Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar. Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. 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 a man’s wife.”
Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation? Didn’t he tell me, ‘She is my sister’? She, even she herself, said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.”
God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn’t allow you to touch her. Now therefore, restore the man’s wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don’t restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 1. And Abraham journeyed from thence. What Moses related…
1. And Abraham journeyed from thence. What Moses related respecting the destruction of Sodom, was a digression. He now returns to the continuation of his history, and proceeds to show what happened to Abraham; how he conducted himself, and how the Lord protected him; till the promised seed, the future source of the Church, should be born unto him. He also says, that Abraham came into the South country; not that he traveled beyond the limits of the inheritance given to him, but left his former abode, and went towards the South. Moreover; the region which he points out fell chiefly, afterwards, to the lot of the tribe of Judah. 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. Some imagine that he fled from the sad spectacle which was continually presented before his eyes; for he saw the plain, which had lately appeared so pleasant to the view, and so replenished with varied abundance of fruits, transformed into a misshapen chaos. And certainly, it was possible that the whole neighborhood might be affected with the smell of sulphur, as well as tainted with other corruptions, in order that men might the more clearly perceive this memorable judgment of God. Therefore, there is nothing discordant with facts, in the supposition, that Abraham, seeing the place was under the curse of the Lord, was, by his detestation of it, drawn elsewhere. It is also credible, that (as it happened to him in another place) he was driven away by the malice and injuries of those among whom he dwelt. For the more abundantly the Lord had manifested his grace towards him, the more necessary was it, in return, for his patience to be exercised, in order that he might reflect upon his conditions as a pilgrim upon earth. Moses also expressly declares, that he dwelt as a stranger in the land of Gerar. Thus we see, that this holy family was driven hither and thither as refuse, while a fixed abode was granted to the wicked. But it is profitable to the pious to be thus unsettled on earth; lest, by setting their minds on a commodious and quiet habitation, they should lose the inheritance of heaven.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Which was toward Egypt.
Which was toward Egypt.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Gen 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the…
Gen 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
Ver. 1. And Abraham journeyed from thence, &c.] Either as grieved at the sight of Sodom; or annoyed by the ill air thereof; {a} or as loathing Lot’s incest; or driven out by a famine; or desirous of doing good to many. Whatever it was that occasioned his removal, we find him ever and anon journeying from one place, and sojourning in another. God’s people are a brood of travellers. This was Abram the Hebrew, of Heber, which signifieth, pilgrim or stranger. They look toward heaven as their home, as Ulysses is said to do toward Ithaca, {b} as a bird looks to her nest on the highest rocks.
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{a} Inde tam gravis halitus manat, ut eum nulla animalia perferant, cuius solo olfactu intereant .
{b} Plin. lib. viii. cap. 28.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–7 From thence; from the plain of Mamre, Gen 18:1,…
From thence; from the plain of Mamre, Gen 18:1, where he had long dwelt; and whence he removed, either because of its nearness to that filthy lake, which now was in the place of that late fruitful plain; or for other reasons and conveniences needless to be here inquired or determined.
Towards the south country, yet more towards the southern part of Canaan.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Here is, 1. Abraham's removal from Mamre, where he…
Here is, 1. Abraham's removal from Mamre, where he had lived nearly twenty years, into the country of the Philistines: He sojourned in Gerar, Gen 20:1. We are not told upon what occasion he removed, whether terrified by the destruction of Sodom, or because the country round was for the present prejudiced by it, 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 and his religion, for his kinsman's sake: doubtless there was some good cause for his removal. Note, In a world where we are strangers and pilgrims we cannot expect to be always in the same place. Again, Wherever we are, we must look upon ourselves but as sojourners. 2. His sin in denying his wife, as before (Gen 12:13), which was not only in itself such an equivocation as bordered upon a lie, and which, if admitted as lawful, would be the ruin of human converse and an inlet to all falsehood, but was also an exposing of the chastity and honour of his wife, of which he ought to have been the protector. But, besides this, it had here a two-fold aggravation: - (1.) He had been guilty of this same sin before, and had been reproved for it, and convinced of the folly of the suggestion which induced him to it; yet he returns to it. Note, It is possible that a good man may, not only fall into sin, but relapse into the same sin, through the surprise and strength of temptation and the infirmity of the flesh. Let backsliders repent then, but not despair, Jer 3:22. (2.) Sarah, as it should seem, was now with child of the promised seed, or, at least, in expectation of being so quickly, according to the word of God; he ought therefore to have taken particular care of her now, as Jdg 13:4. 3. 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's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–7 And Abraham journeyed from thence towards the south country,....…
And Abraham journeyed from thence towards the south country,.... He returned from the plains or oaks of Mamre, where he had lived fifteen or twenty years, into the more southern parts of the land of Canaan: the reason of this remove is not certain; some think, because he could not bear the stench of the sulphurous lake, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were become; and others, because of the scandal of Lot's incest with his daughters, which prejudiced the idolatrous people in those parts more against the true religion; neither of which are likely, by reason of the distance; but the better reason seems to be, that it was so ordered in Providence that he should remove from place to place, that it might appear that he was but a sojourner in the land:
and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; two wildernesses, as Jerom says (y), one of which joined to Egypt, to which the people of Israel went when they passed over the Red sea, and the other, Kadesh, reached to the desert of the Saracens. Onkelos and Jonathan paraphrase the words between Rekam and Chagra, or Hagra, the same place where the angel of the Lord met with Hagar at the well; see Gill on Gen 16:7 and See Gill on Gen 16:14,
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and sojourned in Gerar; or Gerara, as Jerom (z) calls it,"from whence he says the Geraritic country in his time beyond Daroma, or the south, had its name, and was twenty five miles distance from Eleutheropolis to the south, and was formerly the southern border of the Canaanites, and the metropolis of Palestine.''According to the Samaritan version, Gerar is the same with Ashkelon, which was afterwards, when aristocracy took place in this country, one of the five lordships of the Philistines; and so says Africanus (a); and that Gerar was in the country of the Philistines, and Abimelech was king of them, is clear from Gen 21:32. This place was about six miles from Mamre (b), from whence Abraham removed.
(y) De loc. Heb. fol, 91. I. (z) De loc. Heb. fol. 91. I. (a) Apud Syncell. Chronic. p. 100. (b) Bunting's Travels, p. 57.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6 We have here,
We have here,
I. Abraham's sin in denying his wife, and Abimelech's sin thereupon in taking her, ver. 1, 2.
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II. God's discourse with Abimelech in a dream upon this occasion; wherein he shews him his error, ver. 3. accepts his plea, ver. 4, 5, 6. and directs him to make restitution, ver. 7.
III. Abimelech's discourse with Abraham; wherein he chides him for the cheat he had put upon him, ver. 8, 9, 10. and Abraham excuses it as well as he can, ver. 11, 12, 13.
IV. The good issue of the story; in which Abimelech restores Abraham his wife, ver. 14, 15, 16. and Abraham by prayer prevails with God for the removal of the judgment Abimelech was under, ver. 17, 18.
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. The king of Gerar sent and took her - To his house, in order to the taking of her to his bed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7 Abraham leaves Mamre, and, after having sojourned at Kadesh…
CHAPTER XX
Abraham leaves Mamre, and, after having sojourned at Kadesh and
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Shur, settles in Gerar, 1.
Abimelech takes Sarah, Abraham having acknowledged her only as
his sister, 2.
Abimelech is warned by God in a dream to restore Sarah, 3.
He asserts his innocence, 4, 5.
He is farther warned, 6, 7.
Expostulates with Abraham, 8-10.
Abraham vindicates his conduct, 11-13.
Abimelech restores Sarah, makes Abraham a present of sheep,
oxen, and male and female slaves, 14;
offers him a residence in any part of the land, 15;
and reproves Sarah, 16.
At the intercession of Abraham, the curse of barrenness is removed
from Abimelech and his household, 17, 18.
NOTES ON CHAP. XX
Verse 1. And Abraham journeyed] It is very likely that this holy man was so deeply affected with the melancholy prospect of the ruined cities, and not knowing what was become of his nephew Lot and his family, that he could no longer bear to dwell within sight of the place. Having, therefore, struck his tents, and sojourned for a short time at Kadesh and Shur, he fixed his habitation in Gerar, which was a city of Arabia Petraea, under a king of the Philistines called Abimelech, my father king, who appears to have been not only the father of his people, but also a righteous man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7 Gen 20:1-2. And Abraham sojourned in Gerar — Which…
Gen 20:1-2. And Abraham sojourned in Gerar — Which belonged to the Philistines. 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. The king of Gerar sent and took her — To his house, in order to the taking of her to his bed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v1 - Abraham in Gerar
- Abraham in Gerar
2. אבימלך .2 'ǎbı̂ymelek, Abimelekh, “father of the king.”
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7. נביא nābı̂y' “prophet,” he who speaks by God, of God, and to God, who declares to people not merely things future, but also things past and present, that are not obvious to the sense or the reason; related: “flow, go forth.”
13. התעוּ hı̂t‛û is plural in punctuation, agreeing grammatically with אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym. ו(w), however, may be regarded as the third radical, and the verb may thus really be singular.
16. נכהת nokachat an unusual form, either for נכחת nokaḥat the second person singular feminine perfect or נכחה nokeḥâh the third person singular feminine perfect, from a verb signifying in hiphil, “make straight, right.”
17. אמה 'āmâh “hand-maid,” free or bond. שׁפחה shı̂pchâh “bond-maid” 1Sa 25:41.
The concealment of his relation to Sarah calls to our mind a similar act of Abraham recorded not many pages back. We are to remember, however, that an interval of twenty-four years has elapsed since that event. From the present passage we learn that this was an old agreement between him and his wife, while they were wandering among strangers. It appears that Abraham was not yet conscious of anything wrong or even imprudent in this piece of policy. He therefore practises it without any hesitation. On this occasion he appears for the first time as a prophet. He is the first of this order introduced to our notice in the Old Testament, though Henok had prophesied at an earlier period Jud 1:14, and Noah’s benediction was, at the same time, a prediction.
Gen 20:1-7
Abimelek takes Sarah. Abraham had been dwelling near Hebron. But the total separation between him and Lot, and the awful overthrow of Sodom and Amorah in the vicinity, may have loosened his tie to Hebron, and rendered it for the present not an agreeable place of residence. He therefore travels southward and takes up his abode at Gerar (see note on Gen 10:19). Sarah, though now eighty-nine years of age, was as youthful in look as a person of forty would now be. She had, moreover, had no family, was remarkable for her good looks, and was at present, no doubt, renewed in health and vigor Gen 12:11-16.
Gen 20:3-7
The Supreme Being here appears as God אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym, and therefore in his eternal power and independence, as he was antecedent to the creation of man. He communicates with Abimelek in a dream. This prince addresses him as אדני 'ǎdonāy, “Lord.” We have already seen that the knowledge of the true God had not yet disappeared from the Gentile world, who were under the Noachic covenant. “Thou wilt die.” Thou art dying or at the point of death if thou persist. A deadly plague was already in the body of Abimelek, on account of Sarah. “Wilt thou slay a righteous nation also?” Abimelek associates his nation with himself, and expects that the fatal stroke will not be confined to his own person. He pleads his integrity in the matter, which the Lord acknowledges. Gentiles sometimes act according to the dictates of conscience, which still lives in them, though it be obscured by sin. Abimelek was innocent in regard to the “great sin” of seizing another man’s wife, of which God acquitted him. He was wrong in appropriating a woman to himself by mere stretch of power, and in adding wife to wife. But these were common customs of the time, for which his conscience did not upbraid him in his pleading with God. “And the God.” The presence of the definite article seems to intimate a contrast of the true God with the false gods to which the Gentiles were fast turning. Abimelek was at least in the doubtful ground on the borders of polytheism.
Gen 20:7
Abraham is here designated by the Lord a prophet. This constituted at once the gravity of Abimelek’s offence Psa 105:15, and the ground of his hope of pardon. It is at the same time a step in advance of all the previous spiritual attainments of Abraham. A prophet is God’s spokesman, who utters with authority certain of the things of God Exo 7:1; Exo 4:15. This implies two things: first, the things of God are known only to him, and therefore must be communicated by him; secondly, the prophet must be enabled of God to announce in correct terms the things made known to him. These things refer not only to the future, but in general to all such matters as fall within the purpose and procedure of God. They may even include things otherwise known or knowable by man, so far as these are necessary to the exposition of the divine will. Now Abraham has heretofore received many communications from God. But this did not constitute him a prophet. It is the divinely-authorized utterance of new truth which raises him to this rank. And Abraham’s first exercise in prophecy is not in speaking to men of God, but to God for men. “He shall pray for thee.” The prophetic and the priestly offices go together in the father of the faithful. These dignities belong to him, not from any absolute merit, for this he has not, but from his call to be the holder of the promise, and the father of that seed to whom the promises were made.
Gen 20:8-13
Abimelek retraces his steps, and rectifies his conduct. He makes known his dream to his assembled court, who are filled with astonishment and apprehension. He then calls Abraham, and in bold and manly style remonstrates with him for leading him into error and sin. Abraham is apparently silent from confusion and self-condemnation. Abimelek, after a pause, demands of him his reason for so doing. Abraham now replies with great simplicity and candor. He had said within himself, “The fear of God is not in this place.” This is another indication that polytheism was setting in. He concluded that his life would be in danger on account of his wife, and resorted to his wonted expedient for safety. He had learned to trust in the Lord in all things; but he did not think this inconsistent with using all lawful means for personal security, and he was not yet fully alive to the unlawfulness of his usual pretence. He pleads also in extenuation that she is in reality his sister (see Gen 12:19-20). “Caused me to wander.” The verb here is not necessarily plural. But if it be, it is only an instance of the literal, meaning of אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym, the Eternal Supernatural Powers, coming into view. “Thy kindness.” The old compact of Abraham with Sarah tended to palliate his conduct in the eyes of Abimelek, as he would see that it had no special reference to himself.
Gen 20:14-18
Abimelek seems to have accepted his apology, as he probably felt that there was truth in the character Abraham gave of his people, and was precluded from resenting it by the salutary impression of his dream; while at the same time Abraham’s mode of avoiding danger appeared warrantable according to his own and the common code of morals. He therefore hastens to make honorable amends for his conduct. He makes Abraham a valuable present, restores his wife, and makes him free to dwell in any part of his dominions. He then accosts Sarah in respectful terms, informing her that he had presented her brother with one thousand silver pieces, probably shekels, on her account. He does not offer this directly to herself, that it may be distinctly understood that her honor was unstained. This may refer either to Abraham or to the sum of money. The latter is more natural, as the sentence then affords a reason for addressing Sarah, and mentioning this particular gift. “A covering of the eyes” does not mean a veil, the proper word for which is צעיף tsā‛ı̂yp, but is a figurative phrase for a recompense or pacificatory offering, in consideration of which an offence is overlooked. “Unto all that are with thee.” All her family were concerned in this public vindication of her character. “And all this that thou mayest be righted.” The original of this is most naturally taken as a part of Abimelek’s speech, and then it is to be translated as above. All this has been done or given that the injury to Sarah may be redressed. If the original be regarded as a part of the narrative, it must be rendered, “And all this (was done) that she might be righted.” The sense is the same in substance. In the former case the verb is in the second person, in the latter in the third.
Gen 20:17-18
These verses record the fact of Abraham’s intercession for Abimelek, and explain in what sense he was on the point of dying (Gen 20:3). “They bare” means that they were again rendered capable of procreating children, and in the natural course of things did so. The verb is in the masculine form, because both males and females were involved in this judicial malady. The name Yahweh is employed at the end of the chapter, because the relation of the Creator and Preserver to Sarah is there prominent.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 Gerara; at a greater distance from the devoted country…
Gerara; at a greater distance from the devoted country of Sodom. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Abraham and Abimelech of Gerar. His and Sarah’s renewed…
EIGHTH SECTION
Abraham and Abimelech of Gerar. His and Sarah’s renewed exposure through his human, calculating prudence, as formerly in Egypt before Pharaoh. The Divine preservation. Abraham’s intercession for Abimelech
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Gen_20:1-18
1And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south1 country [the mid-day], and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned [as a stranger even] in Gerar [lodging-place, pilgrim’s rest]. 2And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister; and Abimelech 3[father of the king, or father-king] king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God [Elohim] came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man [thou diest, art dead], for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife 4[is married]. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? 5Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart, and the innocency of my hands have I done this. 6And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. 7Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet,2 and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine. 8Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. 9Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. 10And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou 11[evil], that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought [said], Surely the fear of God [Elohim] is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. 12And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13And it came to pass when God [Elohim] caused me to Wander [to go on pilgrimages; a striking plural.3 The manifestations of God here and there, caused me to go here and there, pilgrimages] from my father’s house, that I said unto her. This is thy kindness which thou shalt show unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother. 14And Abimelech took sheep and oxen [small and large cattle], and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. 15And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee 16[stands open to thee]: dwell where it pleaseth thee [is good in thine eyes]. And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold he is to thee [for] a covering of the eyes unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved4 [set right, proved to be a wife, not unmarried].
17So Abraham prayed unto God [Elohim]: and God [Elohim] healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants: and they bare children. 18For the Lord5 had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS
1. The present chapter and the following appear to favor strongly the documentary hypothesis. The cases in which the name Jehovah appears (Gen_20:18; Gen_21:1), have, according to Delitzsch, all the traits of explanatory additions of the completer. But Knobel accepts, aside from the text of the original writing (Gen_21:2-5), a twofold enlargement, which should be ascribed to the Jehovistic writer, but which he must have derived in great part from Elohistic records designed to complete the original record, and only in part from a completing Jehovistic record (p. 180, 181). We leave the hypothesis of different records to rest upon its own basis, but shall enquire how far the choice in the names of God may be explained from the text itself, and this without regard to the hypothesis in question.
2. The repetition of the fact that Abraham proclaims his wife to be his sister has been noticed already. In Knobel’s view, the Jehovistic writer has recorded the occurrence with Sarah already (Gen_12:11-20), because he could then do it independently, which could not be the case here. “This conjecture,” remarks Delitzsch, “is certainly plausible if one ascribes the Elohistic portions to a peculiar source, but it is equally probable that the same event might occur twice in the life of Abraham.” Keil, on the other hand, justly brings into prominence the great distinction between the two histories. The first difficulty, viz. that Abraham, after having experienced in Egypt the reproach of this deed, should here repeat it once more, cannot be removed, if, as Delitzsch holds, Abraham in Egypt had condemned himself to penitence after the reproof of Pharoah; if even he walked under a general sense that he had done wrong, as Delitzsch and Baumgarten state the case. [It is not insupposible, surely, in the light of experience, that even such a believer as Abraham should have fallen again into the same sin: that he should have repeated the act even when he was walking under the sense of his wrong-doing in the first instance.—A. G.] Our history gives us the key (v. 13) why this act was repeated. Abraham could not make an explanation to Pharoah, concerning the determination to proclaim his wife his sister while among strangers, but Abimelech has instilled the necessary confidence in him, for this confidential explanation. But if the saying was then founded and chosen, the event might, under possible circumstances, have often occurred unless Jehovah had interfered to prevent this venture of an unfounded and exaggerated confidence; which we have already above distinguished from a mere exposure of Sarah. It must be taken into account, moreover, that Abraham had recently received fearful impressions of the godless beings in the world, which naturally filled him with suspicion. The second difficulty consists in this: that Abimelech should have found delight in taking Sarah, who was ninety years old, into his harem. According to Kurtz, her still blooming or now rejuvenated beauty was not the motive; according to Delitzsch, he would relate himself by marriage with the rich nomadic prince, Abraham. Beauty and the consideration of rank do not exclude each other; spiritual excellence and greatness have often an almost magical effect. But it is to be observed that here it is not said that the beauty of Sarah was reported to Abimilech. He knew only, it may be, that there was a sister of Abraham in his tent, and brought her to himself.
3. We are here told again that Abraham broke up his tent, and journeyed thence towards the south—the land towards the mid-day (Gen_12:9; Gen_13:1). According to Gen_13:18, he had a permanent abode at Hebron; but here he removes from Hebron to the south. This is to be explained upon the ground that, for the northern parts of Canaan, the south designates preëminently the land of Judah; but for the land of Judah, thus for Hebron itself, it denotes the parts towards Arabia Petrea, Egypt, and the western shore upon the Mediterranean. The southern section of Canaan (which was assigned to the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin) falls into four distinct parts, through the character of the country. The mountains (הָהָר) or highlands form the central part, upon whose westerly slopes lies a hilly country which gradually sinks to the plain (שְׁפֵלָה), while towards the east the descent (מִדְבָּר) falls off into the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, but towards the south, the mid-day land (נֶגֶב, Jos_15:21; compare above Gen_12:9; Gen_13:1) forms, in several distinctly marked terraces, a kind of first step to the mountains, from the Petrean peninsula. (See Gross, in Stud. und Krit. 1843, p. 1080.) Here Abraham descends to the stretch of country between Kadesh and Shur, and remained a long time about Gerar, whose ruins have been recently discovered by Rowland, under the name Khirbet-el-Gerâr, about three hours south-easterly from Gaza, in the neighborhood of a deep and broad wady, which takes the name Dschurf-el-Gerâr.” Delitzsch. Robinson sought Gerar in vain, see Schröder, p. 382. “Eusebius and Jerome locate the place about twenty-five Roman miles south from Eleutheropolis, and Sozomen relates that there stood very near here, in a winter stream, a great and renowned convent. The name of Marcian, bishop of Gerar (perhaps in the convent), appears among the subscribers in the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451.” “Gerar, upon the way from Gaza to Elusa, removed about three hours from the first-named place.” Bunsen. The most southerly of the five cities of the Philistines was not far from Beersheba. The king of Gerar, Abimelech, had this territory in the lands of the Philistines, according to Gen_21:33. In Gen_26:1, he is named directly as a king of the Philistines. According to Bertheau, the reference to the Philistines is an anticipation, and Delitzsch also finds in Genesis 26 traces of a later hand, though not recognizing therein an actual anticipation. If פְלֶשֶׁת denotes the land of wanderers, or of strangers (Gesenius), the name denotes those who came from the coasts into the interior, in distinction from the earlier Canaanites, and the inquiry whether the later Philistines, of the times of the Judges and Kings, are here meant, is a matter by itself; in any case, the text here intimates that the later confederate cities of the Philistines did not yet exist. Hitzig and Ewald also concede Philistine emigrations into Canaan, or traditions of them, before Moses. Knobel’s view, that Abraham may have left Hebron from a similar anxiety with that which led Lot (to leave Zoar), is arbitrary in the highest degree, since Abraham was in covenant with the mightier men in Hebron. According to Keil, he went probably to find better pastures. In any case the pasture-ground must be changed from time to time, but this could be done through a wider range, as we learn from the history of Joseph and Moses. The neighborhood of the scene of the terrible judgment upon Sodom, in connection with other unknown motives, may have determined him to change his residence. The birth of Isaac (Genesis 21) and the offering of Isaac (Genesis 22) occur during his residence in the further south: but then he dwelt (Gen_23:1) again in Hebron, although his return thither from Beersheba, where he had last dwelt (Gen_21:33), is not recorded.
4. Since, from the promise which was given to Abraham in the oak-grove of Mamre, to the birth of Isaac, we must reckon, according to Genesis 18, about a year, Abraham must have drawn southwards very soon after the overthrow of Sodom, and the meeting with Abimelech must also have taken place at an early date. But if Gen_20:17-18 seem to point to a longer time, this creates no real difficulty, since the sickness of the house of Abimelech may have lasted a long time after Sarah was restored. Moreover, our history illustrates, in two respects, what may introduce the further history of the birth of Isaac. First, we see that Sarah was not faded in her appearance, although according to the usual supposition her body was dead. Then we see how her usual relation to Abraham could be animated and strengthened by a new affection resulting directly through the exposure and disturbance to which it had been subjected.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Abraham’s settlement in the South, especially in Gerar. Abimelech’s error, and the admonition of God (Gen_20:1-7).—Between Kadesh and Shur.—Kadesh, see Gen_14:7; Shur, Gen_16:7. We must distinguish between this dwelling-place and the peculiar sojourn in Gerar. Schröder: “Leaving his herds and servants behind him in this region, he himself repairs to Gerar.”—Abimelech (Father King, or my Father King). A standing title for the kings of Gerar, as Pharoah was in Egypt and Melchizedec, or Adonizedec, in Salem (see Psa_34:1); the king the father of the land.—God (Elohim) came to Abimelech.—It is presupposed that Abimelech had the knowledge of the true God; he could not have known him as Jehovah.—In a dream by night.—Knobel finds in this feature, as in similar cases, that these communications are not in accordance with the Elohistic writer. But the supposition is entirely arbitrary. The prophetic dream of the night is generally closely connected with the moral reflections and longings of the day. It is in full agreement with the nature of dreams, that the communication should be made in several, not in one single act (see Genesis 37, 41; Matthew 2).—She is a man’s wife (married).—Literally, ruled by a ruler, or her lord. His sin was thus marked as an infringement of the married rights of a stranger. The anxious dream appears to have been introduced through the sickness impending over him (see Gen_5:17).6—Wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?—Delitzsch refers the גַּם directly to the adjective righteous. A nation however righteous, i.e., although it is righteous. But why then does he use the term people or nation? Knobel thinks that the fate of the Sodomites was floating in his mind. In this way this chapter is, through a delicate psychological feature, connected with the preceding. Abimelech is conscious of innocence as to his subjective state. He assumes the right to possess a harem or to live in polygamy, and the right of princes to bring into their harem any unmarried persons of their territory. He is conscious of a pure heart, and asserts that his hands are pure, since Abraham and Sarah, through their own declarations, had rendered it impossible that he should have any intention to interfere with the rights of another. She is my sister. [These incidents show the truth and the need of Scripture;—its truth, because it does not represent the patriarchs as exempt from human infirmities; the need of it, because the best of men were not able to make for themselves even a correct standard of moral duty (and how much less of faith) without Scripture. Wordsworth, p. 91.—A. G.]—And God said unto him in a dream.—The transaction continues in a new and more quiet dream. God recognizes the apology as essentially valid, and reveals to him how and why he had kept him from touching the wife of a prophet. With this he points out to him the cause of his sickness. The command to restore the woman was enforced by a threatening. Although he was guiltless as to his subjective state, it is a reproach to him that he acted blindly, and betrayed himself into the danger, either of depriving a prophet of his wife, or rather of being punished by God with death. [That Abimelech thought himself innocent, did this, as he says, in the תָס־לְבַב integrity of his heart, may be explained from his moral and religious standpoint. But that God recognizes his deed as such, and still says to him that he can only live through the intercession of Abraham, thus that his sin was one worthy of death, proves that God regards him as one who was fitted to have, and ought to have, deeper moral views and piety. This is intimated in the change of the names of God in the narrative, and noticed in the text. Keil, p. 168.—A.G.] That is to say, the spirit of a higher moral standpoint comes to him in his dream, and opens to him not only the cause of his sickness, but also that divine preservation secured by the sickness, as well as his duty and the danger of death in which he was still moving. With this he receives an enlargement of his religious knowledge. “At first אלהים (without the article) the Godhead in a general sense appears to him (Gen_20:3): but Abimelech recognizes in the appearance the Lord אֲדֹנָי, upon which the narrator introduces הָֽאֱלֹהִים the personal and true God, as speaking to him (Gen_20:6.)—For he is a prophet.—The spirit of prophecy had been present from the beginning in the Scripture, but here the name prophet occurs for the first time. How could this aggravate the error of Abimelech, that Abraham, whose rights he ignorantly had violated, was a prophet? Knobel explains that the sin of violating the rights of the chosen of God, which he had in idea committed, was a sin against God himself. Since every sin is a sin against God himself, it must still be asked, how far this shows the danger of greater guilt? for the text cannot be explained under the idea of a partiality of God for Abraham. But Abimelech held Abraham and Sarah as the ordinary nomads of his time, and thought therefore that he could blindly lay his hands upon them: he thus resisted the dim impression, which they must have made upon him, of a higher calling and aim. A prophet should be received in the name of a prophet; the sin against the divine in the prophet was a sin against the divine in his own conscience, and thus in a special sense a sin against God.—And he shall pray for thee.—Abraham had already appeared as a royal warlike hero, in his conflict with the Eastern kings. We have learned to recognize him as a priest, especially in his intercessory prayer for Sodom: here he appears preëminently as a prophet. But here intercession appears as the most obvious function of the prophet.7 The attributes of the prophet and the priest are thus still inwardly united in one, as this indeed is evident from the altars he erected.
2. The atonement of Abimelech(Gen_20:8-16).—And called all his servants (courtiers).—It marks the frank, open character of this God-fearing king, that he humbles himself by communicating the events of the night, before his courtiers. It was humbling in the first place to confess that, in spiritual blindness, he had made a dangerous mistake, and secondly that he must restore to the stranger his wife. It speaks well also for his household and his court, that the effect of his reverence communicates itself to his servants.—Then Abimelech called Abraham.—He addresses him before his people, for Abraham had not only brought him into danger, but also his household and kingdom. He had reason to complain of the conduct of Abraham, as Pharaoh before him (Genesis 12). He is thus also evidently a bold, heroic character, who does not shrink from declaring against Abraham his injured sense of truth and justice, although he must have regarded him as under the special protection of God. He does not belong to the kings who oppose the priests in slavish bigotry.—What hast thou done to us?—Done to us. Thus he values the unity in which he feels that he is bound with his household and people. But he reproaches him especially with this: that he had brought him into danger of bringing sin both upon himself and his people. This, he says, is immoral. But since he takes up again the words, What have I offended thee? and asks, What hast thou seen? he utters in a discreet form, which concedes the possibility that he might have ignorantly occasioned the wrong of Abraham, his consciousness that he had himself indeed given no occasion for this deceitful course. Keil and Knobel explain the words what hast thou seen? what hast thou in thy eye, what purpose? Delitzsch (with a reference to Psa_37:37; Psa_66:18): “It is preferable to take the word in its usual sense through all time: what evil hast thou seen in me or in us, that thou believest us capable of greater evil?”—Abraham said, because I thought (said).—He assumes the antecedent; I acted thus, because he is ashamed. The two grounds of apology follow. The first runs: Because I spake (thought or considered it with myself and with Sarah). [This use of he word אמרהי is fully illustrated by Bush, who refers to Exo_2:14; 1Ki_5:5; Psa_14:1.—A. G.]—Surely the fear of God is not in this place.—This special motive has its explanation in the fact that he had so recently seen the destruction of Sodom. The fear of men which had determined him so to act in Egypt, was awakened afresh by this destruction. But he palliates the offence of this declaration by his second excuse. He explains at first that what he had said was not untrue, since Sarah, as his half-sister, was his sister; and then why, in his migration from Haran, he had arranged with Sarah that she should journey with him from place to place under the name of his sister. [Some suppose that Sarah is the same with Iscah, Gen_11:29. Bush holds that Terah had two wives: the one the mother of Haran, the father of Sarah and Lot; the other the mother of Abraham.—A. G.] The suppressed feeling of an endless, difficult pilgrimage, and of a very dangerous situation, reveals itself clearly in the expressions of Gen_20:13-14. He cannot yet speak to Abimelech of Jehovah, his covenant God. Still less was it necessary that he should reveal to him that Jehovah had promised Canaan to him. Thus he says: at the command of God I entered upon my wanderings. He speaks of his theocratic journeys as wanderings, says Elohim instead of Haelohim, uses this noun with the plural of the verbs, that he may make himself understood by Abimelech. “This use of the substantive with the plural verbs is found (in the Pentateuch only in this author, Gen_35:7; Exo_22:8; Exo_30:4; Exo_30:8; Jos_24:19. Gesenius, § 146, 2; Ewald, § 318 a.)” Knobel. Keil finds in the words of Abraham, especially in the plural of the verb, a certain accommodation to the polytheistic standpoint of the Philistine king. Delitzsch, on the other hand, remarks, that the plural connection of Elohim is found in passages which exclude any idea of accommodation, or of any polytheistic reference; by which he refutes at the same time the explanation of Schelling, that the Gods of the house of Terah are to be understood by Elohim. Under the expression אֱלִֹהִים הִתְעוּ [The verb here is not necessarily plural. But if it be, it is only an instance of the literal meaning of Elohim, the eternal, supernatural powers, coming into view. Murphy, p. 328.—A. G.] we understand the fact, expressed with some reservation, that Haelohim, through a plurality of special manifestations of God, which he received here and there, had caused him to move from place to place, and thus, although in the extremest danger which his wanderings could occasion, extended his providence over him still. When, on the contrary, Abimelech (Gen_26:28) calls God Jehovah, Delitzsch supposes (p. 103), but without certainty, that it is the same person, and besides overlooks the difference of time, in which a longer intercourse may have made the Philistines familiar with the Abrahamic ideas.—And Abimelech took sheep and oxen.—He is satisfied, and acts analogously to the conduct of Pharaoh (Genesis 12), in that he makes Abraham rich presents of the ancient nomadic goods. The departure of Abraham from Egypt also seems to find its echo here. He appears to utter a modest wish that Abraham would leave Gerar. [This seems a forced interpretation of the words.—A. G.] Still he may dwell in his territory where it pleases him.—And to Sarah he said.—“The thousand pieces of silver, i.e., the thousand shekels of silver, are not a peculiar present made to Sarah, but the estimated worth of the present (Gen_20:14), and designate it as something important.” Knobel. So also Keil. Delitzsch, with others, distinguishes a special present in money, “a truly royal present, since thirty shekels was the price of a slave (Exo_21:32).” (A thousand shekels of silver after the shekel of the sanctuary would be about 550 dollars; according to the ordinary shekel, less. It is not certain which is intended here.) The first interpretation is preferable, as otherwise the second present must have been made to Sarah.—Behold, he is to thee (or that shall be to thee) a covering of the eyes.—This difficult place admits of different explanations. Vitringa: “If the words are referred to Abraham, the idea seems to be: Abraham, if he professes to be the husband of Sarah, would be instead of a veil to those who, looking upon Sarah more intensely, may be inflamed with love for her. (Thus Ewald; so Delitzsch, p. 404.) We prefer, however, to refer the words to the money received by Abraham. As if he says, let this money, paid as a fine to Abraham, prevent any from desiring thee as I have done. He alludes to the veil usually worn by women. See Gen_24:65.” Gesenius: “This is an expiatory present to thee, for all that has happened to thee, and to Abram, and she was convinced (of her fault).” Knobel similarly, but still with less fitness, and at the conclusion, “thou art adjudged, i.e., justice is done to thee.” Delitzsch and Keil: “This is to thee an atoning present, for all who are with thee (since the whole family is disgraced in the mistress, etc.)” “It is to be explained,” says Knobel, “after כִּפֵּר פְּנֵי to cover one’s face, so that he may forget the wrong done (Gen_32:21), כִּסָּה פְּנֵי שֹׁפְטִים to cover the face of the judge, so that he shall not see the right.” Michaelis, Baumgarten, and others, explain the words to mean a present for the purchase of a veil which she should wear in the future. [Murphy urges against this that the proper word for veil is צעית. “The covering of the eyes is a figurative phrase for a recompense or pacificatory offering, in consideration of which an offence is overlooked.” And so also Jacobus.—A. G.] Since Sarah wore no veil in Egypt, but the custom of veiling the face quickly with the mantle soon after appears in the history of Rebekah (Gen_24:65), this thought seems quite probable. But one would then expect a special present to Sarah, besides the one to Abraham. Delitzsch remarks, “this would be bitter irony.” But the irony in the expression, I have given thy brother, cannot, however, be denied. The יְאֶת־כֹּל also agrees well with this thought. Besides, it must be considered that Abimelech had to relieve himself of his displeasure as well against Sarah as against Abraham. And what then could this mean, “that shall be to thee an atoning present, and for all with thee,” leaving out of view that here the conjunctive ו is wanting? As a covering of the eyes, designed to make good his error in her eyes, the great present would excite rather only contempt. The atonement would thus be to the violated rights of the husband; Sarah, who had constantly declared that he was her brother, even when prudent calculation became imprudent temerity, had well deserved that she also should suffer a reproof. Still Abimelech appears to define it as a covering of the eyes only in a figurative sense: in the sense of the Vulgate: hoc erit tibi in velamen oculorum ad omnes qui tecum sint, et quocunque perpexeris; mementoque te deprehensam.8 Since Sarah wore no veil, which designated her as the wife of a husband (see Gen_24:6; 1Co_11:10), so the present of Abimelech, wherewith he expiates his fault, has the effect of such a veil; it should for all, and everywhere, be a testimony that she is a married woman. As such should she now be held everywhere, in consequence of his present. With Clericus, therefore, we find here a designed double sense or meaning; a covering of the eyes as an atonement, which should, at the same time, have the effect of a veil. “וְנוֹכַחַת can only be the second person feminine perf. Niph., although the daghesh lene is wanting in ת (Gesenius, § 28, 4, and § 65, 2), for to hold this form for a participle is scarcely possible,” etc.9Keil: Since this word may be rendered adjudged as well as justified, we take it in a middle sense, and as designedly having a twofold meaning: convinced, placed right. This last word does not belong to the writer, but to Abimelech himself. With the pride of injured magnanimity, he declares that he, through his atoning present, would provide her with a veil, and designate her as a married woman. For the veil, see Winer.
3. Abraham’s intercession(Gen_20:17-18). “After this compensation Abraham intercedes (Gen_20:17), and God removes the sickness from Abimelech and his women. The author does not define the sickness more closely (as in Gen_12:17); according to Gen_20:6 it was such a sickness as indisposed to sleep. Compare the plague of the Philistines (1Sa_5:6-9; 1Sa_12:6; 1Sa_12:4, etc.)” Knobel.—And God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants.—Thus Abimelech was not only afflicted with some sexual disease, but indirectly, through his inability, his wife also, i.e., his wife in a peculiar sense, the queen; and his maid-servants, that is, his concubines (see Keil). [They bare means that they were again capable of procreating children. The verb is masculine, because both males and females were involved in this judicial malady. Murphy, p. 329.—A. G.] [This is clear also, since the malady was sent to preserve the purity of Sarah. Abimelech was not suffered to touch her, see Gen_20:6.—A. G.] Gen_20:18 contains the explanation—For the Lord (Jehovah) had fast closed up.—[It is Jehovah who delivers Abraham, and preserves the purity of Sarah, the mother of Isaac the promised seed. Wordsworth, p. 93. Who urges also the use of the names of God in the chapter, against the fragmentary hypothesis, with great force.—A. G.] Here the providence of Elohim is traced to the motives of Jehovah, the Covenant God of Abraham, who would protect his chosen. They were closed up; i.e., not as Knobel thinks, they could could not bring to the birth, but the whole household of Abimelech was unfruitful in consequence of his sickness. [The term here used for maid-servants, אֲמָהוֹת, denotes those held as concubines, and is to be distinguished from שְׁפָהוֹת, servants. See 1Sa_25:41.Keil, p. 170.—A. G.] This fearful fact for an ancient household was remarkable here, because the state remained after the free return of Sarah, until Abraham enters with his intercession. But this introduces the circumstance that he had interceded for Sarah also.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. See the preliminary remarks and the exigetical paragraphs. The preceding history is the history of sins “crying to heaven.” The history of Abraham in Gerar is a history of unconscious sins, concealed faults in the life of most excellent men, of the father of the faithful, and of a noble heathen king.
2. The first meeting between the house of Abraham and the Philistines. It serves to illustrate the fact, that the knowledge of God among the Philistines has sunken lower and lower in the lapse of time, while it has been more and more completely developed among the theocratic people.
3. Abraham in Gerar, in a certain measure, a counterpart to Lot in the caves. Lot fears the presence of men; Abraham appears to have sought a wider intercourse. Both fall into folly and sin, after the experience of the great judgment upon Sodom. The reaction from a state of great spiritual excitement reveals itself even in Abraham.
4. The repetition of the old saying of Abraham, is a proof that he, in his faith, thought himself justified in using it. We must take into account also, that Sarah also was his sister in the faith, and that she had accustomed herself, in her painful sense of her unfruitfulness, to style themselves brother and sister.
5. Abimelech’s dream. In the night sleep, the spirit of revelation comes nearer to the heathen, as is shown also in the dreams of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. It is a medium of revelation also for children (Joseph, in the old covenant), and for laborers with the hand (Joseph, in the new covenant); and the prophetic disposition, enduring into the night or extending itself through its hours (Isaac, Jacob, Paul). Moreover, Pharaoh’s butler and baker (Gen_40:8); the Midianites (Jdg_7:13-15); the wife of Pilate (Mat_27:19, compare Wis_18:17-19), had significent dreams.
6. Abimelech’s innocence and guilt. The moral standpoint of tradition, in its relation to the higher standpoint. Traditional morality and the morality of conscience. The religious susceptibility of Abimelech.
7. Abraham a prophet. There are different views as to the derivation of this word. A derivation from the Arabic, analogous form, explains the word to mean the bringer of knowledge, the foreteller or predictor (see Delitzsch, p. 634; a communication of Fleischer). The derivation from the Hebrew נבא, ebullire, appears to us nearer at hand, and corresponds better with the idea of the prophet. In the reference of the word to the Niph., Redslob explains it in a passive sense, what is poured forth; W. Newmann and Hölemann, actively pouring forth, speaking. If we regard the Niph. as both passive and reflexive, then the prophet is a man who, because he has received communications poured into himself, pours forth. One who is a fountain. But the pouring forth designates more than the simple speaking. It is the utterance of that which is new, in the inspired, outpouring form; analogous to the out-pouring of a fountain, which is ever pouring out new, fresh water. The prophet pours forth that which is new, both in words and deeds; the miraculous words of prophecy, and the miraculous deeds of typical import. The derivation which Delitzsch proposes from פח ,פה = בא, to breathe, the inspired, appears to be sought from dogmatic motives. Abraham was a prophet in the most general sense; the organ of the divine revelation, seer of the future. He was a prophet, priest, and king in one person, but preëminently a prophet. And here God brings out distinctly his prophetic dignity, because he is in this especially commended as the friend of God, the object of his protecting care, with whose injury Abimelech’s sickness was connected, and by whose intercession he could be healed. The peculiar order of the prophets, introduced through the prophetic schools of Samuel, was formed after the order of priests, and then the order of kings were severed from the general class or order of prophets.
8. Abimelech’s character and his atonement. Through his noble and pious conduct he wins a friend in Abraham (Gen_21:22 ff.)
9. Abraham’s intercession, a claim of his faith in the promise. His intercession for Abimelech and Gerar, a counterpart to his intercession for Sodom. The intercession of Abraham for Abimelech, his house, and kingdom, in comparison with his intercession for Sodom.
10. Abraham has, through his fear, and the prudential means which his fear bade him to use, twice directly brought about the very thing which he feared, the taking away of his wife, and perhaps would have incurred his death, either the first or second time, if God had not interfered. How fear first truly makes that actual which it seeks to hinder in ungodly ways, the history of Joseph’s brethren, who sold him that he might not rise above them; the conduct of Pharaoh towards Israel, which brings him and his hosts to destruction in the Red Sea; Saul’s determination against David; but above all, the history of the crucifixion of Christ on the part of the Jewish Sanhedrim prove still more perfectly. How this same fact appears in proverbs, under various forms, e.g., in the saying of Œdipus, is well known.
11. The Philistines (see the Bible Dictionaries). Their first appearance in sacred history makes a favourable impression; Abimelech knows, or learns to know, the only true God. Later, the Philistines appear sunken in idolatry.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Any homiletic use of this chapter presupposes homiletic wisdom. Themes: Abraham in the repetition of his fall.—Abraham and Abimelech.—Abraham’s character: reverent humility, moral pride.—Abraham, the believer, in his weakness, exalted above the man of the world, in his strength. [The exaltation, however, a matter of pure grace.—A.G.]
First Section.—Abraham’s and Abimelech’s error (Gen_20:1-7) Abraham’s reaction after his high spiritual experiences.—The repetition of his old fault. 1. Causes: Recent experience of the corruption of the world, false prudence, exaggerated confidence, the brotherly relation to Sarah, the tolerable issue of the case in Egypt. 2. Natural results: Anxiety and danger, shame before a heathen’s princely court. 3. Gracious issue through the interference of God.10—How self-will rushes into the danger which, with many plans, it seeks to avoid.—How the believer endangers the promise of God, and how it is wonderfully guarded through the grace of God.—Abimelech’s integrity the point of union for the gracious providence of God.—The author of sacred marriage is also its protector.—The care of God for Sarah a care for the world.
Starke: Now God, in his providence, rescues Abraham again from his human weakness.—(Gen_20:4. The Holy Spirit marks this doubtless, lest any one should say that Isaac was the son of Abimelech.) (Although God is a lover of life, yet still, according to his punitive righteousness, there may be ascribed to him, as here, a destruction, consumption, etc.)—God suffers his saints to fall into folly and sin, that it may be clear how little they are able to do right by themselves.—Cramer: God preserves the sacred marriage state.—Osiander: Subjects are often punished on account of the transgressions of their rulers.
Gen_20:6. A simple and not evilly intended plan, even in a bad cause, if it proceeds from inconsideration, Or from ignorant zeal, is described by this word—simplicity, in Holy Scripture (2Sa_15:11, etc.)
Gen_20:6. God hinders men from committing sin in many ways.—God searches the heart, and knows what is done in integrity and what in pretence.—Calwer, Handbuch: Gen_20:2. As there (in Egypt) so here, Abraham reaches the directly opposite point from that which he intended. Sarah was taken away, just because he said, she is my sister.—Schröder: (V. Herberger.) Gen_20:1. Abraham will avoid the cross, (?) but he passes from the smoke into the flame, from the mud into the mire. There are in foreign lands misfortunes and adversities as well as where he has lived hitherto. Ah! Lord, help us, that we may sit quietly in our little space; the dear cross dwells yet nowhere, as everywhere, i.e., wherever we are.—His sin appears greater here than at the first offence; he stands no longer as then (in Egypt), at the beginning of the divine leadings. After so many and such great experiences of God’s faithfulness, still such unfaithfulness to him. (?)—(Calvin.) All those who will not, as is becoming, trust themselves to the providence of God, shall win like fruits of unbelief.
Gen_20:2. It is to be considered that an extraordinary beauty is ascribed to Sarah; then also, that notwithstanding her ninety years, she is in the first half of human life at that period of the world.—Luther: Gen_20:3. It is impossible that a man who believes in the promises of God, should be forsaken.—God would suffer the heavens to fall, rather than forsake his believing people.—Thus God shows how displeasing adultery is to him.
Gen_20:6. Abimelech has sinned nevertheless, therefore God by no means concedes to him “purity of hands,” as the “integrity of heart.”—Passavant: An old oak which loses a bough or twig, has not, therefore lost its crown.—Pharaoh and Abimelech. Gen_20:4. Many a king who is called christian, has done what these two kings did, and even worse, and his people have necessarily suffered for it in various ways before his crumbling throne; in a thousand offences, sins, sorrows, etc. Kings may learn what the sins of princes are before God, and the people also may learn to hate and deplore the evil which descends from the upper ranks.—The prosperity of the family depends upon the marriage state, and the welfare of society upon that of the family, and upon the society turns the good of the state.
Gen_20:6. It is a great grace when God guards any one from sinning, either against their fellows or against God.—Thou knowest not how often God has kept thee and me (Psa_105:14-15; Zec_2:8).—Schwenke: The Scriptures do not describe a saint in Abraham, but a man, who, although so good, is yet a sinner like ourselves, but who through faith was justified before God, and what he did as he went from step to step in the narrow path of faith stands recorded, that we with him might enter the school of faith.
Second Section.—Abraham’s confusion and shame, and Abimelech’s atonement.—(Gen_20:8-16). The castigatory speech of the heathen to the father of the faithful.
Gen_20:11. The judgment of faith concerning the world ought not to be a prejudice.—The danger of life in Abraham’s pilgrimage an apology for his swerving to his own way.
Gen_20:8. The zeal of Abimelech in the removing and expiating of his fault.—His noble and pious integrity: 1. In the expression of his fear of God; 2. of his injured moral feeling; 3. his readiness to make his error good.
Gen_20:9. Abimelech knew that his royal sins fell upon his household and kingdom, as a burden and as guilt.
Starke: Gen_20:9. It is to the praise of this heathen king, who, however, was not without some fear and knowledge of God, that he held a breach of the marriage law to be so great a sin that the whole land could be punished.
Gen_20:10. Osiander: A pious ruler and a pious father of the household agree well, since they warn and keep their own in the fear of God.—The praise of mildness and gentleness.—Luther: The saints were gently punished and for their good.—Bibl. Tüb. Gen_20:9. We should amend our past faults without delay.—Schröder: (Luther) He who was before a king (Abimelech) is now a bishop who spreads among his subjects the fear and knowledge of God, so that they also should learn to fear God and honor his word. Here indeed the Sodomites, and those who dwelt in Gerar, are held in broad contrast.
Gen_20:12. (Museums: Concerning Sarah as the sister of Abraham: recognize hero the type of Christ and the Church. The Church is the sister and the bride of Christ; sister through God the Father, bride through the mystery of the incarnation, and the truth of his espousal, etc.)
Gen_20:15. While the Egyptian invites Abraham in a complimentary way out of his land, the Philistine says, Behold my land is before thee.—(Calvin): This distinction is due to the fact that the severely punished Pharoah experienced only fear, so that the presence of Abraham was intolerable. Abimelech, on the other hand, was, with the terror, at the same time comforted.—Passavant: Gen_20:11. Christians’ excuses are oftentimes worse than their faults.—But Abraham is the father of the faithful; God sees in him Isaac, the son of promise, conceived, born, reared in faith, etc.; he sees in him Jacob his servant, etc., Moses, Aaron, Joshua, but above all that one of the seed of David, Gal_3:16.—The forefather bore already in himself, that seed of faith upon the Son of God from which should bloom the new hosts of saints and righteous of the old and new covenant, as the dew drops from the womb of the morning (Psalms 110).—Schwenke: Thus the Lord knows how to make good what has been complicated, and endangered through human prudence.
Third Section.—Abraham’s intercession, the healing of Abimelech and his household. (Gen_20:17-18). Abraham believes still in the efficacy of intercession, although Sodom was destroyed notwithstanding his intercessory prayer.—The connection of intercession, with the receptivity of those to whom it relates.—Abraham as an intercessor for Sodom and for Gerar.—The healing of Abimelech an illustration of salvation, and leading to it.—Starke: A beautiful exchange between the worldly and spiritual state. That bestows gold and possessions, this recompenses with the knowledge of God and prayer.—Osiander: If God punishes this king with such serious earnestness and severity, who ignorantly had taken another man’s wife, how will they escape who knowingly and deliberately defame and dishonor other men’s wives and daughters?—Schröder: (Calvin.) Abraham arms and disarms the hand of God at the same time.—(Roos): Thus God does not forsake his own in their need, although there are not wanting faults on their side.—(Val. Hebberger: We know how to make what is good evil, since we are masters there, but how to make good again what is evil, that is the work of God.)—Because Abraham and Sarah should laugh, they must first weep sound repentance. The martyr-week ever precedes the Easter-week with Christians.
Footnotes:
[1][Gen_20:1.—הַנֶּגֶב. The region south of what was afterwards called Judah.—A. G.]
[2][Gen_20:7.—נָבִיא, from נבא, to cause to bubble up as a fountain. Keil, Delitzsch, and others derive it from a root נא and פא, to breathe, and thus make uabi to mean one inspired—who speaks that which is inbreathed of God.—A. G.]
[3][Gen_20:13.—הִּתְעוּ is plural in punctuation, agreeing grammatically with אֱלֹהִים.Vav, however, may be regarded as the third radical, and the verb may then really be singular. Murphy, p. 325.—A. G.]
[4][Gen_20:16.—נֹכָחַת, 2 pers. fem. sing. Niphal, an unusual form. See the Exegetical note.—A. G.]
[5][Gen_20:18.—Jehovah.—A. G.]
[6][The term, however, may mean, dead as to progeny, which is rendered probable by Gen_20:17. God healed Abimelech. Jacobus.—A G.]
[7][See Jer_27:18, referred to by Bush.—A. G.]
[8][Wordsworth suggests all three senses—that of a propitiation; of a provision for the purchase of a veil; and of an allusion to the usage of covering a bride with a veil, p. 92.—A. G.]
[9][If, with Baumgarten, and according to the accents, we connect the וְאֶת־כֹּל with the last word, the sense can only be: and all this has been done or given that thou mayest be righted or redressed, p. 220. So also Murphy.—A. G.]
[10][How thankful for the interference of God,—A. G.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my…
Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister--Fear of the people among whom he was, tempted him to equivocate. 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 Gen 12:13] --it was a distrust of God every way surprising, and it was calculated to produce injurious effects on the heathen around. Its mischievous tendency was not long in being developed.
Abimelech (father-king) . . . sent and took Sarah--to be one of his wives, in the exercise of a privilege claimed by Eastern sovereigns, already explained (see on Gen 12:15).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 ABRAHAM AND ABIMELECH, Gen_20:1-18.
ABRAHAM AND ABIMELECH, Gen_20:1-18.
1. Abraham journeyed from thence — Not impelled by fear, as Lot (Gen_19:30) when he went up out of Zoar, but probably impressed by the destruction of Sodom that he must not sojourn too long with any one heathen people.
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The south country — Hebrews, the Negeb. See on Gen_13:1.
Kadesh — On Trumbull’s identification of this place, see on Gen_14:7.
Shur — See on Gen_16:7. The name Shur means a wall, and was, perhaps, first given to the high ridge or wall of rock extending north and south through the western portion of the desert et-Tih. This whole north-western part of the peninsula of Sinai thus came to be called the wilderness of Shur. See on Exo_15:22.
Gerar — Rowlands discovered a valley and ruins, some three hours journey south of Gaza, bearing the name of Gerar, but the identification has not been sufficiently confirmed. He merely sojourned in Gerar as a stranger and pilgrim, while his more permanent dwelling (the abode of his great household and the place where his vast herds remained) was the open pasture lands between Kadesh and Shur.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1. from thence] This passage is evidently derived from…
1. from thence] This passage is evidently derived from some distinct source. As it ignores the previous section dealing with Lot, and the last reference to Abraham is in Gen_18:33, when he is at Mamre, the precise meaning of “from thence” must remain obscure.
the South] See note on Gen_12:9.
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between Kadesh and Shur] For these places, see Gen_14:7, Gen_16:7.
he sojourned in Gerar] This causes a difficulty. Gerar is the court of the king Abimelech. In Gen_26:1, Abimelech is king of the Philistines. Gerar has, therefore, been identified with a spot a few miles south of Gaza (Umm Gerar). This, however, is hardly a place of sojourn “between Kadesh and Shur.” Either, therefore, there is a lacuna between the two clauses of this verse, representing a journey from the Negeb into the Philistine region; or Gerar may be a place S.W. of Kadesh (Wady Gerur), whose king happened to have the same name as the Philistine king of Gerar in chap. 26. Of these alternatives the former is the more probable.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 (1) Abraham journeyed from thence.—That is, from Mamre, where…
XX.
ABRAHAM’S DENIAL OF HIS WIFE AT GERAR.
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(1) Abraham journeyed from thence.—That is, from Mamre, where he had so long halted, and which seems to have continued to be one of his homes. As he had been commanded to traverse the whole land (Gen_13:17-18), we need seek no reasons for his removal. It was the rule of his life to move from place to place, both on account of his cattle, and also because by so doing he was taking possession of the country. There were, nevertheless, certain places which were his head-quarters, such as Bethel, Mamre, and Beer-sheba.
The south country.—It is a proper name, the Negeb; see Note on Gen_12:9. For Kadesh, see Gen_16:14; for Shur, Gen_16:7; and for Gerar, Gen_10:19.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Genesis 20
Genesis 20
We have two distinct points in this chapter: first, the moral degradation to which the child of God sometimes subjects himself, in the view of the world; and, secondly, the moral dignity which always belongs to him in the view of God. Abraham again exhibits the dread of circumstances, which the heart can so easily understand. He sojourns in Gerar, and fears the men of that place. Judging that God was not there, he forgets that He is always with him. He seems to be more occupied with the men of Gerar than with the One who was stronger than they. Forgetting God’s ability to protect his wife, he has recourse to the same stratagem which, years before, he had adopted in Egypt. This is very admonitory. The father of the faithful was carried away, by taking his eye off God. He lost, for a little, his centre in God, and, therefore, gave way. How true it is, that we are only strong as we cling to God in the sense of our perfect weakness. So long as we are in the path of His appointment, nothing can harm us. Had Abraham simply leaned on God, the men of Gerar would not have meddled with him; and it was his privilege to have vindicated God’s faithfulness in the midst of the most appalling difficulties. Thus, too, he would have maintained his own dignity, as a man of faith.
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It is often a source of sorrow to the heart to mark how the children of God dishonour Him, and, as a consequence, lower themselves before the world, by losing the sense of His sufficiency for every emergency. So long as we live in the realisation of the truth, that all our springs are in God, so long shall we be above the world, in every shape and form. There is nothing so elevating to the whole moral being as faith: it carries one entirely beyond the reach of this world’s thoughts; for how can the men of the world, or even worldly minded Christians, understand the life of faith? Impossible: the springs on which it draws lie far away beyond their comprehension. They live on the surface of present things. So long as they can see what they deem a proper foundation for hope and confidence, so long they are hopeful and confident; but the idea of resting solely on the promise of an unseen God, they understand not. But the man of faith is calm in the midst of scenes in which nature can see nothing. Hence it is, that faith ever seems, in the judgement of nature, such a reckless, improvident, visionary thing. None but those, who know God, can ever approve the actings of faith, for none but they really understand the solid and truly reasonable ground of such actings.
In this chapter we find the man of God actually exposing himself to the rebuke and reproach of the men of the world, by reason of his actings, when under the power of unbelief. Thus it must ever be. Nothing but faith can impart true elevation to a man’s course and character. We may ,it is true, see some, who are naturally upright and honourable in their ways, yet nature’s uprightness and honour cannot be trusted: they rest on a bad foundation, and are liable to give way at any moment. It is only faith which can impart a truly elevated moral tone, because it connects the soul in living power with God, the only source of true morality. And it is a remarkable fact, that, in the case of all those whom God has graciously taken up, we see that, when off the path of faith, they sank even lower than other men. This will account for Abraham’s conduct in this part of his history.
But there is another point of much interest and value brought out here. We find that Abraham had harboured an evil thing for a number of years: be had, it seems, started upon his course with a certain reserve in his soul, which reserve was the result of his want of full, unqualified confidence in God. Had he been able fully to trust God in reference to Sarah, there would have been no need of any reserve or subterfuge whatever. God would have fenced her round about from every ill; and who can harm those, who are the happy subjects of His unslumbering guardianship? However, through mercy, Abraham is enabled to bring out the root of the whole matter - to confess and judge it thoroughly, and get rid of it. This is the true way to act. There can be no real blessing and power till every particle of leaven is brought forth into the light and there trampled under foot. God’s patience is exhaustless. He can wait. He can bear with us; but He never will conduct a soul to the culminating point of blessing and power, while leaven remains known and unjudged. Thus much as to Abimelech and Abraham. Let us now look at the moral dignity of the latter, in the view of God.
In the history of God’s people, whether we look at them as a whole, or as individuals, we are often struck with the amazing difference between what they are in God’s view, and what they are in the view of the world. God sees His people in Christ. He looks at them through Christ; and hence He sees them "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." They are as Christ is before God. They are perfected for ever, as to their standing in Christ. "They are not in the flesh but in the spirit."
But, in themselves, they are poor, feeble, imperfect, stumbling, inconsistent creatures; and, inasmuch as it is what they are in themselves, and that alone, that the world takes knowledge of, therefore it is that the difference seems so great between the divine and the human estimate.
Yet it is God’s prerogative to set forth the beauty, the dignity, and the perfection of His people. It is His exclusive prerogative, inasmuch as it is He Himself who has bestowed those things. They are only comely through the comeliness which He has put upon them; and it is, therefore, due to Him to declare what that comeliness is; and truly He does it in a manner worthy of Himself, and never more blessedly than when the enemy comes forth to injure, to curse, or accuse. Thus, when Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, Jehovah’s word is, "I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither have I seen perverseness in Israel." "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel. Again, when Satan stands forth to resist Joshua, the word is, "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan,.....is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" Thus He ever puts Himself between His people and every tongue that would accuse them. He does not answer the accusation by a reference to what His people are in themselves, or to what they are in the view of the men of this world, but to what He Himself has made them, and where He has set them.
Thus, in Abraham’s case, he might lower himself in the view of Abimelech, king of Gerar; and Abimelech might have to rebuke him, yet, when God comes to deal with the case, He says to Abimelech, "Behold, thou art but a dead man;" and of Abraham he says," He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee." Yes, with all "the integrity of his heart, and the innocency of his hands," the king of Gerar was "but a dead man;" and, moreover, he must be a debtor to the prayers of the erring and inconsistent stranger for the restoration of the health of his household. Such is the manner of God: He may have many a secret controversy with His child, on the ground of his practical ways; but directly the enemy enters a suit against him, Jehovah ever pleads His servant’s cause. "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye." "It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? No dart of the enemy can penetrate the shield, behind which the Lord has hidden the very feeblest lamb of His blood-bought flock. He hides His people in His pavilion, sets their feet upon the rock of ages, lifts their heads above their enemies round about, and fills their hearts with the everlasting joy of His salivation.
His name be praised for evermore!
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–7 And Abraham journeyed (vide Gen_12:9) from thence. Mamre. (Gen_18:1)…
And Abraham journeyed (vide Gen_12:9) from thence. Mamre. (Gen_18:1) In search of pasture, as on a previous occasion (Keil); or in consequence of the hostility of his neighbors (Calvin); or because he longed to escape from the scene of so terrible a calamity as he had witnessed (Calvin, Wilier, Murphy); or in order to benefit as many places and peoples as possible by his residence among them (A Lapide); or perhaps being impelled by God, who designed thereby to remind him that Canaan was not intended for a permanent habitation, but for a constant pilgrimage (Poole, Kalisch). Toward the south country. Ne-gob, the southern district of Palestine; (Gen_12:9 Gen_13:1) the central region of Judaea being called Hahor, or the Highlands; the eastern, towards the Dead Sea, Midhbar; and the western Shephelah (Lange). And dwelled between Kadesh and Shur vide, (Gen_16:14 Gen_16:7) and sojourned in Gerar vide. (Gen_10:19)
Vers. 1-18.
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Abraham in Gerar, or two royal sinners.
I THE SIN OF THE HEBREW PATRIARCH
1. An old sin repeated. "Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister." Twenty years before the same miserable equivocation had been circulated in Egypt. A sin once committed is not difficult to repeat, especially if its legitimate consequences, as in the case of Abraham and Sarah, have been mercifully averted. One is apt to fancy that a like immunity will attend its repetition.
2. A worthless lie propagated. "Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah." Designed for protection in both Egypt and Gerar, the ignoble expedient of the patriarch was in both places equally ineffectual. So does all sin tend to outwit itself, and in the end generally proves abortive in its designs.
3. A deliberate fraud practiced. As Abraham explained to Abimelech, it was no sudden impulse on which he acted, but a preconcerted scheme which he had put in operation. Intended for the extenuation of his fault, this was in reality an aggravation. Sin leisurely and knowingly gone about is ever more heinous than that into which the heart and will are surprised.
4. An unjustifiable suspicion entertained. All the preceding sins had their origin in what the event proved to be an altogether unwarranted estimate of Abimelech and his people. The patriarch said to himself, "Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife"s sake," without reflecting that he was not only deciding without evidence, but doing an injustice to the monarch and the people into whose land he was crossing.
Learn
1. How hard it is to lay aside one"s besetting sin. The character of the patriarch, otherwise so noble, appears to have had a natural bias towards deception.
2. How difficult it is to lead a life of faith. One would have thought that by this time every vestige of carnal policy would have been eliminated from the walk of Abraham.
3. How possible it is for an eminent saint to relapse into great sin. If Abraham illustrated the virtues, he likewise remarkably exemplified the weaknesses of God"s believing people.
4. How wrong it is to cherish and act upon uncharitable views of others. True religion always leans to the side of charity in judging of the characters of men.
II THE SIN OF THE HEATHEN PRINCE.
1. A common sin. The popularity of an action, though not sufficient to make it good, may serve, in some degree, to extenuate its guilt where it is wrong.
2. An unconscious sin. The narrative distinctly represents Abimelech as a prince who feared God and shrank from incurring his displeasure a character which all kings should study to possess. Abimelech himself claimed to have perpetrated no offence against the law of God in acting as he did, which shows that the voice of conscience always speaks according to its light. The avowal which he makes of his integrity is admitted by Jehovah as correct a proof that God judges men according to their privileges. Yet it was
3. A great sin. Implied in the Divine direction to seek the friendly intercession of the patriarch, it was admitted by Abimelech when once his mind was enlightened as to the true character of the deed he had committed.
See here
1. A lesson of charity concerning peoples and individuals outside the visible Church.
2. A proof that men are not necessarily free from guilt because their consciences fail to accuse them.
3. A good sign of true contrition, viz., the acknowledgment of sin when it is pointed out.
III GOD"S DEALINGS WITH THE PRINCE AND WITH THE PATRIARCH.
1. With the prince.
(1) Restraining grace. God withheld him from proceeding to further sin by doing injury to Sarah, the means employed being disease which was sent upon both the monarch and his house. So God frequently interposes by afflictive dispensations to prevent those who fear him from running into sins of which perhaps they are not aware.
(2) Illuminating grace. Appearing in a dream, Elohim disclosed the true character of his offence, and quickened his conscience to apprehend the guilt and danger which had been incurred. Sincere souls who fear God and are faithful to the light they have are never left to wander in darkness, but in God"s time and way are mysteriously guided to the path of safety and Psa_25:12-14.
(3) Direct ing grace. Finding the heathen monarch s heart susceptible of good impressions, God further counseled him how to act in order to obtain forgiveness, viz., to solicit the mediating services of Abraham, who in this matter was a type of heaven"s great High Priest and Intercessor. (Heb_7:25) Cf. God"s way of dealing with erring men. (Job 32)
2. With the patriarch.
(1) Protection. A second time he shielded.his erring servant from the consequences of his own folly. A mark of God"s tender pity towards sinful men.
(2) Reproof. Besides being much needed, it was exceedingly severe, and must have been deeply humiliating. God often permits his people to be rebuked by the world for their good.
(3) Honor. God is ever better to his people than their deserts. Not only did he direct Abimelech to ask the help of Abraham, but he constituted Abraham the medium of bestowing blessings on Abimelech. So does God honor Abraham"s seed, Christ, by exalting him in the world"s sight as the one Mediator between God and man; and Abraham"s children, the Church, by making them the instruments of drawing down blessings on the world.
Learn
1. That God"s dealings with sinning men are always adapted to the peculiar characters of their respective sins.
2. That God never chastises men, either by affliction or rebuke, for his pleasure, but for their profit.
3. That God never pardons sin without bestowing blessing on the sinner.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is…
Gen_20:1-7
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister
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Abrahams repetition of his old fault; the power of former temptations
I.
THEIR POWER MAY SLUMBER LONG. In this instance, twenty-four years. Never safe from invasion of temptations once yielded to.
II. CIRCUMSTANCES MAY ARISE WHICH WILL REVIVE THEIR STRENGTH.
1. Reaction after great spiritual excitement.
2. Experience of social corruption.
III. THE RESULTS OF YIELDING AGAIN ARE MOST DISASTROUS.
1. The distress of anxiety.
2. Possible loss to ourselves.
3. The shame of reproof from worldly men.
IV. THOSE WHO FALL UNDER THEM ARE ONLY DELIVERED BY THE SPECIAL INTERFERENCE OF GOD.
1. The infirmities of believers appeal to the Divine compassion.
2. GOD is concerned to maintain the promises made to faith. (T. H.Leale.)
A bit of the old nature
I. His CONDUCT WAS VERY COWARDLY. He risked Sarahs virtue, and the purity of the promised seed.
II. IT WAS ALSO VERY DISHONOURING TO GOD.
III. IT ALSO STOOD OUT IN POOR RELIEF AGAINST THE BEHAVIOUR OF ABIMELECH. Lessons:
1. We are never safe, so long as we are in this world.
2. We have no right to throw ourselves into the way of temptation which has often mastered us.
3. We may be encouraged by Gods treatment of Abrahams sin. (F. B.Meyer, B. A.)
Abrahams artifice with Abimelech
I. THE ATROCIOUS NATURE OF THE SIN OF ADULTERY, WHICH CONSISTS IN VIOLATING CONNUBIAL RIGHTS, IS HERE REPRESENTED IN A VERY STRIKING MANNER. Though Abraham supposed that there was no sense of GOD and religion among the people of Gerar, yet he seems not to have entertained the least suspicion that they would insult the honour of his family, either by rape or seduction. His apprehension was that they would kill him for his wifes sake. His whole conduct, in this and the former instance, is grounded on the supposition that a ruffian, who is bloody enough to assassinate an innocent man, yet may not be so brutal as to violate a married woman. This crime has been held in detestation by almost all nations, in all ages of the world. By the ancient laws of Draco and Solon, the husband of an adulteress, if he detected her in her guilt, might immediately kill both the criminals, or stigmatise them, or put out their eyes, or might exact of the adulterer a heavy fine. But, by the law of Moses, they were both to be put to death with public infamy; and, in ordinary cases, there was no dispensation.
II. THAT A SENSE OF VIRTUE AND RELIGION IS SOMETIMES FOUND WHERE WE LEAST EXPECT IT. How different was the true character of the people in Gerar, from that which Abrahams jealousy had drawn for them! There was much of the fear of God among them, though he had imagined there was none at all.
III. THAT THE INDULGENCE OF TOO BAD AN OPINION OF MANKIND IS OF DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCE TO OURSELVES AND OTHERS. Had Abraham entertained a just opinion of the prince and people of Gerar, or taken pains to become acquainted with them, before he listened to the secret whispers of jealousy, he would have shunned so dangerous an artifice as to disguise his relation to his wife, and would have prevented the mischiefs which ensued, and the still greater mischiefs which threatened his own family and the house of Abimelech. It was a special Divine interposition which averted consequences of the most serious nature.
IV. THAT IN THE BEST MEN THERE MAY BE GREAT INFIRMITIES AND FAILINGS. Even they whose faith is strong must guard against the prevailing influence of fear, and call into exercise that confidence in God which is the best security against the terrors of the world. In times of apparent danger, and threatening temptation, they have need to be peculiarly watchful. We are never so safe as when we invariably follow the path of virtue and integrity. He who walks uprightly, walks surely; but he who perverts his way, shall fall. Duplicity and artifice, to avoid an evil, will but embarrass us the more. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
Abrahams sin repeated
His sin in so speaking seems to be much greater than it was before. For--
1. He had narrowly escaped the first time. The repetition of the same fault looked like presuming upon Providence.
2. Sarah was now with child, and that of a son of promise; he might, therefore, surely have trusted God to preserve their lives in the straight-forward path of duty. (A. Fuller.)
Abimelechs plea accepted
The answer of God admits his plea of ignorance, and suggests that he was not charged with having yet sinned, but threatened with death in case he persisted now that he was informed of the truth. It is intimated, however, that if he had come near her he should in so doing have sinned against God, whether he had signed against Abraham or not; and this perhaps owing to her being in a state of pregnancy, of which, in that case, he could not have been ignorant. We see in this account--
1. That absolute ignorance excuses from guilt; but this does not prove that all ignorance does so, or that it is in itself excusable. Where the powers and means of knowledge are possessed, and ignorance arises from neglecting to make use of them, or from aversion to the truth, it so far from excusing that it is in itself sinful.
2. That great as the wickedness of men is upon the face of the earth, it would be much greater, were it not that God by His providence in innumerable instances withholds them from it. The conduct of intelligent beings is influenced by motives; and all motives which are presented to the mind are subject to His disposal. (A. Fuller.)
Abrahams reaction after his high spiritual experiences
Consider this repetition of his old fault with regard to--
I. Its causes.
1. Recent experience of the corruption of the world.
2. False prudence.
3. Exaggerated confidence.
4. The brotherly relation to Sarah.
5. The probable issue of the case in Egypt.
II. Its natural results.
1. Anxiety and danger.
2. Shame before a heathens princely court.
III. Its gracious issue through the interference of God. (Lange.)
Abraham reproved for denying his wife
Consider--
I. The offence which he committed. A very grievous sin. Look at--
1. The principle from which it sprang--loss of faith.
2. Its natural and necessary tendencies.
3. The fact of its having been before practised by him, and reproved.
II. The rebuke given him on account of it. In this we observe much that was--
1. Disgraceful to Abraham.
2. Honourable to Abimelech:
(1) Moderation.
(2) Equity.
(3) Virtue. Application--
(a) Shun every species of deception.
(b) Guard against relapses into sin.
(c) Be thankful to God for His protecting grace.
(d) Strive to the uttermost to cancel the effects of your transgressions. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
Abraham and Abimelech
The thing that is most remarkable in the whole story is that God should apparently have taken Abrahams part instead of humbling and punishing him in the sight of the heathen.
1. Observe, first of all, that if the Divine purpose was to be turned aside by the fault or blemish found in individual character, the Divine government of man is at an end, and human progress is an impossibility. Adam failed, so did Noah, so Abraham, so did Lot. It was not Adam that sinned, or Noah, or Abraham, it was human nature that sinned. Pharaoh seemed to be a better man than Abraham, but he was not so in reality. You say that Abimelech was better than Abraham; now let me ask you what you know about Abimelech? Nothing but what is stated in this chapter. Very well Yea are so far right. You have seen Abimelech at his best and you have seen Abraham at his worst, and then you have rushed to a conclusion! This is not the right way to read history; certainly it is not the right way to read the Bible. We are not to set act against act, but life against life. This, then, is the point at which I find rest when I am disturbed by the evident painful immortality of illustrious Bible characters, viz., human nature has never been perfect in all its qualities, energies, and services; the perfection of human nature can be wrought out only by longcontinued and severe probation; in choosing instruments for the representation of His will and the execution of His purposes, God has always chosen men who were best fitted on the whole for such ministry, though in some particulars they have disastrously and pitiably failed. When I think I could have improved Gods plan, the mistake is mine, because my vision is dim and I never can see more than a very limited section of any human character.
2. In the next place consider, knowing human nature as we do, how beneficial a thing it was to the great men themselves to be shown now and again that they were imperfect, and that they were only great and strong as they were good--as they were true to God. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The exact truth
Two young masons were building a brick wall--the front wall of a high house. One of them, in placing a brick, discovered that it was a little thicker on one side than the other. It will make your wall untrue, Ben, the other said. Pooh! answered Ben; what difference will such a trifle as that make? youre too particular. My mother, replied he, taught me that truth is truth, and ever so little an untruth is a lie, and a lie is no trifle. Oh, said Ben, :hats all very well; but Im not lying, and have no intention of lying. Very true; but you make your wall tell a lie, and I have read that a lie in ones work is like a lie in his character--it will show itself sooner or later, and bring harm, if not ruin. Ill risk it in this case, answered Ben, and he worked away, laying more brick, carrying the wall up higher, till the close of the day, when they gave up work and went home. The next morning they went to resume their work, when, behold, the lie had wrought out the result of all lies. The wall, getting a little slant from the untrue brick, had got more and more untrue as it got higher, and at last, in the night, had toppled over. Just so with ever so little an untruth in your character; it grows more and more untrue if you permit it to remain, till it brings sorrow and ruin. Tell, act, and live the truth.
God orders our journeys
A stage coach was passing through the interior of Massachusetts, on the way to Boston. It was a warm summer day, and the coach was filled with passengers, all impatient to arrive at the city at an early hour in the evening. The excessive heat rendered it necessary for the driver to spare his horses more than usual. Most of the passengers were fretting and complaining that he did not urge his horses along faster. But one gentleman sat in the corner of the stage calm and quiet. The irritation, which was destroying the happiness of all the others, seemed not to disturb his feelings in the least. At last the coach broke down as they were ascending a long steep hill, and the passengers were compelled to alight, and travel some distance on foot under the rays of the burning sun. This new interruption caused a general burst of vexatious feelings. All the party, with the exception of the gentleman alluded to, toiled up the hill, irritated and complaining. He walked along, good-humoured and happy, and endeavouring by occasional pleasantry of remark to restore good humour to the party. It was known that this gentleman, who was extensively engaged in mercantile concerns, had business which rendered it necessary that he should be in the city at an early hour. The delay was consequently to him a serious inconvenience. Yet, while all the rest of the party were ill-humoured and vexed, he alone was untroubled. At last one asked how it was that he retained his composure under such vexatious circumstances? The gentleman replied that he could have no control over the circumstances in which he was then placed; that he had commended himself and his business to the protection of the Lord, and that if it were the Lords will that he should not enter Boston at as early an hour as he desired, it was his duty patiently and pleasantly to submit. With these feelings he was patient and submissive, and cheerful. The day, which to the rest of the party was rendered disagreeable by vexation and complaint, was by him passed in gratitude and enjoyment. And when, late in the evening, he arrived in the city with a serene mind, he was prepared to engage in his duties.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Gen_20:1. Kadesh; Shur; Gerar.] All lying near the southern…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Gen_20:1. Kadesh; Shur; Gerar.] All lying near the southern borders of Canaan. Gerar was the chief city of the Philistines. It is now called Khirbet-el-Gerar, i.e., the ruins of Gerar. The site is still pointed out near Gaza, where traces of the ancient city remain.
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Gen_20:2. Abimelech.] Father of the king. Probably the standing title of the kings of Gerar. Took Sarah, i.e., into his harem.
Gen_20:3. Behold, thou art but a dead man.] “Thou art dying, or on the point of dying, if thou persist. A deadly plague was already in the body of Abimelech, on account of Sarah.” (Murphy.) Perhaps it was merely intended that he was dead as regards progeny. (Gen_20:17.)
Gen_20:5. In the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands.] Heb. “In the perfection, sincerity, or simplicity of my heart,” etc. Comp. Psa_26:6; Psa_73:13.
Gen_20:7. He is a prophet.] One who speaks on behalf of God. “Enoch had prophesied before this, as we learn from Jude, and Noah had uttered a prophetic blessing; but Abraham is the first one in the O.T. who is called a prophet.” (Jacobus.) He shall pray for thee. Intercession was a special work of prophets. (Jer_27:18. Compare also Jer_14:11; Jer_15:1.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_20:1-7
ABRAHAM’S REPETITION OF HIS OLD FAULT: THE POWER OF FORMER TEMPTATIONS
I. Their power may slumber long. Twenty-four years had passed away since Abraham committed this same fault. He then distrusted the king and people of Egypt, as he does Abimelech in this instance. One would have thought that so long an experience of such extraordinary favours, on the part of God, would have so strengthened the faith of Abraham as to make him superior to all temptations which imply distrust in his Divine Director. He must have seen, by this time, that God had a way of deliverance when all human resources were at an end; and, therefore, that all carnal expedients were vain. Surely, the temptation to employ devices which had been proved to fail would now have no power over him! But this incident teaches us that the force of this old temptation was not destroyed, but only slumbered for awhile. We are never safe from the invasion of temptations which have once vanquished us. They have discovered our weak part, and this must always be a source of danger—a chronic infirmity of the soul which is but imperfectly healed.
II. Circumstances may arise which will revive their strength. Abraham was again placed in similar circumstances to those in which he had once fallen, and the old temptation assaults him with all its former strength. Science considers two kinds of energy, one in which it is active, and the other potential. The energy of a cannon ball is active: we can see the effects of it; but the energy of a heavy body in an elevated position, or that which slumbers in gunpowder, is potential. There it is, though to all appearance most harmless; and by fitting means can in a moment be called into action. Such is the power of old temptations. They watch us like a tiger his prey, silently and in ambush, and then spring upon us in an unguarded moment. In the particular instance of Abraham there were several causes which, at this time, contributed to render him weak against the assault of his old temptation.
1. Reaction after great spiritual excitement. He had seen that terrible instance of God’s judgment upon the cities of the plain—his kinsman scarcely saved—silence, desolation, and death reigning over a land once beautiful and full of busy life. The sight of these things must have filled his heart with conflicting emotions. The kind of excitement hence arising may strengthen the soul, but it is that intermittent strength which is succeeded by intervals of depression. Hence it is that retirement and watchfulness are most necessary at such times. The soul is too weak to trust herself abroad—to go out into the open field of conflict. The man out of whom Jesus had cast the devils wished to continue with Him. He was transported with joy and gratitude—in a most excited state of feeling, and ready to make any sacrifice. But Jesus discouraged his over-confident zeal, and told him that a state of retirement, the quiet and obscure ways of life, would be best for him. “Return to thy own house, and show how great things God hath done unto thee.” (Luk_8:38-39.)
2. Experience of social corruption. Abraham had seen all around him the worst forms of wickedness. He might well be tempted to consider that no truth, no high justice, could be due to those who were so irrecoverably bad. Such crooked ways of iniquity could only be combated by the cunning of the serpent. Abraham thought that the people were extremely wicked, and devoid of all religious thought and feeling. (Gen_20:11.) He was under the temptation that he must not deal with them upon high principle and an open sincerity. Thus the very corruptions of mankind are dangerous to the virtues of saints. Besides, Abraham might reflect that he had escaped out of his former difficulty in Egypt with little hurt to himself, perhaps advantage, on the whole. The scheme had succeeded once—at least it had brought him no real damage—and why should he not try it again? The experience of long years had not shown him that mankind was growing better; it rather seemed as if corruption was increasing more and more. The state of society was such as to tempt even a righteous man to renounce ideal truth and integrity, and employ a compromised or qualified veracity.
III. The results of yielding again are most disastrous. Abraham found to his sorrow that his policy did not succeed, but only brought him into trouble.
1. The distress of anxiety. After Abraham had made the representation that Sarah was his sister, how anxious he must have been as to the success of that device in giving them both any real protection. Carnal policies of this kind, while on trial, fill men with anxiety, and should they fail they bring confusion. Whatever is of doubtful virtue may well make us anxious, however good the end may be after which we seek.
2. Possible loss to ourselves. There is always some moral loss. But we may suffer temporal loss. That very good thing for which Abraham contrived—the safety of his wife—he failed to secure. It would have been better for him had he trusted in God, and left all events with Him. It is only by faith that we can fight an honourable and successful battle with the world, for the moment we attempt to fight the world with its own weapons we lose dignity and ensure failure. We must conduct this strife “lawfully.”
3. The shame of reproof from worldly men. (Gen_20:9-10; Gen_20:16.) There are men of the world possessed of some strong moral principles, of great natural sagacity, and who are therefore keen to discover faults in others. They expect consistency in those who make a high profession, and are not sparing in indignant censure when they do not find it. When they catch a saint of God using doubtful means they quickly assume a moral superiority, and thus put him to shame.
IV Those who fall under them are only delivered by the special interference of God. Through all his faults God had a regard unto His servant. He was still His “prophet,” the interpreter of His will, the intercessor with Him on behalf of sinful men. He was the representative of faith in a faithless world; and, according to the flesh, the beginning of that line along which God’s purpose of love and mercy should move towards full accomplishment. Therefore God had a special regard unto him, and miraculously interfered to preserve him from the consequences of his fault. God always deals the same way, in principle, with His tried servants.
1. The infirmities of believers appeal to the Divine compassion. God knows the strength of our temptations, the difficulty we have to stand upright in this sinful world. He has regard unto those who have fought bravely against its evils, who have striven hard to obey their heavenly calling. He will put a difference between those whose faith shows occasional infirmity and weakness, and those in whom faith is wanting altogether. The attainments and habits of a life of godliness help the soul to return after the lapses of her infirmity. They appeal to the compassion of God, who is not unmindful of His former mercies. If, as the God of nature, He has regard to the work of His hands, surely, as the God of grace, He will have regard to the work of His new creation.
2. God is concerned to maintain the promises made to faith. A son was promised to Abraham who was to perpetuate the race from which Messiah should spring. The time of fulfilment was now drawing so near that Abraham by his conduct, in this instance, was endangering that promise. But God was guiding all events, and accomplishing His will and purpose. The interests of a magnificent future had to be considered as well as those which belonged personally to Abraham. Promises were made to the patriarch’s faith, and God delivered him for His honour. And even in the case of saints whose lives are obscure, and who are not called to take the chief parts in history, yet so many important interests are bound up in them, that the Divine grace is rich in resources to complete their salvation.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_20:1. Abraham removed from the doomed district, for it was painful for him to look upon the desolations of God’s anger. The contemplation of acts of Divine judgment is awful and terrible, even though our faith in the righteousness of them may be strong.
Abraham journeyed from thence, either as grieved at the sight of Sodom, or as annoyed by the ill air thereof, or as loathing Lot’s incest, or driven out by famine, or desirous of doing good to many. Whatever it was that occasioned his removal, we find him ever and anon journeying from one place and sojourning in another. God’s people are a brood of travellers. This was Abram the Hebrew, of Heber, which signifieth pilgrim or stranger. They look towards Heaven as their home, as Ulysses is said to do towards Ithaca, as a bird looks to her nest on the highest rocks.—(Trapp).
He had now sojourned many years in the Plains of Mamre (ch. Gen_13:18, Gen_18:1), and he had seen much of the Lord’s goodness, as well as of the Lord’s terror, there. But still greater things await him ere his pilgrimage finally closes. The last stage of his earthly journey is to be the most signally blessed and the most remarkably tried of all. He passes, therefore, now into a new scene, where, in new circumstances, he is to see the salvation of God.—(Candlish).
Gen_20:2. Lies that are not altogether such, but have some truth mixed up with them, are the most dangerous to the interests of mankind.
It is impossible to acquit Abraham of the sin of gross unbelief. For the space of twenty-five years he had experienced the faithfulness and loving-kindness of his God. He had recently received the promise that he should have a son by Sarah, who should be the progenitor of the Messiah. But on coming to Gerar, his heart fails him for fear that the people will kill him in order to gain possession of his wife. This was a practical distrust in the protection of Jehovah. In what had God failed him that he should begin now to doubt of His faithfulness and power? Besides, it ought to have occurred to him that he had once before been guilty of the same dissimulation, and had been reproved for it. The repetition of so gross an offence, after such a warning and such a deliverance, increased its sinfulness a hundredfold.—(Bush).
How difficult it is, even for the best of saints, to forego the suggestions and guiding of their own wisdom and to trust entirely in God!
The calamity from which Abraham sought to shield his wife by sinful evasion fell upon her. Thus was he chastened for his evil counsel. All devices arising from practical distrust in God must fail, and bring their penalties upon all who have recourse to them.
This is the second time he thus sinned. So Jehoshaphat was twice taken tardy in Ahab’s amity (2Ch_19:2; 2Ch_20:37); Jonah twice reproved for rebellion; and John, for angel-worship; Samson, twenty years after he had loved the Philistine woman, goes down to Gaza, and went into Delilah (Jdg_15:20; Jdg_16:1). But what shall we say to that example of the Apostles (Luk_22:24), amongst whom “there was a strife who should be accounted the greatest?” And this was not the first, but the third time they had thus offended by ambition. But the last time most unseasonably, after that He had foretold His passion to follow within two days. See the incredible perverseness of corrupt nature! How strongly do the best still smell of the old cask, taste of the old stock, though ingrafted into Christ, and though poured from vessel to vessel (Joh_5:14). “And this have ye done again,” saith the Lord (Mal_2:13). A great aggravation, as numbers added to numbers, are first ten times more, and then a hundred, and then a thousand. “How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert” (Psa_78:40).—(Trapp.)
Gen_20:3. The crisis was serious, and worthy of the special interference of God. Miracles are not recorded in Scripture as having been performed on frivolous occasions, as if intended merely to astonish. God interposes when the time is momentous.
The evil that men propose to do has often a gracious issue, for God interferes that He may prevent sin. We know not how much of the Divine dealings with men have this special object in view.
In the night sleep, the spirit of revelation comes nearer to the heathen, as is shown in the dreams of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. It is a medium of revelation also for children (Joseph, in the old covenant), and for labourers with the hand (Joseph, in the new covenant); and the prophetic disposition, enduring into the night or extending itself through its hours (Isaac, Jacob, Paul). Moreover, Pharaoh’s butler and baker (ch. Gen_40:8); the Midianites (Jdg_7:13-15); the wife of Pilate (Mat_27:19, compare Wis_18:17-19), had significant dreams.—(Lange.)
Evil is overruled for good. Abraham’s fault procured for Abimelech the advantage of a Divine visitation; which, though marked by severity, was kind in intent and issue.
The king thought he was innocent, but God interposed to show the true bearing of his conduct. So Saul on his way to Damascus thought he was doing God service, but the Divine voice suddenly alarmed him with a view of the real tendency and meaning of the act in which he was engaged.
Man’s wisdom leads him into a pit, and God’s wisdom must draw him out. (Fuller.)
Gen_20:4. How carefully are all the essential particulars regarding the genealogy of the Messiah preserved in the sacred records! The Holy Spirit marks this fact lest anyone should say that Isaac was the son of Abimelech.
Wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? A reference, probably, to the recent event of Sodom’s overthrow, which must have greatly impressed the surrounding country. It is as if he had said, “I am aware that thou hast slain a nation notorious for its filthy and unnatural crimes, but we are not such a nation, and in the present case all that has been done was done in perfect ignorance; surely thou wilt not slay the innocent as if they were guilty.” The language, evidently carries with it the implication, which is abundantly warranted elsewhere in the Scripture, that from the close connection existing between them the sins of rulers were often visited upon their people. See this illustrated in the case of David (1Ch_21:14; 1Ch_21:17).—(Bush.)
A heathen king knows how to address the Supreme. Thus the knowledge of the true God had not at this time entirely perished from among the Gentiles.
Gen_20:5. The servants of God stand reproved by a heathen king.
Abimelech vindicates his conduct by undeniable facts which (to say the least) partly justify it.
With this example before us it is not too much to believe that some among the heathen live according to the dictates of conscience.
The saints of God often fail in those very graces and virtues for which they are the most remarkable. Abraham was famous for his faith, and Sarah for not being “afraid with any amazement” (1Pe_3:6), and yet they both manifest distrust and fear.
Gen_20:6. God admits the integrity of this heathen king. He had not committed that foul crime of which he was here in danger. Men who, as regards the whole law of God, are sinners, may yet be innocent of some particular forms of transgression.
1. The reason why he could yet claim innocence of “the great transgression “was God’s restraining power and grace.
2. What a hell on earth would there be but for God’s various restraints in conscience, the Scripture, the Church, the civil law, education, and society, and, most of all, the Holy Ghost.
3. How thankful should every man be for God’s restraints.
4. What infinite need have we of a Saviour from sin.
Augustine says: “We see a sin is done against God when it is in the eyes of men of small moment, because they treat lightly mere sins of the flesh.” (Psa_51:3.)—(Jacobus.)
Who that knows anything of his own heart is not conscious that he has at some times tampered with sin, and laid such snares for his own feet that nothing but God’s grace and unlooked-for interference has preserved him!—(Bush.)
Gen_20:7. Wrong may be done even when we have not reached the limit of actual transgression.
We are only safe when we cut off the occasion of sin, and place ourselves in the condition of the least danger.
Abimelech had sinned against one who was the ambassador of the Heavenly King—both the aggravation of his offence and the ground of his hope of pardon.
Life and death hang upon our treatment of the message of God’s prophets.
As with every sacrifice there was incense, so should every ministerial duty he performed with prayer. St. Paul begins his epistles with prayer, and proceeds and ends in like manner. What is it that he would have every one of his Epistles stamped with his own hand, but prayer for all his people? (2Th_3:17-18.)—(Trapp.)
Abraham is here designated by the Lord a prophet. This is a step in advance of all his previous spiritual attainments. A prophet is God’s spokesman, who utters with authority certain of the things of God. (Exo_7:1; Exo_4:15.) This implies two things:
1. The things of God are known only to him, and therefore must be communicated by him.
2. The prophet must be enabled of God to announce in correct terms the things made known to him. These things refer not only to the future, but in general to all such matters as fall within the purpose and procedure of God. They may even include otherwise known or knowable by man, so far as these are necessary to the exposition of the Divine will. Now Abraham has heretofore received many communications from God. But this did not constitute him a prophet. It is the divinely authorised utterance of new truth which raises him to this rank. And Abraham’s first exercise in prophecy is not speaking to men of God, but to God for men. He shall pray for thee. The prophetic and the priestly offices go together in the Father of the Faithful. These dignities belong to him not from any absolute merit, but from his call to be the holder of the promise and the father of that seed to whom the promises were made.—(Murphy.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The true fear of God was at that moment…
Gen 20:11
The true fear of God was at that moment in Abimelech’s heart, and not in Abraham’s; it was Abimelech who was playing the Christian part, that of the child of the light and of the day; Abraham for the moment was the child of fear, darkness, and night.
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I. Consider first the origin of the habit of harsh judgment. There are two main sources from which it springs. (1) The first a heathen Roman can illustrate for us: "With a great sum obtained I this freedom" (Act 22:27-28). The thing has cost us much; we feel it is hard to believe that it can be widely shared. Abraham had made a terrible sacrifice to assure his calling. As for those easy, jovial, prosperous heathen, surely the fear of God was not there. (2) A second source of this harshness of judgment is the predominance in all of us of the natural aristocratic principle over the Christian principle of communion. Men naturally believe in election. But with rare exceptions, they naturally believe themselves to be the elect. It is hard indeed to believe that a private possession gains instead of loses by being shared by all mankind.
II. The histories of Scripture are a perpetual warning against narrow and selfish judgments of men. It is as if the Spirit had resolved that the virtues of those outside the pale should be kept clearly before the eyes of men. God is no respecter of persons, and He keeps hold in ways, of which we little dream, of the most unlikely human hearts.
III. The true Christian policy in judging mankind: (1) let your personal fellowship be based on the clear explicit manifestation of that which is in tune with your higher life and Christ’s; (2) as for those who are without, believe that God is nearer to them than you wot of, and has more to do with them than you dream.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 402.
References: Gen 20—Parker, vol. i., p. 226; R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. i., p. 336.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Abraham at Gerar
Abraham at Gerar
1. Abraham leaves Mamre (Hebron) for Gerar, SW. of Philistia. It seems from Gen_21:34 that he remained in that district for some years.
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2. She is my sister] Twenty years earlier Abraham had used the same device in Egypt and now again he incurs a rebuke from one outside the Covenant. See Gen_12:11-20 and notes. Abimelech] perhaps, 'Molech is my father,' in honour of the false god. Cp. Abijah, 'Jehovah is my father.'
4. Wilt thou slay also a righteous nation] Abimelech's people, at all events, had not been guilty of any sin.
5. In the integrity of my heart] Abimelech was 'not consciously violating any of his own rules of morality.' Had he known that Sarah was Abraham's wife he would not have taken her into his harem.
7. He is a prophet] i.e. one to whom God reveals His will, and who in turn declares it to men; and so one who can mediate between God and man, as in this case: see on Exo_7:1.
11-13. Abraham explains that he was only following an arrangement made with his wife when they first came among the licentious Canaanites.
12. Cp. Gen_12:13. Sarah was daughter of Terah by another wife, and so was halfsister to Abraham. It is thought that these marriages between relatives in early days were partly intended to keep the blood of the family or tribe pure and unmixed.
16. Thy brother] ironical. Behold, he is, etc.] RV 'Behold, it is for thee a covering of the eyes to all that are with thee; and in respect of all' (MG or, 'before all men') 'thou art righted.' Apparently this means that the gift was to render those with Sarah willing to overlook the wrong to which she had been exposed.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 20 Abraham in Gerar
CHAPTER 20 Abraham in Gerar
1. Abraham in Gerar (Gen 20:1)
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2. Second denial of Sarah (Gen 20:2)
3. God’s dealing with Abimelech (Gen 20:3-7)
4. Abimelech and Abraham (Gen 20:8-18)
Note Abraham’s going down to Egypt in chapter 12 and now going to Gerar and denying again Sarah. In chapter 26 Isaac goes also to Gerar and denies Rebekah. It shows what the flesh is.
But Abraham is greatly honored by the Lord. The Lord called him a prophet. Abraham prayed and God healed Abimelech.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Sarah Again in Danger
Sarah Again in Danger
v. 1. And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. From the grove of Mamre at or near Hebron Abraham gradually journeyed, with all his possessions, to the extreme southern part of Canaan, very likely in search of better pasturage. The region where he tented was, roughly speaking, between Kadesh and Shur, and in his wanderings he encamped also at Gerar, in the land of the Philistines.
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v. 2. And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, She is my sister; and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. As in Egypt, Gen 12:13, Abraham did not tell the exact and complete truth when he stated that Sarah was his sister. So the king of Gerar, whose standing title was Abimelech, acted in good faith when he added her to his harem. Either the transformation worked in Sarah as a result of God’s promise had renewed her youth, or Abimelech found it to his advantage to be related to the rich Abraham by marriage.
v. 3. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. God prevents the greater sin which might have happened as a result of Abraham’s weakness. Appearing to Abimelech in a dream by night, a form of communication which He often adopted, the Lord told him: Behold, thou art destined to die. Sarah was not free to be married: she was literally under her husband as the head of the household: she was a married woman.
v. 4. But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, Lord, wilt Thou slay also a righteous nation?
v. 5. Said he not unto me, She is my sister? And she, even she herself, said, He is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and ithis of my hands have I done this. It is not only the transgression in deed which makes a person guilty in the sight of God, but even an intention that may result in evil without the knowledge of the person. The majority of the sins of Christians are committed in ignorance. In Abimelech’s case, where the Sixth Commandment had not yet been broken in deed, he defends himself by referring to the plain statements of Abraham and Sarah, on the basis of which he had acted in good faith. Surely the Lord would not slay a people in spite of its righteousness, since he had acted in the guilelessness of his heart and in the purity of his hands; he had not knowingly polluted either his heart or his hands.
v. 6. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me; therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. The Lord accepted the excuse of Abimelech, incidentally telling him, however, that the sickness which had prevented the king from consummating the supposed marriage had been inflicted from above, to prevent a greater wrong from being committed. Thus the Lord makes use even of misery and tribulation to keep His children from sin and transgression.
v. 7. Now, therefore, restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live; and if thou restore her not, know that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine. If, after this revelation, Abimelech had persisted in keeping Sarah, his sin would have been one of malice, and death would have been the certain retribution, not only his own death, but that of his whole family. By telling Abimelech that he would remain alive only by virtue of the intercession of Abraham, who was one of His own prophets, the Lord showed that He knew the king to be capable of true moral understanding. It is a wise person that permits himself to be governed by God’s directions after some stumble or mistake.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6 This is a desert region on the eastern border…
Shur
This is a desert region on the eastern border of Egypt. (See: How to Translate Names)
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sent for Sarah and took her
"made his men go get Sarah and bring her to him"
God came to Abimelech
"God appeared to Abimelech"
Behold
"pay attention, because what I am about to say is both true and important: "
you are a dead man
This is a strong way of saying the king will die. AT: "you will certainly die soon" or "I will kill you" (See: Idiom)
a man's wife
"a married woman"
translationWords
Abraham
Negev
Kadesh
alien
Gerar
Sarah
Abimelech
God
dream
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 20:1-18 This second “sister story” in Genesis (cp. 12:10-20)…
20:1-18 This second “sister story” in Genesis (cp. 12:10-20) occurred shortly before Sarah became pregnant with Isaac (ch 21). On both occasions, God protected Abraham and Sarah’s marriage in purity for the sake of the covenant promises. Participation in God’s plan requires separation from worldly corruption. • This story took place in the Promised Land; it showed Israel how God intervened in people’s lives to fulfill his plan, how God continued to protect them against threats from other tribes, and how God used his chosen people to mediate his relationship with the nations. • God’s preventing the destruction of Abraham’s marriage by adultery reminded the Israelites to keep their marriages morally and racially pure (Ezra 9:1-4; Neh 13:23-27; Mal 2:10-17); they should not allow any opportunity for temptation (Exod 20:14, 17; Lev 20:10; 21:13-15). Adultery would eventually destroy the covenant and the covenant people.
20:1 Gerar was near the coast in Philistine land, about twelve miles south of Gaza and fifty miles southwest of Hebron.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.