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亚伯拉罕与亚比米勒

20 亚伯拉罕从那里迁到南地,就住在加低斯和书珥中间。亚伯拉罕寄居在基拉耳的时候, 曾经提到他的妻子撒拉说:“她是我的妹妹。”于是基拉耳王亚比米勒派人来把撒拉取了去。 当夜, 神在梦中来到亚比米勒那里,对他说:“你该死,因为你接来的那女人,是个有夫之妇。” 亚比米勒还没有亲近撒拉,所以他说:“我主啊,连正义的人你也要杀害吗? 那人岂不是自己对我说:‘她是我的妹妹’吗?就是那女人自己也说:‘他是我的哥哥’。我作这事,是手洁心清的。”  神在梦中对他说:“我也知道你作这事,是问心无愧的,所以我也阻止你,免得你得罪我。因此我不容许你接触她。 现在你要把那人的妻子还给他,因为他是先知,他要为你祷告,你才可以存活。你若不还给他,你当知道,你和所有属你的,都死定了。”

亚比米勒清早起来,召了他的众臣仆来,把这一切都说给他们听,以致他们都很惧怕。 亚比米勒把亚伯拉罕召了来,对他说:“你为甚么向我们这样行呢?我在甚么事上得罪了你,以致你给我和我的国带来这个大罪呢?你对我作了不应该作的事。” 10 亚比米勒又对亚伯拉罕说:“你为了甚么缘故要这样作呢?” 11 亚伯拉罕回答:“因为我以为这地方必定没有敬畏 神的人,他们会因我妻子的缘故杀我。 12 何况她也实在是我的妹妹;她原是我同父异母的妹妹,后来作了我的妻子。 13  神叫我离开我父家,在外飘流的时候,我对她说:‘我们无论到甚么地方去,你都要对人说:“他是我的哥哥。”这就是你待我的恩情了。’” 14 亚比米勒取了些牛羊、仆婢,送给亚伯拉罕,又把亚伯拉罕的妻子撒拉还给他。 15 亚比米勒说:“看哪,我的国土都在你面前,你喜欢哪里,就住在哪里吧。”

16 他又对撒拉说:“看哪,我给了你哥哥一千银子,作你在全家人面前的遮羞钱(“遮羞钱”直译是“眼睛的遮盖”;原文意思不确定;或译:“清白的证明”)。这样,你在众人面前就算清白了。” 17 亚伯拉罕祷告 神, 神就医好了亚比米勒和他的妻子,以及他的众婢女,使她们能生育。 18 因为耶和华为了亚伯拉罕妻子撒拉的缘故,曾经使亚比米勒家中所有的妇女,都不能生育。

Chapter 20

God Corrects His Faithful Ones.[a] Abraham broke camp and traveled into the Negeb, settling between Kedesh and Shur. He was dwelling in Gerar. Abraham had said that Sarah, his wife, was his sister. Therefore, Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent to take Sarah for himself.

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.”

Abimelech, who had not yet approached her, said, “My Lord, would you destroy an innocent nation? 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.”

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. 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.”

Abimelech got up early in the morning and summoned all his servants to whom he recounted all these things. The men were terrified. 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

  1. 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).
  2. 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).