CPCC Bible Study: Genesis 20

      The quote for Twenty is something of a rerun from something Abram did in Chapter 12.
"... and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, 'She is my sister.'"
      Which is why we're going to look at this chapter as a whole, and then move on.

Chapter Twenty: Discussion:
      There is no reason given for Abram/Abraham to have moved. And as there is no mention of the events of the plain from the previous section, this may not have been in sequence. Especially since Sarah had previously said that she was "aged".
      One question we might ask is... was it the usual practice for some wandering herdsman to be brought to the royal court to stand in front of the king and introduce the members of his household?
      Another item of note is that "Abimelech" ("ab" (father) is combined with the word "melek" (king)), the king of "Gerar" (rolling country (inland from Gaza a few miles)), is a believer, and NOT a Hebrew! God speaks to him in a dream and says "hey buddy, you messed up" (something of a paraphrase there), and you may die because of it. It is in that dream of the king where the word "nabi" (prophet) is used for the first time in the OT.
      Abimelech also defends his nation as "tsaddiq" (righteous / just). We saw this word in the description of the King of Salem in chapter 14 after the battle of the four kings. Now instead of applying to one man, it is used for his nation which is believed to be south of what is today Gaza toward the Negev desert.

      Another point worth mentioning is that the words "'Adonay" (Lord (includes Master)) and "'Elohim" (GOD) are the words used for the Creator until the very last phrase of the chapter when it uses the exclusively Jewish YHWH.
      We see in verse six that 'Elohim acknowledges the king's integrity, and says that He prevented Abimelech from "naga" (touching / reaching out to) her.
      In the morning the king calls out Abe and wants to know what he had done to deserve such treatment. Abe runs him a story about the half-lie, which also didn't work out so well in Egypt. Then the king pays him, and Sarah, to leave.

      In verse 17 it records Abraham praying to 'Elohim, and 'Elohim healed the king and his people... so they could bear children.
      Something worth considering in context is that it also mentions that YHWH 'closed the wombs' of the women in the king's house because of Sarah.
      Remember, per the text as presented, all of this happened in One Night!

      It is an even bet that this incident was part of the oral history of Father Abraham, and when the text was dictated by Moses as they were wandering around the Arabian Desert, he remembered it and thought it would be a good break between sections.
      It is.

- end 20 -

Selected resources for this chapter:
English / Hebrew: Interlinear Bible: Genesis 20 https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/20.htm

An article about Gerar https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/gerar

The Genesis Study Index Page

NOTE: The Bible Study Lesson presented above is posted as a reference document to begin a conversation of the topic. And that's it. Please accept it at such.

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