Genesis 26:7
The 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.”
Plain English Version
In The King James Version
In Context
6So Isaac set up his camp in Gerar, just like God told him to.
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 20:2While 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.
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.
Ephesians 5:25Yes, and you men that are husbands, you have to do your part too. You have to always love your wives properly, just like Jesus Christ loves the people in his church properly. Jesus let people kill him so that he could save us.
Matthew Henry on Genesis 26:7-12
Isaac's Denial of His Wife. ( b. c. 1840.) 6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: 7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. 8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. 9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said,… Read the whole commentary →