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12
Yahweh told Abram to go to Canaan and promised to bless him
1 Then Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave this country where you are now living. Leave your father's clan and his family. Go to a land that I will show you. 2 I will cause your descendants to become a large nation. I will bless you and cause you to become ◄famous/highly esteemed►. What I do for you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who ◄bless/ask God to do good things for► you, and I will ◄curse/ask God to punish► those who do evil things to you. And because of what you do, those groups all over the earth will receive blessings (OR, people will wish that God will bless others as much as he has blessed you).”
4 So Abram left Haran town, as Yahweh told him to do. When Abram was 75 years old, he left there along with his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot. 5 Abram also took along all the possessions and slaves that they had accumulated/acquired in Haran town, and they left there and went to Canaan land. 6 In Canaan they traveled as far as Shechem town and camped by a huge tree called the tree of Moreh. The Canaan people-group were still living in that land.
7 Then Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I will give this land to your descendants.” Then Abram built a stone altar to offer a sacrifice to Yahweh because Yahweh had appeared to him. 8 From Shechem, Abram and his family traveled to the hills that were east of Bethel town. Bethel town was to the west of where they set up their tent, and Ai town was further to the east. There he built another stone altar and offered a sacrifice and worshiped Yahweh there. 9 Then they left there and started traveling south to the Negev desert.
Abram and Sarai went to Egypt for a while
10 There was ◄a famine/very little food to eat► in that land, so they went south to live in Egypt for a while, because of the severe lack of food in the land where they were. 11 Just as they were about to enter Egypt land, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “Listen, I know that you are a very beautiful woman. 12 When the people in Egypt see you, they will say, ‘This woman is his wife!’ and they will kill me in order to get you, but they will not kill you. 13 So I ask you to tell them that you are my sister, so that because of you telling them that, they will ◄spare my life/not kill me►.”
14 And as soon as they arrived in Egypt, the people in Egypt saw that his wife was indeed very beautiful. 15 When the king's officials saw her, they told the king how beautiful she was. And they took her to the king's palace. 16 The king treated Abram kindly because of Sarai, and he gave Abram many sheep and cattle and donkeys and male and female slaves and camels. 17 But because the king had taken Sarai, Abram's wife, Yahweh caused the king and the others in his household to be inflicted with terrible diseases. 18 When the king realized why that was happening, he summoned Abram and said to him, “Why did you do this to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you lie, saying she is your sister, with the result that I took her to be my wife? You should not have done that! So now take your wife, leave here and go!” 20 Then the king told his officials/servants to take Abram and his wife and all his possessions out of Egypt.

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Note: The Old Testament in this translation is still being worked on, and is in draft form. Updates will be posted at eBible.org/t4t/.

© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.