Genesis 12:1

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ¹  to Abram, ² 

“Go out ³  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ⁴ 

Genesis 41:43

41:43 Pharaoh ⁵  had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command, ⁶  and they cried out before him, “Kneel down!” ⁷  So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.

Genesis 46:1

The Family of Jacob goes to Egypt

46:1 So Israel began his journey, taking with him all that he had. ⁸  When he came to Beer Sheba ⁹  he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

Genesis 46:5

46:5 Then Jacob started out ¹⁰  from Beer Sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little children, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent along to transport him.

[12:1]  ¹ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

[12:1]  ² tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

[12:1]  ³ tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

[12:1]  ⁴ sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.

[41:43]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[41:43]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he caused him to ride in the second chariot which was his.”

[41:43]  ⁷ tn The verb form appears to be a causative imperative from a verbal root meaning “to kneel.” It is a homonym of the word “bless” (identical in root letters but not related etymologically).

[46:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “and Israel journeyed, and all that was his.”

[46:1]  ¹⁰ sn Beer Sheba. See Gen 21:31; 28:10.

[46:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “arose.”