Genesischapter 20
18 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Now Abraham journeyed from there to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was staying in Gerar,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
Moses wrote this chapter, by tradition, for Israel in the wilderness, a people who needed to know that God's promise outlasted their father's failures. It falls in the last months before the promised son is born, which is what makes it dangerous. It repeats a story already told of Egypt, now in a small kingdom on the southern border. Listen for which of the two men acts with honour, and for how God speaks to a man outside the family. Listen also for the first time Scripture uses the word prophet. The chapter shows the promise guarded by God alone.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, watching the promise guarded from their own father's folly
- What
- A narrative in which Abraham again calls Sarah his sister, a foreign king is warned in a dream, and Sarah is returned unharmed.
- Where
- Gerar, a town on the western edge of the Negev, with Abraham's camp between Kadesh and Shur.
- When
- The patriarchal age in the months before Isaac's birth, about 2066 BC on the traditional dating, a date the chapter itself does not give.
- Why
- To show God guarding the mother of the promised son and the line of promise when Abraham himself put them at risk.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Abraham and to Abimelech king of Gerar. Sarah is about ninety and, by Adam Clarke's reckoning, probably already carrying Isaac.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The date is about 2066 BC on the traditional reckoning, fixed by the promise of Genesis 17:21 and Genesis 18:14 that the son would be born within the year.
The place is Gerar, on the coastal edge of the Negev, a border zone where a strong local ruler controlled the wells and the trade, with Abraham camped between Kadesh and Shur.
The occasion is a move into that territory and a half truth told about Sarah, the same arrangement Abraham had used in Egypt at Genesis 12:13.
A first hearer knew that Abimelech is a title as much as a name, since it means my father is king, and that the same title stands over a ruler of the same town a generation later in Genesis 26.
He also knew why taking a woman into a royal household was routine rather than scandalous. Marriage tied clans to kings, and the sister of a wealthy wandering chieftain was a natural alliance, which is exactly what made the half truth dangerous.
The settlement at verses 14 to 16 would have read to him as law. Livestock, servants and a thousand pieces of silver are restitution, given publicly, and the word spoken over Sarah is a clearing of her name in front of everyone present.
Significance
Weeks before Isaac was born, the mother of the promised son was inside another man's house, and Israel heard how narrowly and how deliberately God guarded the line they came from.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
They also heard a rebuke of their own patriarch delivered by a foreign king, and heard God call that patriarch a prophet in the same chapter. The shielding and the reproof stand together.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard inside the fourth portion of the annual cycle, in the same sitting as the visit at the oaks and the binding of Isaac (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). Abimelech, the dream in the night and the healing of his household are read between the overthrow of Sodom and the birth of Isaac. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from the public domain Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, and Radak from the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash.
Both ask why Abraham moved. Radak notes that the text gives no reason, and rules out famine, since none is recorded in that region at that time (Radak on Genesis 20:1:1). Rashi gives two answers from the Midrash. The cities were destroyed and travellers no longer passed that way, and Lot had gained an evil name through his daughters (Rashi on Genesis 20:1:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 52:3 to 52:4). Rashi adds that this time Abraham did not ask Sarah's consent before saying she was his sister, because of what had happened in Egypt (Rashi on Genesis 20:2:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 52:4).
Radak reads the dream as an honour paid to the righteous rather than to the king. God warned Laban about Jacob in the same way, and Pharaoh was given plagues instead of a dream. A visitation of that kind comes "as a mark of honour for the righteous people who are the subject of such a visitation" (Radak on Genesis 20:3:1). He reads the early rising of the eighth verse as fear, since the king rose before the hour kings rise (Radak on Genesis 20:8:1). On the tenth verse he takes the question of Abimelech as a fair one, on why Abraham had not protested (Radak on Genesis 20:10:1).
Rashi reads the answer of Abraham in the eleventh verse through a question the rabbis asked. A city that asks a newcomer about his wife rather than about his food and drink has shown what it is (Rashi on Genesis 20:11:1, citing Bava Kamma 92a). He reads the twelfth verse as a true statement of the law as it then stood, and he notes the objection about her descent from Terah (Rashi on Genesis 20:12:1).
Ibn Ezra carries one comment on this chapter that the corpus holds by reference alone, at Ibn Ezra on Genesis 20:3:1.
What the rabbis say
Rashi carries four sayings of the rabbis on this chapter, and each stands here as what they taught.
The first is on the argument Abimelech put to God. Rashi reports him asking whether God destroys nations without cause, and naming the generation of the flood and the generation of the dispersion as cases (Rashi on Genesis 20:4:2, citing Genesis Rabbah 52:6). The second is on the word for also in the fifth verse. Rashi reports that it takes in the servants, the camel drivers and the ass drivers, all of whom had said the same thing (Rashi on Genesis 20:5:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 52:6).
The third is the answer. Rashi reports that God held the king back, and that his own will had little to do with it. His heart had meant no sin, and his hands were still unclean (Rashi on Genesis 20:6:1 and 20:6:2, citing Genesis Rabbah 52:6 and 52:7). An angel is named as what kept him from her (Rashi on Genesis 20:4:1).
The fourth is on the plague itself. Rashi reports that every opening of the body was closed in that household. The healing of the seventeenth verse is the opening of them again (Rashi on Genesis 20:9:1 and 20:17:1, citing Bava Kamma 92a). He sets Abimelech beside Pharaoh once more, since this king offered Abraham his land and Pharaoh sent him away (Rashi on Genesis 20:15:1).
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty three under Midrash and seven under Talmud, with the locator for each one and no text. Bereshit Rabbah reads the first verse at 52:1, the second at 39:9, the third at 52:5 and the fourth at 52:6. It reads the sixth verse at 52:7, the eighth at 52:9, the tenth at 52:10, the eleventh at 52:11 and the twelfth at 18:5. It reads the fourteenth verse at 52:12 and the twentieth at 17:4.
Aggadat Bereshit reads the first verse at 25:1 and 25:2, the third at 67:1, the seventh at 50:2 and 56:1, and the fifteenth at 26:1 and 51:1. It reads the sixteenth verse at 34:1, the seventeenth at 28:1 and 28:2, and the eighteenth at 29:1 and 29:3. Midrash Lekach Tov reads the second, fifth, eighth, ninth and tenth verses at the locators of the same names, and Bereshit Rabbati reads the fourteenth at Parashat Vayera 18.
The Talmud is cited at Bava Kamma 92a:9 on the fourth verse, Makkot 9a:10 on the sixth and Bava Kamma 93a:5 on the sixteenth. The Jerusalem Talmud reads the twelfth verse at Kiddushin 1:1:13 and the thirteenth at Megillah 1:9:17. Avot DeRabbi Natan reads the second verse at 33:2 and the fifth at 34:5.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 20, in Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, about 1090; Radak, Radak on Genesis 20:1:1, 20:3:1, 20:8:1 and 20:10:1, in HaChut Hameshulash, translated by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY, about 1200; Ibn Ezra, his comment on Genesis 20:3:1, cited by reference; the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out of the corpus; The Midrash and the Talmud, the forty locators on Genesis 20 in scripts/data/sources/sefaria/genesis/20.json; MannaFest, the annual cycle table at src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Abimelech Warned in a Dream
Genesis 20:1-2
settled between Kadesh and Shur: Abraham settled between Kadesh and Shur, then stayed in Gerar. Of his wife Sarah he said, She is my sister, the same word he used in Egypt in chapter 12. Abimelech king of Gerar had her brought to him. God had dated the birth of the son to this same year.
Genesis 20:1
“Abraham journeyed from thence . . . and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur--Leaving the encampment, he migrated to the southern border of Canaan. In the neighborhood of Gerar was a very rich and well-watered pasture land.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Genesis 20:1
“And Abraham sojourned in Gerar - We are not told upon what occasion he removed, whether terrified by the destruction of Sodom, or, as some of the Jewish writers say, because he was grieved at Lot's incest with his daughters, and the reproach which the Canaanites cast upon him for his kinsman's sake.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 20:1
“It is, however, unknown what was his intention in removing, or what necessity impelled him to change his place: we ought, however, to be persuaded, that he had not transferred his abode to another place for any insufficient cause; especially since a son, whom he had not even dared to wish for, had been lately promised him, through Sarah.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
had Sarah brought to him: Adam Clarke puts Sarah at about ninety and probably already carrying Isaac when the king of Gerar had her brought to him. He reasons that Abimelech wanted an alliance with a rich man more than a wife. The promised son was at risk.
Genesis 20:2
“She is my sister - See the parallel account, Genesis 12 (note), and the notes there. Sarah was now about ninety years of age, and probably pregnant with Isaac. Her beauty, therefore, must have been considerably impaired since the time she was taken in a similar manner by Pharaoh, king of Egypt; but she was probably now chosen by Abimelech more on the account of forming an alliance with Abraham, who was very rich, than on account of any personal accomplishments.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Genesis 20:2
“And Abraham said of Sarah his wife. In this history, the Holy Spirit presents to us a remarkable instance, both of the infirmity of man, and of the grace of God. It is a common proverb, that even fools become wise by suffering evil.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Genesis 20:2
“The peril that Sarah was brought into by this means: The king of Gerar sent, and took her to his house, in order to the taking of her to his bed. Note, The sin of one often occasions the sin of others; he that breaks the hedge of God's commandments opens a gap to he knows not how many; the beginning of sin is as the letting forth of water.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 20:2
“His conduct was highly culpable. It was deceit, deliberate and premeditated--there was no sudden pressure upon him--it was the second offense of the kind [see on Ge 12:13] --it was a distrust of God every way surprising, and it was calculated to produce injurious effects on the heathen around.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 20:3-5
This is the first dream in Genesis, and it comes to a pagan king. Abimelech answers God with the plea Abraham had made over Sodom, that God would spare a nation which is innocent. The plea is allowed to stand. Clarke reads the exchange as a sign that knowledge of the true God reached past Abraham's household.
Genesis 20:3
“But God came to Abimelech in a dream - It appears by this that God revealed himself by dreams, which evidenced themselves to be divine and supernatural, not only to his servants the prophets, but even to those that were out of the pale of the church; but then usually it was with some regard to God's own people.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 20:3
“But God came to Abimelech - Thus we find that persons who were not of the family of Abraham had the knowledge of the true God. Indeed, all the Gerarites are termed גוי צדיק goi tsaddik, a righteous nation, Gen 20:4.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Abimelech had not gone near her: Abimelech had not gone near Sarah when he asked whether the Lord would destroy an innocent nation. Matthew Henry reads the nation as innocent in this matter only, set against Sodom, which was justly destroyed. God answers the plea in verse 6.
Genesis 20:4
“Not such a nation as Sodom, which was indeed justly destroyed, but a nation which, in this matter, was innocent. God gives a very full answer to what he had said.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 20:4
“The expression "had not touched" is emphatic, like the statement "it is good for a man not to touch a woman," which means, even apart from sexual union, in no other way either to gaze at or to touch a woman with passion. God, of course, did not permit Abimelech to touch Sarah, though perhaps too because he had perfect self-control in all matters. Such a quality is truly a divine gift.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · SELECTIONS ON GENESISpatristic
the integrity of my heart: Abimelech quotes both of them, Abraham and Sarah, and claims a clean heart and clean hands. Origen set this king apart from Pharaoh as a man who knew he ought to bring a pure heart to what is good. Sarah had joined in the story.
Genesis 20:5
“But let us see what Abimelech said to the Lord. "You know, Lord," the text says, "that I have done this with a pure heart." This Abimelech acts very differently from Pharaoh. He is not so ignorant and vile but knows that he ought to prepare a "pure heart" for virtue. And because he wished to receive virtue with a pure heart, therefore God heals him when Abraham prays for him. And God heals not only Abimelech but also his handmaids.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.2patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 20:5
“In the integrity of my heart, etc. - Had Abimelech any other than honorable views in taking Sarah, he could not have justified himself thus to his Maker; and that these views were of the most honorable kind, God himself, to whom the appeal was made, asserts in the most direct manner, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 20:6-7
I have kept you from sinning against Me: God tells the king that the restraint was His own work. The line of promise is kept by God holding a foreigner back. Verse 7 carries the first use of the word prophet in Scripture, and it lands on Abraham here. He is told to pray for the king, and the king will live.
Genesis 20:6
“But what is the meaning of that which Scripture adds: "And the Lord did not permit him to touch her"? If Sarah represents virtue and Abimelech wished to receive virtue "with a pure heart," why is it said that "the Lord did not permit him to touch her"?Abimelech means "my father is king." It seems to me therefore that this Abimelech represents the studious and wise men of the world, who by giving attention to philosophy, although they do not reach the complete and perfect rule of piety, nevertheless perceive that God is the Father and King of all things.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.2patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 20:6
“And God said unto him in a dream,.... The same dream continued: yea, or "also" I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; not only thou knowest, but I, who know all things, know and acknowledge that this was so done by thee.”
Genesis 20:6
“If our consciences witness to our integrity, and that, however we may have been cheated into a snare, we have not knowingly and wittingly sinned against God, it will be our rejoicing in the day of evil. He pleads with God as Abraham had done, ch. xviii. Wilt thou slay a righteous nation?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
for he is a prophet: God tells Abimelech to return the man's wife, for Abraham is a prophet who will pray for him. Adam Clarke notes that prophet came to mean one who foretells, and Abraham foretells nothing here. The prophet's work in this verse is prayer.
Genesis 20:7
“He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee - The word prophet, which we have from the Greek προφητες, and which is compounded of προ, before, and φημι, I speak, means, in its general acceptation, one who speaks of things before they happen, i.e., one who foretells future events. But that this was not the original notion of the word, its use in this place sufficiently proves. Abraham certainly was not a prophet in the present general acceptation of the term, and for the Hebrew נביא nabi, we must seek some other meaning.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
She Is My Sister: Abraham Rebuked
Genesis 20:8-9
Early the next morning Abimelech got up: Abimelech got up early and summoned all his servants. When he described what had happened, the men were terrified. His question to Abraham, What have you done to us, stands between Pharaoh's words in 12:18 and a later king's to Isaac in 26:10.
Genesis 20:8
“Abraham himself could not be more careful than he was to command his household in this matter. Note, Those whom God has convinced of sin and danger ought to tell others what God has done for their souls, that they also may be awakened and brought to a like holy fear.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Abimelech speaks for his whole kingdom. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown admire his bearing, calm and just in the rebuke and respectful of Abraham's person. They would sooner stand in the king's place than in the patriarch's.
Genesis 20:9
“Who would not rather be in the place of Abimelech than of the honored but sadly offending patriarch! What a dignified attitude is that of the king--calmly and justly reproving the sin of the patriarch, but respecting his person and heaping coals of fire on his head by the liberal presents made to him.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 20:10-11
The king asks what prompted it. Abraham answers that he assumed there was no fear of God in this place. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the assumption as carried out of Sodom, a judgment on one city laid on a town he had not tested. He had feared for his life on account of his wife.
Genesis 20:10
“And Abimelech said unto Abraham,.... Continuing his discourse with him: what sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? he desires to know what he had observed, either in him or his people, that gave him any reason to conclude that they were a lustful people, and would stick at nothing to gratify their lusts, which put him upon taking such a method to secure his life, lest they should kill him for his wife's sake.”
no fear of God in this place: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown grant there may have been few in Gerar who feared God. They find it a sad thing when men of the world show a higher sense of honour than a true worshipper. The king's conduct in verses 8 to 16 tests Abraham's guess.
Genesis 20:11
“I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place--From the horrible vices of Sodom he seems to have taken up the impression that all other cities of Canaan were equally corrupt. There might have been few or none who feared God, but what a sad thing when men of the world show a higher sense of honor and a greater abhorrence of crimes than a true worshipper!”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 20:11
“I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me - There are many places and persons that have more of the fear of God in them than we think they have; perhaps they are not called by our name, they do not wear our badges, they do not tie themselves to that which we have an opinion of; and therefore we conclude they have not the fear of God in their hearts!”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 20:12-13
The defence is that she really is his sister, the daughter of his father by another mother. Clarke answers that a lie is anything said to be taken in a sense the speaker knows is false. Verse 13 puts the arrangement at the day God called him out of his father's house, and Sarah was to say he is her brother. Isaac repeats it at 26:7.
Genesis 20:12
“And yet indeed she is my sister,.... In the same sense as Lot was his brother; for she was sister to Lot, and both were the children of Haran, the brother of Abraham: she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; she was the daughter of his father, being his granddaughter, grandchildren are sometimes called children, but not the daughter or granddaughter of Abraham's mother; Terah having had two wives, by the one he had Haran, the father of Sarah, and by the other Abraham.”
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 20:12
“She is my sister - I have not told a lie; I have suppressed only a part of the truth. In this place it may be proper to ask, What is a lie? It is any action done or word spoken, whether true or false in itself, which the doer or speaker wishes the observer or hearer to take in a contrary sense to that which he knows to be true. It is, in a word, any action done or speech delivered with the intention to deceive, though both may be absolutely true and right in themselves.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 20:12
“Some think she was own sister to Lot, who is called his brother Lot ( ch. xiv. 16 ), though he was his nephew; so Sarah is called his sister. But those to whom he said, She is my sister, understood that she was so his sister as not to be capable of being his wife; so that it was an equivocation, with an intent to deceive.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
show your loyalty: Abraham dates the arrangement to the day God had him leave his father's house, so the sister story was a standing plan wherever they would go. John Wesley suggested that the long wait for children may have been God's correction of that pact. Wesley asked why God should own a disowned marriage.
Genesis 20:13
“When God caused me to wander from my father's house - Then we settled this matter. It may be, that God denied Abraham and Sarah the blessing of children so long to punish them for this sinful compact they had made to deny one another: if they will not own their marriage, why should God own it?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 20:13
“When God caused me to wander - Here the word אלהים Elohim is used with a plural verb, (התעו hithu, caused me to wander), which is not very usual in the Hebrew language, as this plural noun is generally joined with verbs in the singular number.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 20:14-15
Abimelech brought sheep and cattle: Sheep and cattle, menservants and maidservants go to Abraham, and Sarah is restored to him. The older writers read the gifts as restitution. Abimelech tells him the land is before him, to settle wherever he pleases. Gill notes that the wronged king offers the man who wronged him any part of the kingdom.
Pharaoh had sent Abraham away from Egypt after the same deceit. Abimelech asks him to settle in the land wherever he pleases. John Gill notes the difference between the two kings.
Genesis 20:15
“And Abimelech said, behold, my whole land is before thee,.... Instead of bidding him be gone, and sending him away in haste out of his country, as the king of Egypt did in a like case, he solicits his stay in it; and to encourage him to it, makes an offer of his whole kingdom to him, to choose which part of it he would to dwell in: dwell where it pleaseth thee; if there was anyone part of it better than another, or more convenient for him, his family and his flocks, he was welcome to it.”
a thousand pieces of silver: The silver comes with a public word about Sarah. The king calls Abraham your brother, the word the two of them had hidden behind. The Hebrew of the clause is hard, and Clarke says the interpreters do not agree on it. The sense taken is her vindication, that she is completely cleared before all who are with her.
Genesis 20:16
“And unto Sarah he said - But what did he say? Here there is scarcely any agreement among interpreters; the Hebrew is exceedingly obscure, and every interpreter takes it in his own sense. A thousand pieces of silver - Shekels are very probably meant here, and so the Targum understands it. The Septuagint has χιλια διδραχμα, a thousand didrachma, no doubt meaning shekels; for in Gen 23:15, Gen 23:16, this translation uses διδραχμα for the Hebrew שקל shekel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 20:16
“Thy brother is to thee a covering of the eyes - Thou must look at no other, nor desire to be looked at by any other. Yoke-fellows must be to each other for a covering of the eyes. The marriage- covenant is a covenant with the eyes, like Job's, Job xxxi, 1.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 20:16
“The law appointed that when restitution was made something should be added to it, Lev. vi. Or, [2.] To engage Abraham's prayers for him; not as if prayers should be bought and sold, but we should endeavour to be kind to those of whose spiritual things we reap, 1 Cor. ix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Then Abraham prayed to God: Abraham prayed, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his maidservants. The cure came through the man who had caused the trouble. Two chapters earlier he interceded for Sodom and the city burned. Henry calls praying for those who need it a prophet's work and a prophet's reward.
Genesis 20:17
But it does not seem to me superfluous that mention is made not only of Abim-elech's wife but also of his handmaids, especially in that place that says, "God healed them, and they bore children. For he had closed [their wombs] that they might not bear."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 6.3patristic
the LORD had completely closed all the wombs: Every womb in the king's household had been closed. Clarke takes the healing at Abraham's prayer to mean a real affliction had been laid on them. Genesis has carried one closed womb since 11:30, where Sarai's barrenness stands one verse before the promise of descendants. The next chapter opens with the LORD visiting Sarah as He had said.
Genesis 20:18
“For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs - Probably by means of some disease with which he had smitten them, hence it is said they were healed at Abraham’s intercession; and this seems necessarily to imply that they had been afflicted by some disease that rendered it impossible for them to have children till it was removed. And possibly this disease, as Dr. Dodd conjectures, had afflicted Abimelech, and by this he was withheld, Gen 20:6, from defiling Abraham’s bed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A second offence of the same kind, a deceit deliberate and premeditated with no sudden pressure behind it, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The dream, spoken and answered | This is the first dream in Genesis and it is a conversation rather than a picture. God speaks at verse 3, Abimelech answers at verses 4 and 5, and God speaks again at verses 6 and 7 inside the same dream. John Wesley notes that God revealed Himself by dreams which carried their own evidence of being divine, and John Gill reads verse 6 as the same dream continuing.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 20:3. | Genesis 20:3, Genesis 20:4, Genesis 20:5, Genesis 20:6, Genesis 20:7 |
| Innocence, claimed and granted and given back | The chapter is built out of one family of words. Abimelech pleads a nation that is innocent at verse 4 and the integrity of his heart and the innocence of his hands at verse 5, God grants the clear conscience at verse 6, and the king ends by telling Sarah she is completely cleared at verse 16. Matthew Henry reads verse 6 as the comfort of a conscience that witnesses to integrity where a man has been cheated into a snare.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 20:6. | Genesis 20:4, Genesis 20:5, Genesis 20:6, Genesis 20:16 |
| The same words in three mouths | The question Abimelech puts at verse 9, what have you done to us, is the question Pharaoh had put at Genesis 12:18 and the question a later Abimelech puts to Isaac at Genesis 26:10. The arrangement itself is the same in all three places, and verse 13 traces it back to the day Abraham left his father's house. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call this the second offence and read the repetition as the measure of it.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 20:2. | Genesis 20:9, Genesis 20:13 |
| What the king handed over | Verse 14 lists sheep and cattle, menservants and maidservants, and then Sarah herself, and verse 16 adds a thousand pieces of silver. Matthew Henry reads the addition against the law of Leviticus 6, where restitution carried something more with it. John Gill sets the offer of verse 15 beside the treatment Abraham had from Pharaoh, since this king offers him any part of the kingdom he pleases instead of sending him away.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 20:16. | Genesis 20:14, Genesis 20:15, Genesis 20:16 |
The debated concept
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first argument is whether Abraham lied. Adam Clarke puts the defence in Abraham's own mouth and then answers it. The defence is that he told no lie and suppressed only part of the truth. Clarke's answer is a definition: a lie is any action done or word spoken, whether true or false in itself, which the speaker means the hearer to take in a sense he knows to be untrue, so that anything said with intent to deceive is a lie even where the words are exactly right. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown reach the same verdict by another road, calling it deliberate and premeditated deceit and a distrust of God calculated to injure the heathen who saw it. John Calvin holds the chapter up as an instance of human infirmity met by grace, which keeps the verdict and the mercy together.
The second argument is how Sarah was Abraham's sister. Matthew Henry records the view that she was the sister of Lot, who is called Abraham's brother at Genesis 14:16 though he was a nephew. John Gill takes the same line, that she was the daughter of Haran and so Abraham's granddaughter by relation, since grandchildren are sometimes called children. Both leave the plain sense of verse 12 standing, the daughter of my father by another mother, and each reads it against the wider use of family words in Genesis.
The third is what verse 16 says. Adam Clarke reports that there is scarcely any agreement among interpreters, that the Hebrew is exceedingly obscure, and that every interpreter takes it in his own sense. John Wesley reads the covering of the eyes as a word to a wife, that she is to look at no other and be looked at by no other. The Berean text in the store takes it as Sarah's vindication before all who are with her.
The divine connection
The chapter states plainly who kept the promise. God tells Abimelech at verse 6 that the restraint was His own work, that He kept the king from sinning and did not let him touch her. Adam Clarke reads the closed wombs of verse 18 as a real affliction, since the household is healed at Abraham's prayer, and John Gill supposes a bodily complaint behind it.
The timing is the weight of it. God had dated the birth of the son to this same year at Genesis 17:21 and Genesis 18:14, and Adam Clarke notes that Sarah was about ninety and probably already carrying the child. The next chapter opens with the LORD visiting Sarah as He had said. The line the whole book runs on is kept, in this chapter, by a pagan king obeying a dream.
The last turn is that the man who caused the trouble is the one who prays it away. Abraham had interceded for Sodom two chapters earlier and the city burned. Here he prays for a household he put in danger and it is healed. Matthew Henry reads praying for those who need it as a prophet's work and a prophet's reward.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 20:3; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 20:2; John Calvin, Commentaries, 1554, on Genesis 20:2 and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 20:11.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Genesis.