Genesis 20:4

Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he replied, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

ASV

Now Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay even a righteous nation?

YLT

And Abimelech hath not drawn near unto her, and he saith, `Lord, also a righteous nation dost thou slay?

DBT

But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou also kill a righteous nation?

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Commentary voices

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Voices4

On this verse

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· SELECTIONS ON GENESIS, 253patristic

Related commentary

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him: Behold, you are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she has a husband; but Abimelech had not touched her and said: Lord, will you kill an …

Bede· Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron), 735patristic

But Abimelech had not come near her,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

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, 1710puritan

Voices on this verse

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Cross-references

8 linked verses

The verses this one reaches8

Genesis 18:23
Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
1 Chronicles 21:17
And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, please let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house, but do not let this plague remain upon Your people.”
2 Samuel 4:11
How much more, when wicked men kill a righteous man in his own house and on his own bed, shall I not now require his blood from your hands and remove you from the earth!”
Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.
Genesis 20:6
Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
Genesis 20:17–18
Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they could again bear children—
1 Kings 18:13
Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel slaughtered the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred prophets of the LORD, fifty men per cave, and I provided them with food and water.
Proverbs 6:29
So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

About this book

The Creation of Light — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Genesis — The book of beginnings. Creation, fall, flood, covenant, election, providence — eleven generational seams stitch one unbroken story from heaven-and-earth to a coffin in Egypt.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Moses — by traditional attribution; the book is the first of the Pentateuch
Date: Composed c. 15th–13th century BC; draws on older patriarchal sources (the toledoth framework is internal)

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.
leads to
- Deuteronomy 29:23
  All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the…
- Isaiah 13:19
  And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Jude 1:7
  In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal…
- 2 Peter 2:6
  if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;
- Amos 4:11
  “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
Through
Genesis 20:6
Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did…
leads to
- 1 Samuel 25:34
  Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, then surely no male belonging to Nabal…
- 1 Samuel 25:26
  Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, the LORD has held you back from coming to bloodshed and avenging yourself with your own hand. May your enemies and…
- Proverbs 21:1
  The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

Where the connections lead

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Continue: Genesis 20 →