Meanwhile, the Lord said to Abram, Leave thy country behind thee, thy kinsfolk, and thy father’s home, and come away into a land I will shew thee.

Then I will make a great people of thee; I will bless thee, and make thy name renowned, a name of benediction;

those who bless thee, I will bless, those who curse thee, I will curse, and in thee all the races of the world shall find a blessing.✻

So Abram went out, as the Lord bade him, and with him went his nephew, Lot. Abram was seventy-five years old✻ at the time when he left Haran,

took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, all the possessions they had acquired in Haran, and all the retainers born in their service there, and set out for the land of Chanaan. When they reached it,

Abram went across country as far as Sichem and the Valley of Clear Seeing.✻ Those were the days when the Chanaanites still dwelt in the land.

Here the Lord appeared to Abram, promising to give the whole land to his posterity; and this appearance he commemorated by building the Lord an altar there.

Then he moved on from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Hai on the east; here too he built an altar to the Lord, and invoked his name before it.

Thus Abram journeyed on, travelling always further south.

And now the country was stricken with famine; and Abram made his way into Egypt, to take refuge there, so grievous was the famine all over the country.

And when he had nearly reached Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, I have it in mind that thou art a woman fair to see;

and it may be that when the Egyptians catch sight of thee, they will say to themselves, She is a wedded woman, this is her husband; and they will kill me, and keep thee for themselves.

Tell them, I entreat thee, that thou art my sister; so, for thy sake, I shall be well used, and I shall owe my life to thee.

And sure enough, as soon as Abram set foot in Egypt, the Egyptians remarked the great beauty of his wife,

and Pharao was told of her by his courtiers, who sang her praises to him. So Sarai was carried off to Pharao’s court,

and Abram, for her sake, was well treated; he had no lack of sheep, oxen, and asses, of men and maid servants, of she-asses, too, and camels.

But the Lord smote Pharao and his court with great calamities, because of Abram’s wife Sarai,

till at last he sent for Abram, and asked him, What is this trick thou hast played on me? Why didst thou not own to me that she was thy wife?

How is it that thou didst call her thy sister, and let me wed her? Enough; here is thy wife, take her and begone.

And Pharao gave Abram an escort to see him on his way, with his wife and all his possessions.