Genesis 12:2-12

2 I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will place a curse on those who harm you. And all the people on earth will be blessed through you."

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

5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and everything they owned, as well as all the servants they had gotten in Haran. They set out from Haran, planning to go to the land of Canaan, and in time they arrived there.

6 Abram traveled through that land as far as the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time.

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

8 Then he traveled from Shechem to the mountain east of Bethel and set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai was to the east. There Abram built another altar to the Lord and worshiped him.

9 After this, he traveled on toward southern Canaan.

10 At this time there was not much food in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live because there was so little food.

11 Just before they arrived in Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "I know you are a very beautiful woman.

12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This woman is his wife.' Then they will kill me but let you live.

Genesis 12:2-12 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.