^1. NOW the LORD said to Abram, « [1] Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;

^2. And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so [2] you shall be a blessing;

^3. And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who [4] curses you I will [3] curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.»

^4. So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

^5. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the [6] persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they [5] set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.

^6. Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the [7] oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.

^7. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, « To your [8] descendants I will give this land.» So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.

^8. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.

^9. Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the [9] Negev.

^10. Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

^11. It came about when he [11] came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, «See now, I know that you are a [10] beautiful woman;

^12. and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, "This is his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

^13. «Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that [12] I may live on account of you.»

^14. It came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians [13] saw that the woman was very beautiful.

^15. Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

^16. Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and [14] gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.

^17. But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

^18. Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, « What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

^19. «Why did you say, "She is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife? Now then, [15] here is your wife, take her and go.»

^20. Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they [16] escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.