Genesis 20:3-6

20:3 But God appeared ¹  to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead ²  because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” ³ 

20:4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord, ⁴  would you really slaughter an innocent nation? ⁵  20:5 Did Abraham ⁶  not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ⁷  ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience ⁸  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. ⁹  That is why I have kept you ¹⁰  from sinning against me and why ¹¹  I did not allow you to touch her.

[20:3]  ¹ tn Heb “came.”

[20:3]  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.

[20:3]  ³ tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.

[20:4]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[20:4]  ⁵ 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.

[20:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and she, even she.”

[20:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “with the integrity of my heart.”

[20:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “with the integrity of your heart.”

[20:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and I, even I, kept you.”

[20:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “therefore.”