Genesis 12:1-9

The Call of Abram

1 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.^{[a] [b]}

3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt,^[c] and all the peoples^[d] on earth will be blessed^[e] through you.^{[f] [g]}

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.

5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

6 Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

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

8 From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped^[h] Him.

9 Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

Genesis 12:1-9 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or great. Be a blessing!
• [b]. Zch 8:13
• [c]. Gn 27:29; Nm 24:9
• [d]. Lit clans
• [e]. Or will find blessing
• [f]. Or will bless themselves by you
• [g]. Gn 26:4; 28:14; Gl 3:8
• [h]. Or proclaimed or invoked the name of; lit called on the name of