Genesis 12

1Yahweh said to Abram, “Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land I will show you.”

2I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be a blessing.

3I will bless those who bless you, and curse whoever curses you; all families of the earth will be blessed in you.

4Abram went as Yahweh had spoken to him, and Lot went with him; Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

5Abram took his wife Sarai, Lot his brother's son, all their possessions that they had acquired, and the people they had obtained in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan, and they arrived in the land of Canaan.

6Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land.

7Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, "I will give this land to your offspring," and he built an altar there to Yahweh who appeared to him.

8He moved on from there to the mountain east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on the name of Yahweh.

9Abram journeyed, going and journeying toward the Negev.

10A famine arose in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was heavy in the land.

11When he drew near to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance.”

12It will happen that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife,” and they will kill me, but they will keep you alive.

13Please say you are my sister, so it goes well for me for your sake, and my soul lives because of you.

14When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman, for she was exceedingly beautiful.

15Pharaoh's princes saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

16He prospered Abram because of her, and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17Yahweh struck Pharaoh and his house with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

18Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she is your wife?"

19Why did you say, "She is my sister," so I took her as my wife? Now then, see your wife, take her, and go.

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