Genesis 12 New American Standard Bible

Abram Journeys to Egypt

12 Now ^(A)the Lord said to Abram,

“Go from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
²And ^(B)I will make you into a great nation,
And ^(C)I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And you shall ^(D)be a blessing;
³And ^(E)I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who ^[a]curses you I will ^[b]curse.
^(F)And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

⁴So Abram went away as the Lord had spoken to him; and ^(G)Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot, and all their ^(H)possessions which they had accumulated, and ^(I)the ^[c]people which they had acquired in Haran, and they ^[d]set out for the land of Canaan; ^(J)so they came to the land of Canaan. ⁶Abram passed through the land as far as the site of ^(K)Shechem, to the ^[e]oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were in the land at that time. ⁷And the Lord ^(L)appeared to Abram and said, “^(M)To your ^[f]descendants I will give this land.” So he built ^(N)an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent with ^(O)Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and ^(P)called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹Then Abram journeyed on, continuing toward ^(Q)the ^[g]Negev.

¹⁰Now there was ^(R)a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a time, because the famine was ^(S)severe in the land. ¹¹It came about, when he ^[h]was approaching Egypt, that he said to his wife Sarai, “See now, I know that you are a ^[i]^(T)beautiful woman; ¹²^(U)and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. ¹³Please say that you are ^(V)my sister so that it may go well for me because of you, and that ^[j]^(W)I may live on account of you.” ¹⁴Now it came about, when Abram entered Egypt, that the Egyptians ^[k]saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and ^(X)the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁶Therefore ^(Y)he treated Abram well for her sake; and ^[l]^(Z)he gave him sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

¹⁷But the Lord ^(AA)struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “^(AB)What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for myself as a wife? Now then, ^[m]here is your wife, take her and go!” ²⁰And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they ^[n]escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.