Genesis 20:1-5
New English Translation
Abraham and Abimelech
20 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev[a] region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident[b] in Gerar, 2 Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.
3 But God appeared[c] to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead[d] because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.”[e]
4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord,[f] would you really slaughter an innocent nation?[g] 5 Did Abraham[h] not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said,[i] ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience[j] and with innocent hands!”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 20:1 tn Or “the South [country]”; Heb “the land of the Negev.”sn Negev is the name for the southern desert region in the land of Canaan.
- Genesis 20:1 tn Heb “and he sojourned.”
- Genesis 20:3 tn Heb “came.”
- Genesis 20:3 tn Heb “Look, you [are] dead.” The Hebrew construction uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with a second person pronominal particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with by the participle. It is a highly rhetorical expression.
- Genesis 20:3 tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.
- Genesis 20:4 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
- Genesis 20:4 tn Apparently Abimelech assumes that God’s judgment will fall on his entire nation. Some, finding the reference to a nation problematic, prefer to emend the text and read, “Would you really kill someone who is innocent?” See E. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB), 149.
- Genesis 20:5 tn Heb “he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Genesis 20:5 tn Heb “and she, even she.”
- Genesis 20:5 tn Heb “with the integrity of my heart.”
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