Genesis 12-15

21st Century King James Version

12 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.

² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.

³ And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

⁴ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls whom they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.

⁶ And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.

⁷ And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” And there built he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.

⁸ And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.

⁹ And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

¹⁰ And there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land.

¹¹ And it came to pass, when he had come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, “Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon.

¹² Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

¹³ Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee.”

¹⁴ And it came to pass, when Abram had come into Egypt, that the Egyptians beheld the woman, that she was very fair.

¹⁵ The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

¹⁶ And he treated Abram well for her sake; and he had sheep and oxen and heasses, and menservants and maidservants, and sheasses and camels.

¹⁷ And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

¹⁸ And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

¹⁹ Why saidst thou, ‘She is my sister,’ so I might have taken her to me for a wife? Now therefore behold thy wife; take her and go thy way.”

²⁰ And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

13 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

² And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

³ And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

⁴ unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

⁵ And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents.

⁶ And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together; for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

⁷ And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle; and the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelled then in the land.

⁸ And Abram said unto Lot, “Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we are brethren.

⁹ Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

¹⁰ And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoar.

¹¹ Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves the one from the other.

¹² Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

¹³ But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.

¹⁴ And the Lord said unto Abram after Lot was separated from him, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

¹⁵ for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed for ever.

¹⁶ And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.

¹⁷ Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.”

¹⁸ Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.

14 And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations,

² that these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.

³ All these were joined together in the Vale of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea.

⁴ Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

⁵ And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

⁶ and the Horites in their Mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness.

⁷ And they returned and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites, who dwelt in Hazezontamar.

⁸ And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar), and they joined battle with them in the Vale of Siddim,

⁹ against Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and against Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar — four kings against five.

¹⁰ And the Vale of Siddim was full of slime pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there, and those who remained fled to the mountain.

¹¹ And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their victuals, and went their way.

¹² And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods and departed.

¹³ And there came one who had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt on the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram.

¹⁴ And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house (three hundred and eighteen), and pursued them unto Dan.

¹⁵ And he divided himself against them, he and his servants by night, and smote them and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

¹⁶ And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot and his goods, and the women also and the people.

¹⁷ And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (which is the King’s Dale) after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and of the kings who were with him.

¹⁸ And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the Most High God.

¹⁹ And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth;

²⁰ and blessed be the Most High God, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.” And he gave him tithes of all.

²¹ And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the goods for thyself.”

²² And Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth,

²³ that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe strap, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say,‘I have made Abram rich’”

²⁴ except only that which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”

15 After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.”

² And Abram said, “Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?”

³ And Abram said, “Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed; and lo, one born in my house is mine heir.”

⁴ And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, “This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own loins shall be thine heir.”

⁵ And He brought him forth outdoors and said, “Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if thou be able to number them.” And He said unto him, “So shall thy seed be.”

⁶ And he believed in the Lord; and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

⁷ And He said unto him, “I am the Lord who brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give thee this land to inherit it.”

⁸ And he said, “Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?”

⁹ And He said unto him, “Take Me a heifer of three years old, and a shegoat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰ And he took unto Him all these, and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another; but the birds divided he not.

¹¹ And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹² And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.

¹³ And He said unto Abram, “Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.

¹⁴ And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

¹⁵ And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried at a good old age.

¹⁶ But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”

¹⁷ And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces.

¹⁸ On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates:

¹⁹ the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites,

²⁰ and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim,

²¹ and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”