The Call of Abram
1 mNow the Lord said1 to Abram, n“Go ofrom your country2 and your kindred and your father’s house to pthe land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a qgreat nation, and I will rbless you and smake your name great, so that tyou will be a blessing. 3 uI will bless those who bless you, and vhim who dishonors you I will curse, and win you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”3
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was xseventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the yoak4 of Moreh. zAt that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord aappeared to Abram and said, b“To your offspring I will give this land.” So he cbuilt there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and dcalled upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10 eNow there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to fsojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman gbeautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will hkill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say iyou are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they jpraised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 kAnd for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord lafflicted Pharaoh and his house with great mplagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “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 my wife? Now then, here is your wife; ntake her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
Abraham and Abimelech
1 aFrom bthere Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, c“She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a ddream by night and said to him, e“Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, f“Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and git was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a hprophet, so that he will ipray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that jyou have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that kought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no lfear of God at all in this place, and they will mkill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, nthe daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And owhen God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
14 pThen Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, q“Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all1 who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” 17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had rclosed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
