The Call of Abram

12 The Lord said to Abram:

Go out from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.(A)
I will make you into a great nation,(B)
I will bless you,(C)
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.[a](D)
I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse those who treat you with contempt,(E)
and all the peoples[b] on earth
will be blessed[c] through you.[d](F)

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.(G) He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem,(H) at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.”(I) So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and he called on the name of Yahweh.(J) Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 12:2 Or great. Be a blessing!
  2. Genesis 12:3 Lit clans
  3. Genesis 12:3 Or will find blessing
  4. Genesis 12:3 Or will bless themselves by you

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

And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

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