Event · The Patriarchs
The call of Abram
The call of AbramGenesis 12:1–9No agreed date
God tells Abram to leave his country for a land he will be shown, promising to make him a great nation through whom all families of the earth will be blessed.
- Main passage Genesis 12:1–9
- Related Hebrews 11:8–10Acts 7:2–5
Places named Haran Genesis 12:4 · Shechem Genesis 12:6 · Bethel Genesis 12:8
- Place in the order
- Explicit biblical sequence Scripture itself gives the order of these events.
- Historical setting
- No agreed date Disputed date
Scripture gives no calendar date for the patriarchs. They are often placed somewhere in the second millennium BCE, but scholars disagree.
Stories and studies Abraham and IsaacCovenantAbraham's Journey
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Genesis 12:1–9 WEB
1Now the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” 4So Abram went, as the LORD had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan. 6Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land. 7The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the LORD’s name. 9Abram traveled, still going on toward the South.