Genesis 12:1-11

1 The Lord said to Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. ¹

2 I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, ² But I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations."

4 When Abram was seventy-five years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him.

5 Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan,

6 Abram traveled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.)

7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants." Then Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ³

8 After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshiped the Lord.

9 Then he moved on from place to place, going toward the southern part of Canaan.

10 But there was a famine in Canaan, and it was so bad that Abram went farther south to Egypt, to live there for a while.

11 When he was about to cross the border into Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "You are a beautiful woman.

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Genesis 12:1-11 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.