Genesis 12:6

12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree ¹  of Moreh ²  at Shechem. ³  (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) ⁴ 

Genesis 12:8-9

12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel ⁵  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. ⁶  12:9 Abram continually journeyed by stages ⁷  down to the Negev. ⁸ 

[12:6]  ¹ tn Or “terebinth.”

[12:6]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “as far as the place of Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh.”

[12:6]  ⁴ tn The disjunctive clause gives important information parenthetical in nature – the promised land was occupied by Canaanites.

[12:8]  ⁵ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[12:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “he called in the name of the Lord.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 4:26; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25). See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116, 281.

[12:9]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Or “the South [country].”