17 And Abraham prayeth unto God, and God healeth Abimelech and his wife, and his handmaids, and they bear:
Be confessing to one another the trespasses, and be praying for one another, that ye may be healed; very strong is a working supplication of a righteous man;
for nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer, and by supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God;
And Jehovah seeth that Leah `is' the hated one, and He openeth her womb, and Rachel `is' barren;
And they send and gather all the princes of the Philistines, and say, `Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and it turneth back to its place, and it doth not put us to death -- and our people;' for there hath been a deadly destruction throughout all the city, very heavy hath the hand of God been there, and the men who have not died have been smitten with emerods, and the cry of the city goeth up into the heavens.
And they go -- Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite -- and do as Jehovah hath spoken unto them; and Jehovah doth accept the face of Job. And Jehovah hath turned `to' the captivity of Job in his praying for his friends, and Jehovah doth add `to' all that Job hath -- to double.
The sacrifice of the wicked `is' an abomination to Jehovah, And the prayer of the upright `is' His delight.
Thus said Jehovah, The Holy One of Israel, and his Former: Ask Me of the things coming concerning My sons, Yea, concerning the work of My hands, ye command Me.'
`Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Genesis 20
Commentary on Genesis 20 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 20
Ge 20:1-18. Abraham's Denial of His Wife.
1. Abraham journeyed from thence … and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur—Leaving the encampment, he migrated to the southern border of Canaan. In the neighborhood of Gerar was a very rich and well-watered pasture land.
2. Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister—Fear of the people among whom he was, tempted him to equivocate. His conduct was highly culpable. It was deceit, deliberate and premeditated—there was no sudden pressure upon him—it was the second offense of the kind [see on Ge 12:13]—it was a distrust of God every way surprising, and it was calculated to produce injurious effects on the heathen around. Its mischievous tendency was not long in being developed.
Abimelech (father-king) … sent and took Sarah—to be one of his wives, in the exercise of a privilege claimed by Eastern sovereigns, already explained (see on Ge 12:15).
3. But God came to Abimelech in a dream—In early times a dream was often made the medium of communicating important truths; and this method was adopted for the preservation of Sarah.
9. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said … What hast thou done?—In what a humiliating plight does the patriarch now appear—he, a servant of the true God, rebuked by a heathen prince. Who would not rather be in the place of Abimelech than of the honored but sadly offending patriarch! What a dignified attitude is that of the king—calmly and justly reproving the sin of the patriarch, but respecting his person and heaping coals of fire on his head by the liberal presents made to him.
11. And Abraham said … I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place—From the horrible vices of Sodom he seems to have taken up the impression that all other cities of Canaan were equally corrupt. There might have been few or none who feared God, but what a sad thing when men of the world show a higher sense of honor and a greater abhorrence of crimes than a true worshipper!
12. yet indeed she is my sister—(See on Ge 11:31). What a poor defense Abraham made. The statement absolved him from the charge of direct and absolute falsehood, but he had told a moral untruth because there was an intention to deceive (compare Ge 12:11-13). "Honesty is always the best policy." Abraham's life would have been as well protected without the fraud as with it: and what shame to himself, what distrust to God, what dishonor to religion might have been prevented! "Let us speak truth every man to his neighbor" [Zec 8:16; Eph 4:25].