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[a]Abram passed through the land as far as the sacred place at Shechem, by the oak 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.(A) 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.

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Footnotes

  1. 12:6 Abraham’s journey to the center of the land, Shechem, then to Bethel, and then to the Negeb, is duplicated in Jacob’s journeys (33:18; 35:1, 6, 27; 46:1) and in the general route of the conquest under Joshua (Jos 7:2; 8:9, 30). Abraham’s journey is a symbolic “conquest” of the land he has been promised. In building altars here (vv. 7, 8) and elsewhere, Abraham acknowledges his God as Lord of the land.

Abram traveled through the land(A) as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh(B) at Shechem.(C) At that time the Canaanites(D) were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram(E) and said, “To your offspring[a] I will give this land.(F)(G) So he built an altar there to the Lord,(H) who had appeared to him.

From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel(I) and pitched his tent,(J) with Bethel on the west and Ai(K) on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.(L)

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 12:7 Or seed