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10 Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us?[a] One of the men[b] nearly took your wife to bed,[c] and you would have brought guilt on us!” 11 So Abimelech commanded all the people, “Whoever touches[d] this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”[e]

12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown,[f] because the Lord blessed him.[g]

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 26:10 tn Heb “What is this you have done to us?” The Hebrew demonstrative pronoun “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to us?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).
  2. Genesis 26:10 tn Heb “people.”tc The LXX reads τις τοῦ γένους μου (tis tou genous mou) “one of my kin.”
  3. Genesis 26:10 tn Heb “almost lied down with.” The verb שָׁכַב (shakhav) “to lie down” can imply going to bed to sleep or be a euphemism for sexual relations. Here the verb is modified by the prepositional phrase with כ (kaf; “like, as”) and מְעַט (meʿat; “little, brief”). When כִּמְעַט (kimʿat) modifies a perfect verb it means that someone almost did something (Ps 73:2; 119:87; Prov 5:14); with an imperfect verb it means to do something soon. This verse uses a perfect verb. Most translations employ a modal translation: “one of the people might easily (or “might soon”) have laid with your wife.” But the perfect verb is not typically modal, unless marked by other factors. The vav plus perfect consecutive (or veqatal) may be modal; or the perfect may be modal if signaled by another word such as אִם (ʾim; “if”) or לוּ or לוּלֵא (lu or luleʾ; “would that,” “unless”). If כִּמְעַט (kimʿat), which is not commonly used, can mark the perfect verb as modal, then “one of the people might have gone to bed with her” would be an appropriate translation. The options “it might have happened” and “it nearly happened” are fairly close in meaning.
  4. Genesis 26:11 tn Heb “strikes.” Here the verb has the nuance “to harm in any way.” It would include assaulting the woman or killing the man.
  5. Genesis 26:11 tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the imperfect makes the construction emphatic.
  6. Genesis 26:12 tn Heb “a hundredfold.”
  7. Genesis 26:12 tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.

10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.

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10 Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us?(A) One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms(B) this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”(C)

12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold,(D) because the Lord blessed him.(E)

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