Genesis 12

1 The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your land, your relatives, and your father’s household, and go to the land that I will show you.

2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great; and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and curse anyone who curses you; and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

4 Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

5 Abram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all the possessions they had gathered, and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set out for the land of Canaan and arrived in Canaan.

6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the place of Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land.

7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” There he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

8 From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

9 Then Abram set out, traveling on toward the Negeb.

10 There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there as a foreigner, because the famine in the land was severe.

11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman.

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

13 Please say that you are my sister, so that I will be treated well because of you and my life will be spared thanks to you.”

14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15 Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s household.

16 He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired sheep, cattle, donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

18 Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now, here is your wife; take her and go.”

20 Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to some men, and they sent him away with his wife and everything he had.

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