Genesis 12:6-16

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. ¹

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.

12 When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live.

13 Tell them that you are my sister; then because of you they will let me live and treat me well." ²

14 When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful.

15 Some of the court officials saw her and told the king how beautiful she was; so she was taken to his palace.

16 Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.

Genesis 12:6-16 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.

Cross References

• 1. 12.7Acts 7.5;Galatians 3.16.
• 2. 12.13Genesis 20.2; 26.7.