Genesis 12

Then God said to Abram, “You yourself must go from your land and from your relatives and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. 3 And I will bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” \*

Then Abram went, just as God had told him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was the son of seventy-five years when he departed from Haran.

And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot the son of his brother and all their possessions that they had accumulated and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. Then they came to the land of Canaan. \*

Then Abram passed through the land as far as the place of Shechem, to the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites {were} in the land at that time.

Then God appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to God, who had appeared to him. \*

Then from there he went on to the mountains to the east of Bethel and pitched his tents, {with} Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to God, and he called on the name of God.

Then Abram set out and continued to travel toward the Negev. \*

Then there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there because the famine {was} heavy in the land.

And it happened that as he was about to enter Egypt, then he said to Sarai his wife, “Behold please, I know that you {are} a woman beautiful in appearance.

So it will happen when the Egyptians see you, then they will say, ‘This {is} his wife,’ and they will kill me but let you live.

Please say {that} you {are} my sister so that it will go well for me for your sake and my life will live because of you.” \*

Then it happened, when Abram came into Egypt, then the Egyptians saw the woman, that she {was} very beautiful.

And the officials of Pharaoh saw her, so they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

Then he treated Abram well for her sake, so that he had flock{s} and herd{s} and male donkeys and male slaves and female slaves and female donkeys and camels. \*

But God struck Pharaoh and his house {with} great plagues on account of Sarai the wife of Abram.

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

Why did you say, ‘She {is} my sister,’ so that I took her to me as a wife? Now then, behold, your wife. Take {her} and go!”

Then Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away and his wife and everything that {belonged} to him. \*