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.
God’s Covenant with Abram
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a svision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your tshield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I ucontinue1 childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; vyour very own son2 shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the wstars, xif you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, y“So shall your offspring be.” 6 zAnd he believed the Lord, and he acounted it to him as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out bfrom Ur of the Chaldeans cto give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, dhow am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, ecut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. fBut he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 gAs the sun was going down, a hdeep sleep fell on Abram. iAnd behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that jyour offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be kafflicted for lfour hundred years. 14 But mI will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward nthey shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; oyou shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And pthey shall come back here in the fourth generation, for qthe iniquity of the Amorites is rnot yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 sOn that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give3 this land, tfrom the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
