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Genesis 20

1Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He resided as a foreigner in Gerar. 2Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. 3God came to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “Look, you are a dead man because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.” 4Abimelech had not approached her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation? 5Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself also said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I did this.” 6God said to him in the dream, “I too know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. I too kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. 7Now return the man's wife, because he is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who belong to you.”

8Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and spoke all these things in their hearing. The men were very afraid. 9Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such great sin on me and my kingdom? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 10Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see that made you do this?” 11Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13When God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, ‘This is the steadfast love you must show me: at every place we come to, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

14Abimelech took flocks and herds, male slaves and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham. He returned Sarah his wife to him. 15Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you. Live wherever is good in your eyes.” 16To Sarah he said, “Look, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Look, it is a covering of the eyes for you before all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” 17Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his slave women, so that they gave birth. 18For Yahweh had firmly closed every womb of Abimelech's household because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Translation notes 3

20:2–7 — Taking; restraint. The account explicitly says that Abimelech had not approached Sarah and that God prevented intercourse. Unlike the earlier Pharaoh story, this account narrates a warning dream and Abraham's prophetic intercession. Their differences are retained.

20:11–13 — Abraham's explanation. The claim that the place lacks fear of God is Abraham's assessment, juxtaposed with Abimelech's alarm and protest. Abraham describes Sarah as his paternal half-sister. The unusual plural verb with God in verse 13 permits “the gods caused me to wander”; the draft reads the plural form with the singular God named throughout the exchange, without silently treating the grammatical question as settled.

20:14–18 — Silver; covering. The Hebrew does not state a unit after “a thousand silver”; pieces is supplied without claiming minted coins. A covering of the eyes is an idiom of public compensation or vindication, with the precise social mechanism uncertain. The last phrase can instead be taken as Sarah being reproved or instructed; the draft favors vindication in the compensation context. The slaves given to Abraham and the affected slave women remain explicit.