Genesis 11:27-14:24

EasyEnglish Bible

Terah's family

²⁷ This is the report about Terah and his family.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ While Terah was still alive, his son, Haran, died. Haran died in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. That was where Haran had been born.

²⁹ Abram married Sarai. Nahor married Milcah. Milcah was Haran's daughter. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai could not give birth to children. She did not have any children.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot. (Lot was Haran's son.) Terah also took Abram's wife Sarai. They all left Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. They began to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they stayed there. ³² Terah lived for 205 years. Then he died in Haran.

Abram leaves Haran

12 The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country and the people of your father's family. Go to the land that I will show you.^[a]

² I will cause your descendants to become a great nation. I will bless you. Everyone will know your name. You will bring my blessing to other people. ³ I will bless those people who bless you. But I will curse anyone who insults you. Through you, I will bless all the families of people on the earth.’^[b]

⁴ Abram did what the Lord had told him. He left Haran. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. Lot went with him. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. He took everything that belonged to them. He also took the people that worked for them in Haran. They all left to go to the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in Canaan, ⁶ Abram walked through the land. He went as far as Shechem, to the special oak tree of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites lived in this land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram there. He said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ So Abram built an altar in that place to worship the Lord.^[c] He did that because the Lord had appeared to him.

⁸ Then Abram left Shechem. He went to the hills that are on the east of Bethel. He put up his tent in that place. Bethel was towards the west, and Ai was towards the east. Abram also built an altar there to worship the Lord.

⁹ Then Abram took his tent and he left that place. He continued to travel towards the Negev.^[d]

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

¹⁰ There was a famine in the land of Canaan. So Abram went to live in Egypt for some time, because the famine was very bad.^[e]

¹¹ When Abram came near to Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘Listen to me. I know that you are a very beautiful woman. ¹² When the Egyptians see you they will say, “This is Abram's wife.” Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.^{[f] 13} So tell them that you are my sister. Then they will do good things to me, because they want to please you. They will not kill me because they will think that you are my sister.’

¹⁴ When Abram arrived in Egypt, the people saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. ¹⁵ The king's officers saw her. They told Pharaoh that she was very beautiful. They took her to the king's palace.^[g]

¹⁶ Pharaoh did good things to help Abram because of Sarai. He gave Abram sheep, cows, donkeys and camels. He also gave Abram male servants and female servants.

¹⁷ But the Lord made Pharaoh and the people in his palace very ill. The Lord did this because the king had taken Abram's wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh called Abram to come to him. Pharaoh said, ‘You have done this bad thing to me! You did not tell me that Sarai is your wife! Why not? ¹⁹ You told me “She is my sister”. As a result, I took her to be my wife. Now, here is your wife. Take her and go away!’

²⁰ Pharaoh told his officers what to do with Abram. They sent Abram away, with his wife and everything that belonged to them.

Abram and Lot go different ways

13 Abram left Egypt and he travelled north to the Negev. He took his wife and everything that belonged to him. Lot also went with him. ² Abram had many valuable things. He had many cows, and much silver and gold.

³ Then Abram left the Negev and he went to different places. He arrived at Bethel. He returned to the place where he had put up his tent before. That place was between Bethel and Ai. ⁴ It was where Abram had first built an altar to worship the Lord.

⁵ Lot was travelling with Abram. Lot also had many cows, sheep and tents. ⁶ But the land could not grow enough food for all of them to eat. They could not all live together in the same place, because they had so many animals and people with them. ⁷ Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds began to quarrel with each other. (At that time, Canaanites and Perizzites also lived in the land.)^[h]

⁸ Abram said to Lot, ‘We must not quarrel with each other. Your shepherds and my shepherds must not quarrel with each other. Remember that we belong to the same family. ⁹ Look everywhere! There is enough land for all of us. We must go different ways. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.’

¹⁰ Lot looked up and he saw the flat land of Jordan, as far as Zoar. He saw that it had lots of water, like the garden of the Lord. It was good land, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed the cities there called Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose for himself the valley of the Jordan River. He travelled towards the east.^[i]

¹² Abram stayed in the land of Canaan and he lived there. But Lot lived near the cities that were in the Jordan Valley. He put up his tents near the city of Sodom. ¹³ The people of Sodom were very wicked. They did not obey the Lord at all.

¹⁴ After Lot had gone away, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Stand where you are and look all around! Look to the north, the south, the east and the west. ¹⁵ I will give you all the land that you can see. I will give it to you and your descendants. It will belong to them for ever. ¹⁶ I will make your descendants become very many. Like the dust of the ground, people will not be able to count them all. ¹⁷ Go and travel round all this land. Look at it, because I am giving it to you!’

¹⁸ So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the special oak trees of Mamre. That place is at Hebron. Abram built an altar to worship the Lord there.

Abram at war with the kings

14 ^1-4 Now there were many kings living in that land, at that time. They fought against each other. One fight was when Kedorlaomer had ruled over the other kings for 12 years. And in the next year, five kings made one group like that and fought against him. Kedorlaomer joined with three other kings. So it was four kings against five other kings.

The four kings were Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim. Those kings fought a war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela. (Bela is another name for the town of Zoar.) They fought in the Valley of Siddim. (That is the Salt Sea.) ⁵ In the 14th year, Kedorlaomer and the kings with him won against the Rephaites. This was in Ashteroth Karnaim. They won against the Zuzites in Ham. They won against the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim. ⁶ And they won against the Horites in the country of Seir. This was as far as El Paran near the desert. ⁷ They then went back. They went to En Mishpat. (That is Kadesh.) They took the whole land of the Amalekites. They also took the land of the Amorites who were living in Hazezon Tamar.

⁸ Then, the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is Zoar) went to fight. That was in the Valley of Siddim. ⁹ They fought against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar. There were four kings fighting against five kings. ¹⁰ The Valley of Siddim had many holes in the ground. The holes were filled with tar. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah ran away. Some of their men fell into the deep tar. The other men ran away to the hills. ¹¹ The four kings took everything in Sodom and Gomorrah, including all the food. Then they went away. ¹² Abram's nephew, Lot, was living in Sodom at that time. So they took him away from there, and everything that belonged to him.

Abram and Melchizedek

¹³ At that time, Abram, the Hebrew man, was living near the special oak trees of Mamre. Mamre was an Amorite. He was the brother of Eshcol and Aner. These men had agreed to be Abram's friends.

A man ran away from Sodom. He told Abram everything that had happened. ¹⁴ Abram understood that the kings had caught his nephew. So he called 318 men to come together. These men had been born in Abram's camp and they knew how to fight. Abram took his men with him. They went to attack the men who had caught Lot. They went as far as Dan.

¹⁵ During the night, Abram separated his men into two groups. Then they attacked Kedorlaomer and his men who had taken Lot. Those men ran away and Abram followed them as far as Hobah. Hobah is north of Damascus. ¹⁶ Abram took back everything that those men had taken from Sodom. He also brought back his nephew Lot, together with the women and the other people.

¹⁷ In that way, Abram won against Kedorlaomer and the kings with him. As Abram was returning home, the king of Sodom came out to meet him. They met in the Valley of Shaveh, which people call the King's Valley.

¹⁸ Melchizedek was the king of Salem, and he was a priest of the Most High God. He brought out bread and wine for Abram. ¹⁹ He blessed Abram. He said, ‘I pray that the Most High God who made heaven and earth will bless Abram. ²⁰ Praise the Most High God! He has given you power over your enemies.’

After that, Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth part of everything.^[j]

²¹ Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give back to me all my people. Take everything else for yourself.’ ²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have made a strong promise to the Lord, the Most High God who made heaven and earth. ²³ I promised that I would not take anything that belonged to you. I will not take the smallest thing, not even a piece of string, or part of a shoe. Then you will never be able to say, “I made Abram become rich.” ²⁴ I myself will accept only the food that my young men have eaten. But Aner, Eshcol and Mamre went with me to help me to fight. They should take their part of the things that we brought back with us.’^[k]