Genesis 12: The Call, the Land, and the Sojourn in Egypt

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” (BSB)

Says 12:1–3 opens the chapter with a word and a set of promises. The BSB reads, “Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.’” The Hebrew is the ordinary narrative form, “and the Lord said”; “had said” is an English choice, not a variant in the Hebrew, and it is not used to settle when the word was spoken. The command is lekh-lekha, “go for yourself” or “go by yourself.” The BSB folds that into “Leave” and “go.” Three “from” phrases narrow the departure: from his land, from his kindred or native land, and from his father’s house. The goal is “the land that I will show you”; the land is not yet named. The wording is in “Go for yourself”: the call. The Greek has a single imperative, “go out,” and nothing for lekha, as the Greek note on 12:1–3 records.

Says 12:2–3 then give the promises. The Lord will make Abram into a great nation, bless him, and make his name great. “Be a blessing” is an imperative in the Hebrew; the BSB has “so that you will be a blessing,” and the Greek has a future, “you will be blessed.” He will bless those who bless Abram, and curse the one who curses him: the second verb is singular in the Hebrew; the BSB has a plural, “those who curse you,” and the Greek is plural as well. “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you”: the Hebrew is bekha, “in you,” and mishpehot ha'adamah, “clans of the ground.” The root “bless” comes five times in 12:2–3. These divergences are set out in A great nation, a great name and blessing and are not restated as fresh lexical work here.

Implies The promises of nation, name, land, and blessing are God’s initiative. The “great name” of 12:2 is given, where the builders of 11:4 set out to make a name for themselves. That contrast is already treated at 11:4 and is pointed to, not opened again; see A name, and not to be scattered and the verbal xref Gen 12:2 → Gen 11:4. The persons named are real; see the persons-and-history notes at Genesis 5 and Genesis 7.

Uncertain When and where the Lord first spoke is read in two ways, and both are set out. One reading takes 12:1 as a new word in Haran, the sequel of 11:31. Driver holds that “the country which Abram is commanded to leave being not Ur, but Haran.” Jubilees places the word in Haran, after prayer there, and has Abram resolve “that he would leave Haran to go into the land of Canaan” The other reading takes 12:1 as the same call first given in Ur, before Haran. Acts 7:2–3 has the God of glory appear to Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran; Gen 15:7, Neh 9:7, and Josh 24:2–3 speak of being brought from Ur. Calvin, citing Stephen, says that “God appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran” Augustine says that “God had spoken to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran”, and holds that “the whole took place in the same year” Josephus has Abram leave Chaldea “at the command, and by the assistance of God” Calvin also allows that, after Terah’s death, the Lord may have spoken again: “he confirmed his former call by a second oracle”. A different “second call” view is reported not by Calvin but by Calvin’s editor, citing Dr A. Clarke: some suppose this to have been “a second call from God”, and to have taken place “when he was at Charran” Early readings of the call are gathered in When and where Abram was called, in early reading and are not repeated at length here. No view is adopted.

Uncertain The niphal venivrekhu in 12:3 has been read as passive, “will be blessed,” or as reflexive, “will bless themselves.” A later hithpael appears at 22:18 and 26:4; see Gen 12:3 → Gen 22:18. Keil holds that the form “has only the passive signification”, and that on a reflexive reading “the application of this promise by Peter (Acts iii. 25) and Paul (Gal. iii. 8) to all nations, is left without any firm scriptural basis.” Skinner prefers “by thee shall all . . . bless themselves” Driver describes the niphal as a form “which may have either a reflexive or a passive sense”, and says that “in either case, therefore, the thought remains, in the wider sense of the term, a Messianic one. Cf. Gal. iii. 8” Calvin allows a proverbial reading and does not close it off (“let him enjoy his opinion”), but extends the sense: God, he says, “not only intimates that Abram would be an example, but a cause of blessing”, and he reads “the promise to the seed of Abraham, that is, to Christ” Early readings take a blessing in Abram. The Targum has “in thee shall be blessed all the generations of the earth”, and the Jerusalem text “in thy righteousness shall all the generations of the earth be blessed” Jubilees has “And in Thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,” Augustine reads “in thee shall all tribes of the earth be blessed”, and distinguishes the land promise from “not about the carnal but the spiritual seed” Those early readings, with Keil’s passive view, are also gathered in The promises to Abram in early reading; Skinner’s and Driver’s grammatical views are set out here and in the language note, as that historical note does not carry them. Gal 3:8 is taken up with Keil and Driver in Gen 12:3 → Gal 3:8. No ruling is given.

Says The call does not yet name Canaan. Abram is told to go to a land the Lord will show, and the showing begins when the Lord appears at Shechem in 12:7. Skinner hears in the opening verse “the trial of faith” Keil takes 12:1–3 as a command and a promise, and holds that Abram was to trust the Lord’s guidance and follow where he was led. The land-promise later given at Shechem is, on Keil’s reading, already implicit in the promise of a great nation, since a nation is not conceived of without a country of its own; that inference is his, and it is noted, not adopted as a claim of 12:1–3. What 12:1–3 states is the command to go and the promises of nation, name, blessing, and a blessing for the families of the earth.

Implies Abram’s going will be as the Lord has spoken (12:4). The call itself leaves the destination unnamed; faith here is obedience to a word whose place is still to be shown. That reading is taken up with Heb 11:8 in the New Testament section and is not argued from 12:1 alone.

The call and the promises

When and where the Lord spoke

A great name, and blessing for the nations

So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the Lord, and he called on the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on toward the Negev. (BSB)

Says 12:4–9 is the journey into Canaan. “So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.” The Hebrew of 12:4 is “as the Lord had spoken to him”; the going (vayyelekh) repeats the verb of the command. Keil writes that “Abram cheerfully followed the call of the Lord”, and gives the age because a new period begins with the departure. Skinner hears in the opening verse “the trial of faith” In 12:5 Abram took Sarai, Lot, their goods, and the people they had acquired in Haran (BSB), and they set out for the land of Canaan and came there. The Hebrew is “the persons they had made in Haran.” 11:31 had the household come as far as Haran and settle there; 12:5 completes the journey into Canaan. The wording is in Abram goes, and they arrive.

Implies Abram goes as the Lord has spoken. Heb 11:8 is pointed to for that reading: by faith Abraham, when called, “obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.” See Gen 12:1–4 → Heb 11:8.

Uncertain Who the “persons they had made” are is read in two ways. Keil takes them as “the male and female slaves that Abram and Lot had acquired” Driver, likewise, takes “souls” as persons, “here denoting slaves” The Targum, in Etheridge’s rendering, reads “and the souls whom they had proselyted in Haran” The verb “make” allows either. The language note leaves the converts reading unattributed; it is attributed here to the Targum. No lean is taken.

Says Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem, “and at that time the Canaanites were in the land.” The Hebrew is “the oak of Moreh” and “the Canaanite was then in the land,” a collective singular. The Greek has “the high oak,” with no name Moreh, as the Greek note on 12:4–9 records. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country, pitched his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east, built a second altar, and “called on the name of the Lord.” He then “journeyed on toward the Negev”: the Hebrew uses two infinitives of continuance, travel by stages. The places of the route are treated as background in Shechem, Bethel, and the Negev: places on Abram’s route; no ancient Near Eastern text is cited or compared there, and none is added here.

Implies The land promise is given to Abram’s offspring and is unfolded later. Driver notes that “The promise of the land is here for the first time given explicitly” The later wording at 13:14–17 is pointed to in Gen 12:7 → Gen 13:14–17 and is not opened here. Calling on the name of the Lord at the second altar is the phrase already treated at 4:26; see Gen 4:26 → Gen 12:8 and Seth, Enosh, and calling on the name (Genesis 4:25–26). That xref is not reversed here. Calvin notes “there is a manifest prolepsis in the word Bethel”

Uncertain What elon moreh is remains open. Calvin writes that “Moreh is the proper name of the place”, and takes Elon as a plain or an oak. Keil reads a terebinth of Moreh. Driver calls it “An oracular tree.” Skinner speaks of “an ancient sacred tree from which oracles were obtained” The Targum has “The plain (or valley) of vision.” Jubilees has Abram “dwelt near a lofty oak.”, in line with the Greek “high oak.” No view is adopted, and no cult background is required.

Uncertain Zera' in 12:7 (BSB “offspring”) may be collective offspring, a singular seed, or both in their contexts. The Targum has “To thy sons will I give this land.” Augustine reads the land promise of 12:7 as for the “father of the one Israelite nation”, and reserves a more excellent promise, “not about the carnal but the spiritual seed”, for the blessing of the nations. Gal 3:16 reads “seed” as one, who is Christ; that reading is pointed to in the New Testament note and is not decided here. No ruling is given.

Uncertain A source division has been stated for the chapter: Driver writes that “Verses 1–4a, 6–20, belong to J; vv. 4b, 5 to P.” Skinner, in the same vein, assigns a slender Priestly thread and takes the rest as Yahwistic. Unity readings take the same sequence as a single narrative of call, journey, and promise. Keil holds that “The hypothesis, that the history is compounded of Jehovistic and Elohistic documents, can only be maintained by those who misunderstand the distinctive meaning of these two names” The question is the same two-accounts question already treated at 2:4–25; see Reading Genesis 2:4–25 alongside Genesis 1: from Josephus and Philo to Keil, Driver and Skinner. It is not re-argued here, and no view is adopted.

Says 12:6 notes that the Canaanite was then in the land. The remark is made, as Driver reads it, in view of 12:7: the land promised there was not at the time without a possessor. Keil takes the same clause as stating that Abram could not regard the land at once as his own and take possession of it, but could only wander in it as in a foreign land. Those are readings of the clause, not a date for the writer, and no view is adopted here on what “then” implies about the time of writing. The identifications of Shechem, Bethel, Ai, and the Negev are reported in the historical note on the route as their holders give them; they are background for the journey, not a settlement of the sites.

Says From Shechem Abram moved south, pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai, built a second altar, and called on the name of the Lord. He then journeyed on toward the Negev by stages. The chapter pauses there, at the southern district of the land, before the famine of 12:10 takes him down to Egypt. 13:1–4 will bring him back to this altar; that return is context only and is not treated here.

Abram enters Canaan

Altars, and calling on the name of the Lord

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.” So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. When Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh. He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels. The Lord, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away with his wife and all his possessions. (BSB)

Says 12:10–20 is the famine and the sojourn in Egypt. “Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.” The Hebrew is “to sojourn there,” and the famine is “heavy.” As he was about to enter Egypt, he asked Sarai to say she was his sister, so that he would be treated well and his life spared. When they entered, Pharaoh’s officials commended her, “and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh” (the Hebrew is “the house of Pharaoh”). He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired flocks, servants, and camels; the BSB groups “male and female donkeys” before the servants, while the Hebrew order is sheep and cattle, male donkeys, menservants and maidservants, female donkeys, and camels. “The Lord, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai” (the Hebrew is “and the Lord afflicted,” with “great plagues” or strokes). Pharaoh summoned Abram, asked why he had not been told she was his wife, and said, “Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” Then Pharaoh gave orders, and they sent him away with his wife and all his possessions. The wording is in the language notes on 12:10–20; the Greek of 12:20 adds Lot, which the Hebrew lacks here.

Implies God protects Sarai and Abram in Egypt. The Lord afflicts Pharaoh’s house because of Sarai, Abram’s wife, and they are sent away with what they have. Skinner writes that “Yahwe interposes at the extreme moment to save Sarai” That protection is the lean taken here; it does not settle how the ruse is to be judged, or how far Pharaoh took her.

Uncertain Views of the sister ruse are attributed, and no verdict is given. Augustine holds that “There he called his wife his sister, and told no lie. For she was this also, because she was near of blood” 20:12 later states a half-sister relation; that later wording is pointed to in Gen 12:10–20 → Gen 20:1–18 and is not opened here. Keil accepts the half-sister fact but says “But his precaution did not spring from faith.” Calvin finds “something of falsehood” in the plan. Driver calls the statement “true, but not the whole truth” Skinner reports that the narrative assumes “lying is excusable” How far Pharaoh took Sarai is not further described beyond 12:19. On her remaining unharmed, the Targum has Pharaoh say “I went not unto her”; Augustine writes, “And far be it from us to believe that she was defiled by lying with another”; Calvin holds that “she remained uninjured”, because God acted “lest Sarai should be violated”; Josephus says “God put a stop to his unjust inclinations, by sending upon him a distemper, and a sedition against his government.” Jubilees reports the seizure, the plagues, and the sending out, and does not recount the ruse. Josephus also expands the visit: “He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy”; that expansion is his, and it is not adopted here. Early readings are gathered in The famine, Egypt, and the sister ruse in early reading. The commentary’s own claim is only that she was taken into Pharaoh’s house and that God protected her.

Uncertain The Egypt episode as a whole has been read as a failure of faith, as a typological preview of a later going down to Egypt and a coming out with goods, or as both. Calvin writes, “A much more severe temptation is now recorded, by which the faith of Abram is tried to the quick.” Yet he holds that Abram “retained in his mind possession of the land promised unto him” Keil and Driver likewise find Abram falling short of the standard that might have been expected. Skinner stresses that “the visit to Egypt was compulsory” Typology is offered, not required. No ruling is given.

Uncertain The persons are real; identifications and dates are not settled here. Driver can say that “The substance of the narrative is, no doubt, historical”, while also noting that the narrative does not identify which Pharaoh is meant, and that the mention of camels has been supposed to be an anachronism. Keil records that Pharaoh is “the Hebrew name for all the Egyptian kings in the Old Testament” Those questions of identification and date are left open. No ancient text is adopted as “the” background of the sojourn.

Says The gifts of 12:16 are listed in a fixed Hebrew order: sheep and cattle, male donkeys, menservants and maidservants, female donkeys, and camels. The BSB groups the donkeys together before the servants. How Abram came by them is stated: he was treated well on Sarai’s account. Driver notes that by accepting the presents Abram placed himself in a false position; Keil, that he could not refuse them, though by accepting them he increased his sin. Those judgments belong with the attributed views of the ruse; the text itself records the gifts, the plagues, the rebuke, and the sending away.

Implies The land promise is not withdrawn in Egypt. Abram is sent away with his wife and his possessions, and 13:1 will bring him up into the Negev. Calvin’s observation that Abram kept the promised land in mind, even while hunger drove him out of it, is a reading of that endurance; it is noted with the trial, not used to close the question of whether the episode is a failure of faith, a typological preview, or both.

Says Pharaoh’s rebuke in 12:18–19 takes Abram’s wife as a fact he had not been told, and his own taking of her as a fact he now reverses: “here is your wife. Take her and go.” The narrative does not say how Pharaoh learned the cause of the plagues. Skinner leaves that to conjecture. What the text does say is that the Lord afflicted Pharaoh’s house because of Sarai, and that Pharaoh sent them away. God protects her, and Abram is not left in Egypt.

Famine and the sojourn in Egypt

The sister ruse, and Pharaoh

Minor variants

Says The printed text of this chapter is the Masoretic Text throughout. For 12:1–20 the English verse numbers agree with the Hebrew and with Swete; there is no versification-map row. There is no separate textual record in this chapter. Differences confirmed on the Swete page are Greek-note facts and box lines; no Hebrew is reconstructed from them. At 12:2, where the Hebrew has the imperative “and be a blessing,” Swete has a future with an adjective, “and you will be blessed.” At 12:3 the Greek has a plural, “those who curse you,” for the Hebrew singular. At 12:5 the Greek has “acquired” for the Hebrew “made.” At 12:6 Swete has “the high oak,” with no name Moreh. At 12:9 the Greek has “in the wilderness” for the Negev. At 12:15 the Greek has no word for “house.” At 12:16 the Greek has a different term in the list of animals. At 12:17 the Greek has “God” for the Lord and adds a further adjective to the plagues. At 12:20 Swete adds “and Lot with him,” which the Hebrew lacks here. After “Lord” at 12:8, Codex Alexandrinus has an erasure of fifteen letters; Swete does not say what was erased, as the Greek note records. The Samaritan text, as logged from von Gall, p. 19 (n542), has a plus at 12:16 and moves the servants in the list; the Masoretic order remains the base here, and those differences are not used as a claim. Other Samaritan differences are not used. These lines are recorded in the Greek and Hebrew notes and are not restated as a table beyond this box.

New Testament reading

Three New Testament passages are treated as exegetical cross-references, each quoted from the BSB, and no Greek form is claimed.

Acts 7:2–4 is the closest of the three to the question of when the Lord spoke. Stephen says, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’” Acts 7:4 then states: “So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living.” The appearance in Mesopotamia before Haran is the same question already set out in the note on 12:1. The clause about Terah’s death sits with the figures already treated in the Genesis 11 notes on Terah and in Gen 11:31–32 → Acts 7:2–4; those notes are pointed to and are not opened again. See Gen 12:1–4 → Acts 7:2–4.

Gal 3:8 reads the blessing of 12:3 as the gospel promised in advance: “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’” That reading is set beside Keil’s passive view, which takes Paul’s (and Peter’s) application as a reason not to read the niphal as merely reflexive, and beside Driver’s remark that in either case the thought remains, in a wider sense, a Messianic one. No ruling is given on the niphal. See Gen 12:3 → Gal 3:8.

Heb 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.” That is the lean taken from 12:4: Abram goes as the Lord has spoken. See Gen 12:1–4 → Heb 11:8.

Acts 3:25, Gal 3:14, 16, and Romans 4 stay as lookup, or are pointed to. The Romans 4 notes on the promise through faith (Introduction to Romans 4:1–25: Abraham as the Scripture proof of justification by faith, The promise through faith, Abraham as heir of the world, and the God who gives life to the dead (Romans 4:13–17)) are not opened again here. Gal 3:16’s reading of “seed” as one, who is Christ, is noted with the land promise of 12:7 and is not decided.

The three xrefs therefore do different work. Acts 7:2–4 is bound to the open question of when and where the Lord spoke, and to the already treated question of Terah’s death. Gal 3:8 is a reading of the blessing of 12:3 as the gospel promised in advance, set beside the attributed views of the niphal, with no ruling. Heb 11:8 is the lean taken from 12:4: Abram goes as the Lord has spoken, to a land not yet named in the call itself. None of the three is used to close a point that the notes have left open, and none is used to open Romans 4 again.

New Testament reading