Summary
Abraham travels toward Negeb, settling between two places called Kadesh and Shur. Clearly not learning from the Egypt fiasco, he tells some other strangers that his wife is his sister, and yet another king takes his wife away. God manages to restrain himself from the plagues this time, and instead prevents the king from having his way with Sarah, and tells the king in a dream that this is uncool. The king, named Abimelech, wakes up in the morning, gives another good "Dude, what the hell?" to Abraham, and offers Abraham some land, some slaves, and some sheep and oxen. Abraham gets a good deal, considering.
Commentary
Okay. I know that Abraham has some decent reasons for not telling people his wife is his wife. Mostly to do with saving his own skin. He actually says it straight up: "Abraham said, ‘I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife." (Gen 20:11) I get it. I'd probably be worried too!
And yet. And yet I'm reminded of the last time he did this. A mere 8 chapters ago, back in Chapter 12, Abraham (then Abram) presents the same lie to the King of Egypt, and the King of Egypt takes Sarah (then Sarai) for his wife, and hilarity ensued. Okay, I'm lying: plagues ensued. Plagues ensued because God was angry, and that's apparently what happens when God is angry. I'm not quite sure why God hasn't managed to be angry at Abraham for this, but it probably has to do with Abraham being afraid for his life. All this aside, Abraham hasn't quite learned his lesson from the last lie, and tries it again.
This time, things are a little different. No plagues, at least. God comes to King Abimelech in a dream, and says "Now you've gone and done it, fool!" .. actually it's more along the lines of: "You are about to die because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a married woman." (Gen 20:3) Abimelech has the understandable reaction of, "Saywhatnow?", or more accurately: "Lord, will you destroy an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands." (Gen 20:4-5) God proceeds to acknowledge that he knew the king was clueless, and so prevented the king from doing this heinous deed, but he makes sure to make his warning clear, and threatens to send him to the special hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theatre. Sorry, wrong 'verse. God says, "Now then, return the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours." (Gen 20:7)
So, Abimelech gets up in the morning, and tells everybody what's up, and everybody's afraid of the Lord's wrath. He calls Abraham in and says, in his best Pharaoh impersonation, "Dude! What the hell!" Abraham says he feared for his life, and adds, "Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife." (Gen 20:12) Bit of a shocker there, but in its context this may not have been quite so shocking. Abimelech is somewhat touched by this (but probably acting more on God's earlier comment that treating Abraham well would be good because Abraham is a prophet), and gives Abraham a whole ton of stuff, including farm animals, land, slaves and money.
"Then Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife." (Gen 20:17-18)That little bit kind of makes me chuckle. It's a very non-chalant sort of "Oh, and then God undid all the stuff God did to Abimelech because of Abraham's little lie." Sorry dude. My bad.
One of the things that I find fascinating about this (beyond the whole "God is Abraham's wingman" thing), is that this is very, very similar to an earlier story, as I commented earlier. I was talking to my Dad about this, and he suggested something which hadn't come to my mind, but probably should've. He suggested that it's very possible that these are two tellings which come from the same parent-story. Sure, details here and there are changed; the identity of the rulers are different, and God's reactions are somewhat different, but the basic plot of, "Abraham tells a ruler that his wife is his sister, the ruler believes Abraham, and wackiness ensues (or plagues)," is maintained. There's been previous discussion of the multiple authors hypothesis in earlier chapters, and I think it's very plausible that this is an alternate telling of the previous story.
Some interesting stuff going on, but ultimately this chapter feels a little bit like the Bible is already going into syndication. In the next chapter! Something new happens. I hope.
