Abraham’s Family · c. 2090 BC
Chapter 1
The Call of Abram
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.
For parents
In this chapter Abram asks his wife Sarai to say she is his sister, and Pharaoh takes her into his palace to be his wife, until the Lord sends plagues on Pharaoh (Genesis 12:11–20). Nothing more is described.
The said to , “Leave your country and your relatives and your father’s household, and go to the land that I will show you.
“I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse anyone who treats you as worthless. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him. went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left . His family had settled there on their way from Ur to Canaan, and his father died there. Abram took his wife , his nephew Lot, everything they owned and the servants they had gained in Haran, and they headed for the land of . And they got there.
Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak of Moreh at . The were living in the land at that time. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your .” So Abram built an there for the Lord, who had appeared to him.
From there he went on to the hills east of and set up his tent. Bethel was to the west, and was to the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and prayed to the Lord, calling him by his name. Then Abram kept traveling toward .
Then a famine came to the land, and food ran short. The famine was so bad that Abram went down to to live there as a foreigner.
Just before he reached Egypt, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know how beautiful you are. When the Egyptians see you, they’ll say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they’ll kill me, but they’ll let you live. Please say you are my sister, so that they will treat me well for your sake, and I will stay alive because of you.”
When Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was very beautiful. ’s officials saw her too, and they praised her to Pharaoh. Then she was taken into Pharaoh’s palace. Pharaoh treated Abram well because of her, and Abram got sheep, cattle and donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with terrible plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
Pharaoh called Abram in. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Look, here is your wife. Take her and go!”
Pharaoh gave his men orders about Abram, and they escorted him out of the country, with his wife and everything he had.
So Abram went up out of Egypt into the South, with his wife and everything he had. Lot went with him too. Abram was very rich in animals, silver and gold.
From the South he traveled from place to place as far as Bethel. He came back to the spot between Bethel and Ai where he had first pitched his tent and built an altar. There Abram prayed to the Lord, calling him by his name.
Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. There wasn’t enough land for both of them. They had so much that they couldn’t stay together. And quarrels broke out between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. The Canaanites and the lived in the land at that time too.
So Abram said to Lot, “Please, let’s not have any quarreling between us, or between your herdsmen and mine. We’re family. Isn’t the whole land in front of you? Let’s part ways. If you go left, I’ll go right. If you go right, I’ll go left.”
Lot looked around and saw the whole plain of the . There was plenty of water everywhere. It was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to . The Lord had not yet destroyed and . So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east, and the two of them went their separate ways.
Abram stayed in the land of Canaan. Lot lived in the cities of the plain and moved his tents as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were very wicked; they sinned greatly against the Lord.
After Lot had gone his own way, the Lord said to Abram, “Look up from the place where you are, and look to the north and the south, the east and the west. I will give all the land you can see to you and to your offspring forever.
“I will make your offspring as many as the dust of the earth. If someone could count all the dust on the earth, they could count your offspring too. Get up and walk through the land, its length and its width, because I will give it to you.”
Abram moved his tents and went to live by the oaks of at . There he built an altar to the Lord.