20:1 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev 1 region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident 2 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 3 to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead 4 because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” 5
20:4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord, 6 would you really slaughter an innocent nation? 7 20:5 Did Abraham 8 not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, 9 ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience 10 and with innocent hands!”
20:6 Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. 11 That is why I have kept you 12 from sinning against me and why 13 I did not allow you to touch her. 20:7 But now give back the man’s wife. Indeed 14 he is a prophet 15 and he will pray for you; thus you will live. 16 But if you don’t give her back, 17 know that you will surely die 18 along with all who belong to you.”
20:8 Early in the morning 19 Abimelech summoned 20 all his servants. When he told them about all these things, 21 they 22 were terrified. 20:9 Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? 23 You have done things to me that should not be done!” 24 20:10 Then Abimelech asked 25 Abraham, “What prompted you to do this thing?” 26
20:11 Abraham replied, “Because I thought, 27 ‘Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of 28 my wife.’ 20:12 What’s more, 29 she is indeed my sister, my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s daughter. She became my wife. 20:13 When God made me wander 30 from my father’s house, I told her, ‘This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: 31 Every place we go, say about me, “He is my brother.”’”
20:14 So Abimelech gave 32 sheep, cattle, and male and female servants to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him. 20:15 Then Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you; live wherever you please.” 33
20:16 To Sarah he said, “Look, I have given a thousand pieces of silver 34 to your ‘brother.’ 35 This is compensation for you so that you will stand vindicated before all who are with you.” 36
20:17 Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children. 20:18 For the Lord 37 had caused infertility to strike every woman 38 in the household of Abimelech because he took 39 Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
43:11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and take a gift down to the man – a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.
44:6 When the man 41 overtook them, he spoke these words to them.
1:1 In the beginning 47 God 48 created 49 the heavens and the earth. 50
18:32 Finally Abraham 51 said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
5:15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared.
86:10 For you are great and do amazing things.
You alone are God.
11:15 Then 59 the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:
“The kingdom of the world
has become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Christ, 60
and he will reign for ever and ever.”
11:16 Then 61 the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God threw themselves down with their faces to the ground 62 and worshiped God 11:17 with these words: 63
“We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-Powerful, 64
the one who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and begun to reign. 65
1 tn Or “the South [country]”; Heb “the land of the Negev.”
2 tn Heb “and he sojourned.”
3 tn Heb “came.”
4 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.
5 tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.
6 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
7 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.
8 tn Heb “he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “and she, even she.”
10 tn Heb “with the integrity of my heart.”
11 tn Heb “with the integrity of your heart.”
12 tn Heb “and I, even I, kept you.”
13 tn Heb “therefore.”
14 tn Or “for,” if the particle is understood as causal (as many English translations do) rather than asseverative.
15 sn For a discussion of the term prophet see N. Walker, “What is a Nabhi?” ZAW 73 (1961): 99-100.
16 tn After the preceding jussive (or imperfect), the imperative with vav conjunctive here indicates result.
17 tn Heb “if there is not you returning.” The suffix on the particle becomes the subject of the negated clause.
18 tn The imperfect is preceded by the infinitive absolute to make the warning emphatic.
19 tn Heb “And Abimelech rose early in the morning and he summoned.”
20 tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) followed by the preposition לְ (lamed) means “to summon.”
21 tn Heb “And he spoke all these things in their ears.”
22 tn Heb “the men.” This has been replaced by the pronoun “they” in the translation for stylistic reasons.
23 tn Heb “How did I sin against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?” The expression “great sin” refers to adultery. For discussion of the cultural background of the passage, see J. J. Rabinowitz, “The Great Sin in Ancient Egyptian Marriage Contracts,” JNES 18 (1959): 73, and W. L. Moran, “The Scandal of the ‘Great Sin’ at Ugarit,” JNES 18 (1959): 280-81.
24 tn Heb “Deeds which should not be done you have done to me.” The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here.
25 tn Heb “And Abimelech said to.”
26 tn Heb “What did you see that you did this thing?” The question implies that Abraham had some motive for deceiving Abimelech.
27 tn Heb “Because I said.”
28 tn Heb “over the matter of.”
29 tn Heb “but also.”
30 tn The Hebrew verb is plural. This may be a case of grammatical agreement with the name for God, which is plural in form. However, when this plural name refers to the one true God, accompanying predicates are usually singular in form. Perhaps Abraham is accommodating his speech to Abimelech’s polytheistic perspective. (See GKC 463 §145.i.) If so, one should translate, “when the gods made me wander.”
31 tn Heb “This is your loyal deed which you can do for me.”
32 tn Heb “took and gave.”
33 tn Heb “In the [place that is] good in your eyes live!”
34 sn A thousand pieces [Heb “shekels”] of silver. The standards for weighing money varied considerably in the ancient Near East, but the generally accepted weight for the shekel is 11.5 grams (0.4 ounce). This makes the weight of silver here 11.5 kilograms, or 400 ounces (about 25 pounds).
35 sn To your ‘brother.’ Note the way that the king refers to Abraham. Was he being sarcastic? It was surely a rebuke to Sarah. What is amazing is how patient this king was. It is proof that the fear of God was in that place, contrary to what Abraham believed (see v. 11).
36 tn Heb “Look, it is for you a covering of the eyes, for all who are with you, and with all, and you are set right.” The exact meaning of the statement is unclear. Apparently it means that the gift of money somehow exonerates her in other people’s eyes. They will not look on her as compromised (see G. J. Wenham, Genesis [WBC], 2:74).
37 tn In the Hebrew text the clause begins with “because.”
38 tn Heb had completely closed up every womb.” In the Hebrew text infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
39 tn Heb “because of.” The words “he took” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
40 tn Heb “we could have returned.”
41 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the man who was in charge of Joseph’s household) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
42 tn Heb “to all of them he gave, to each one, changes of outer garments.”
43 tn Heb “changes of outer garments.”
44 tn Heb “he called to,” meaning “he named.”
45 tn Heb “and the darkness he called night.” The words “he called” have not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.
46 tn Another option is to translate, “Evening came, and then morning came.” This formula closes the six days of creation. It seems to follow the Jewish order of reckoning time: from evening to morning. Day one started with the dark, continued through the creation of light, and ended with nightfall. Another alternative would be to translate, “There was night and then there was day, one day.”
47 tn The translation assumes that the form translated “beginning” is in the absolute state rather than the construct (“in the beginning of,” or “when God created”). In other words, the clause in v. 1 is a main clause, v. 2 has three clauses that are descriptive and supply background information, and v. 3 begins the narrative sequence proper. The referent of the word “beginning” has to be defined from the context since there is no beginning or ending with God.
48 sn God. This frequently used Hebrew name for God (אֱלֹהִים,’elohim ) is a plural form. When it refers to the one true God, the singular verb is normally used, as here. The plural form indicates majesty; the name stresses God’s sovereignty and incomparability – he is the “God of gods.”
49 tn The English verb “create” captures well the meaning of the Hebrew term in this context. The verb בָּרָא (bara’) always describes the divine activity of fashioning something new, fresh, and perfect. The verb does not necessarily describe creation out of nothing (see, for example, v. 27, where it refers to the creation of man); it often stresses forming anew, reforming, renewing (see Ps 51:10; Isa 43:15, 65:17).
50 tn Or “the entire universe”; or “the sky and the dry land.” This phrase is often interpreted as a merism, referring to the entire ordered universe, including the heavens and the earth and everything in them. The “heavens and the earth” were completed in seven days (see Gen 2:1) and are characterized by fixed laws (see Jer 33:25). “Heavens” refers specifically to the sky, created on the second day (see v. 8), while “earth” refers specifically to the dry land, created on the third day (see v. 10). Both are distinct from the sea/seas (see v. 10 and Exod 20:11).
51 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
52 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
53 tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”
54 tn Heb “and saw, and look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to what he saw. The drawn-out description focuses the reader’s attention on Abraham’s deliberate, fixed gaze and indicates that what he is seeing is significant.
55 tn The Hebrew preposition עַל (’al) indicates the three men were nearby, but not close by, for Abraham had to run to meet them.
56 tn The pronoun “them” has been supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Hebrew text the verb has no stated object.
57 tn The form וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ (vayyishtakhu, “and bowed low”) is from the verb הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה (hishtakhavah, “to worship, bow low to the ground”). It is probably from a root חָוָה (khavah), though some derive it from שָׁחָה (shakhah).
58 sn The reader knows this is a theophany. The three visitors are probably the
59 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
60 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
61 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
62 tn Grk “they fell down on their faces.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion or humility, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”
63 tn Grk “saying.”
64 tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”
65 tn The aorist verb ἐβασίλευσας (ebasileusa") has been translated ingressively.