Genesis 20
1 And Abraham brake up from thence, towards the land of the South, and fixed his dwelling between Kadesh and Shur, so he sojourned in Gerar.
Abraham left Mamre and moved southwest to the Negev desert and lived in a place named Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur.
2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife: My, sister, is she, —So Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
While he was there, he told people that Sarah was his sister, not his wife. Then King Abimelech of Gerar sent some of his men to Sarah, and they brought her to him to be his wife.
3 Then God went in unto Abimelech, in a dream of the night, —and said to him, Behold thee dead! because of the woman whom thou hast taken, seeing that, she, is a married woman.
But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream during the night and said to him, “Listen to me! You are going to die because the woman you took is another man’s wife.”
4 Now, Abimelech, had not come near unto her, —so he said, O My Lord! a nation even a righteous one, wilt thou slay?
But Abimelech had not had sex [EUP] with her, so he said, “God, since the people of my nation and I am innocent; will you kill me?
5 Had not, he himself, said to me, My sister, is she? and even she herself, said, My brother, is he? In the integrity of my heart and in the pureness of my hand, have I done this!
He told me, ‘She is my sister,’ and she also said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with pure motives and I [SYN] have not done anything wrong yet.”
6 And God said unto him in a dream, I, also, knew, that in the integrity of thy heart, thou didst this, so then, even I myself, withheld thee from sinning against me, for this reason, have I not suffered thee to touch her.
God said to him in another dream, “Yes, I know that your motives were pure. That is why I truly prevented you from sinning against me. I did not allow you to have sex [EUP] with her.
7 Now, therefore restore the man’s wife, for a prophet, is he, that he may pray for thee and live thou, —But if thou art not going to restore her, know, that thou shalt die, thou—and all that are thine.
Now, return this man’s wife to her husband, because he is (a prophet/a man who receives messages from me). He will pray for you, and you will (remain alive/not die). But if you do not return her to him, you will certainly die, and all the members of your household will also certainly die.”
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and spake all these words in their ears, and the men feared greatly.
Early the next morning, Abimelech summoned all his officials, and told them everything that had happened. When they heard that [MTY], his men were very afraid [that God would punish them].
9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, What hast thou done to us? and wherein had I sinned against thee, that thou shouldst have brought in over me and over my kingdom, a sin so great? Deeds, which should not be done, hast thou done with me.
Abimelech then summoned Abraham, and said to him, “You should not have done that to us [RHQ]! Did I do something wrong to you, with the result that you are causing me and the people in [MTY] my kingdom to be guilty of committing a great sin [RHQ]? You have done things to me that (should not be done/you should not have done)!”
10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, —What hadst thou seen, that thou shouldst have done this thing?
Abimelech asked Abraham, “What was your reason for doing this?”
11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely there is no fear of God, in this place, —therefore will they slay me for the sake of my wife.
Abraham replied, “I said that because I thought, ‘They certainly do not respect God in this place. If they don’t respect God, they will not respect relationships with others. [If I say she is my sister, they will try to pay me a bride price] to get her. But if I say she is my wife, they will kill me to get her.’
12 Moreover also, in truth, my sister daughter of my father, she is, only not daughter of my mother, —so she became my wife.
Besides, she really [can be considered] my sister, because she is the daughter of my father, although she is not the daughter of my mother. She is the daughter of another woman, and I married her.
13 And so it came to pass when the Gods caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, This, is thy lovingkindness, wherewith thou shalt deal with me, —Into whatsoever place we enter, say of me My brother, is he.
Later, when God told me to move away from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is the way you can show that you love me: Everywhere we go, say about me, “This is my brother.”’”
14 Then took Abimelech sheep and oxen and men—servants and maid-servants, and gave to Abraham, —and restored to him Sarah his wife.
So Abimelech brought some sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham. And he returned his wife Sarah to him.
15 And Abimelech, said, Lo! my land is before thee, —wherever it may seem good in thine eyes, dwell.
And Abimelech said to him, “Look! All my land is here in front of you. Live in whatever place you like!”
16 And to Sarah, he said, Lo! I have given a thousand of silver unto thy brother: Lo! that is for thee as a covering of eyes, to all who are with thee, —And so in every way, hath right been done.
And he said to Sarah, “Look here, I am giving 1,000 pieces of silver to your brother. This is to insure that no one will [bring up this matter again and] say that I have done something wrong. [EUP, IDM]”
17 And Abraham prayed unto God, —and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants, so that they bare children,
Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech’s wife and his slave girls so that they could become pregnant.
18 For Yahweh, had restrained from bearing, every female of the house of Abimelech, —because of Sarah, wife of Abraham.
This was because Yahweh had caused it to be impossible for any of the women in Abimelech’s household to bear children, because Abimelech had taken Abraham’s wife Sarah.
