Chapter 12

Chapter 12

1 Now The Sovereign, The Self-Existent said to Abram: “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land I will show you.

2 I will develop you into a great nation; I will endow you with the power of life and make your name great, and you will become a model of a thriving life.

3 I will endow those who honor you with life,

and whoever treats you with contempt, I will curse;

and through you, all the families of the earth will find the power of life.”

4 So Abram left, just as The Sovereign, The Self-Existent had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.

5 Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the wealth they had accumulated, and the large household they had gathered in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in 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 occupying the land.

7 The Sovereign, The Self-Existent appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to The Sovereign, The Self-Existent, who had appeared to him.

8 From there he moved on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to The Sovereign, The Self-Existent and called upon the name of The Sovereign, The Self-Existent.

9 Then Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.

10 Now there was a severe food shortage in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there temporarily, because the food shortage in the land was extreme.

11 As he was about to cross the border into Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are.

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

13 Please say you are my sister, so that things will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared for your sake.”

14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was exceptionally beautiful.

15 When Pharaoh’s court officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s palace.

16 Pharaoh treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

17 But The Sovereign, The Self-Existent struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

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 to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and leave!”

20 Then Pharaoh gave orders to his men concerning Abram, and they sent him on his way, along with his wife and everything he owned.