Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Parashah 3: Lekh L’kha (Get yourself out) 12:1–17:27

12 Now Adonai said to Avram, “Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. ² I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great; and you are to be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

⁴ So Avram went, as Adonai had said to him, and Lot went with him. Avram was 75 years old when he left Haran. ⁵ Avram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, as well as the people they had acquired in Haran; then they set out for the land of Kena‘an and entered the land of Kena‘an.

⁶ Avram passed through the land to the place called Sh’khem, to the oak of Moreh. The Kena‘ani were then in the land. ⁷ Adonai appeared to Avram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to Adonai, who had appeared to him.

11 Trusting^[a] is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. ² It was for this that Scripture attested the merit of the people of old.

³ By trusting, we understand that the universe was created through a spoken word of God, so that what is seen did not come into being out of existing phenomena.

⁴ By trusting, Hevel offered a greater sacrifice than Kayin; because of this, he was attested as righteous, with God giving him this testimony on the ground of his gifts. Through having trusted, he still continues to speak, even though he is dead.

⁵ By trusting, Hanokh was taken away from this life without seeing death — “He was not to be found, because God took him away” — for he has been attested as having been, prior to being taken away, well pleasing to God.^{[b] 6} And without trusting, it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, because whoever approaches him must trust that he does exist and that he becomes a Rewarder to those who seek him out.

⁷ By trusting, Noach, after receiving divine warning about things as yet unseen, was filled with holy fear and built an ark to save his household. Through this trusting, he put the world under condemnation and received the righteousness that comes from trusting.

⁸ By trusting, Avraham obeyed, after being called to go out^[c] to a place which God would give him as a possession; indeed, he went out without knowing where he was going. ⁹ By trusting, he lived as a temporary resident in the Land of the promise, as if it were not his, staying in tents with Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, who were to receive what was promised along with him. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with permanent foundations, of which the architect and builder is God.

¹¹ By trusting, he received potency to father a child, even when he was past the age for it, as was Sarah herself; because he regarded the One who had made the promise as trustworthy. ¹² Therefore this one man, who was virtually dead, fathered descendants