Genesis 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around 2100 to 2000 BC, in the Middle Bronze Age
Location
From Haran in northern Mesopotamia south into Canaan, through Shechem and Bethel to the Negev desert, and then on into Egypt during a famine
Audience
Israelites of the Mosaic era, hearing the founding promise that made them a people
Situation
God calls Abram to leave his country and family for a land he will be shown, promising land, descendants and blessing for all nations. Abram travels through Canaan building altars, then goes down to Egypt during a famine and passes Sarai off as his sister, with disastrous results for Pharaoh's household.
Key Background
Leaving one's father's household in this culture meant surrendering inheritance, legal protection and identity, so the call costs Abram everything a man of his time depended on. Migration to Egypt during Canaanite famine was routine, since Egypt's harvests depended on the Nile flood rather than on rainfall, and Egyptian records document Asiatic herdsmen entering for exactly this reason. A woman's brother normally negotiated her marriage, so calling Sarai his sister put Abram in the position of a bargaining relative rather than an obstacle to be killed, which is precisely the protection he was seeking.
said to Abram, your your family, and your father's house, and go to the I will show you.
I will make you into a I will do to you and make your You will be the of for others.
I will do to those who do to you, and whoever you with I will put under a curse. Every on will you."
So Abram left, just as Yahweh had told him, and went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left
Abram took his wife his nephew Lot, everything they owned, and the they had in Haran, and they set out for the land of And they arrived in
Abram traveled through the land as far as the at at the of The were living in the land at the time.
Then Yahweh to Abram and said, "I am giving this land to your So Abram built an there to Yahweh, who had to him.
From there he moved on to the hill country east of and pitched his tent, with to the west and to the east. There he built another altar to and on the of
Then Abram continued traveling, moving steadily toward the
Now there was a in the land, so Abram down to to live there for a while, because the was severe.
As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "Look, I know you are a beautiful woman.
When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'She is his wife,' and they will kill me but let you live.
Tell them you are my so that things will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account."
When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was an extremely beautiful woman.
officials saw her and praised her to and she was
Pharaoh because of her, and acquired sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
But Yahweh Pharaoh and his household with severe because of Abram's wife Sarai.
So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, "What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?
Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her as my wife? Here — your wife. Take her and go!"
Then Pharaoh gave orders concerning Abram, and they with his wife and everything he had.