The Fourth Dispensation: Promise

The Abrahamic Covenant

1. Now Jehovah said to Abram,
“Go from your land, from your kindred,
and from your father’s house,
to the land that I will show you.

2. And I will make you a great nation,
and I will bless you,
and make your name great,
and you shall be a blessing.

3. And I will bless those who bless you,
and the one who curses you I will curse;
and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.”

Abram Goes to Canaan

4. So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken to him,
and Lot went with him.
And Abram was seventy-five years old when he went out from Haran.

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

6. And Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.
And the Canaanites were in the land at that time.

7. And Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said,
“To your seed I will give this land.”
And he built there an altar to Jehovah, who had appeared to him.

8. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel,
and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.
And there he built an altar to Jehovah,
and called upon the name of Jehovah.

9. And Abram journeyed, still going toward the south.

Famine in Egypt

10. And there was a famine in the land;
and Abram went down into Egypt to dwell there,
for the famine was severe in the land.

11. And it came to pass, as he was about to enter Egypt,
that he said to Sarai his wife,
“Behold now, I know that you are a woman fair to look upon.

12. It shall be, when the Egyptians see you,
that they shall say, ‘This is his wife,’
and they will kill me, but you they will keep alive.

13. Please say you are my sister,
that it may be well with me for your sake,
and my soul shall live because of you.”

14. And it came to pass, when Abram came into Egypt,
that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very fair.

15. And the princes of Pharaoh saw her,
and praised her to Pharaoh;
and the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.

16. And he dealt well with Abram for her sake,
and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels given to him.

17. But Jehovah afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

18. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said,
“What is this you have done to me?
Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

19. Why said you, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to myself?
Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go your way.”

20. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him,
and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.