Open English Translation GEN Chapter 12

12 Then Yahweh said to Abram, “You must leave your land and your relatives and your father’s house and go to the land that I’ll show you.[ref] 2 I’ll bless you and make you into a great nation. I’ll make you famous and you’ll be a blessing to others. 3 I’ll bless everyone who blesses you, but I’ll curse anyone who curses you. All the families on the earth will be blessed because of you.[ref]

4 So Abram left there just as Yahweh had told him, and Lot also went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left the city of Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot and all their possessions that they had accumulated and the people who they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in the Canaan region, 6 they continued travelling as far as the city of Shekem, to Moreh’s oak tree. (The Canaanites were still living in that region at that time.) 7 Then Yahweh came to Abram and told him, “I’ll give this land to your descendants.” So Abram built an altar there and made a burnt offering to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.[ref] 8 Then from there he went on to the hills to the east of Beyt-el (Bethel) and pitched his tents, with Beyt-el on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and sacrificed and prayed to Yahweh 9 before continuing south down toward the Negev desert.

10 One time when there was a drought causing a severe food shortage, Abram and his household travelled west across to Egypt to stay there. 11 Just before they arrived in Mitsrayim, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “Listen, you’re a very beautiful woman, 12 so when the Egyptians see you they’ll say, ‘This is his wife,’ and they’ll kill me but let you live. 13 Please tell them that you’re my sister so they’ll treat me well because of you and let me live.”[ref] 14 So that’s what happened when they entered Mitsrayim—the Egyptians indeed noticed that Sarai was very beautiful, 15 and when Far’oh’s (Pharaoh’s) officials saw her, so they told him about her beauty, and she was taken into Far’oh’s palace. 16 He treated Abram well (thinking he was the brother), so he was given flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.

17 But Yahweh directed terrible plagues onto Far’oh and his household because of his taking Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Far’oh called for Abram and said, “What’s this you’ve done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she’s your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister,’ so that I took her in as a wife? Now then, here’s your wife. Take her and get out of here.” 20 Then Far’oh commanded his officers, and they sent Abram and his wife away and everything that belonged to him.