Genesis 12:2-12

2 I'll make you a great nation and bless you. I'll make you famous; you'll be a blessing.

3 I'll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I'll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you."

4 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.

6 Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.

7 God appeared to Abram and said, "I will give this land to your children." Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.

8 He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God.

9 Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev.

10 Then a famine came to the land. Abram went down to Egypt to live; it was a hard famine.

11 As he drew near to Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, "Look. We both know that you're a beautiful woman.

12 When the Egyptians see you they're going to say, 'Aha! That's his wife!' and kill me. But they'll let you live.

Genesis 12:2-12 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.