Genesis 12
1 And YHWH says to Abram, “Go for yourself, from your land, and from your family, and from the house of your father, to the land which I show you.
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 make you become a great nation, and bless you, and make your name great; and 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 And I bless those blessing you, and I curse him who is cursing you, and all families of the ground have been blessed in you.”
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 And Abram goes on, as YHWH has spoken to him, and Lot goes with him, and Abram [is] a son of seventy-five years in his going out 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 takes his wife Sarai, and his brother’s son Lot, and all their substance that they have gained, and the persons that they have obtained in Haran; and they go out to go toward the land of Canaan; and they come 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 passes over into the land, to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh; and the Canaanite [is] then 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 YHWH appears to Abram and says, “To your seed I give this land”; and there he builds an altar to YHWH, who has appeared to 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 he removes from there toward a mountain at the east of Beth-El, and stretches out the tent (Beth-El at the west, and Hai at the east), and he builds an altar to YHWH there, and preaches in the Name of YHWH.
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 Abram journeys, going on and journeying toward the south.
Then they left there and started traveling south to the Negev [Desert].
10 And there is a famine in the land, and Abram goes down toward Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine [is] grievous in the land;
There was (a famine/very little food to eat) in Canaan, so they went south to live in Egypt for a while.
11 and it comes to pass as he has drawn near to enter Egypt, that he says to his wife Sarai, “Now behold, I have known that you [are] a woman of beautiful appearance;
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 it has come to pass that the Egyptians see you, and they have said, This [is] his wife; and they have slain me, and you they keep alive:
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 please say you [are] my sister, so that it is well with me because of you, and my soul has lived for your sake.”
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 it comes to pass, at the entering of Abram into Egypt, that the Egyptians see the woman that she [is] exceedingly beautiful;
And as soon as they arrived in Egypt, the people in Egypt saw that his wife was indeed very beautiful.
15 and princes of Pharaoh see her, and praise her to Pharaoh, and the woman is taken [to] 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 to Abram he has done good because of her, and he has sheep and oxen, and male donkeys, and menservants, and handmaids, and female donkeys, 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 YHWH plagues Pharaoh and his house—great plagues—for the matter 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 And Pharaoh calls for Abram and says, “What [is] this you have done to me? Why have you not declared to me that she [is] 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 have you said, She [is] my sister, and I take her to myself for a wife? And now, behold, your wife, take and go.”
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 charges men concerning him, and they send him away, and his wife, and all that he has.
Then the king told his officials/servants to take Abram and his wife and all his possessions out of Egypt.
