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.”
Parallel Translations
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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.”
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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 innocency of my hands have I done this.
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Said he not himself unto me: She is my sister? and she, even she herself said: He is my brother. In the simplicity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this.'
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Genesis 20:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 9:4 As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances;
- Psalms 7:8 Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.
- Joshua 22:22 “The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, the Mighty One, God, Yahweh, he knows; and Israel shall know: if it was in rebellion, or if in trespass against Yahweh (don’t save us today),
- 2 Kings 20:3 “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
- 1 Chronicles 29:17 I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. Now I have seen with joy your people, who are present here, offer willingly to you.
- Job 33:9 ‘I am clean, without disobedience. I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.
- Psalms 24:4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.
- Psalms 25:21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
- Psalms 26:6 I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, Yahweh,
- Psalms 73:13 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,
- Psalms 78:72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
- Proverbs 11:3 The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them.
- Proverbs 20:7 A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.
- Daniel 6:22 My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
- 2 Corinthians 1:12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:10 You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.
- 1 Timothy 1:13 although I used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent. However, I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Not thinking to do any man harm.
Not thinking to do any man harm.
As one falling by ignorance, and not doing evil of purpose.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 20:5 Said he not unto me, She [is]…
Gen 20:5 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 innocency of my hands have I done this.
Ver. 5. Said he not unto me, She is my sister? &c.] Here Abraham and Sarah, though both famous, he for his faith, {Rom 4:19} and she for not being afraid with any amazement, {1Pe 3:6} yet here they show some trepidation. Sense, saith one, {a} fights sore against faith, when it is upon its own dunghill, I mean in a sensible danger. Nature’s retraction of itself from a visible fear, may cause the pulse of a Christian that beats truly and strongly in the main point (the state of the soul) to intermit and falter at such a time. {b}
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In the integrity of my heart.] Great is the boldness of a clear conscience, be it but in some one particular, as here in Abimelech; a man that was magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus (as Tacitus {c} saith of Galba) rather not evil than good; one whose nature was not changed, but chained up only. Civil men are but wolves chained up, tame devils, swine in a fair meadow; and yet these are the world’s honest men, and as high a price set upon them, as was once upon a cab of dove’s dung in the famine of Samaria. But these Abimelechs, these Catos, these civil judges, they want sincerity in the first table, and integrity in the second; for they stand not upon the inward corruptions, nor lesser breaches of the law. Abimelech, for all his confidence here, was to blame for his wandering, rash lust. And Cato, that mirror of morality, was a griping usurer, prostituted his wife, and slew himself. And yet Paterculus {d} will tell you, that he was, Homo virtuti simillimus, et per omnia virtute Diis quam hominibus propior ,& c.
{a} Mr Vines’s Fast Sermon:
{b} Elias fulminator ad Iezabalis minas trepidat .
{c} Tac., lib. i. cap. 12.
{d} Hist., lib. ii.
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 Without any adulterous design in my heart, or outward…
Without any adulterous design in my heart, or outward actions tending to it, being wholly ignorant of what thou now informest me.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Said he not unto me, she is my sister?....…
Said he not unto me, she is my sister?.... By this it appears, that Abimelech had a personal conversation with Abraham, and inquired of him about Sarah, who she was, and what relation she was to him, who told him that she was his sister; and for the truth of this he appeals to the omniscient God, who knew that Abraham had told him this:
and she, even she herself said, he is my brother; when Sarah was asked what relation she stood in to Abraham, and he to her, she declared he was her brother; so that Abimelech had reason to conclude, from what both of them had said, that this was the truth of the matter, and especially from what Sarah said, who he thought might be depended on, and would speak out the whole truth on such an occasion:
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in the integrity of my heart, and innocency of my hands, have I done this; hereby declaring, that his design was not to defile the woman, and to gratify his lust, but to take her to be his wife; and this he thought to be no evil, though he had a wife, Gen 20:17; polygamy not being reckoned a sin in those times; and that he had used no violence in taking her, they both seemingly agreeing to it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. In the integrity of my heart, c.]…
Verse 5. In the integrity of my heart, c.] Had Abimelech any other than honourable views in taking Sarah, he could not have justified himself thus to his Maker and that these views were of the most honourable kind, God himself, to whom the appeal was made, asserts in the most direct manner, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain He say, &c. The pronouns in Hebrew are printed…
He say, &c. The pronouns in Hebrew are printed very incorrectly. --- He is my sister; and she, even he, said. (Kennicott)
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).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. integrity] Heb. “perfectness.” Cf. Gen_6:9.
5. integrity] Heb. “perfectness.” Cf. Gen_6:9.
innocency of my hands] Cf. Psa_26:6.
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 (5) In the integrity of my heart . .…
(5) In the integrity of my heart . . . —Not only does Abimelech assert this, but Elohim (see Gen_20:6) admits the plea. And yet this Philistine king indulges in polygamy, and claims the right of taking the female relatives of any one passing through his territory to add them to his harem. But the words mean no more than that he was not consciously violating any of his own rules of morality, and thus illustrate the Gospel principle that men will be punished not by an absolute decree, but equitably, according to their knowledge (Luk_12:47-48). Abimelech was doing wrong, and was suffering punishment, but the punishment was remedial, and for his advancement in right-knowing and right-doing. It is thus by means of revelation that men have attained to a proper understanding of the moral law. Though often called “the law of Nature,” yet Nature does not give it, but only acknowledges it when given. The inner light is but a faint and inconstant glimmering, but Christ is the true light; for only by Him does the law of Nature become a clear-rule for human guidance (Joh_1:9; Rom_2:14-15; Mat_6:23).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Said he not unto me, She is my sister?…
Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother. From which it is clear that the Philistine monarch, equally with the Egyptian Pharaoh, shrank from the sin of adultery. In the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. Ie. he assumes the right of kings to take unmarried persons into their harems,
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.