12
God picked Abram
1 Abram was living in a big town called Harran when the Lord said to him, “Abram, I want you to leave your country, your family and all your relations. I am going to take you to live in a new country.+ 2 I am going to bless you. That means I will do good things for you and make you strong. Everyone will know about you and respect your name. I will give you a big family and this family will grow into a strong nation. Your family will do good things for all the other nations on the earth. 3 If anyone looks after you and does good things for you, I will look after them and be kind to them. But, if anyone puts a curse on you and makes life hard for you, I will put a curse on them and I will make their life very hard. I will use your family to do good things for all the people in the world.”+
4-5 Abram was 75 years old when he left Harran to go to the country of Canaan. This was the country the Lord told him to go to. Abram took his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. Before Abram left Harran he picked some men and women to work for him. Abram took all his workers and everything he had with him to Canaan.
6 When Abram got to the Canaanite country, he walked right across that country until he got to a place called Shekem. In that place there was a special tree called Moreh. 7 Then the Lord visited Abram and made a strong promise to him. God said to Abram, “You are the first person in my new family. I promise that I will give this country to the family that comes from you.”+ The Lord had visited Abram and so Abram piled up some stones to make a special table called an altar. And then he burned some animals on that altar to show respect to the Lord.
8 Later on, Abram left Shekem and went down south to the hill country that was on the east side of a town called Bethel. And he made his camp between Bethel and another town called Ai. Ai was on the east side and Bethel was on the west side of his camp. Right there Abram built another stone altar and prayed to God using God's name.
9 Then Abram travelled further south to a dry country called “The Negev.”
Abram and Sarai go to Egypt
10 At that time, there was not much food in that country, and so Abram and everyone with him went to live for a short time in the country called Egypt.
11-12 Just before they got to the border of Egypt, Abram said to Sarai, “You are a beautiful woman and when the Egyptian people see you, they will say, ‘That woman is married to Abram. Let's kill him so that we can have her for ourselves.’ They will kill me but they will let you live. 13 You have to tell everyone that you are my sister so they will not kill me.”+
14 What Abram said came true. When they got into Egypt, the Egyptian people saw that Sarai was really beautiful. 15 And when the king's workers saw Sarai, they told the king how beautiful she was, and they took her to live with him.
16 The king thought Abram was Sarai's brother and so he was very kind to him. The king gave Abram, sheep, cows, donkeys, and camels as well as men and women workers.
17 But God was not pleased that Sarai had gone to live with the king of Egypt. God made the king and everyone who lived in his house really sick.
18-19 When the king found out that Sarai was married to Abram, he got really wild and sent someone to get Abram. The king said to him, “What have you done to me? Sarai is your wife! Why did you trick me? You said, ‘She is my sister’ and you let me marry her. Now, here is your wife. Take her away, and then, you and all your people, get out of my country!”
20 The king told his soldiers what to do with Abram. He said, “Take Abram, Sarai, all his people, animals and workers out of Egypt and make them go back to where they came from!” And the soldiers did what the king said.
+ 12:1 Acts 7:2-4; Hebrews 11:8 + 12:3 Galatians 3:8 + 12:7 Genesis 13:14-15; 17:8; 26:3; 28:13-14; 48:3-4; Acts 7:5; Galatians 3:16 + 12:13 Genesis 20:2-13; 26:7-11