Promises to Abram
1 Now theLordhad said to Abram:
# “Getout of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
# I will bless you
And make your name great;
# And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
# And inyou all the families of the earth shall beblessed.”
4 So Abram departed as theLordhad spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abramwasseventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, andthe people whom they had acquired inHaran, and theydeparted to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
6 Abrampassed through the land to the place of Shechem,as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh.And the Canaaniteswerethen in the land.
7 Then theLordappeared to Abram and said,“To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built analtar to theLord, who had appeared to him.
8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tentwithBethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to theLordandcalled on the name of theLord.
9 So Abram journeyed,going on still toward the South.
Abram in Egypt
10 Now there wasa famine in the land, and Abramwent down to Egypt to dwell there, for the faminewassevere in the land.
11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that youarea woman of beautiful countenance.
12 Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘Thisishis wife’; and theywill kill me, but they will let you live.
13 Please say youaremysister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that shewasvery beautiful.
15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.
16 Hetreated Abram well for her sake. Hehad sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But theLordplagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said,“Whatisthis you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that shewasyour wife?
19 Why did you say, ‘Sheismy sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; takeherand go your way.”
20 So Pharaoh commandedhismen concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.