"Go to the land that I will show you."

The Lord said to Abram:

Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.  I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation.  You will become famous and be a blessing to others.  I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you.  Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.

Abram was seventy-five years old when the Lord told him to leave the city of Haran.  He obeyed and left with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and slaves they had gotten while in Haran.

When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram went as far as the sacred tree of Moreh in a place called Shechem.  The Canaanites were still living in the land at that time, but the Lord appeared to Abram and promised, "I will give this land to your family forever."  Abram then built an altar there for the Lord.

                                                                                         Genesis 12:1-7

Contemporary English Version The Holy Bible (New York , NY: American Bible Society 1995)