genesis 12:1-9, abram the soujourner

Read Genesis 12:1-9 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions

Gen 12:1-9 {p} Promise of land and descendants

Gen 12:1-9 chiastic structure

1a.1) Gen 12:1-3, YHVH said to Abram: Go to a land that I will show you/ I will bless you;

1a.2) Gen 12:4-5b, Abram departed for the land of Canaan/ Lot + Sarai + possessions with him;

1a) Gen 12:4a, So Abram departed as YHVH had spoken to him;
1b) Gen 12:4b, And Lot went with him;
central axis) Gen 12:4c, Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran;
2b) Gen 12:5a, Abram took Sarai + Lot + possessions + people with him;
2a) Gen 12:5b, And they departed to go to the land of Canaan;

1b) Gen 12:5c, So they came to the land of Canaan;

central axis) Gen 12:6a, Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh;

2b) Gen 12:6b, And the Canaanites were then in the land;

2a.1) Gen 12:7a, YHVH appeared + said to Abram: To your descendants I will give this land;

2a.2) Gen 12:7b-9 {p} Abram journeyed: Shechem, Bethel, the South/ built altars to YHVH;

1a.1) Gen 12:7b, And there he built an altar to YHVH, who had appeared to him;
1a.2) Gen 12:8a, And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel;
central axis) Gen 12:8b, And he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west + Ai on the east;
2a.1) Gen 12:8c, There he built an altar to YHVH + called on the name of YHVH;
2a.2) Gen 12:9, So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

Common theme

Now YHVH had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you; Gen 12:1

Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran; Gen 12:4c (mentioned 3x in vs. 4-5)

Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh; Gen 12:6a

And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel; Gen 12:8a

So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South; Gen 12:9

The theme of journeying is repeated seven times in this single paragraph, including in the central axis (Gen 12:6a). The point Scripture is making, is that when God called Abraham, His first words to him were “Get out” … separate yourself, move, don’t settle in to the world and its ways. Abraham became a sojourner, a nomad, not having a home in this world, as a result of his belief in, and his obedience to, the voice of God. Yeshua likewise had no place to lay His head, and we also are not citizens of the world’s kingdoms but of the kingdom of heaven. We are passing through … so don’t be afraid to keep moving! ♥