Genesis 12:4-10

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from ¹Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

6 Abram ²passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to ³the oak^[a] of ⁴Moreh. At that time ⁵the Canaanites were in the land.

7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ⁶"To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of ⁷Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.

9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10 Now ⁸there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Genesis 12:4-10 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. Genesis 11:31
• 2. [Hebrews 11:9]
• 3. Genesis 13:18
• 4. Deuteronomy 11:30; Judges 7:1
• 5. Genesis 13:7
• 6. Genesis 13:15; Genesis 17:8; Exodus 33:1; Psalms 105:9-12; [Numbers 32:11]; Galatians 3:16
• 7. Genesis 28:19
• 8. Genesis 26:1; Genesis 43:1

Footnotes

• [a]. Or terebinth