12:1 NOW [in Haran] the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. |
12:2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with abundant increase of favors] and make your name famous {and} distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others]. |
12:3 And I will bless those who bless you [who confer prosperity or happiness upon you] and curse him who curses {or} uses insolent language toward you; in you will all the families {and} kindred of the earth be blessed [and by you they will bless themselves]. |
12:4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him; and Lot [his nephew] went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. |
12:5 Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the persons [servants] that they had acquired in Haran, and they went forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, |
12:6 Abram passed through the land to the locality of Shechem, to the oak {or} terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. |
12:7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your posterity. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, Who had appeared to him. |
12:8 From there he pulled up [his tent pegs] {and} departed to the mountain 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. |
12:9 Abram journeyed on, still going toward the South (the Negeb). |
12:10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to live temporarily, for the famine in the land was oppressive (intense and grievous). |
12:11 And when he was about to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, I know that you are beautiful to behold. |
12:12 So when the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. |
12:13 Say, I beg of you, that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me for your sake and my life will be spared because of you. |
12:14 And when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. |
12:15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house [harem]. |
12:16 And he treated Abram well for her sake; he acquired sheep, oxen, he-donkeys, menservants, maidservants, she-donkeys, and camels. |
12:17 But the Lord scourged Pharaoh and his household with serious plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. |
12:18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? |
12:19 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 get away [from here]! |
12:20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they brought him on his way with his wife and all that he had. |