But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also?”
Genesis 20:4 (NKJV)
When Abimelech, who does not know Abraham’s God, is challenged by God in a dream, his response is fascinating.
“Will you slay a righteous nation as well?”
On the one hand, Abimelech defends himself and his actions, so his statement can be rendered this way: If you destroy this nation with me in it, you’ll have destroyed a righteous man.
This links to the previous chapter, where a city was destroyed.
On the other hand, Sodom and Gomorrah are like the wicked world destroyed in the flood. The rabbis say that Abimelech’s word might be as follows:
“If this is how You judged the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion, perhaps they too were innocent.”
You might think, “how could Abimelech possibly dare to speak to God like this?!”
Perhaps this is why God came to him *in a dream,* and why Abimelech merely refers to God as Adonai, and not as the divine name or as God Himself.