Genesis 12

The Call of Abram

1 Now m the Lord said 1 to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 n And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 o I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and p in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 2

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from q Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram r passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to s the oak 3 of t Moreh. At that time u the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, v "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of w Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10 Now x there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, "I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they y will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake." 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the Lord z afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What 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, here is your wife; take her, and go." 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

  1. Cross References
    Acts 7:3
    And said to him, 'Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.
    Hebrews 11:8
    By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
  2. Cross References
    Genesis 17:6
    I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
    Genesis 18:18
    Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
    Galatians 3:14
    So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
  3. Cross References
    Genesis 27:29
    Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!
    Numbers 24:9
    He crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.
  4. Cross References
    Genesis 18:18
    Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great...
    Genesis 22:18
    And in your offspring shall all the nations of ...
    Genesis 26:4
    I will multiply your offspring as the stars of ...
    Genesis 28:14
    Your offspring shall be like the dust of the ea...
    Jeremiah 4:2
    And if you swear, 'As the Lord lives,' in truth...
    Acts 3:25
    You are the sons of the prophets and of the cov...
    Galatians 3:16
    Now the promises were made to Abraham and to hi...
    Galatians 3:8
    And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would ju...
  5. Cross References
    Genesis 11:31
    Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.
  6. Cross References
    Hebrews 11:9
    By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
  7. Cross References
    Genesis 13:18
    So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
  8. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 11:30
    Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?
    Judges 7:1
    Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
  9. Cross References
    Genesis 13:7
    And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
  10. Cross References
    Genesis 13:15
    For all the land that you see I will give to yo...
    Genesis 17:8
    And I will give to you and to your offspring af...
    Exodus 33:1
    The Lord said to Moses, "Depart; go up from her...
    Psalms 105:9 - 12
    The covenant that he made with Abraham, his swo...
    Numbers 32:11
    Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt...
    Galatians 3:16
    Now the promises were made to Abraham and to hi...
  11. Cross References
    Genesis 28:19
    He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
  12. Cross References
    Genesis 26:1
    Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
    Genesis 43:1
    Now the famine was severe in the land.
  13. Cross References
    Genesis 20:1 - 18
    From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.
    Genesis 26:6 - 11
    So Isaac settled in Gerar.
  14. Cross References
    1 Chronicles 16:21
    He allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account.
    Psalms 105:14
    He allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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