Genesis 12 :: New International Version (NIV)

The Call of Abram

(Act 7:2–5 )

Gen 12:1The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

Gen 12:2

Gen 12:2“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.[fn]

Gen 12:3

Gen 12:3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”[fn]

Gen 12:4

Gen 12:4So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

Gen 12:5

Gen 12:5He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

Gen 12:6

Gen 12:6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

Gen 12:7

Gen 12:7The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring[fn] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Gen 12:8

Gen 12:8From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

Gen 12:9

Gen 12:9Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

Abram in Egypt

Gen 12:10

Gen 12:10Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

Gen 12:11

Gen 12:11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.

Gen 12:12

Gen 12:12When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.

Gen 12:13

Gen 12:13Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

Gen 12:14

Gen 12:14When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman.

Gen 12:15

Gen 12:15And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace.

Gen 12:16

Gen 12:16He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

Gen 12:17

Gen 12:17But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai.

Gen 12:18

Gen 12:18So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?

Gen 12:19

Gen 12:19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!”

Gen 12:20

Gen 12:20Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(12:2)

Or be seen as blessed

(12:3)

Or earth / will use your name in blessings (see 48:20)

(12:7)

Or seed

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