Study Desk

The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you.^(a)

I will make you into a great nation,^(b) I will bless you,^(c) I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.^[a](d)

I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt,^(e) and all the peoples^[b] on earth will be blessed^[c] through you.^[d](f)

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.^(g)

He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem,^(h) at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

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

From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and he called on the name of Yahweh.^(j)

Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

There was a famine in the land,^(k) so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine in the land was severe.

When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are.

When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.' They will kill me but let you live.^(l)

Please say you're my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account."

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

Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh's household.

He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.

But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram's wife Sarai.^(m)

So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, "What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?

Why did you say, ‘She's my sister,' so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!"

Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.