Text -- Genesis 20:1-4 (NET)

Abraham and Abimelech

20:1 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident in Gerar, 20:2 Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her. 20:3 But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” 20:4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord, would you really slaughter an innocent nation?

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Gen 20:1

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.

² tn Heb “and he sojourned.”

NET Notes: Gen 20:3

¹ tn Heb “came.”

² 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.

³ tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.

NET Notes: Gen 20:4

¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

² 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.