Genesis 12:1-8

1 Forsooth the Lord said to Abram, Go thou out of thy land, and (out) of thy kindred, and (out) of the house of thy father, and come thou into the land which I shall show to thee;

2 and I shall make thee into a great folk (and I shall make thee into a great nation), and I shall bless thee, and I shall magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed;

3 I shall bless them that bless thee, and I shall curse them that curse thee; and all kindreds of [the] earth shall be blessed in thee (and all the families on the earth shall pray to be blessed as thou art blessed/and through thee I shall bless all the nations of the earth).

4 And so Abram went out, as the Lord commanded him, and Lot went with him. Abram was five and seventy years (old) when he went out of Haran.

5 And he took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, the son of his brother, and all the substance which they had in possession, and the men which they had begotten in Haran (and all the men, or all the slaves, which they had gotten, or had acquired, in Haran); and they went out (so) that they should go into the land of Canaan. And when they came into it,

6 Abram passed through the land till to the place of Sichem, and till to the noble valley. Forsooth Canaanite was then in the land. (And Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, and to the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.)

7 Soothly the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, I shall give this land to thy seed. And Abram built there an altar to the Lord, that appeared to him (And Abram build an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him).

8 And from thence he passed forth to the hill [of] Bethel, that was against the east, and setted there his tabernacle, having Bethel from the west, and Hai from the east. And he builded also there an altar to the Lord, and inwardly called his name. (And from there he went on to the hill country that was east of Bethel, and pitched his tent there, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east. And there he also built an altar to the Lord, and inwardly called on his name.)

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.