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The LORD calls Abram

¹Now the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. ²I will make a great nation of you. I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and whoever treats you with contempt I will curse; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”^{a 4}Abram set out as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five when he left Haran. ⁵Abram took with him his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, everything they owned and the people who had become part of their household in Haran. They set out for Canaan and reached it. ⁶Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the great tree of Moreh. In those days the Canaanites lived in the land. ⁷Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved on into the hills east of Bethel and set up his tent between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the LORD there and called on the name of the LORD. ⁹Then Abram set out and kept moving on toward the Negev.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

¹⁰But famine struck the land, so severe that Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a time. ¹¹Just before they reached Egypt, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “Listen. I know you are a beautiful woman. ¹²When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife,’ and they will kill me and keep you alive. ¹³Please tell them you are my sister. Then things will go well for me because of you, and I will stay alive thanks to you.” ¹⁴And so it was: as soon as Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians noticed how very beautiful the woman was. ¹⁵Pharaoh’s officials saw her too and spoke highly of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. ¹⁶Because of her, Pharaoh was generous to Abram, who came to own sheep, cattle and donkeys, male and female servants, she-donkeys and camels. ¹⁷But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸Pharaoh called for Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you claim she was your sister, and let me take her as my wife? Here she is. Take your wife and go!” ²⁰Pharaoh put men in charge of Abram, and they escorted him out of the country with his wife and all his possessions.