Genesis 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Yahweh said to Abram, "Leave your land, your family, and your father's house, and go to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation. I will do good to you and make your name known everywhere. You will be the source of good things for others.

I will do good to those who do good to you, and whoever treats you with contempt, I will put under a curse. Every family on earth will find good things through you."

So Abram left, just as Yahweh had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, everything they owned, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. And they arrived in Canaan.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the sacred site at Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were living in the land at the time.

Then Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, "I am giving this land to your descendants." So Abram built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.

From there he 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 another altar to Yahweh and called on the name of Yahweh.

Then Abram continued traveling, moving steadily toward the Negev.

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 you are a beautiful woman.

When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'She is his wife,' and they will kill me but let you live.

Tell them you are my sister, so that things will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account."

When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was an extremely beautiful woman.

Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's household.

Pharaoh treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

But Yahweh struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram's wife Sarai.

So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, "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? Here — your wife. Take her and go!"

Then Pharaoh gave orders concerning Abram, and they escorted him away with his wife and everything he had.