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God Calls Abram

12 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s ·family [L house], and go to the land I will show you [C Canaan, the Promised Land].

I will make you a great nation,
    and I will bless you.
I will make ·you famous [L your name great],
    ·and [or so that] you will be a blessing to others.
I will bless those who bless you,
    and I will place a curse on those who ·harm [or curse] you.
And all the ·people [families; clans] on earth
    will be blessed through you [C the promises of the Abrahamic covenant].”

So Abram left Haran [11:31] as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. At this time Abram was 75 years old. He took his wife Sarai, ·his nephew [L the son of his brother] Lot, and everything they owned, as well as all the ·servants [L people] they had gotten in Haran. They set out from Haran, planning to go to the land of Canaan, and in time they arrived there.

Abram ·traveled [passed] through that land as far as the great oak [or terebinth] tree of Moreh at Shechem [C a town in northern Palestine]. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your ·descendants [L seed].” So Abram built an altar [C a place to offer sacrifices] there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. Then he traveled from Shechem to the mountain east of Bethel [C a town in the central hill country south of Shechem] and set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai [C a town near Bethel] was to the east. There Abram built another altar to the Lord and ·worshiped him [L called on the name of the Lord]. After this, he traveled on toward ·southern Canaan [L the Negev; 13:1].

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