The Call of Abram
1. Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, your land, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you.
2. And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
4. So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
5. And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
6. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
7. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
8. From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.
9. Then Abram journeyed on toward the Negev.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10. Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
11. As he was about to enter Egypt, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman.
12. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.
13. Please say that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”
14. And indeed, when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
15. Pharaoh’s officials also saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so she was taken into his palace.
16. He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants, and maidservants, and camels.
17. But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh’s household because of Abram’s wife Sarai.
18. So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?
19. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go!”
20. Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.