Genesis 12:7 (DBY)

Passage

And Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there he built an altar to Jehovah who had appeared to him.

Nearby Context

Genesis 12:5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls that they had obtained in Haran, and they went out to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Genesis 12:6 And Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

Genesis 12:7 And Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there he built an altar to Jehovah who had appeared to him.

Genesis 12:8 And he removed thence towards the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel toward the west, and Ai toward the east; and there he built an altar to Jehovah, and called on the name of Jehovah.

Genesis 12:9 And Abram moved onward, going on still toward the south.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "jehovah", "appeared", "abram", "said", "seed", "give", "land", and "built". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "jehovah" and "appeared", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 6's "And Abram passed through the land to..." into verse 8's "And he removed thence towards the mountain...", so "jehovah" and "appeared" belong inside that flow. In Genesis context, the local focus is creation, human rebellion, covenant promise, and God's providence.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "jehovah" and "appeared" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.