< Genesis 12 >
1 Now God had said to Abram, "Go out from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you will be a blessing.
3 And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
4 So Abram left, as God had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5 Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had accumulated, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they left to go to the land of Canaan. And they came to the land of Canaan,
6 and Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
7 Then God appeared to Abram and said to him, "I will give this land to your offspring." He built an altar there God, who appeared to him.
8 He left from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar and called on the name of God.
9 And Abram traveled on, continuing toward the Negev.
10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, because the famine was severe in the land.
11 It happened, when he had come near to enter Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are.
12 It will happen, when the Egyptians will see you, that they will say, 'This is his wife.' And they will kill me, but they will let you live.
13 Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you."
14 It happened that when Abram had come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
15 The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into the household of Pharaoh.
16 He dealt well with Abram for her sake, and he acquired sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But God plagued Pharaoh and his house with great and grievous plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
18 Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, "What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
19 Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, look, your wife is before you. Take, and go."
20 Pharaoh commanded men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all his possessions.
