Genesis 20:2

While Abraham and Sarah were in Gerar, Abraham told everyone that his wife Sarah was his sister, not his wife. The big boss of Gerar was called Abimelek. He believed Abraham, so he sent somebody to get Sarah so that he could marry her.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

In Context

1At one time, Abraham moved his camp south to the Negev desert, and he lived between the 2 towns called Kadesh and Shur. Then later, he moved his camp to a town called Gerar.

3God was not happy that Abimelek was going to marry Sarah, so one night he gave Abimelek a dream, and in that dream, God told him, “You are going to die. You took Sarah to be your wife, but she is already married to Abraham.”

Read all of Genesis 20

Cross References

Genesis 12:13So listen. You have to tell everyone that you are my sister. Then they will be good to me, and they will not kill me.”

Genesis 20:12But anyway, Sarah really is my sister. We have the same father, but different mothers.” You see, in Abraham’s culture, men could marry their half-sisters.

Genesis 26:7The men in Gerar saw Isaac’s wife Rebekah, and they asked Isaac, “Who is that woman?” You know, Rebekah was very beautiful. So Isaac got worried about those men. He thought, “Maybe those men want to marry Rebekah. If I tell them that she is my wife, maybe they will kill me to get her.” So Isaac lied and said, “She is my sister.”

Matthew Henry on Genesis 20:2-3

Abraham's Denial of His Wife. ( b. c. 1898.) 1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. Here is, 1. Abraham's removal from Mamre, where he had lived nearly twenty years, into the country of the Philistines: He sojourned in Gerar, v. 1 . We are not told upon what occasion he removed, whether terrified by the destruction of Sodom, or… Read the whole commentary →

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