Genesis 12

¹Now the Lord said to Abram , Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

²And I will make of you a great nation , and I will bless you and make your name great , so that you will be a blessing .

³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse , and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed .

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

⁵And 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 ,

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

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

⁸From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel 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.

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

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

¹¹When he was about to enter Egypt , he said to Sarai his wife , I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance ,

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

¹³Say you are my sister , that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake .

¹⁴When Abram entered Egypt , the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful .

¹⁵And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh . And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house .

¹⁶And for her sake he dealt well with Abram ; and he had sheep , oxen , male donkeys , male servants , female servants , female donkeys , and camels .

¹⁷But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai , Abram’s wife .

¹⁸So Pharaoh called Abram and said , What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife ?

¹⁹Why did you say , She is my sister , so that I took her for my wife ? Now then , here is your wife ; take her, and go .

²⁰And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.