Tag: Genesis 20

And she…

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Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the [a]integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.”
Genesis 20:

Genesis 20:5 contains an extra “she” (and-she and-even-she) that most translations render as “she herself,” but the Midrash points out that this is intended to demonstrate how much Abimelech was convinced Sarah was Abrahams sister and that he was innocent.

“Did he not say to me: She is my sister? And she, also she…” – she, his donkey drivers, his camel drivers, the members of his household, and the members of her household, all of them said so.
Bereshit Rabbah 52:6

“EVERYBODY said it!”

Prophet

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Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”
Genesis 20:7 (NIV)

Genesis 20:7 is the first time anyone is called a “prophet” of God. It is נָבִיא (navi) This word never appears again in Genesis, and is not mentioned until Exodus, where God tells Moses, “I have made you like a god to pharaoh, and Aaron your brother like a prophet” in Exodus 7:1.

Conception

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But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also?”
Genesis 20:4 (NKJV)

The text is very clear that Abimelech didn’t sleep with Sarah. Why is it so important to mention it here, while keeping it vague back in Genesis 12, when Pharaoh takes Sarai?

The rabbis say that this serves a very important purpose.

Based on the timeline, this encounter in Gerar is near the time Isaac should be conceived.

By drawing attention Abimelech’s words AND by reinforcing them with God’s own words (“I didn’t LET you go near her!”), nobody in the story can question if Abraham is the father.

Furthermore, the Tze’enah Ure’enah states the following to reinforce this!

The explanation is that the Holy One brought it all on the household of Abimelech that they could not give birth to children, could not urinate or defecate. All of their bodily orifices were stopped up. Even a hen could not lay an egg. It was hoped that Abimelech would understand and notice that his sin was because he had taken Sarah as a wife.
Tze’enah Ure’enah on Genesis 20:4:1

Abimelech’s Challenge

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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.

Faithfulness

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But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.”
Genesis 20:3 (NASB)

The rabbis suggest that the people of Abraham’s day believed that faithfulness is of such great importance that adultery was considered worse than murder.

Back in Genesis 12, Abram’s fear was that the men of Egypt would be willing to MURDER him, but he’s not worried that they’ll simply abduct Sarai and sleep with her or take her as their own wife.

It came about, when he was approaching Egypt, that he said to his wife Sarai, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.
Genesis 12:11-12 (NASB)

Perhaps part of this idea comes from seeing that God commanded faithfulness first in Genesis 2:24, but the story of murder isn’t shown until Genesis 4 when Cain kills Abel.

And perhaps this is why God warns Abimelech the way He does.

Abraham’s Heartache

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In the plain reading of Genesis 19 and 20, it’s unclear if Abraham knows Lot survived.

Given that, consider Abraham’s view: He pleads with God for mercy, to which God said “ok, for the sake of so few, I’ll spare the cities,” but then the cities are destroyed. Abraham got up in the morning to see smoke billowing up.

What must Abraham think?

Perhaps this goes unresolved for Abraham. And perhaps life is like that sometimes.

Sarah and the Ark

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And there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
Genesis 20:2 (NIV)

It’s easy to think that Abraham’s lie to Abimelek is just like his lie to Pharaoh, but the differences are the key to understanding the story.

For starters, there’s no mention of Sarah’s beauty. She’s 90 now, so it’s unlikely that her physical appearance is related.

Second, there is no mention of fear. Genesis 12 mentions the fear of famine that drove them to Egypt and the fear that Pharaoh would kill Abram. But here in Gerar, Abraham isn’t afraid, and he doesn’t think that the men of the city are going to try to kill him. At least, not in the same way. In Genesis 12, the fear is truly about dying. But in Genesis 20:11, the fear mentioned is that the people here don’t “fear God.” The fear of dying, then, isn’t like Genesis 12. Abraham believes he will be kept alive because God has proven Himself faithful. So perhaps Abraham’s fear is about something else.

The rabbis point out an unusual way Abraham relates to Sarah in this verse.

“and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah…”

The text reads “of Sarah,” or אֶל־שָׂרָה in Hebrew. The word “of” here is אֵל (el).

It should be עַל (al), not אֵל (el).

What’s the difference?

“al-Sarah” would mean “about Sarah,” or “of Sarah.” But instead, we are given “el-Sarah,” which really means “towards Sarah.” The word implies a directional relationship, and it carries with it a sense of utility.

The rabbis tie this story to 1 Samuel 4:21.

She named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The Glory has departed from Israel”—because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.
1 Samuel 4:21 (NIV)

Here, we have “of the ark,” or “el haron” and it’s the same usage, and the story involves a fissure in the relationship where the ark is used as utility, and not relationally.

The whole story of 1 Samuel 4 involves the people of God taking the ark and believing that simply using it will get them a victory or reward.

This may be the meaning: Abraham isn’t repeating a mistake from the past. He is taking God and his wife for granted. Perhaps he has the following mindset:

“The last time something like this happened, we walked out with treasure. Perhaps we can do it again.” For Abraham, Sarah becomes a means to an end.

The lesson is that we who are within God’s covenant can find ourselves misusing our relationship with one another and with God. It should not be this way.

The ark in the land of the Philistines is Sarah in Gerar.

Abimelek is the King of the Philistines.

Shame

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Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he lived for a time in Gerar.
Genesis 20:1 (NASB)

Genesis 20 starts with Abraham. Without Lot. Lot is not mentioned again during his lifetime, and the rabbis speculate on this.

One view is Abraham abandoned Lot due to the shameful act with his daughters, but I disagree. I think Lot stayed behind because he was ashamed.

Shame is so powerful. It’s soul crushing and paralyzing, and it’s right there in the very beginning of the story of sin, when the serpent deceived humanity.

Lot’s hesitation, his drunkenness… he is a man drowning in shame and worthlessness.

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Genesis 3:10 (NIV)

But God, who knows all things, remained kind to Lot’s descendants. We read in Deuteronomy 2 that a portion of the Promised Land has been preserved for them, and that Israel is not to make war against them to take their land.

Yes, Psalm 83 shows the sons of Lot are remembered for their rebellion and aggression against God’s people.

But we should consider the way God gave them a possession of the Land first. This tells us the future: perhaps He will again.