---
title: "Genesis 12 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/genesis/12/
description: "The call of Abram, and the promise made to him. He sojourneth in Chanaan, and… Genesis 12 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Genesis 12

Genesis 12 is chapter 12 of 50 in the Book of Genesis. Here are all 20 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The call of Abram, and the promise made to him. He sojourneth in Chanaan, and then by occasion of a famine, goeth down to Egypt.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Genesis 12 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Then the Lord said to Abram: “Depart from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, and come into the land that I will show you.
2. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed.
3. I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
4. And so Abram departed just as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5. And he took his wife Sarai, and Lot, the son of his brother, and all the substance which they had come to possess, and the lives which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed in order to go to the land of Canaan. And when they arrived in it,
6. Abram passed through the land even to the place of Shechem, as far as the famous steep valley. Now at that time, the Canaanite was in the land.
7. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and he said to him, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8. And passing on from there to a mountain, which was opposite the east of Bethel, he pitched his tent there, having Bethel to the west, and Hai on the east. He also built an altar there to the Lord, and he called upon his name.
9. And Abram traveled, going out and continuing further on, toward the south.
10. But a famine occurred in the land. And Abram descended to Egypt, to sojourn there. For famine prevailed over the land.
11. And when he was close to entering Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: “I know you to be a beautiful woman.
12. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife.’ And they will put me to death, and retain you.
13. Therefore, I beg you to say that you are my sister, so that it may be well with me because of you, and so that my soul may live by your favor.”
14. And so, when Abram had arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was exceedingly beautiful.
15. And the princes reported it to Pharaoh, and they praised her to him. And the woman was inducted into the house of Pharaoh.
16. In truth, they treated Abram well because of her. And he had sheep and oxen and male donkeys, and men servants, and women servants, and female donkeys, and camels.
17. But the Lord scourged Pharaoh and his house with great wounds because of Sarai, the wife of Abram.
18. And Pharaoh called Abram, and he said to him: “What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife?
19. For what reason did you claim her to be your sister, so that I would take her to me as a wife? Now therefore, behold your mate, receive her and go.”
20. And Pharaoh instructed his men about Abram. And they led him away with his wife and all that he had.

## Genesis 12 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Dixit autem Dominus ad Abram: Egredere de terra tua, et de cognatione tua, et de domo patris tui, et veni in terram quam monstrabo tibi.
2. Faciamque te in gentem magnam, et benedicam tibi, et magnificabo nomen tuum, erisque benedictus.
3. Benedicam benedicentibus tibi, et maledicam maledicentibus tibi, atque in te benedicentur universæ cognationes terræ.
4. Egressus est itaque Abram sicut præceperat ei Dominus, et ivit cum eo Lot: septuaginta quinque annorum erat Abram cum egrederetur de Haran.
5. Tulitque Sarai uxorem suam, et Lot filium fratris sui, universamque substantiam quam possederant, et animas quas fecerant in Haran: et egressi sunt ut irent in terram Chanaan. Cumque venissent in eam,
6. pertransivit Abram terram usque ad locum Sichem, usque ad convallem illustrem: Chananæus autem tunc erat in terra.
7. Apparuit autem Dominus Abram, et dixit ei: Semini tuo dabo terram hanc. Qui ædificavit ibi altare Domino, qui apparuerat ei.
8. Et inde transgrediens ad montem, qui erat contra orientem Bethel, tetendit ibi tabernaculum suum, ab occidente habens Bethel, et ab oriente Hai: ædificavit quoque ibi altare Domino, et invocavit nomen ejus.
9. Perrexitque Abram vadens, et ultra progrediens ad meridiem.
10. Facta est autem fames in terra: descenditque Abram in Ægyptum, ut peregrinaretur ibi: prævaluerat enim fames in terra.
11. Cumque prope esset ut ingrederetur Ægyptum, dixit Sarai uxori suæ: Novi quod pulchra sis mulier:
12. et quod cum viderint te Ægyptii, dicturi sunt: Uxor ipsius est: et interficient me, et te reservabunt.
13. Dic ergo, obsecro te, quod soror mea sis: ut bene sit mihi propter te, et vivat anima mea ob gratiam tui.
14. Cum itaque ingressus esset Abram Ægyptum, viderunt Ægyptii mulierem quod esset pulchra nimis.
15. Et nuntiaverunt principes Pharaoni, et laudaverunt eam apud illum: et sublata est mulier in domum Pharaonis.
16. Abram vero bene usi sunt propter illam: fueruntque ei oves et boves et asini, et servi et famulæ, et asinæ et cameli.
17. Flagellavit autem Dominus Pharaonem plagis maximis, et domum ejus, propter Sarai uxorem Abram.
18. Vocavitque Pharao Abram, et dixit ei: Quidnam est hoc quod fecisti mihi? quare non indicasti quod uxor tua esset?
19. quam ob causam dixisti esse sororem tuam, ut tollerem eam mihi in uxorem? Nunc igitur ecce conjux tua, accipe eam, et vade.
20. Præcepitque Pharao super Abram viris: et deduxerunt eum, et uxorem illius, et omnia quæ habebat.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 59: The Stages of Revelation ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 145: The Obedience of Faith ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 762: The Church in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1669: Sacramentals ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 706: God's Spirit and Word in the Time of the Promises ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2676: The Way of Prayer ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2570: In the Old Testament ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 13: “My sister” … This was no lie; because she was his niece, being daughter to his brother Aran, and therefore, in the style of the Hebrews, she might truly be called his sister, as Lot is called Abram's brother, Gen. 14. 14. See Gen. 20. 12.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Mon, Jun 21, 2027 (computed): St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious — First Reading, Genesis 12:1-9

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).