The Call of Abram

12 The Lord said to Abram:

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.^{(G) 5} He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ 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.) ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring^[c](I) I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

Living by Faith

11 Now faith is the reality^[a] of what is hoped for, the proof^[b] of what is not seen.^{(A) 2} For by this our ancestors were approved.

³ By faith we understand that the universe was^[c] created by the word of God,^(B) so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.^[d]

⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.^(C)

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away.^[e] For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.^{(D) 6} Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

⁷ By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.^(E)

⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going.^{(F) 9} By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise.^{(G) 10} For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.^(H)

¹¹ By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she^[f] considered that the one who had promised was faithful.^{(I) 12} Therefore, from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.^(J)