Genesis 12
1 Then Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave this country where you are now living. Leave your father’s clan and his family. Go to a land that I will show you.
Then the Lord said to Abram: “Depart from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, and come into the land that I will show you.
2 I will cause your descendants to become a large nation. I will bless you and cause you to become (famous/highly esteemed). What I do for you will be a blessing to others.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed.
3 I will bless those who (bless/ask God to do good things for) you, and I will (curse/ask God to punish) those who do evil things to you. And because of what you do, groups of people all over the earth will receive blessings (OR, people will wish that God will bless others as much as he has blessed you).”
I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
4 So Abram left Haran [town], as Yahweh told him to do. Abram was 75 years old when he left there along with his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot.
And so Abram departed just as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5 Abram also took along all the possessions and slaves that they had accumulated/acquired in Haran [town], and they left there and went to Canaan land.
And he took his wife Sarai, and Lot, the son of his brother, and all the substance which they had come to possess, and the lives which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed in order to go to the land of Canaan. And when they arrived in it,
6 In Canaan they traveled as far as Shechem [town] and camped by a huge tree called the tree of Moreh. The Canaan people-group were still living in that land.
Abram passed through the land even to the place of Shechem, as far as the famous steep valley. Now at that time, the Canaanite was in the land.
7 Then Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I will give this land to your descendants.” Then Abram built a stone altar to offer a sacrifice to Yahweh because Yahweh had appeared to him.
Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and he said to him, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From Shechem, Abram and his family traveled to the hills that were east of Bethel [town]. Bethel [town] was to the west of where they set up their tent, and Ai [town] was further to the east. There he built another stone altar and offered a sacrifice and worshiped Yahweh there.
And passing on from there to a mountain, which was opposite the east of Bethel, he pitched his tent there, having Bethel to the west, and Hai on the east. He also built an altar there to the Lord, and he called upon his name.
9 Then they left there and started traveling south to the Negev [Desert].
And Abram traveled, going out and continuing further on, toward the south.
10 There was (a famine/very little food to eat) in Canaan, so they went south to live in Egypt for a while.
But a famine occurred in the land. And Abram descended to Egypt, to sojourn there. For famine prevailed over the land.
11 Just as they were about to enter Egypt, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “Listen, I know that you are a very beautiful woman.
And when he was close to entering Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: “I know you to be a beautiful woman.
12 When the people in Egypt see you, they will say, ‘This woman is his wife!’ and they will kill me in order to get you, but they will not kill you.
And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife.’ And they will put me to death, and retain you.
13 So I ask you to tell them that you are my sister, so that because of you telling them that, they will (spare my life/not kill me).”
Therefore, I beg you to say that you are my sister, so that it may be well with me because of you, and so that my soul may live by your favor.”
14 And as soon as they arrived in Egypt, the people in Egypt saw that his wife was indeed very beautiful.
And so, when Abram had arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was exceedingly beautiful.
15 When the king’s officials saw her, they told the king how beautiful she was. And they took her to the king’s palace.
And the princes reported it to Pharaoh, and they praised her to him. And the woman was inducted into the house of Pharaoh.
16 The king treated Abram kindly because of Sarai, and he gave Abram many sheep and cattle and donkeys and male and female slaves and camels.
In truth, they treated Abram well because of her. And he had sheep and oxen and male donkeys, and men servants, and women servants, and female donkeys, and camels.
17 But because the king had taken Sarai, Abram’s wife, Yahweh caused the king and the others in his household to be inflicted with terrible diseases.
But the Lord scourged Pharaoh and his house with great wounds because of Sarai, the wife of Abram.
18 When the king realized why that was happening, he summoned Abram and said to him, “Why did you do this to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
And Pharaoh called Abram, and he said to him: “What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife?
19 Why did you lie, saying she is your sister, with the result that I took her to be my wife? You should not have done that! So now take your wife, leave here and go!”
For what reason did you claim her to be your sister, so that I would take her to me as a wife? Now therefore, behold your mate, receive her and go.”
20 Then the king told his officials/servants to take Abram and his wife and all his possessions out of Egypt.
And Pharaoh instructed his men about Abram. And they led him away with his wife and all that he had.
