Genesis 20
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 20
God Corrects His Faithful Ones.[a] 1 Abraham broke camp and traveled into the Negeb, settling between Kedesh and Shur. He was dwelling in Gerar. 2 Abraham had said that Sarah, his wife, was his sister. Therefore, Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent to take Sarah for himself.
3 But God visited Abimelech during the night in a dream and said to him, “Behold, you are about to die because the woman you have taken belongs to her husband.”
4 Abimelech, who had not yet approached her, said, “My Lord, would you destroy an innocent nation? 5 Did he not tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And did she not also say, ‘He is my brother’? I did this with a pure conscience and in all innocence.”
6 God answered him in the dream, “I know that you acted with a good conscience when you did this. I prevented you from sinning against me. That is why I kept you from touching her. 7 Now give the woman back to this man. He is a prophet. He will intercede for you, and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you and everyone with you will die.”
8 Abimelech got up early in the morning and summoned all his servants to whom he recounted all these things. The men were terrified. 9 Then Abimelech summoned Abraham and told him, “What have you done to us? What did I do to you that you have subjected me and my kingdom to such a great sin? You have done things to me that you really should not have done.” 10 Then Abimelech asked Abraham, “What were you afraid of that you acted this way?”
11 Abraham answered, “I said to myself, ‘Certainly there will be no fear of God[b] in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is really my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 When God made me wander from my father’s homeland, I said to her, ‘Please do me this favor. Wherever we go, say that I am your brother.’ ”
14 Abimelech took flocks and herds, male and female slaves, and he gave them to Abraham, and he also gave back his wife Sarah. 15 Furthermore, Abimelech said, “Look around at my land; go and live wherever you please!”
16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given two thousand shekels of silver to your brother. May that repay you for what has happened to you. Thus, your honor will be totally preserved.”
17 Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his maidservants so that they could once more have children. 18 For the Lord had rendered all the women in the household of Abimelech sterile because of Sarah, the wife of Abraham.
Footnotes
- Genesis 20:1 This episode, the first that is surely from the Elohist tradition, seems to be another version of the incident already recorded in 12:10-20; among other reasons for saying this, it is not in its proper place, since it must have happened at an earlier time when Sarah was not yet expecting a son. The depiction of Sarah as Abraham’s half-sister is a sign of the historical character of the story; the community of Israel would not have invented for the Patriarch a marriage that the Mosaic Law forbade as incestuous (Lev 18:9; 20:17).
- Genesis 20:11 Fear of God: a conventional phrase equivalent to “true religion.” “Fear” in this phrase has the sense of reverential trust in God that includes commitment to his revealed will (word).
