The Covenants

Genesischapter 12

20 verses · ASV

This chapter sends 232 cross-references outward and receives 295 — heaviest partner: Genesis.

Chapter summary

The call of Abram. ‘Get thee out of thy country … unto a land that I will shew thee.’ Seven blessings are promised — a great nation, a great name, and through him all families of the earth blessed. Abram obeys, takes Lot, travels to Canaan, and receives the first promise of the land at Shechem. An altar is built at Bethel; another at the Negev. Famine drives him to Egypt, where the wife-sister deception begins. The chapter establishes the covenantal backbone of the rest of Scripture — Paul cites verse 3 in Galatians 3:8 as the gospel preached to Abraham.

Drafted from Matthew Henry, Calvin, Gill, Clarke, JFB, and Barnes.

Context

Law · Moses — see the Genesis overview for the book's full setting.

1–20 The Covenants

1 Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee:

2 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing:

3 and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

4 So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

7 And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah.