The Call of Abram
(Genesis 26:1–5; Acts 7:1–8)

1Then the Lord said to Abram: “Depart from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, and come into the land that I will show you.

2And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed.

3I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

4And so Abram departed just as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5And he took his wife Sarai, and Lot, the son of his brother, and all the substance which they had come to possess, and the lives which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed in order to go to the land of Canaan. And when they arrived in it, 6Abram passed through the land even to the place of Shechem, as far as the famous steep valley. Now at that time, the Canaanite was in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and he said to him, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8And passing on from there to a mountain, which was opposite the east of Bethel, he pitched his tent there, having Bethel to the west, and Hai on the east. He also built an altar there to the Lord, and he called upon his name. 9And Abram traveled, going out and continuing further on, toward the south.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10But a famine occurred in the land. And Abram descended to Egypt, to sojourn there. For famine prevailed over the land. 11And when he was close to entering Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: “I know you to be a beautiful woman. 12And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife.’ And they will put me to death, and retain you. 13Therefore, I beg you to say that you are my sister, so that it may be well with me because of you, and so that my soul may live by your favor.” 14And so, when Abram had arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was exceedingly beautiful. 15And the princes reported it to Pharaoh, and they praised her to him. And the woman was inducted into the house of Pharaoh. 16In truth, they treated Abram well because of her. And he had sheep and oxen and male donkeys, and men servants, and women servants, and female donkeys, and camels.

17But the Lord scourged Pharaoh and his house with great wounds because of Sarai, the wife of Abram. 18And Pharaoh called Abram, and he said to him: “What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife? 19For what reason did you claim her to be your sister, so that I would take her to me as a wife? Now therefore, behold your mate, receive her and go.” 20And Pharaoh instructed his men about Abram. And they led him away with his wife and all that he had.