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Isaac and Abimelech

So Isaac [a]lived in Gerar. Then the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “(A)She is my sister,” for he was (B)afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is (C)beautiful in appearance.” Now it happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was [b]caressing his wife Rebekah. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” 10 (D)And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11 So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who (E)touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 26:6 Lit dwelt
  2. Genesis 26:8 Lit laughing with

So Isaac lived in Gerar.

Isaac Lies about His Wife

Later on, the men of that place asked about his wife, so he replied, “She’s my sister,” because he was afraid to call her “my wife.” He kept thinking, “…otherwise, the men around here will kill me on account of Rebekah, since she’s very beautiful.”

After he had been there awhile, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out through a window and saw Isaac caressing[a] his wife Rebekah.

So Abimelech called Isaac and confronted him. “She is definitely your wife!” he accused him, “So why did you claim, ‘She’s my sister?’”

Isaac responded, “Because I had thought ‘…otherwise, I’ll die on account of her.’”

10 “What have you done to us?” Abimelech asked. “Any minute now, one of the people could have had sex with your wife and you would have caused all of us to be guilty.” 11 So he issued this order to everyone: “Whoever touches this man or his wife is to be executed.”

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 26:8 Or fondling; the Heb. verb is a word play on the name Isaac and sounds like it.