Genesis 12

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Go forth' translates lekh-lekha (לֶךְ לְךָ), one of the most famous phrases in the Hebrew Bible. Literally 'go for yourself' or 'go to yourself.' The lekha intensifier can mean: (1) 'go by yourself' (alone); (2) 'go for your own benefit' (it will be good for you); (3) 'go to/into yourself' (a journey of self-discovery). The phrase appears only twice in God's commands to Abraham — here and in 22:2 ('go to the land of Moriah'), framing Abraham's entire narrative between two journeys of radical obedience.
2. The command requires a threefold separation: from land (erets — national identity), from kindred (moledeth — tribal/extended family identity), and from father's house (beit av — immediate family identity). Each successive term is more intimate than the last. Abram is called to leave everything that defines him socially, culturally, and personally.
3. 'To the land that I will show you' (el-ha'arets asher ar'ekka) — the destination is unnamed. Abram is told to go but not told where. This is faith as trust — obedience without full knowledge, departure without a clear destination.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. God's promise contains seven elements (vv. 2–3): (1) great nation, (2) I will bless you, (3) great name, (4) you will be a blessing, (5) I will bless those who bless you, (6) I will curse the one who dishonors you, (7) all families of the earth will be blessed through you. The sevenfold structure may be intentional, echoing the creation pattern.
2. 'I will make your name great' (va'agaddelah shemekha) — a direct contrast with Babel, where the builders said 'let us make a name for ourselves' (11:4). The name that humans sought to manufacture for themselves, God freely bestows on Abram. The solution to Babel's failed self-exaltation is God's sovereign choice to elevate one man.
3. 'Be a blessing' (vehyeh berakhah) — an imperative: 'and be a blessing.' Abram is not only a recipient of blessing but is constituted as a source of blessing for others. This is both gift and commission.

Translator Notes

1. 'The one who dishonors you I will curse' — two different Hebrew words for 'curse' are used: meqallelkha (מְקַלֶּלְךָ, from qalal, 'to make light of, to treat with contempt, to dishonor') and a'or (אָאֹר, from arar, 'to curse'). The one who 'makes light of' or dishonors Abram will receive the full divine curse (arar). The asymmetry is notable: 'those who bless you' is plural; 'the one who dishonors you' is singular — many will bless, but cursers will be few.
2. 'In you all the families of the earth will be blessed' (venivrekhu vekha kol mishpechot ha'adamah) — this is the climactic promise. The verb nivrekhu can be parsed as niphal ('will be blessed') or hitpael ('will bless themselves'). The niphal reading (passive) means that blessing will come to all nations through Abram; the hitpael reading (reflexive) means nations will invoke Abram's name when blessing themselves ('may I be blessed like Abram'). Both senses are theologically significant. The rendering follows the niphal passive.
3. 'All the families of the earth' (kol mishpechot ha'adamah) — not only nations but families, clans, kinship groups. The scope is universal: what began with the particular (one man, one family) is aimed at the universal (every family on the ground/adamah). The promise reverses the curse of the ground (adamah) pronounced in 3:17 and the scattering of Babel (11:8).

Translator Notes

1. 'Abram went, as the LORD had told him' — like Noah's obedience formula ('Noah did according to all that God commanded him,' 6:22; 7:5), Abram's response is immediate and complete. No objection, negotiation, or delay is recorded. The text moves directly from divine command to human compliance.
2. 'Lot went with him' — Lot's presence is notable because the command was to leave 'your kindred' and 'your father's house.' Abram obeys the command to leave but takes his nephew along. Whether this is a partial obedience that will create complications (which it does — chapters 13–14, 18–19) or a compassionate act toward an orphaned nephew is left for the reader to consider.
3. Abram is 75 years old — past the prime of life. The promise of a great nation is given to an old man with a barren wife. The narrative tension is established from the start.

Translator Notes

1. 'The people they had acquired' translates hannephesh asher-asu beCharan (הַנֶּפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ), literally 'the souls/persons they had made.' This has been interpreted as: (1) servants and slaves acquired in Harran; (2) converts or followers (the rabbinic tradition reads 'made' as 'brought to faith'); (3) dependents and household members. The rendering uses 'people they had acquired.'
2. 'They arrived in the land of Canaan' — where Terah stopped at Harran and never completed the journey (11:31), Abram completes it. The narrative emphasizes the arrival: 'they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived in the land of Canaan.' The journey God commanded is accomplished.

Translator Notes

1. 'The oak of Moreh' (elon Moreh, אֵלוֹן מוֹרֶה) — elon can mean 'oak' or 'terebinth,' a large tree. Moreh means 'teacher' or 'oracle.' These trees often served as sacred sites and landmarks. Shechem is in central Canaan, in the valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. It will become an important location throughout Israel's history (cf. Joshua 24:1).
2. 'The Canaanites were in the land' (vehaKena'ani az ba'arets) — this seemingly parenthetical note carries enormous weight. The land God promised to show Abram is already occupied. The promise of land must contend with the reality of prior inhabitants. The tension between divine promise and human occupation will persist throughout the Pentateuch.

Translator Notes

1. 'The LORD appeared to Abram' (vayyera YHWH el-Abram) — this is the first theophany (divine appearance) to Abram and the first since the flood narrative. God makes himself visible. The verb ra'ah in the niphal ('to appear, to show oneself') indicates a deliberate divine self-revelation.
2. 'To your offspring I will give this land' (lezar'akha etten et-ha'arets hazzot) — the promise of land is now explicit: 'this land' — the land of Canaan where Abram currently stands. The word zera ('offspring/seed') is singular but collective, encompassing all future descendants. This is the land promise that will be repeated and expanded (13:15–17; 15:7, 18–21; 17:8).
3. Abram's response to the theophany is worship: he builds an altar. This is his first altar in Canaan. Altar-building marks the land with Abram's worship — claiming it not by conquest but by worship.

Translator Notes

1. 'Bethel' (Beit-El, בֵּית אֵל) means 'house of God.' The name is proleptic — it will receive this name from Jacob in 28:19 (it was originally called Luz). The narrator uses the name familiar to later readers.
2. 'Called upon the name of the LORD' (vayyiqra beshem YHWH) — the same phrase from 4:26. Abram worships God by his covenant name. Abram's journey through the land is marked by altar-building and worship — Shechem (v. 7), Bethel (v. 8), and later Hebron (13:18). These altars establish a worship geography in the promised land.
3. Abram moves south through the central hill country — the backbone of later Israelite settlement.

Translator Notes

1. 'The Negev' (hannegbah, הַנֶּגְבָּה) — the semi-arid region of southern Canaan. Negev means 'dry' or 'south.' Abram's journey traces a north-to-south route through the promised land, as if surveying it.

Translator Notes

1. 'Famine in the land' — immediately upon arriving in the promised land, Abram encounters famine. The land promised by God cannot sustain him. This tests the promise: is the land really a blessing if it produces famine? Abram's response is to go to Egypt, the breadbasket of the ancient world.
2. 'Went down' (vayyered, וַיֵּרֶד) — Egypt is geographically lower than Canaan. The language of 'going down' to Egypt and 'going up' from Egypt becomes standard in the biblical narrative and foreshadows the Exodus pattern.
3. 'To sojourn' (lagur, לָגוּר) — Abram intends a temporary stay, not permanent settlement. He is a ger ('sojourner, resident alien') — a recurring identity for the patriarchs (cf. 15:13; 23:4; 47:9).

Translator Notes

1. 'Beautiful in appearance' (yephat-mar'eh, יְפַת מַרְאֶה) — Sarai's beauty is the catalyst for the crisis that follows. Beauty in Genesis often leads to dangerous situations (cf. 6:2; 26:7; 29:17; 39:6). This is the first 'wife-sister' narrative — a pattern that will recur (20:1–18; 26:6–11).

Translator Notes

1. Abram fears that the Egyptians will murder a husband to obtain his wife but will spare a brother. This reflects ancient Near Eastern customs where marriage rights could be negotiated with a woman's brother or family, but a husband was an obstacle to be removed.

Translator Notes

1. Abram asks Sarai to claim to be his sister — a half-truth, as she is his half-sister (20:12). But the deception is motivated by self-preservation at the potential expense of his wife's virtue. The patriarch of faith acts in fear, prioritizing his survival over his wife's protection. The text does not gloss over this moral failure.
2. 'So that it may go well with me' (lema'an yitav-li) — Abram's stated concern is his own well-being. The narrative presents this without editorial comment, allowing the reader to evaluate Abram's character.

Translator Notes

1. Abram's fear proves well-founded — Sarai's beauty is indeed noticed. The narrative pace quickens as events unfold exactly as Abram predicted.

Translator Notes

1. 'Pharaoh' (Par'oh, פַּרְעֹה) — an Egyptian title meaning 'great house.' No specific pharaoh is named. The term is used throughout the Hebrew Bible for the king of Egypt.
2. 'Was taken' (vattuqqach) — the passive voice is ominous. Sarai does not go willingly; she is taken. The verb laqach ('to take') echoes the dangerous 'taking' of wives in 6:2. The matriarch of the promised line is now in Pharaoh's house — the promise is in jeopardy.

Translator Notes

1. Abram profits materially from the arrangement — exactly as he hoped ('that it may go well with me,' v. 13). His material enrichment comes at the cost of his wife's dignity and safety. The irony is uncomfortable: the man of faith prospers through deception while his wife is in Pharaoh's house.
2. The mention of camels has been discussed by scholars, as domesticated camel use in the early second millennium BCE is debated archaeologically. Some view this as an anachronism reflecting later editorial perspective; others argue for earlier camel domestication than previously assumed.

Translator Notes

1. 'The LORD struck Pharaoh with great plagues' (vaynagga YHWH et-Par'oh nega'im gedolim) — God intervenes to protect Sarai and the promise when Abram fails to do so. The 'plagues' (nega'im) on Pharaoh's house foreshadow the greater plagues God will send on a later Pharaoh to free Abraham's descendants from Egypt (Exodus 7–12). The parallels between this episode and the Exodus are striking: descent to Egypt due to famine, threat to the chosen family, plagues on Pharaoh, departure with wealth.
2. 'Because of Sarai, Abram's wife' — God acts on behalf of Sarai, identified specifically as 'Abram's wife.' Her status as the wife of the covenant recipient is the reason for divine protection. The promise depends on this woman.

Translator Notes

1. Pharaoh's rebuke of Abram is morally justified — a pagan king rebukes the patriarch for deception. The ethical reversal is striking: the recipient of God's promise behaves worse than the foreigner. This pattern recurs in 20:9–10 (Abimelech rebukes Abraham) and 26:10 (Abimelech rebukes Isaac).
2. 'What is this you have done to me?' — the same words God uses in 3:13 to the woman ('What is this you have done?'). Pharaoh's language echoes the divine interrogation after the fall.

Translator Notes

1. Pharaoh returns Sarai and expels Abram. The command 'take her and go' (qach valekh) is terse and decisive. Pharaoh is done with Abram — he wants no further trouble from this God-protected deceiver.

Translator Notes

1. Abram is escorted out of Egypt under guard — expelled but allowed to keep his acquired wealth. The chapter ends with Abram leaving Egypt enriched but morally diminished. He has been rebuked by a pagan king and rescued by God despite his own failure.
2. The Exodus pattern is clear: descent to Egypt → danger to the chosen family → divine plagues on the oppressor → departure with wealth. This mini-Exodus foreshadows the national Exodus centuries later. God's protection of the patriarchal family even through their moral failures ensures that the promise will be fulfilled.