Genesis - Chapter 12

¹ Yahweh said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your kindred and your father's house for a country which I shall show you;

² and I shall make you a great nation, I shall bless you and make your name famous; you are to be a blessing!

³ I shall bless those who bless you, and shall curse those who curse you, and all clans on earth will bless themselves by you.'

⁴ So Abram went as Yahweh told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there.

⁶ Abram passed through the country as far as the holy place at Shechem, the Oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were in the country at the time.

⁷ Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, 'I shall give this country to your progeny.' And there, Abram built an altar to Yahweh who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he moved on to the mountainous district east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and invoked the name of Yahweh.

⁹ Then Abram made his way stage by stage to the Negeb.

¹⁰ There was a famine in the country, and Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a time, since the famine in the country was severe.

¹¹ When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'Look, I know you are a beautiful woman.

¹² When the Egyptians see you they will say, "That is his wife," and they will kill me but leave you alive.

¹³ Therefore please tell them you are my sister, so that they may treat me well because of you and spare my life out of regard for you.'

¹⁴ When Abram arrived in Egypt the Egyptians did indeed see that the woman was very beautiful.

¹⁵ When Pharaoh's officials saw her they sang her praises to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's household.

¹⁶ And Abram was very well treated because of her and received flocks, oxen, donkeys, men and women slaves, she-donkeys and camels.

¹⁷ But Yahweh inflicted severe plagues on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.

¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, 'What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife?

¹⁹ Why did you say, "She is my sister," so that I took her to be my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!'

²⁰ And Pharaoh gave his people orders about him; they sent him on his way with his wife and all his possessions.

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