1And Abraham traveled from there to the Negeb country and lived between Kadesh and Shur and resided in Gerar.
2And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, “She’s my sister.” And Abimelek, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.
3And God came to Abimelek in a night dream and said to him, “Here, you’re dead over the woman whom you took, for she’s a man’s wife!”
4And Abimelek had not come close to her, and he said, “My Lord, will you kill a virtuous nation as well?
5Didn’t he say to me, ‘She’s my sister’? And she—she, too—said, ‘He’s my brother.’ I did this in my heart’s innocence and in my hands’ cleanness.”
6And God said to him in the dream, “I, too, knew that you did this in your heart’s innocence; and I, too, held you back from sinning against me. On account of this, I didn’t let you touch her.
7And now, give the man’s wife back, because he’s a prophet, and he’ll pray for you. And live! And if you don’t give back, know that you will die, you and all that you have.”
20:7. prophet. This is the first and only occurrence of the word “prophet” in Genesis. Prophecy as a formal institution begins in Exodus 20. (See the comment on Exod 20:16.)
8And Abimelek got up in the morning and called to all his servants and spoke all these things in their ears, and the people were very afraid.
9And Abimelek called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us, and how did I sin against you, that you brought a big sin over me and over my kingdom? You’ve done things with me that are not done!”
10And Abimelek said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”
11And Abraham said, “Because I said, There just isn’t the fear of God in this place, and they’ll kill me on account of my wife.’
12And also she is, in fact, my sister, my father’s daughter but not my mother’s daughter, and she became a wife to me.
13And it was when God had me roam from my father’s house, and I said to her, This will be your kindness that you’ll do with me: to every place where we come, say about me, “He’s my brother.”‘”
20:13. had me roam. The Hebrew verb that is used in connection with God here is a plural, which is extremely unusual. Possibly this formulation is attributed to Abraham because he is speaking to a pagan king, and this king has not told him that Abraham’s God has appeared to him. (The Samaritan text has the singular verb here.)
14And Abimelek took sheep and oxen and servants and maids, and he gave them to Abraham, and he gave Sarah, his wife, back to him.
15And Abimelek said, “Here’s my land in front of you. Live wherever it’s good in your eyes.”
16And to Sarah he said, “Here, I’ve given a thousand weights of silver to your brother. Here, it’s a covering of eyes for you with everyone with you, and you’re justified with everyone.”
17And Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek and his wife and his maids, and they gave birth,
18because YHWH had held back every womb of Abimelek’s house on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife!
