God's Call to Abram

121 Now the Lord said to Abram , "Go forth from your country , And from your relatives And from your father's house , To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation , And I will bless you, And make your name great ; And so you shall be a blessing ; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse . And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed ."

4 So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran . 5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew e , and all their possessions which they had accumulated , and the persons which they had acquired in Haran , and they set e out for the land of Canaan ; thus they came to the land of Canaan .

6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem , to the oak of Moreh . Now the Canaanite was then in the land . 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said , " To your descendants I will give this land ." So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. 8 Then he proceeded from there to the mountain 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 called upon the name of the Lord . 9 Abram journeyed on, continuing e toward the Negev .

Abram in Egypt

10 Now there was a famine in the land ; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there , for the famine was severe in the land . 11 It came about when he came e near to Egypt , that he said to Sarai his wife , "See now , I know that you are a beautiful woman ; 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say , 'This is his wife '; and they will kill me, but they will let you live . 13 "Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you."

14 It came about when Abram came into Egypt , the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful . 15 Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh ; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house . 16 Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake ; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels . 17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because e of Sarai , Abram's wife . 18 Then 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 , take her and go ." 20 Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away , with his wife and all that belonged to him.