< Genesis 12 >
1 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.
And the Lord said to Abram, Go forth out of your land and out of your kindred, and out of the house of your father, and come into the land which I will show you.
2 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.
And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you shall be blessed.
3 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).”
And I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you, and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.
4 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.
And Abram went as the Lord spoke to him, and Lot departed with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old, when he went out of Charrhan.
5 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.
And Abram took Sara his wife, and Lot the son of his brother, and all their possessions, as many as they had got, and every soul which they had got in Charrhan, and they went forth to go into the land of Chanaan.
6 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.
And Abram traversed the land lengthwise as far as the place Sychem, to the high oak, and the Chananites then inhabited the land.
7 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.
And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, I will give this land to your seed. And Abram built an altar there to the Lord who appeared to him.
8 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.
And he departed thence to the mountain eastward of Baethel, and there he pitched his tent in Baethel near the sea, and Aggai toward the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord.
9 Then they left there and started traveling south to the Negev [Desert].
And Abram departed and went and encamped in the wilderness.
10 There was (a famine/very little food to eat) in Canaan, so they went south to live in Egypt for a while.
And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, because the famine prevailed in the land.
11 Just as they were about to enter Egypt, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “Listen, I know that you are a very beautiful woman.
And it came to pass when Abram drew near to enter into Egypt, Abram said to Sara his wife, I know that you are a fair woman.
12 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.
It shall come to pass then that when the Egyptians shall see you, they shall say, This is his wife, and they shall kill me, but they shall save you alive.
13 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).”
Say, therefore, I am his sister, that it may be well with me on account of you, and my soul shall live because of you.
14 And as soon as they arrived in Egypt, the people in Egypt saw that his wife was indeed very beautiful.
And it came to pass when Abram entered into Egypt—the Egyptians having seen his wife that she was very beautiful—
15 When the king’s officials saw her, they told the king how beautiful she was. And they took her to the king’s palace.
that the princes of Pharao saw her, and praised her to Pharao and brought her into the house of Pharao.
16 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.
And they treated Abram well on her account, and he had sheep, and calves, and asses, and menservants, and women-servants, and mules, and camels.
17 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.
And God afflicted Pharao with great and severe afflictions, and his house, because of Sara, Abram's wife.
18 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?
And Pharao having called Abram, said, What is this you have done to me, that you did not tell me that she was your wife?
19 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!”
Therefore did you say, She is my sister? and I took her for a wife to myself; and now, behold, your wife is before you, take her and go quickly away.
20 Then the king told his officials/servants to take Abram and his wife and all his possessions out of Egypt.
And Pharao gave charge to men concerning Abram, to join in sending him forward, and his wife, and all that he had.