Genesis 20 - LSB Bible Online

Genesis 20

Abraham Lies to Abimelech

And Abraham journeyed from ^athere toward the land of ^bthe ¹Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in ^cGerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “^aShe is my sister.” So ^bAbimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 ^aBut God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to him, “Behold, ^byou are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is ¹married.” 4 (Now Abimelech had not come near her.) Then he said, “Lord, ^awill You kill a nation, even though righteous? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she ^aherself also said, ‘He is my brother.’ In ^bthe integrity of my heart and the innocence of my ¹hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Indeed, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also ¹^aheld you back from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 So now, return the man’s wife, for ^ahe is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were greatly afraid. 9 ^aThen Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And ¹how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom ^ba great sin? You have done to me ²things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you seen, that you have done this thing?” 11 And Abraham said, “Because I said, surely there is no ^afear of God in this place, and ^bthey will kill me because of my wife. 12 Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife; 13 and it happened when ^aGod caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is ¹the lovingkindness which you will show to me: ²everywhere we go, ^bsay of me, “He is my brother.”’” 14 ^aAbimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham and returned his wife Sarah to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “^aBehold, my land is before you; ¹settle wherever it is good in your sight.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your ^abrother one thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is ¹your vindication before all who are with you, and before all you are ²cleared.” 17 ^aAnd Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they bore children. 18 ^aFor Yahweh had utterly shut all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

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