Genesis 12
Legacy Standard Bible
Yahweh Appears to Abram
12 And (A)Yahweh said to Abram,
“[a]Go forth from your land,
And from your kin
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
2 And (B)I will make you a great nation,
And (C)I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so [b](D)you shall be a blessing;
3 And (E)I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who [c]curses you I will [d]curse.
(F)And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
4 So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and (G)Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 So Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their (H)possessions which they had accumulated, and (I)the [e]persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go forth to the land of Canaan; (J)thus they came to the land of Canaan. 6 And Abram passed through the land as far as the site of (K)Shechem, to the [f]oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. 7 Then Yahweh (L)appeared to Abram and said, “(M)To your seed I will give this land.” So he built (N)an altar there to Yahweh who had appeared to him. 8 Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with (O)Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to Yahweh and (P)called upon the name of Yahweh. 9 And Abram journeyed on, continuing toward (Q)the [g]Negev.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10 Now there was (R)a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was (S)severe in the land. 11 And it happened as he drew near to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Now behold, I know that you are a woman (T)beautiful in appearance; 12 (U)and it will be when the Egyptians 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 (V)my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that [h](W)I may live on account of you.” 14 Now it happened when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians [i]saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and (X)the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 Therefore (Y)he treated Abram well because of her; and sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels [j](Z)came into his possession.
17 But Yahweh (AA)struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “(AB)What is this 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 for myself as a wife? So now, [k]here is your wife, take her and go.” 20 So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they [l]sent him away with his wife and all that belonged to him.
Footnotes
- Genesis 12:1 Lit Go for yourself
- Genesis 12:2 Lit be a blessing
- Genesis 12:3 Or declares you insignificant, declares you contemptible
- Genesis 12:3 Or bind under a curse
- Genesis 12:5 Lit souls
- Genesis 12:6 Or terebinth
- Genesis 12:9 South country
- Genesis 12:13 Lit my soul
- Genesis 12:14 Lit saw the woman that she was
- Genesis 12:16 Lit he had
- Genesis 12:19 Or behold
- Genesis 12:20 Or let him go, cf. Ex 3:20; 4:21
Genesis 12
Good News Translation
God's Call to Abram
12 (A)The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. 2 I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.
3 (B)I will bless those who bless you,
But I will curse those who curse you.
And through you I will bless all the nations.”[a]
4 When Abram was seventy-five years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan.
When they arrived in Canaan, 6 Abram traveled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.) 7 (C)The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants.” Then Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshiped the Lord. 9 Then he moved on from place to place, going toward the southern part of Canaan.
Abram in Egypt
10 But there was a famine in Canaan, and it was so bad that Abram went farther south to Egypt, to live there for a while. 11 When he was about to cross the border into Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “You are a beautiful woman. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live. 13 (D)Tell them that you are my sister; then because of you they will let me live and treat me well.” 14 When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful. 15 Some of the court officials saw her and told the king how beautiful she was; so she was taken to his palace. 16 Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.
17 But because the king had taken Sarai, the Lord sent terrible diseases on him and on the people of his palace. 18 Then the king sent for Abram and asked him, “What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say that she was your sister, and let me take her as my wife? Here is your wife; take her and get out!” 20 The king gave orders to his men, so they took Abram and put him out of the country, together with his wife and everything he owned.
Footnotes
- Genesis 12:3 And through … nations; or All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed you.
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Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
