1 And YHWH says to Abram, “Go for yourself, from your land, and from your family, and from the house of your father, to the land which I show you. 2 And I make you become a great nation, and bless you, and make your name great; and be a blessing. 3 And I bless those blessing you, and I curse him who is cursing you, and all families of the ground have been blessed in you.” 4 And Abram goes on, as YHWH has spoken to him, and Lot goes with him, and Abram [is] a son of seventy-five years in his going out from Haran. 5 And Abram takes his wife Sarai, and his brother’s son Lot, and all their substance that they have gained, and the persons that they have obtained in Haran; and they go out to go toward the land of Canaan; and they come to the land of Canaan. 6 And Abram passes over into the land, to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh; and the Canaanite [is] then in the land. 7 And YHWH appears to Abram and says, “To your seed I give this land”; and there he builds an altar to YHWH, who has appeared to him. 8 And he removes from there toward a mountain at the east of Beth-El, and stretches out the tent (Beth-El at the west, and Hai at the east), and he builds an altar to YHWH there, and preaches in the Name of YHWH. 9 And Abram journeys, going on and journeying toward the south. 10 And there is a famine in the land, and Abram goes down toward Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine [is] grievous in the land; 11 and it comes to pass as he has drawn near to enter Egypt, that he says to his wife Sarai, “Now behold, I have known that you [are] a woman of beautiful appearance; 12 and it has come to pass that the Egyptians see you, and they have said, This [is] his wife; and they have slain me, and you they keep alive: 13 please say you [are] my sister, so that it is well with me because of you, and my soul has lived for your sake.” 14 And it comes to pass, at the entering of Abram into Egypt, that the Egyptians see the woman that she [is] exceedingly beautiful; 15 and princes of Pharaoh see her, and praise her to Pharaoh, and the woman is taken [to] Pharaoh’s house; 16 and to Abram he has done good because of her, and he has sheep and oxen, and male donkeys, and menservants, and handmaids, and female donkeys, and camels. 17 And YHWH plagues Pharaoh and his house—great plagues—for the matter of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 And Pharaoh calls for Abram and says, “What [is] this you have done to me? Why have you not declared to me that she [is] your wife? 19 Why have you said, She [is] my sister, and I take her to myself for a wife? And now, behold, your wife, take and go.” 20 And Pharaoh charges men concerning him, and they send him away, and his wife, and all that he has.
Genesis · Literal Standard Version
Genesis 12 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Abraham
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 who chose the plain of Jordan and settled near Sodom.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11–14; 19
Places
Haran
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
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 Hebrews 11:8; Nehemiah 9:7; Acts 7:2–6; Isaiah 51:2; Joshua 24:2–3
- 2 2 Samuel 7:9; Galatians 3:14; Genesis 18:18; Genesis 17:4–6; Genesis 28:3–4
- 3 Galatians 3:8; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 27:29; Acts 3:25–26; Numbers 24:9
- 4 Hebrews 11:8; Genesis 11:31; Genesis 11:27
- 5 Genesis 14:14; Genesis 11:31; Acts 7:4; Hebrews 11:8–9; Genesis 10:19
- 6 Hebrews 11:9; Deuteronomy 11:30; Genesis 13:7; Genesis 35:4; Genesis 15:18–21
- 7 Genesis 17:8; Genesis 17:1; Genesis 13:15; Genesis 18:1; Galatians 3:16
- 8 Nehemiah 11:31; Genesis 4:26; Genesis 21:33; Genesis 13:4; 1 Corinthians 1:2
- 9 Genesis 13:3; Genesis 13:1; Genesis 24:62; Hebrews 11:13–14; Psalm 105:13
- 10 Genesis 43:1; Genesis 26:1–3; 2 Samuel 21:1; Genesis 47:13; Jeremiah 14:1
- 11 Genesis 26:7; Proverbs 21:30; Genesis 12:14; Genesis 29:17; Song of Songs 1:14
- 12 Genesis 20:11; Genesis 26:7; Matthew 10:28; 1 John 1:8–10; Proverbs 29:25
- 13 Genesis 26:7; Genesis 20:12–13; Genesis 20:2; Genesis 20:5; Ezekiel 18:4
- 14 Genesis 6:2; Matthew 5:28; Genesis 3:6; Genesis 39:7
- 15 Genesis 20:2; Genesis 41:1; 1 Kings 3:1; Hosea 7:4–5; Genesis 40:2
- 16 Genesis 20:14; Genesis 13:2; Genesis 24:35; Job 42:12; Genesis 32:5
- 17 1 Chronicles 16:21; Genesis 20:18; Psalm 105:14–15; 1 Chronicles 21:22; Hebrews 13:4
- 18 Genesis 20:9–10; Genesis 26:9–11; 1 Samuel 14:43; Proverbs 21:1; Genesis 44:15
- 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).
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.
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)
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)
… 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)