FIRST READING Genesis 12:1-9
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred
and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2
I will make of
you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so
that you will be a blessing. 3
I will bless those who bless you, and the one
who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed.”4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went
with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from
Haran. 5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the
possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had
acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When
they had come to the land of Canaan,6Abram passed through the land to
the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites
were in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your
offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who
had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country on the
east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on
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the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of
the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Reader: Word of God. Word of Life.