Genesis 12:1-9

New International Reader's Version

God Chooses Abram

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s family. Go to the land I will show you.

⁴ So Abram went, just as the Lord had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Harran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. They took all the people and possessions they had acquired in Harran. They started out for the land of Canaan. And they arrived there.

⁶ Abram traveled through the land. He went as far as the large tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were living in the land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram at Shechem. He said, “I will give this land to your family who comes after you.” So Abram built an altar there to honor the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there, Abram went on toward the hills east of Bethel. He set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai was to the east. Abram built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord.

⁹ Then Abram left and continued south toward the Negev Desert.