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Promises to Abram
1Now the #Gen. 15:7; Acts 7:2, 3; (Heb. 11:8)Lord had said to Abram:
“Get #Gen. 13:9out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2#(Gen. 17:4–6); 18:18; 46:3; Deut. 26:5; 1 Kin. 3:8I will make you a great nation;
#Gen. 22:17; 24:35I will bless you
And make your name great;
#Gen. 28:4; Zech. 8:13; Gal. 3:14And you shall be a blessing.
3#Gen. 24:35; 27:29; Ex. 23:22; Num. 24:9I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in #Gen. 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; Ps. 72:17; Matt. 1:1; Luke 3:34; Acts 3:25; (Gal. 3:8)you all the families of the earth shall be #Is. 41:27blessed.”
4So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and #Gen. 14:14the people whom they had acquired in #Gen. 11:31Haran, and they #Gen. 13:18departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6Abram #Heb. 11:9passed through the land to the place of Shechem, #Deut. 11:30; Judg. 7:1as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. #Gen. 10:18, 19And the Canaanites were then in the land.
7#Gen. 17:1; 18:1Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, #Gen. 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; Deut. 34:4; Ps. 105:9–12; Acts 7:5; Gal. 3:16“To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an #Gen. 13:4, 18; 22:9altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and #Gen. 4:26; 13:4; 21:33called on the name of the Lord. 9So Abram journeyed, #Gen. 13:1, 3; 20:1; 24:62going on still toward the South.
Abram in Egypt
10Now there was #Gen. 26:1a famine in the land, and Abram #Ps. 105:13went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was #Gen. 43:1severe in the land. 11And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are #Gen. 12:14; 26:7; 29:17a woman of beautiful countenance. 12Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they #Gen. 20:11; 26:7will kill me, but they will let you live. 13#Gen. 20:1–18; 26:6–11Please say you are my #Gen. 20:12sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
14So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. 16He #Gen. 20:14treated Abram well for her sake. He #Gen. 13:2had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17But the Lord #Gen. 20:18; 1 Chr. 16:21; (Ps. 105:14)plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18And Pharaoh called Abram and said, #Gen. 20:9, 10; 26:10“What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” 20#(Prov. 21:1)So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.