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Genesis · Free Bible Version

Genesis 12 Free Bible Version

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  • Individual translator
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Critical text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Dynamic (thought for thought)
  • 2018
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Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 The Lord told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, your family home, and travel to the land I'm going to show you. 2 I will make you the ancestor of a great nation and I will bless you. I will make sure you have a great reputation and that you are a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you; I will curse those who curse you. Everyone on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram left following the Lord's instructions, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 when he left Haran. 5 With him went his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, together with all the possessions they had collected and the people that had joined them in Haran. They left for the land of Canaan. When they arrived there, 6 Abram traveled on through the land as far as a place called Shechem, stopping at the oak tree of Moreh. At that time the land was occupied by Canaanites. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I'm going to give this land to your descendants.” So Abram built an altar to the Lord there because that was where the Lord appeared to him. 8 Then he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and set up camp there. Bethel was to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar to the Lord there and worshiped him. 9 After that he went on his way, heading towards the Negev. 10 But the land had been hit by famine. So Abram continued on to Egypt, planning to live there because the famine was so bad. 11 As he approached Egypt and was about to cross the border, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they'll say, ‘She's his wife,’ and they'll kill me but not you! 13 Tell them you're my sister so I'll be treated well because of you, and my life will be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram arrived in Egypt, the people there saw how beautiful Sarai was. 15 Pharaoh's officials also noticed and spoke positively about her to Pharaoh. So Sarai was taken to his palace to become one of his wives. 16 Pharaoh treated Abram well because of her, giving him sheep and cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17 But the Lord caused Pharaoh and the people in his palace to suffer from terrible diseases because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh ordered Abram brought to him 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's my sister,’ and let me take her to become one of my wives? So here's your wife! Take her and leave!” 20 Pharaoh ordered his guards to expel him and his wife from the country, along with everyone with them and all their possessions.

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Abraham

    Father of nations

    Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25

  • Lot

    Abraham's nephew

    Abraham's nephew who chose the plain of Jordan and settled near Sodom.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 11–14; 19

Places

  • Bethel

    Today: West Bank (central hills)

    Bethel ('house of God') is usually identified with Beitin, north of Jerusalem (location approximate). Jacob's ladder vision and Jeroboam's calf shrine are set here.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 28:19; Genesis 12:8; 1 Kings 12:29

  • Haran

    Today: Southern Turkey (Upper Mesopotamia)

    A caravan city in Upper Mesopotamia and the family's waypoint between Ur and Canaan. Abraham departed from here for Canaan; Jacob later sojourned with Laban nearby.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 28:10

  • Shechem

    Today: West Bank (near Nablus)

    Shechem lay between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Abram built an altar here, Joshua gathered Israel for covenant renewal, and Jacob's well stands nearby.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 12:6; Joshua 24:1; John 4:5

Cross references (19)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Hebrews 11:8; Nehemiah 9:7; Acts 7:2–6; Isaiah 51:2; Joshua 24:2–3
  2. 2 2 Samuel 7:9; Galatians 3:14; Genesis 18:18; Genesis 17:4–6; Genesis 28:3–4
  3. 3 Galatians 3:8; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 27:29; Acts 3:25–26; Numbers 24:9
  4. 4 Hebrews 11:8; Genesis 11:31; Genesis 11:27
  5. 5 Genesis 14:14; Genesis 11:31; Acts 7:4; Hebrews 11:8–9; Genesis 10:19
  6. 6 Hebrews 11:9; Deuteronomy 11:30; Genesis 13:7; Genesis 35:4; Genesis 15:18–21
  7. 7 Genesis 17:8; Genesis 17:1; Genesis 13:15; Genesis 18:1; Galatians 3:16
  8. 8 Nehemiah 11:31; Genesis 4:26; Genesis 21:33; Genesis 13:4; 1 Corinthians 1:2
  9. 9 Genesis 13:3; Genesis 13:1; Genesis 24:62; Hebrews 11:13–14; Psalm 105:13
  10. 10 Genesis 43:1; Genesis 26:1–3; 2 Samuel 21:1; Genesis 47:13; Jeremiah 14:1
  11. 11 Genesis 26:7; Proverbs 21:30; Genesis 12:14; Genesis 29:17; Song of Songs 1:14
  12. 12 Genesis 20:11; Genesis 26:7; Matthew 10:28; 1 John 1:8–10; Proverbs 29:25
  13. 13 Genesis 26:7; Genesis 20:12–13; Genesis 20:2; Genesis 20:5; Ezekiel 18:4
  14. 14 Genesis 6:2; Matthew 5:28; Genesis 3:6; Genesis 39:7
  15. 15 Genesis 20:2; Genesis 41:1; 1 Kings 3:1; Hosea 7:4–5; Genesis 40:2
  16. 16 Genesis 20:14; Genesis 13:2; Genesis 24:35; Job 42:12; Genesis 32:5
  17. 17 1 Chronicles 16:21; Genesis 20:18; Psalm 105:14–15; 1 Chronicles 21:22; Hebrews 13:4
  18. 18 Genesis 20:9–10; Genesis 26:9–11; 1 Samuel 14:43; Proverbs 21:1; Genesis 44:15
  19. 20 Proverbs 21:1; Psalm 105:14–15; 1 Samuel 29:6–11; Exodus 18:27

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Quotes verse 12:1–3 Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians (Chapters VII–XIII)

    And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." And again, on his departing from Lot, God said to him.

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  2. Quotes verse 12:1 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 12–15)

    When, after the record of the death of Terah, the father of Abraham, we next read, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house," etc., it is not to be supposed, because this follows in the order of the narrative, that it also followed in the chronological …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)

  3. Quotes verse 12:4 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 12–15)

    Now Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran." How can this be true if he departed from Haran after his father's death?

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)

  4. Quotes verse 12:1 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 12–15)

    … of Terah in Haran were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran," the Scripture, going back to what had been passed over in order to complete what had been begun about Terah, says, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country," etc.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)