The Call of Abram

12 And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your relatives, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing. ³ And I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse. And all families of the earth will be blessed in you.”

Abram’s Journey

⁴ And Abram went out as Yahweh had told him, and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old^[a] when he went out from Haran. ⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his nephew,^[b] and all their possessions that they had gathered, and all the persons that they had acquired in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan. And they went to the land of Canaan. ⁶ And Abram traveled through the land up to the place of Shechem, to the Oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time. ⁷ And Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” And he built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.

Abram and Circumcision, the Sign of the Covenant

17 When^[a] Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to Abram. And he said to him, “I am El-Shaddai;^[b] walk before me and be blameless ² so that^[c] I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you exceedingly.”^{[d] 3} Then Abram fell upon his face and God spoke with him, saying, ⁴ “As for me, behold, my covenant shall be with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ Your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ And I will make you exceedingly^[e] fruitful. I will make you a nation, and kings shall go out from you. ⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and between your offspring after you, throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant to be as God for you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land in which you are living as an alien,^[f] all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting property. And I will be to them as God.”