Abram went from Haran and took his wife Sarai and Lot, the son of his brother Haran, to the land of Canaan. He came to Asur. He walked as far as Shechem and settled near a tall oak tree.

He saw that the land — from the entrance of Hamath to the tall oak — was very pleasant.

Then the Lord said to him: ‘To you and your descendants I will give this land’.

He built an altar there and offered on it a sacrifice to the Lord who had appeared to him.

He departed from there toward the mountain of Bethel which is toward the sea, with Ai toward the east, and pitched his tent there.

He saw that the land was spacious and most excellent and (that) everything was growing on it: vines, fig trees, pomegranates, oak trees, holm oaks, terebinths, olive trees, cedars, cypresses, incense trees, and all (kinds of) wild trees; and (there was) water on the mountains.

Then he blessed the Lord who had led him from Ur of the Chaldeans and brought him to this mountain.

During the first year in the seventh week [1954] — on the first of the month in which he had initially built the altar on this mountain — he called on the name of the Lord: ‘You, my God, are the eternal God’.

He offered to the Lord a sacrifice on the altar so that he would be with him and not abandon him throughout his entire lifetime.

He departed from there and went toward the south. When he reached Hebron (Hebron was built at that time), he stayed there for two years. Then he went to the southern territory as far as Boa Lot. There was a famine in the land.

So Abram went to Egypt in the third year of the week [1956]. He lived in Egypt for five years before his wife was taken from him by force.

Egyptian Tanais was built at that time — seven years after Hebron.

When the pharaoh took Abram’s wife Sarai by force for himself, the Lord punished the pharaoh and his household very severely because of Abram’s wife Sarai.

Now Abram had an extremely large amount of property: sheep, cattle, donkeys, horses, camels, male and female servants, silver, and very (much) gold. Lot — his brother’s son — also had property.

The pharaoh returned Abram’s wife Sarai and expelled him from the land of Egypt. He went to the place where he had first pitched his tent — at the location of the altar, with Ai on the east and Bethel on the west. He blessed the Lord his God who had brought him back safely.

During this forty-first jubilee, in the third year of the first week [1963], he returned to this place. He offered a sacrifice on it and called on the Lord’s name: ‘You, Lord, most high God, are my God forever and ever’.

In the fourth year of this week [1964] Lot separated from him. Lot settled in Sodom. Now the people of Sodom were very sinful.

He was brokenhearted that his brother’s son had separated from him for he had no children.

In that year when Lot was taken captive, the Lord spoke to Abram — after Lot had separated from him, in the fourth year of this week — and said to him: ‘Look up from the place where you have been living toward the north, the south, the west, and the east;

because all the land which you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea. (Even) if a man can count the sands of the earth, your descendants will (still) not be counted.

Get up and walk through its length and its width. Look at everything because I will give it to your descendants’. Then Abram went to Hebron and lived there.

In this year Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, Amraphel, the king of Shinar, Arioch, the king of Selasar, and Tergal, the king of the nations came and killed the king of Gomorrah, while the king of Sodom fled. Many people fell with wounds in the valley of Saddimaw, in the Salt Sea.

They took captive Sodom, Adamah, and Zeboim; they also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, captive and all his possessions. He went as far as Dan.

One who had escaped came and told Abram that the son of his brother had been taken captive.

When he had armed his household servants, [Abram went and killed Chedorlaomer. Upon returning, he took a tithe of everything and gave it to Melchizedek. This tithe was] for Abram and his descendants the tithe of the firstfruits for the Lord. The Lord made it an eternal ordinance that they should give it to the priests who serve before him for them to possess it forever.

This law has no temporal limit because he has ordained it for the history of eternity to give a tenth of everything to the Lord — of seed, the vine, oil, cattle, and sheep.

He has given (it) to his priests to eat and drink joyfully before him.

When the king of Sodom came up to him, he knelt before him and said: ‘Our lord Abram, kindly give us the people whom you rescued, but their booty is to be yours’.

Abram said to him: ‘I lift my hands to the most high God (to show that) I will not take anything of yours — not a thread or sandal thongs, so that you may not say: «I have made Abram rich» — excepting only what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me: Awnan, Eschol, and Mamre. These will take their share’.