Abimelech and Sarah

Sources

Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are to die because of the woman that you have taken, for she is a married woman.” Now Abimelech had not approached her. He said, “O lord, will You slay people even though innocent? He himself said to me, ‘She is my sister’! And she also said, ‘He is my brother.’ When I did this, my heart was blameless and my hands were clean.”…

Genesis 20:2-16

Rabbi Joshua, son of Ḳorchah, (rehearsed) before Rabbi Ṭarphon (saying): Whatever Pharaoh gave, he gave to Sarah; whatever Abimelech gave, he gave to Abraham; as it is said, "And Abimelech took sheep and oxen" (Gen. 20:14). Abraham arose and prayed before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said before Him: Sovereign of all the worlds ! Thou hast created the whole world to increase and multiply, and let Abimelech and all the females of his household increase and multiply. The Holy One, blessed be He, was entreated of him, as it is said, "And Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech…

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 26:9

ולשרה אמר הנה נתתי אלף כסף, in addition to the livestock, men and women servants he had given Avraham, mentioned in verse 14. The purpose of the cash was to enable her to buy herself elegant clothing. וכל אשר אתך, all your entourage should also have been outfitted with elegant clothing. Anyone belonging to your household was meant to look their best thanks to this money I gave to your brother. לאחיך, to the person you had described to me as “your brother.” כסות עינים, something appealing to your eyes and all those who look at you…

Radak on Genesis 20:16:1-5

ולשרה אמר AND UNTO SARAH HE SAID — Abimelech said — out of respect for her and to mollify her: “Behold I have shown you this mark of respect, viz., I have given money to your brother — to him of whom thou didst say “he is my brother”. הנה BEHOLD, this money and this evidence of respect לך כסות עינים לכל אשר אתך SHALL BE UNTO THEE A COVERING OF THY EYES TO ALL WHO ARE WITH THEE — these will put a covering over the eyes of all who are with thee so that they shall not hold you in light esteem. But had I sent you back empty-handed, they might have said, “After he abused her he sent her back”…

Rashi on Genesis 20:16:1-2

BEHOLD, I HAVE GIVEN THY BROTHER A THOUSAND PIECES OF SILVER. The sheep, the cattle and the servants which he gave him were worth a thousand pieces of silver. He thus said to Sarah: “Behold, I have given much money to your brother. Now the money will serve you as a cause for the covering of the eyes of all those who look at your beauty, closing their eyes, and those of their leaders, the seers, to prevent them looking at you and at all that belongs to you, even your manservants and maidservants. Thus your being taken forcibly to my house was for your benefit as they will fear you and cover…

Ramban on Genesis 20:16:1

עשיתי זאת, “have I done this.” This refers to his having kidnapped Sarah. According to a different interpretation, G-d was content with warning Avimelech because he had taken the trouble to investigate Sarah’s marital status. Pharaoh who had not bothered to do so, was struck with a plague immediately. (Compare B’chor shor on end of verse 16.)

Chizkuni, Genesis 20:5:3

הנך מת על האשה אשר לקחת. "Here you are going to die on account of the woman you have taken." The meaning is "after I reveal to you that she is married you will be guilty of death." Had G'd not informed Avimelech of Sarah's true status as a married woman, he would not have been guilty of death even if he had slept with her. Any Gentile who sleeps with a woman whom he has reason to believe to be single is innocent of adultery. Maimonides explains this in Hilchot Melachim 9,5.

Or HaChaim on Genesis 20:3:1

‘VAYEILEIDU’ (AND THEY BORE CHILDREN). If this is understood literally as referring to his wife, and his maidservants and stating that the Eternal had restrained their wombs, it is astonishing! For it appears that on the first night that Sarah was taken to Abimelech’s house, and he had not even approached her, G-d immediately came to him in the dream, and in the morning he rose early and called his servants and also Abraham. When then did they experience this restraining of the womb? Perhaps it so happened that they were in their due time, experiencing the pangs of childbirth…

Ramban on Genesis 20:17:1

כי עצור עצר ה׳ בעד כל רחם. For G'd had blocked all body orifices. This was so that people should not be able to say that Sarah had become pregnant by Avimelech. Avimelech was impotent during that period. The Torah also wanted to demonstrate that Abraham's prayer was effective to make the formerly barren fertile again. We also learn from this that if someone prays for someone else to be healed in an area that he himself needs healing, his own needs will be attended to by G'd first. This is why the next verse tells us about Sarah having become pregnant…

Or HaChaim on Genesis 20:18:1

(1) When Lot faced the people of Sodom, he had shut the door so that the angels would not overhear the negotiations and the indecencies that the Sodomites planned to perpetrate on them. Their objective was to reinforce their image as being anti-strangers, so that this kind of news would make others shun their city. Lot's argument was that the townspeople's quarrel was only with him, not with them, since it had been he who had breached the town's regulations. His guests could not have known about these regulations…

Akeidat Yitzchak 20:1:7

Furthermore, you may learn this as well from Saul the son of Kish, who said: Cursed be the man that eateth any food until it be evening, and I be avenged on my enemies (I Sam. 14:24). No one was to taste any food, but Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath; and he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it into the honeycomb (ibid., v. 27). When Saul realized that the Philistines were overpowering the Israelites, he understood that someone had violated the oath…

Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:11

“God said to him in the dream: I, too, knew that in the innocence of your heart you did this, and I also prevented you from sinning against Me. Therefore, I did not allow you to touch her” (Genesis 20:6).
“God said to him in the dream: I, too, knew…and I also prevented you from sinning against Me [meḥato li]” – Rabbi Yitzḥak says: Meḥato li – your evil inclination [maḥaton] is Mine [li]. “Therefore, I did not allow you” – this is analogous to a warrior riding on a horse…

Bereshit Rabbah 52:7

Relatedראו גם

Pharaoh and Sarah

Abraham and Abimelech

Sheetsדפי מקורות

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