Side by side
Genesis 12
Our retelling next to the Bible text it comes from. Each row lines up one scene with the verses it retells.
Scene 1: "Leave Your Country"Verses 1 to 3
Abram lived in Haran with his family. Abram was not young, and he and Sarai had no children.
Then the LORD spoke to Abram. "Leave your country, your kindred, and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you" (12:1). Kindred means relatives.
God did not say where the land was. Abram would have to go without knowing.
Then God made promises. He would make Abram into a great nation. He would bless Abram and make his name great. Abram would be a blessing to others.
God would bless people who blessed Abram and curse people who cursed him. To curse means to call down harm on someone. And then the biggest promise of all: "all the families of the earth will be blessed through you" (12:3).
This was a huge promise to a man with no children. A nation needs children. A family needs children. Abram had none.
1Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. 2I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
Scene 2: Seventy-Five Years OldVerses 4 to 5
"So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him" (12:4). His nephew Lot went with him.
Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.
Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. He took everything they owned. He took the people who worked for them. They set out for the land of Canaan.
The Bible doesn't say what Abram felt as he left. But he was leaving his family's town, his relatives, and his father's household. He was going somewhere he had never been.
4So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
Scene 3: Altars in a New LandVerses 6 to 9
At last they came to the land of Canaan.
Abram traveled through the land. He came to a big tree called the Oak of Moreh, at a place called Shechem. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time.
Then the LORD appeared to Abram. He said, "I will give this land to your offspring" (12:7). Offspring means children and the family that comes after them.
Abram still had no children. Other people already lived in the land. But God kept promising.
So Abram built an altar there to the LORD. An altar is a raised place, often made of stones, where people worship God.
Abram moved on to the hills east of a town called Bethel. He set up his tent there. He built another altar and "called on the name of the LORD" (12:8). That means he prayed and worshiped.
Then Abram kept moving south, toward a dry land called the Negev.
6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD. 9And Abram journeyed on toward the Negev.
Between scenesVerses 10 to 20
This part isn't retold as its own scene.
10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman, 12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.” 14So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15When Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh. 16He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels. 17The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18So Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away with his wife and all his possessions.
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