Genesis 12
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father's house, into the land to which I will be your guide:
Then Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave this country where you are now living. Leave your father’s clan and his family. Go to a land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing:
I will cause your descendants to become a large nation. I will bless you and cause you to become (famous/highly esteemed). What I do for you will be a blessing to others.
3 To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.
I will bless those who (bless/ask God to do good things for) you, and I will (curse/ask God to punish) those who do evil things to you. And because of what you do, groups of people all over the earth will receive blessings (OR, people will wish that God will bless others as much as he has blessed you).”
4 So Abram went as the Lord had said to him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went away from Haran.
So Abram left Haran [town], as Yahweh told him to do. Abram was 75 years old when he left there along with his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot.
5 And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their goods and the servants which they had got in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan.
Abram also took along all the possessions and slaves that they had accumulated/acquired in Haran [town], and they left there and went to Canaan land.
6 And Abram went through the land till he came to Shechem, to the holy tree of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were still living in the land.
In Canaan they traveled as far as Shechem [town] and camped by a huge tree called the tree of Moreh. The Canaan people-group were still living in that land.
7 And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him.
Then Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I will give this land to your descendants.” Then Abram built a stone altar to offer a sacrifice to Yahweh because Yahweh had appeared to him.
8 And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to the name of the Lord.
From Shechem, Abram and his family traveled to the hills that were east of Bethel [town]. Bethel [town] was to the west of where they set up their tent, and Ai [town] was further to the east. There he built another stone altar and offered a sacrifice and worshiped Yahweh there.
9 And he went on, journeying still to the South.
Then they left there and started traveling south to the Negev [Desert].
10 And because there was little food to be had in that land, he went down into Egypt.
There was (a famine/very little food to eat) in Canaan, so they went south to live in Egypt for a while.
11 Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye;
Just as they were about to enter Egypt, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “Listen, I know that you are a very beautiful woman.
12 And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you, they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death and keep you.
When the people in Egypt see you, they will say, ‘This woman is his wife!’ and they will kill me in order to get you, but they will not kill you.
13 Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your account.
So I ask you to tell them that you are my sister, so that because of you telling them that, they will (spare my life/not kill me).”
14 And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair.
And as soon as they arrived in Egypt, the people in Egypt saw that his wife was indeed very beautiful.
15 And Pharaoh's great men, having seen her, said words in praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house.
When the king’s officials saw her, they told the king how beautiful she was. And they took her to the king’s palace.
16 And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels.
The king treated Abram kindly because of Sarai, and he gave Abram many sheep and cattle and donkeys and male and female slaves and camels.
17 And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
But because the king had taken Sarai, Abram’s wife, Yahweh caused the king and the others in his household to be inflicted with terrible diseases.
18 Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, What have you done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife?
When the king realized why that was happening, he summoned Abram and said to him, “Why did you do this to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
19 Why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way.
Why did you lie, saying she is your sister, with the result that I took her to be my wife? You should not have done that! So now take your wife, leave here and go!”
20 And Pharaoh gave orders to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and all he had.
Then the king told his officials/servants to take Abram and his wife and all his possessions out of Egypt.
