Genesis 12

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.” 4Abram 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.

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.