Bible Strands
Genesis 12:6
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Abram reaches Shechem after departing Haran with his household, arriving at a location already occupied by the Canaanites before the Lord’s subsequent appearance and land promise.
The words — וַ/יַּעֲבֹ֤ר (va/i.ya.'a.Vor) denotes “and he passed” or traveled, while מְק֣וֹם (me.Kom) literally means “the place,” specifying the geographic marker of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem.
The thread — The verse’s note of Canaanite occupation resurfaces in Genesis 13:7 and Deuteronomy 11:30, while Hebrews 11:9 later references Abram’s status as a foreign dweller in that same land.
Why it lands — The text records Abram entering the territory God will later claim for his descendants while the current inhabitants remain, requiring a reader to confront the gap between divine promise and present reality.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 11:30 Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh?
- Hebrews 11:9 By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
- Genesis 13:7 And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land.
- Genesis 35:4 So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.
- Genesis 10:18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans were scattered,
- Genesis 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
- Judges 7:1 Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the men with him camped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.
- Genesis 10:15 And Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites,
- Genesis 33:18 After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
- Genesis 34:2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.