Worthy.Bible » STRONG » Genesis » Chapter 20 » Verse 1-18

Genesis 20:1-18 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

1 And Abraham H85 journeyed H5265 from thence toward the south H5045 country, H776 and dwelled H3427 between Kadesh H6946 and Shur, H7793 and sojourned H1481 in Gerar. H1642

2 And Abraham H85 said H559 of H413 Sarah H8283 his wife, H802 She is my sister: H269 and Abimelech H40 king H4428 of Gerar H1642 sent, H7971 and took H3947 Sarah. H8283

3 But God H430 came H935 to Abimelech H40 in a dream H2472 by night, H3915 and said H559 to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, H4191 for the woman H802 which thou hast taken; H3947 for she is a man's H1167 wife. H1166

4 But Abimelech H40 had not come near H7126 her: and he said, H559 Lord, H136 wilt thou slay H2026 also a righteous H6662 nation? H1471

5 Said H559 he not unto me, She H1931 is my sister? H269 and she, H1931 even H1571 she H1931 herself said, H559 He is my brother: H251 in the integrity H8537 of my heart H3824 and innocency H5356 of my hands H3709 have I done H6213 this.

6 And God H430 said H559 unto him in a dream, H2472 Yea, H1571 I know H3045 that thou didst H6213 this in the integrity H8537 of thy heart; H3824 for I also withheld H2820 thee from sinning H2398 against me: therefore suffered H5414 I thee not to touch H5060 her.

7 Now therefore restore H7725 the man H376 his wife; H802 for he is a prophet, H5030 and he shall pray H6419 for thee, H1157 and thou shalt live: H2421 and if thou restore H7725 her not, know H3045 thou that thou shalt surely H4191 die, H4191 thou, and all that are thine.

8 Therefore Abimelech H40 rose early H7925 in the morning, H1242 and called H7121 all his servants, H5650 and told H1696 all these things H1697 in their ears: H241 and the men H582 were sore H3966 afraid. H3372

9 Then Abimelech H40 called H7121 Abraham, H85 and said H559 unto him, What hast thou done H6213 unto us? and what have I offended H2398 thee, that thou hast brought H935 on me and on my kingdom H4467 a great H1419 sin? H2401 thou hast done H6213 deeds H4639 unto me that ought not to be done. H6213

10 And Abimelech H40 said H559 unto Abraham, H85 What H4100 sawest thou, H7200 that thou hast done H6213 this thing? H1697

11 And Abraham H85 said, H559 Because I thought, H559 Surely H7535 the fear H3374 of God H430 is not in this place; H4725 and they will slay me H2026 for my wife's H802 sake. H1697

12 And yet indeed H546 she is my sister; H269 she is the daughter H1323 of my father, H1 but not the daughter H1323 of my mother; H517 and she became my wife. H802

13 And it came to pass, when God H430 caused me to wander H8582 from my father's H1 house, H1004 that I said H559 unto her, This is thy kindness H2617 which thou shalt shew H6213 unto me; at every place H4725 whither we shall come, H935 say H559 of me, He is my brother. H251

14 And Abimelech H40 took H3947 sheep, H6629 and oxen, H1241 and menservants, H5650 and womenservants, H8198 and gave H5414 them unto Abraham, H85 and restored H7725 him Sarah H8283 his wife. H802

15 And Abimelech H40 said, H559 Behold, my land H776 is before thee: H6440 dwell H3427 where it pleaseth H2896 H5869 thee.

16 And unto Sarah H8283 he said, H559 Behold, I have given H5414 thy brother H251 a thousand H505 pieces of silver: H3701 behold, he is to thee a covering H3682 of the eyes, H5869 unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. H3198

17 So Abraham H85 prayed H6419 unto God: H430 and God H430 healed H7495 Abimelech, H40 and his wife, H802 and his maidservants; H519 and they bare H3205 children.

18 For the LORD H3068 had fast H6113 closed up H6113 all the wombs H7358 of the house H1004 of Abimelech, H40 because H1697 of Sarah H8283 Abraham's H85 wife. H802

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 20

Commentary on Genesis 20 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-3

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham removed from the grove of Mamre at Hebron to the south country, hardly from the same fear as that which led Lot from Zoar, but probably to seek for better pasture. Here he dwelt between Kadesh (Genesis 14:7) and Shur (Genesis 16:7), and remained for some time in Gerar , a place the name of which has been preserved in the deep and broad Wady Jurf el Gerגr (i.e., torrent of Gerar) about eight miles S.S.E. of Gaza, near to which Rowland discovered the ruins of an ancient town bearing the name of Khirbet el Gerגr . Here Abimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar, like Pharaoh in Egypt, took Sarah, whom Abraham had again announced to be his sister, into his harem, - not indeed because he was charmed with the beauty of the woman of 90, which was either renovated, or had not yet faded ( Kurtz ), but in all probability “to ally himself with Abraham, the rich nomad prince” ( Delitzsch ). From this danger, into which the untruthful statement of both her husband and herself had brought her, she was once more rescued by the faithfulness of the covenant God. In a dream by night God appeared to Abimelech, and threatened him with death ( מת הנּך en te moriturum ) on account of the woman, whom he had taken, because she was married to a husband.


Verses 4-7

Abimelech, who had not yet come near her, because God had hindered him by illness (Genesis 20:6 and Genesis 20:17), excused himself on the ground that he had done no wrong, since he had supposed Sarah to be Abraham's sister, according to both her husband's statement and her own. This plea was admitted by God, who told him that He had kept him from sinning through touching Sarah, and commanded him to restore the woman immediately to her husband, who was a prophet, that he might pray for him and save his life, and threatened him with certain death to himself and all belonging to him in case he should refuse. That Abimelech, when taking the supposed sister of Abraham into his harem, should have thought that he was acting “in innocence of heart and purity of hands,” i.e., in perfect innocence, is to be fully accounted for, from his undeveloped moral and religious standpoint, by considering the customs of that day. But that God should have admitted that he had acted “in innocence of heart,” and yet should have proceeded at once to tell him that he could only remain alive through the intercession of Abraham, that is to say, through his obtaining forgiveness of a sin that was deserving of death, is a proof that God treated him as capable of deeper moral discernment and piety. The history itself indicates this in the very characteristic variation in the names of God. First of all (Genesis 20:3), Elohim (without the article, i.e., Deity generally) appears to him in a dream; but Abimelech recognises the Lord, Adonai , i.e., God (Genesis 20:4); whereupon the historian represents האלהים ( Elohim with the article), the personal and true God, as speaking to him. The address of God, too, also shows his susceptibility of divine truth. Without further pointing out to him the wrong which he had done in simplicity of heart, in taking the sister of the stranger who had come into his land, for the purpose of increasing his own harem, since he must have been conscious of this himself, God described Abraham as a prophet, whose intercession alone could remove his guilt, to show him the way of salvation. A prophet: lit., the God-addressed or inspired, since the “inward speaking” ( Ein-sprache ) or inspiration of God constitutes the essence of prophecy. Abraham was προφήτης as the recipient of divine revelation, and was thereby placed in so confidential a relation to God, that he could intercede for sinners, and atone for sins of infirmity through his intercession.


Verse 8-9

Abimelech carried out the divine instructions. The next morning he collected his servants together and related what had occurred, at which the men were greatly alarmed. He then sent for Abraham, and complained most bitterly of his conduct, by which he had brought a great sin upon him and his kingdom.


Verses 10-13

What sawest thou, ” i.e., what hadst thou in thine eye, with thine act (thy false statement)? Abimelech did this publicly in the presence of his servants, partly for his own justification in the sight of his dependents, and partly to put Abraham to shame. The latter had but two weak excuses: (1) that he supposed there was no fear of God at all in the land, and trembled for his life because of his wife; and (2) that when he left his father's house, he had arranged with his wife that in every foreign place she was to call herself his sister, as she really was his half-sister. On the subject of his emigration, he expressed himself indefinitely and with reserve, accommodating himself to the polytheistic standpoint of the Philistine king: “ when God (or the gods, Elohim ) caused me to wander, ” i.e., led me to commence an unsettled life in a foreign land; and saying nothing about Jehovah , and the object of his wandering as revealed by Him.


Verses 14-16

Abimelech then gave him back his wife with a liberal present of cattle and slaves, and gave him leave to dwell wherever he pleased in his land. To Sarah he said, “ Behold, I have given a thousand shekele of silver to thy brother; behold, it is to thee a covering of the eyes (i.e., an expiatory gift) with regard to all that are with thee (“because in a mistress the whole family is disgraced,” Del .), and with all - so art thou justified .” The thousand shekels (about £131) were not a special present made to Sarah, but indicate the value of the present made to Abraham, the amount of which may be estimated by this standard, that at a later date (Exodus 21:32) a slave was reckoned at 30 shekels. By the “covering of the eyes” we are not to understand a veil, which Sarah was to procure for 1000 shekels; but it is a figurative expression for an atoning gift, and is to be explained by the analogy of the phrase פּני פ כּפּר “to cover any one's face,” so that he may forget a wrong done (cf. Genesis 32:21; and Job 9:24, “he covereth the faces of the judges,” i.e., he bribes them). ונוכחת can only be the 2 pers. fem. sing. perf. Niphal, although the Dagesh lene is wanting in the ת ; for the rules of syntax will hardly allow us to regard this form as a participle, unless we imagine the extremely harsh ellipsis of נוכחת for אתּ נוכחת . The literal meaning is “so thou art judged,” i.e., justice has been done thee.


Verse 17-18

After this reparation, God healed Abimelech at Abraham's intercession; also his wife and maids, so that they could bear again, for Jehovah had closed up every womb in Abimelech's house on Sarah's account. אמהות , maids whom the king kept as concubines, are to be distinguished from שׁפחות female slaves (Genesis 20:14). That there was a material difference between them, is proved by 1 Samuel 25:41. כּל־רחם עצר כּל does not mean, as is frequently supposed, to prevent actual childbirth, but to prevent conception, i.e., to produce barrenness (1 Samuel 1:5-6). This is evident from the expression “He hath restrained me from bearing” in Genesis 16:2 (cf. Isaiah 66:9, and 1 Samuel 21:6), and from the opposite phrase, “open the womb,” so as to facilitate conception (Genesis 29:31, and Genesis 30:22). The plague brought upon Abimelech's house, therefore, consisted of some disease which rendered the begetting of children (the coitus ) impossible. This might have occurred as soon as Sarah was taken into the royal harem, and therefore need not presuppose any lengthened stay there. There is no necessity, therefore, to restrict ויּלדוּ to the women and regard it as equivalent to ותּלדנה , which would be grammatically inadmissible; for it may refer to Abimelech also, since ילד signifies to beget as well as to bear. We may adopt Knobel's explanation, therefore, though without approving of the inference that Genesis 20:18 was an appendix of the Jehovist, and arose from a misunderstanding of the word ויּלדוּ in Genesis 20:17. A later addition Genesis 20:18 cannot be; for the simple reason, that without the explanation give there, the previous verse would be unintelligible, so that it cannot have been wanting in any of the accounts. The name Jehovah , in contrast with Elohim and Ha-Elohim in Genesis 20:17, is obviously significant. The cure of Abimelech and his wives belonged to the Deity ( Elohim ). Abraham directed his intercession not to Elohim , an indefinite and unknown God, but to האלהים ; for the God, whose prophet he was, was the personal and true God. It was He too who had brought the disease upon Abimelech and his house, not as Elohim or Ha-Elohim , but as Jehovah , the God of salvation; for His design therein was to prevent the disturbance of frustration of His saving design, and the birth of the promised son from Sarah.

But if the divine names Elohim and Ha-Elohim indicate the true relation of God to Abimelech, and here also it was Jehovah who interposed for Abraham and preserved the mother of the promised seed, our narrative cannot be merely an Elohistic side-piece appended to the Jehovistic account in Genesis 12:14., and founded upon a fictitious legend. The thoroughly distinctive character of this event is a decisive proof of the fallacy of any such critical conjecture. Apart from the one point of agreement-the taking of Abraham's wife into the royal harem, because he said she was his sister in the hope of thereby saving his own life (an event, the repetition of which in the space of 24 years is by no means startling, when we consider the customs of the age) - all the more minute details are entirely different in the two cases. In king Abimelech we meet with a totally different character from that of Pharaoh. We see in him a heathen imbued with a moral consciousness of right, and open to receive divine revelation, of which there is not the slightest trace in the king of Egypt. And Abraham, in spite of his natural weakness, and the consequent confusion which he manifested in the presence of the pious heathen, was exalted by the compassionate grace of God to the position of His own friend, so that even the heathen king, who seems to have been in the right in this instance, was compelled to bend before him and to seek the removal of the divine punishment, which had fallen upon him and his house, through the medium of his intercession. In this way God proved to the Philistine king, on the one hand, that He suffers no harm to befall His prophets (Psalms 105:15), and to Abraham, on the other, that He can maintain His covenant and secure the realization of His promise against all opposition from the sinful desires of earthly potentates. It was in this respect that the event possessed a typical significance in relation to the future attitude of Israel towards surrounding nations.