Day 5: Genesis 12-15

Abram's Call, the Covenant, and the Journey into Canaan

Genesis 12

1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.

2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All of the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

5 Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went out to go into the land of Canaan. Into the land of Canaan they came.

6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land.

7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to the LORD, who appeared to him.

8 He left from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the LORD’s name.

9 Abram traveled, going on still toward the South.

10 There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there, for the famine was severe in the land.

11 As he was about to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look at.

12 It will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me, but they will let you live.

13 Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you.”

14 When Abram had come into Egypt, Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15 The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

16 He dealt well with Abram for her sake. He had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 The LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

18 Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, see your wife, take her, and go your way.”

20 Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him, and they escorted him away with his wife and all that he had.

Genesis 13

1 Abram went up out of Egypt: he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South.

2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

3 He went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

4 to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on the LORD’s name.

5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, herds, and tents.

6 The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together, for their possessions were so great that they could not live together.

7 There was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanite and the Perizzite lived in the land at that time.

8 Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no strife between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are relatives.

9 Isn’t the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

10 Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the LORD’s garden, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar.

11 So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves from one another.

12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

13 Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against the LORD.

14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated himself from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,

15 for I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring forever.

16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted.

17 Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for I will give it to you.”

18 Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.

Genesis 14

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

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

3 All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea).

4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year, they rebelled.

5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer came, and the kings who were with him, and struck the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

6 and the Horites in their Mount Seir, to El Paran, which is by the wilderness.

7 They returned, and came to En Mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that lived in Hazazon Tamar.

8 The king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar) went out; and they set the battle in array against them in the valley of Siddim,

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

10 Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and some fell there. Those who remained fled to the hills.

11 They took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food, and went their way.

12 They took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who lived in Sodom, and his possessions, and departed.

13 One who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew. Now he lived by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and they were allies of Abram.

14 When Abram heard that his relative was taken captive, he led out his three hundred eighteen trained men, born in his house, and pursued as far as Dan.

15 He divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

16 He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot, his goods, the women, and the people.

17 The king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High.

19 He blessed him, and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.

20 Blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”

Abram gave him a tenth of all.

21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, and take the goods for yourself.”

22 Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to the LORD, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,

23 that I will not take a thread nor a sandal strap nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’

24 I will accept nothing from you except that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their portion.”

Genesis 15

1 After these things the LORD’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

2 Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”

3 Abram said, “Behold, you have given no children to me, and behold, one born in my house is my heir.”

4 Behold, the LORD’s word came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.”

5 The LORD brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.”

6 He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness.

7 He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”

8 He said, “Lord GOD, how will I know that I will inherit it?”

9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

10 He took all these for himself, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn’t divide the birds.

11 The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

12 When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.

13 He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that isn’t theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.

14 I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth,

15 but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age.

16 In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”

17 It came to pass that, when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

18 In that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.