Genesis 12 Literal Standard Version

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Protestant
OT: Masoretic Hebrew
NT: Majority (Byzantine) text
Protestant (66 books)
Very literal
2020
CC BY-SA 4.0

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

LSV Literal Standard Version

WEB World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)

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.

1 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.

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

2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will 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.”

3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through 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.

4 So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed 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.

5 Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into 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.

6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were 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.

7 Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had 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.

8 He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh’s name.

9 And Abram journeys, going on and journeying toward the south.

9 Abram traveled, still going on 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;

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

11 When he had come near to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look at.

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:

12 It will happen that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me, but they will save you 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.”

13 Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you.”

14 And it comes to pass, at the entering of Abram into Egypt, that the Egyptians see the woman that she [is] exceedingly beautiful;

14 When Abram had come into Egypt, some Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15 and princes of Pharaoh see her, and praise her to Pharaoh, and the woman is taken [to] Pharaoh’s house;

15 The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into 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.

16 He dealt well with Abram for her sake. He had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 And YHWH plagues Pharaoh and his house—great plagues—for the matter of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

17 Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because 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?

18 Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was 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.”

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

20 And Pharaoh charges men concerning him, and they send him away, and his wife, and all that he has.

20 Pharaoh commanded men concerning him, and they escorted him away with his wife and all that he had.

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
See in the family tree
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
See in the family tree

Places

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
Bible map game · View on OpenStreetMap
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
Bible map game · View on OpenStreetMap

Cross references (19)

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

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).

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)
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)
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)
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)

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