Genesis 12-13

International Children’s Bible

God Calls Abram

12 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives and your father’s family. Go to the land I will show you.

⁴ So Abram left Haran as the Lord had told him. And Lot went with him. At this time Abram was 75 years old. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot and everything they owned. They took all the servants they had gotten in Haran. They set out from Haran, planning to go to the land of Canaan. In time they arrived there.

⁶ Abram traveled through that land. He went as far as the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram. The Lord said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸ Then Abram traveled from Shechem to the mountain east of Bethel. And he set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai was to the east. There Abram built another altar to the Lord and worshiped him. ⁹ After this, he traveled on toward southern Canaan.

Abram Goes to Egypt

¹⁰ At this time there was not much food in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live because there was so little food. ¹¹ Just before they arrived in Egypt, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “I know you are a very beautiful woman. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This woman is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but let you live. ¹³ Tell them you are my sister. Then things will go well with me. And I may be allowed to live because of you.”

¹⁴ So Abram went into Egypt. The people of Egypt saw that Sarai was very beautiful. ¹⁵ Some of the Egyptian officers saw her also. They told the king of Egypt how beautiful she was. They took her to the king’s palace. ¹⁶ The king was kind to Abram because he thought Abram was Sarai’s brother. He gave Abram sheep, cattle and male and female donkeys. Abram also was given male and female servants and camels.

¹⁷ But the Lord sent terrible diseases on the king and all the people in his house. This was because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So the king sent for Abram. The king said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me Sarai was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I made her my wife. But now here is your wife. Take her and leave!” ²⁰ Then the king commanded his men to make Abram leave Egypt. So Abram and his wife left with everything they owned.

Abram and Lot Separate

13 So Abram, his wife and Lot left Egypt. They took everything they owned and traveled to southern Canaan. ² Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold.

³ He left southern Canaan and went back to Bethel. He went where he had camped before, between Bethel and Ai. ⁴ It was the place where Abram had built an altar before. So he worshiped the Lord there.

⁵ During this time Lot was traveling with Abram. Lot also had many sheep, cattle and tents. ⁶ Abram and Lot had so many animals that the land could not support both of them together. ⁷ Abram’s herders and Lot’s herders began to argue. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at this time.

⁸ So Abram said to Lot, “There should be no arguing between you and me. Your herders and mine should not argue either. We are brothers. ⁹ We should separate. The whole land is there in front of you. 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 all around and saw the whole Jordan Valley. He saw that there was much water there. It was like the Lord’s garden, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose to move east and live in the Jordan Valley. In this way Abram and Lot separated. ¹² Abram lived in the land of Canaan. But Lot lived among the cities in the Jordan Valley. He moved very near to Sodom. ¹³ Now the people of Sodom were very evil. They were always sinning against the Lord.

¹⁴ After Lot left, the Lord said to Abram, “Look all around you. Look north and south and east and west. ¹⁵ All this land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. ¹⁶ I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people. ¹⁷ Get up! Walk through all this land. I am now giving it to you.”

¹⁸ So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the great trees of Mamre. This was at the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.