Discovery BoxGenesis 12:5-11
Context12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew 1 Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired 2 in Haran, and they left for 3 the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.
12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree 4 of Moreh 5 at Shechem. 6 (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) 7 12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants 8 I will give this land.” So Abram 9 built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel 10 and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. 11 12:9 Abram continually journeyed by stages 12 down to the Negev. 13
12:10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt 14 to stay for a while 15 because the famine was severe. 16 12:11 As he approached 17 Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, 18 I know that you are a beautiful woman. 19
[12:5] 1 tn Heb “the son of his brother.”
[12:5] 2 tn For the semantic nuance “acquire [property]” for the verb עָשָׂה (’asah), see BDB 795 s.v. עָשָׂה.
[12:5] 3 tn Heb “went out to go.”
[12:6] 5 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] 6 tn Heb “as far as the place of Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh.”
[12:6] 7 tn The disjunctive clause gives important information parenthetical in nature – the promised land was occupied by Canaanites.
[12:7] 8 tn The same Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.
[12:7] 9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
[12:8] 10 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[12:8] 11 tn Heb “he called in the name of the
[12:9] 12 tn The Hebrew verb נָסַע (nasa’) means “to journey”; more specifically it means to pull up the tent and move to another place. The construction here uses the preterite of this verb with its infinitive absolute to stress the activity of traveling. But it also adds the infinitive absolute of הָלַךְ (halakh) to stress that the traveling was continually going on. Thus “Abram journeyed, going and journeying” becomes “Abram continually journeyed by stages.”
[12:9] 13 tn Or “the South [country].”
[12:10] 14 sn Abram went down to Egypt. The Abrahamic narrative foreshadows some of the events in the life of the nation of Israel. This sojourn in Egypt is typological of Israel’s bondage there. In both stories there is a famine that forces the family to Egypt, death is a danger to the males while the females are preserved alive, great plagues bring about their departure, there is a summons to stand before Pharaoh, and there is a return to the land of Canaan with great wealth.
[12:10] 15 tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur), traditionally rendered “to sojourn,” means “to stay for a while.” The “stranger” (traditionally “sojourner”) is one who is a temporary resident, a visitor, one who is passing through. Abram had no intention of settling down in Egypt or owning property. He was only there to wait out the famine.
[12:10] 16 tn Heb “heavy in the land.” The words “in the land,” which also occur at the beginning of the verse in the Hebrew text, have not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[12:11] 17 tn Heb “drew near to enter.”
[12:11] 18 tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) is deictic here; it draws attention to the following fact.
[12:11] 19 tn Heb “a woman beautiful of appearance are you.”
