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Genesis 12

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The Book of Genesis

/ Genesis 12

Read the Text

KJV

King James Version

NRSV

New Revised Standard Version

NIV

New International Version

LEB

Lexham English Bible

HEB

Hebrew Bible

NET

New English Translation

ASV

American Standard Version

Summary

God speaks to Abram and tells him to leave his country and God will lead him to a promised land. Abram will become a great nation, and the Lord will bless him and his posterity. Abram leaves Haran with Sarai and Lot and goes into Canaan. Abram builds an altar to the Lord. There is a famine in the land, so Abram journeys into Egypt. When he meets Pharoah, Abram tells him that Sarai is his sister. They prosper in the land, until Pharaoh learns that Sarai is his wife and casts them out.

Commentary

Bible Central Commentary

These free resources were developed for use in the free ScripturePlus app. Many of the contributors are professors of religion and ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.

(Forthcoming)
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Historical Commentaries

Many of the commentaries below are in the public domain and were authored over 100 years ago. In many cases, they do not reflect the findings of modern scholarship, but they may be helpful for understanding the history of biblical scholarship.

Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible

Matthew Henry (1706)

Commentary on the Bible

Adam Clarke (1831)

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable

Thomas Constable

Rashi’s Commentary

Rashi (Shlomo Yitzchaki)

Notes on the Bible

Albert Barnes (1834)

Exposition of the Entire Bible

John Gill (1746–63)

Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch (1857–78)

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible

John Wesley (1754–65)

Videos

Watch selected videos on this chapter of the Bible to enhance your study. Note: Not all videos included come from a Latter-day Saint perspective. Inclusion on this list should not imply endorsement for all content.

Overview: Genesis 12–50

Bible Project

Abraham: Biblical Archeology

InspiringPhilosophy

Historical Settings

People

Read bios of the people in this chapter.

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Place Holder

LORD

Offspring promised to Abram by Jan van 't Hoff.

Abraham

Place Holder

Abram

Place Holder

Sarah

Place Holder

Lot

Places

Read about places mentioned in this chapter.

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Harran beehive houses. Photo by Zhengan via Wikimedia Commons.

Haran or Charran

View from Mount Tabor, 2019. Photo by Bahnfrend via Wikimedia Commons.

Canaan, The Land of

Beitin, a possible site for Bethel. Photo by Deror_avi via Wikimedia Commons.

Bethel

The pyramids of Egypt. Photo by TheDigitalArtist via Pixabay.

Egypt

Time

*All Dates Are Approximate, according to the narrative of the Bible. These dates may reflect literary significance as opposed to the precise dates of history.

See Biblical Chronology
  • 2091 BC

Further Reading

Taylor Halverson, “The Lives of Abraham: Seeing Abraham through the Eyes of Second-Temple Jews,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 32 (2019): 253–276.

Taylor Halverson, “Was Adam a Monotheist? A Reflection on Why We Call Abraham Father and Not Adam,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 31 (2019): 245–258.

Victor L. Ludlow, “The Scattering and Gathering of Israel: God’s Covenant with Abraham Remembered through the Ages,” in Window of Faith: Latter-day Saint Perspectives on World History, ed. Roy A. Prete (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2005), 97–120.

Thomas W. Mackay, “Abraham in Egypt: A Collation of Evidence for the Case of the Missing Wife,” BYU Studies 10, no. 4 (1970).

Monte S. Nyman, “The Covenant of Abraham,” in The Pearl of Great Price: Revelations from God, ed. H. Donl Peterson and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1989), 155–170.

Stephen O. Smoot, “‘In the Land of the Chaldeans’: The Search for Abraham’s Homeland Revisited,” BYU Studies 56, no. 3 (2017): 6–37.

Previous Genesis 11 Next Genesis 13

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