the Canaanite is then in the land. ⁷And Jehovah appeareth unto Abram, and saith, ‘To thy seed I give this land;’ and he buildeth there an altar to Jehovah, who hath appeared unto him. ⁸And he removeth from thence towards a mountain at the east of Beth-El, and stretcheth out the tent (Beth-El at the west, and Hai at the east), and he buildeth there an altar to Jehovah, and preacheth in the name of Jehovah. ⁹And Abram journeyeth, going on and journeying towards the south.

¹⁰And there is a famine in the land, and Abram goeth down towards Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine is grievous in the land; ¹¹and it cometh to pass as he hath drawn near to enter Egypt, that he saith unto Sarai his wife, ‘Lo, I pray thee, I have known that thou art a woman of beautiful appearance; ¹²and it hath come to pass that the Egyptians see thee, and they have said, ‘This is his wife,’ and they have slain me, and thee they keep alive: ¹³say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, so that it is well with me because of thee, and my soul hath lived for thy sake.’

¹⁴And it cometh to pass, at the entering of Abram into Egypt, that the Egyptians see the woman that she is exceeding fair; ¹⁵and princes of Pharaoh see her, and praise her unto Pharaoh, and the woman is taken to Pharaoh’s house; ¹⁶and to Abram he hath done good because of her, and he hath sheep and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and handmaids, and she-asses, and camels. ¹⁷And Jehovah plagueth Pharaoh and his house—great plagues—for the matter of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸And Pharaoh calleth for Abram, and saith, ‘What is this thou hast done to me? why hast thou not declared to me that she is thy wife? ¹⁹Why hast thou said, She is my sister, and I take her to myself for a wife? and now, lo, thy wife, take and go.’ ²⁰And Pharaoh chargeth men concerning him, and they send him away, and his wife, an all that he hath.

Chapter 13

¹And Abram goeth up from Egypt (he and his wife, and all that he hath, and Lot with him) towards the south; ²and Abram is exceedingly wealthy in cattle, in silver, and in gold. ³And he goeth on his journeyings from the south, even unto Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the commencement, between Bethel and Hai— ⁴unto the place of the altar which he made there at the first, and there doth Abram preach in the name of Jehovah.

⁵And also to Lot, who is going with Abram, there hath been sheep and oxen and tents; ⁶and the land hath not suffered them to dwell together, for their substance hath been much, and they have not been able to dwell together; ⁷and there is a strife between those feeding Abram’s cattle and those feeding Lot’s cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite are then dwelling in the land. ⁸And Abram saith unto Lot, ‘Let there not, I pray thee, be strife between me and thee, and between my shepherds and thy shepherds, for we are men—brethren. ⁹Is not all the land before thee? be parted, I pray thee, from me; if to the left, then I to the right; and if to the right, then I to the left.’

¹⁰And Lot lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the whole circuit of the Jordan that it is all a watered country (before Jehovah’s destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, as Jehovah’s garden, as the land of Egypt,) in thy coming toward Zoar, ¹¹and Lot chooseth for himself the whole circuit of the Jordan; and Lot journeyeth from the east, and they are parted—a man from his companion; ¹²Abram hath dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot hath dwelt in the cities of the circuit, and tenteth unto Sodom; ¹³and the men of Sodom are evil, and sinners before Jehovah exceedingly.

¹⁴And Jehovah said unto Abram, after Lot’s being parted from him, ‘Lift up, I pray thee, thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; ¹⁵for the whole of the land which thou are seeing, to thee I give it, and to thy seed—to the age. ¹⁶And I have set thy seed as dust of the earth, so that, if one is able to number the dust of the earth, even thy seed is numbered; ¹⁷rise, go up and down through the land, to its length, and to its breadth, for to thee I give it.’ ¹⁸And Abram tenteth, and cometh, and dwelleth among the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and buildeth there an altar to Jehovah.

Chapter 14