Genesis 12:4-6

12:4 So Abram left, ¹  just as the Lord had told him to do, ²  and Lot went with him. (Now ³  Abram was 75 years old ⁴  when he departed from Haran.) 12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew ⁵  Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired ⁶  in Haran, and they left for ⁷  the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.

12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree ⁸  of Moreh ⁹  at Shechem. ¹⁰  (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) ¹¹ 

[12:4]  ¹ sn So Abram left. This is the report of Abram’s obedience to God’s command (see v. 1).

[12:4]  ² tn Heb “just as the Lord said to him.”

[12:4]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause (note the pattern conjunction + subject + implied “to be” verb) is parenthetical, telling the age of Abram when he left Haran.

[12:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “was the son of five years and seventy year[s].”

[12:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “the son of his brother.”

[12:5]  ⁶ tn For the semantic nuance “acquire [property]” for the verb עָשָׂה (’asah), see BDB 795 s.v. עָשָׂה.

[12:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “went out to go.”

[12:6]  ⁹ tn Or “terebinth.”

[12:6]  ¹⁰ sn The Hebrew word Moreh (מוֹרֶה, moreh) means “teacher.” It may well be that the place of this great oak tree was a Canaanite shrine where instruction took place.

[12:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “as far as the place of Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh.”

[12:6]  ¹² tn The disjunctive clause gives important information parenthetical in nature – the promised land was occupied by Canaanites.