Genesis 12-15

Genesis 12

¹Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father's house, into the land to which I will be your guide:

²And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing:

³To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

⁴So Abram went as the Lord had said to him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went away from Haran.

⁵And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their goods and the servants which they had got in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan.

⁶And Abram went through the land till he came to Shechem, to the holy tree of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were still living in the land.

⁷And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him.

⁸And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to the name of the Lord.

⁹And he went on, journeying still to the South.

¹⁰And because there was little food to be had in that land, he went down into Egypt.

¹¹Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye;

¹²And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you, they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death and keep you.

¹³Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your account.

¹⁴And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair.

¹⁵And Pharaoh's great men, having seen her, said words in praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house.

¹⁶And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels.

¹⁷And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

¹⁸Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, What have you done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife?

¹⁹Why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way.

²⁰And Pharaoh gave orders to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and all he had.

Genesis 13

¹And Abram went up out of Egypt with his wife and all he had, and Lot with him, and they came in to the South.

²Now Abram had great wealth of cattle and silver and gold.

³And travelling on from the South, he came to Beth-el, to the place where his tent had been before, between Beth-el and Ai;

⁴To the place where he had made his first altar, and there Abram gave worship to the name of the Lord.

⁵And Lot, who went with him, had flocks and herds and tents;

⁶So that the land was not wide enough for the two of them: their property was so great that there was not room for them together.

⁷And there was an argument between the keepers of Abram's cattle and the keepers of Lot's cattle: at that time the Canaanites and Perizzites were still living in the land.

⁸Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no argument between me and you, and between my herdmen and your herdmen, for we are brothers.

⁹Is not all the land before you? then let us go our separate ways: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; or if you take the right, I will go to the left.

¹⁰And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to Zoar.

¹¹So Lot took for himself all the valley of Jordan, and went to the east, and they were parted from one another.

¹²Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom.

¹³Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord.

¹⁴And the Lord had said to Abram, after Lot was parted from him, From this place where you are take a look to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west:

¹⁵For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your seed for ever.

¹⁶And I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if the dust of the earth may be numbered, then will your children be numbered.

¹⁷Come, go through all the land from one end to the other for I will give it to you.

¹⁸And Abram, moving his tent, came and made his living-place by the holy tree of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and made an altar there to the Lord.

Genesis 14

¹Now in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim,

²They made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (which is Zoar).

³All these came together in the valley of Siddim (which is the Salt Sea).

⁴For twelve years they were under the rule of Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they put off his control.

⁵And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

⁶And the Horites in their mountain Seir, driving them as far as El-paran, which is near the waste land.

⁷Then they came back to En-mishpat (which is Kadesh), making waste all the country of the Amalekites and of the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar.

⁸And the king of Sodom with the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is Zoar), went out, and put their forces in position in the valley of Siddim,

⁹Against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Ellasar: four kings against the five.

¹⁰Now the valley of Siddim was full of holes of sticky earth; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were put to flight and came to their end there, but the rest got away to the mountain.

¹¹And the four kings took all the goods and food from Sodom and Gomorrah and went on their way.

¹²And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who was living in Sodom, and all his goods.

¹³And one who had got away from the fight came and gave word of it to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the holy tree of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner, who were friends of Abram.

¹⁴And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went after them as far as Dan.

¹⁵And separating his forces by night, he overcame them, putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah, which is on the north side of Damascus.

¹⁶And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's son, with his goods and the women and the people.

¹⁷And when he was coming back after putting to flight Chedorlaomer and the other kings, he had a meeting with the king of Sodom in the valley of Shaveh, that is, the King's Valley.

¹⁸And Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of the Most High God, took bread and wine,

¹⁹And blessing him, said, May the blessing of the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth, be on Abram:

²⁰And let the Most High God be praised, who has given into your hands those who were against you. Then Abram gave him a tenth of all the goods he had taken.

²¹And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the prisoners and take the goods for yourself.

²²But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have taken an oath to the Lord, the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth,

²³That I will not take so much as a thread or the cord of a shoe of yours; so that you may not say, I have given wealth to Abram:

²⁴Give me nothing but the food which the fighting-men who went with me have had; but let Aner and Eshcol and Mamre have their part of the goods.

Genesis 15

¹After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe, and great will be your reward.

²And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth after me.

³And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a servant in my house will get the heritage.

⁴Then said the Lord, This man will not get the heritage, but a son of your body will have your property after you.

⁵And he took him out into the open air, and said to him, Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be numbered; even so will your seed be.

⁶And he had faith in the Lord, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

⁷And he said to him, I am the Lord, who took you from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land for your heritage.

⁸And he said, O Lord God, how may I be certain that it will be mine?

⁹And he said, Take a young cow of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a sheep of three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.

¹⁰All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two.

¹¹And evil birds came down on the bodies, but Abram sent them away.

¹²Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came on Abram, and a dark cloud of fear.

¹³And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years;

¹⁴But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants they are, and they will come out from among them with great wealth.

¹⁵As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; at the end of a long life you will be put in your last resting-place.

¹⁶And in the fourth generation they will come back here; for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full.

¹⁷Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the parts of the bodies.

¹⁸In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

¹⁹The Kenite, 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.