Genesis 12 - 15 — Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh Appears to Abram

12And ^aYahweh said to Abram, “¹Go forth from your land,And from your kinAnd from your father’s house,To the land which I will show you;

²And ^aI will make you a great nation,And ^bI will bless you,And make your name great;And so ¹^,^cyou shall be a blessing;³And ^aI will bless those who bless you,And the one who ¹curses you I will ²curse.^bAnd in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

⁴So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and ^aLot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵So Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their ^apossessions which they had accumulated, and ^bthe ¹persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go forth to the land of Canaan; ^cthus they came to the land of Canaan. ⁶And Abram passed through the land as far as the site of ^aShechem, to the ¹oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. ⁷Then Yahweh ^aappeared to Abram and said, “^bTo your seed I will give this land.” So he built ^can altar there to Yahweh who had appeared to him. ⁸Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with ^aBethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to Yahweh and ^bcalled upon the name of Yahweh. ⁹And Abram journeyed on, continuing toward ^athe ¹Negev.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

¹⁰Now there was ^aa famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was ^bsevere in the land. ¹¹And it happened as he drew near to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Now behold, I know that you are a woman ^abeautiful in appearance; ¹²^aand it will be when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. ¹³“Please say that you are ^amy sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that ¹^,^bI may live on account of you.” ¹⁴Now it happened when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians ¹saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵And Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and ^athe woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁶Therefore ^ahe treated Abram well because of her; and sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels ¹^,^bcame into his possession.

¹⁷But Yahweh ^astruck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “^aWhat 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 myself as a wife? So now, ¹here is your wife, take her and go.” ²⁰So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they ¹sent him away with his wife and all that belonged to him.

Abram and Lot Separate

13So Abram went up from Egypt to ^athe ¹Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him.

²Now Abram was ^avery rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. ³And he went ¹on his journeys from the ²Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, ^abetween Bethel and Ai, ⁴to the place of the ^aaltar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called upon the name of Yahweh.

⁵Now ^aLot, who was going with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. ⁶And ^athe land could not ¹sustain them ²while living together, ^bfor their possessions were so abundant that they were not able to live together. ⁷^aAnd there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now ^bthe Canaanite and the Perizzite were living then in the land.

⁸^aSo Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. ⁹“Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.” ¹⁰Then Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the ¹^,^avalley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before Yahweh ^bdestroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like ^cthe garden of Yahweh, ^dlike the land of Egypt as you go to ^eZoar. ¹¹So Lot chose for himself all the ¹valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other. ¹²Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived in ^athe cities of the ¹valley and moved his tents as far as Sodom. ¹³Now ^athe men of Sodom were evil and ^bsinners, exceedingly so, against Yahweh.

¹⁴And Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “^aNow lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, ^bnorthward and southward and eastward and westward; ¹⁵^afor all the land which you see, ^bI will give it to you and to your seed forever. ¹⁶“And I will make your seed ^aas the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your seed can also be numbered. ¹⁷“Arise, ^awalk about the land through its length and breadth; for ^bI will give it to you.” ¹⁸Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the ¹^,^aoaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built ^ban altar to Yahweh.

Kings of the Valley Take Lot

14And it happened in the days of Amraphel king of ^aShinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of ^bElam, and Tidal king of ¹Goiim, ²that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of ^aAdmah, and Shemeber king of ^bZeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, ^cZoar). ³All these ¹came as allies to ^athe valley of Siddim (that is, ^bthe Salt Sea). ⁴Now for twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but the thirteenth year they rebelled. ⁵So in the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, came and struck the ^aRephaim in ^bAshteroth-karnaim and the Zuzim in Ham and the Emim in ¹^,^cShaveh-kiriathaim, ⁶and the ^aHorites in their Mount Seir, as far as ^bEl-paran, which is by the wilderness. ⁷Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, ^aKadesh). And they struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who were living in ^bHazazon-tamar. ⁸And the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) came out; and they arranged themselves for battle against them in ^athe valley of Siddim, ⁹against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of ¹Goiim and Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five— ¹⁰now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits—and ^athe kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell ¹into them; but those who remained behind fled to the ^bhill country. ¹¹Then they took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply and departed. ¹²They also took Lot, ^aAbram’s nephew, and his possessions and departed; ^bnow he was living in Sodom.

¹³Then ¹a fugitive came and told Abram the ^aHebrew. Now he was dwelling by the ²^,^boaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner, and these were ³^,^cin a covenant with Abram. ¹⁴So Abram heard that ^ahis ¹relative had been taken captive, and he ²led out his trained men, ^bborn in his house, 318 in number, and went in pursuit as far as ^cDan. ¹⁵^aAnd he divided ¹his men against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is ²north of ^bDamascus. ¹⁶And he ^abrought back all the possessions, and he also brought back ^bhis ¹relative Lot with his possessions and also the women and the people.

Melchizedek Blesses Abram

¹⁷Then after he came back from striking down Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, ^athe king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh (that is, ^bthe King’s Valley). ¹⁸And ^aMelchizedek king of Salem brought out ^bbread and wine; now he was a ^cpriest of ¹God Most High. ¹⁹Then he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of ¹God Most High,²^,^aPossessor of heaven and earth;

²⁰And blessed be ¹God Most High,Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” ^aThen he gave him a tenth of all.

²¹And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give the ¹people to me, but take the possessions for yourself.” ²²Then Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have ¹raised my hand to Yahweh ²^,^aGod Most High, ³^,^bpossessor of heaven and earth, ²³that ^aI will not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, so that you would not say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ ²⁴“¹I will take nothing except what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, ^aAner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their share.”

Yahweh Cuts a Covenant with Abram

15After these things ^athe word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, “^bDo not fear, Abram,I am ^ca shield to you;¹Your ^dreward shall be very great.”

²And Abram said, “O Lord Yahweh, what will You give me, as I go on being childless, and the ¹heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³And Abram said, “¹Since You have given no seed to me, behold, ²one ^aborn in my house is my heir.” ⁴Then behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This one will not be your heir; ^abut one who will come forth from your own ¹body, he shall be your heir.” ⁵And He brought him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and ^anumber the stars, if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “^bSo shall your seed be.” ⁶^aThen he believed in Yahweh; and He counted it to him as righteousness. ⁷And He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of ^aUr of the Chaldeans, to ^bgive you this land to ¹possess it.” ⁸And he said, “O Lord Yahweh, ^ahow may I know that I will ¹possess it?” ⁹So He said to him, “¹Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰Then he ¹brought all these to Him and ^asplit them into parts ²down the middle and laid each part opposite the other; but he ^bdid not split apart the birds. ¹¹Then the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹²Now it happened that when the sun was going down, ^aa deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, ¹terror and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³Then God said to Abram, “Know for certain that ^ayour seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, ¹and ^bthey will be enslaved and mistreated ^cfour hundred years. ¹⁴“But I will also judge the nation to whom they are enslaved, and afterward they will come out ^awith ¹many possessions. ¹⁵“As for you, ^ayou shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶“Then in ^athe fourth generation they will return here, for ^bthe iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

¹⁷Now it happened that the sun had set, and it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which ^apassed between these pieces. ¹⁸On that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram, saying, “^aTo your seed I have given this land,From ^bthe river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:

¹⁹^athe Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite ²⁰and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim ²¹and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”