Genesis 12:1-8

1 Now the LORD said to Avram, "Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.

2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great. You will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. In you will all of the families of the eretz be blessed."

4 So Avram went, as the LORD had spoken to him. Lot went with him. Avram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 Avram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother's son, all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls who they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Kana`an. Into the land of Kana`an they came.

6 Avram passed through the land to the place of Shekhem, to the oak of Moreh. The Kana`ani was then in the land.

7 The LORD appeared to Avram, and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." He built an altar there to the LORD, who appeared to him.

8 He left from there to the mountain on the east of Beit-El, and pitched his tent, having Beit-El on the west, and `Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and called on the name of the LORD.

Genesis 12:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 12

In this chapter an account is given of the call of Abram to depart from his own country, with a promise of a divine blessing, Ge 12:1-3 of his obedience to it, Ge 12:4,5 of his journey through the land of Canaan, and of the Lord's appearance to him in it, and his promise of it to his seed, and of Abram's building altars in it, and calling on the name of the Lord, Ge 12:6-9 and of a famine there, which occasioned him to go into Egypt, Ge 12:10 where, through fear of being slain, he desired his wife to call herself his sister, Ge 12:11-13 and she being greatly admired by the Egyptians for her beauty, it went well with Abram for her sake, Ge 12:14-16 but the Egyptians were plagued because of her, who, when they understood she was Abram's wife, sent them both away, and all that belonged to them, Ge 12:17-20.