First Reading

The Lord said to Abram:

"Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk

and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

"I will make of you a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you

and curse those who curse you.

All the communities of the earth

shall find blessing in you."

Abram went as the Lord directed him, and Lot went with him.

Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

Abram took his wife, Sarai, his brother's son Lot,

all the possessions that they had accumulated,

and the persons they had acquired in Haran,

and they set out for the land of Canaan.

When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land

as far as the sacred place at Shechem,

by the terebinth of Moreh.

(The Canaanites were then in the land.)

The Lord appeared to Abram and said,

"To your descendants I will give this land."

So Abram built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel,

pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east.

He built an altar there to the Lord and invoked the Lord by name.

Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.