The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said1 to Abram,2

“Go out3 from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you.4

12:2 Then I will make you5 into a great nation, and I will bless you,6

and I will make your name great,7

so that you will exemplify divine blessing.8

12:3 I will bless those who bless you,9

but the one who treats you lightly10 I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another11 by your name.”

12:4 So Abram left,12 just as the Lord had told him to do,13 and Lot went with him. (Now14 Abram was 75 years old15 when he departed from Haran.) 12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew16 Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired17 in Haran, and they left for18 the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.

12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree19 of Moreh20 at Shechem.21 (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.)22 12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants23 I will give this land.” So Abram24 built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel25 and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord.26 12:9 Abram continually journeyed by stages27 down to the Negev.28