The Obedience of Abram

1Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you.

2Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,

and I will make your name great,

so that you will exemplify divine blessing.

3I will bless those who bless you,

but the one who treats you lightly I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”

4So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do, and Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.) 5And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they left for the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.

6Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) 7The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. 9Abram continually journeyed by stages down to the Negev.

The Promised Blessing Jeopardized

10There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay for a while because the famine was severe. 11As he approached Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman. 12When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive. 13So tell them you are my sister so that it may go well for me because of you and my life will be spared on account of you.”

14When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15When Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. So Abram’s wife was taken into the household of Pharaoh, 16and he did treat Abram well on account of her. Abram received sheep and cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe diseases because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Here is your wife! Take her and go!” 20Pharaoh gave his men orders about Abram, and so they expelled him, along with his wife and all his possessions.