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Gênesis 20

BLIVRE · Chapter 20/50

1De ali partiu Abraão à terra do Sul, e assentou entre Cades e Sur, e habitou como peregrino em Gerar.

2E disse Abraão de Sara sua mulher: É minha irmã. E Abimeleque, rei de Gerar, enviou e tomou a Sara.

3Porém Deus veio a Abimeleque em sonhos de noite, e lhe disse: Eis que morto és por causa da mulher que tomaste, a qual é casada com marido.

4Mas Abimeleque não havia chegado a ela, e disse: Senhor, matarás também a gente justa?

5Não me disse ele: É minha irmã; e ela também disse: É meu irmão? Com sinceridade de meu coração, e com limpeza de minhas mãos fiz isto.

6E disse-lhe Deus em sonhos: Eu também sei que com integridade de teu coração fizeste isto; e eu também te detive de pecar contra mim, e assim não te permiti que a tocasses.

7Agora, pois, devolve a mulher a seu marido; porque é profeta, e orará por ti, e viverás. E se tu não a devolveres, sabe que certamente morrerás, com tudo o que for teu.

8Então Abimeleque se levantou de manhã, e chamou a todos os seus servos, e disse todas estas palavras aos ouvidos deles; e temeram os homens em grande maneira.

9Depois chamou Abimeleque a Abraão e lhe disse: Que nos fizeste? e em que pequei eu contra ti, que atraíste sobre mim e sobre meu reino tão grande pecado? o que não devias fazer fizeste comigo.

10E disse mais Abimeleque a Abraão: Que viste para que fizesses isto?

11E Abraão respondeu: Porque disse para mim: Certamente não há temor de Deus neste lugar, e me matarão por causa de minha mulher.

12E na verdade também é minha irmã, filha de meu pai, mas não filha de minha mãe, e tomei-a por mulher.

13E foi que, quando Deus me fez sair sem rumo da casa de meu pai, eu lhe disse: Esta é a lealdade que tu me farás, que em todos os lugares onde chegarmos, digas de mim: É meu irmão.

14Então Abimeleque tomou ovelhas e vacas, e servos e servas, e deu-o a Abraão, e devolveu-lhe a Sara sua mulher.

15E disse Abimeleque: Eis que minha terra está diante de ti, habita onde bem te parecer.

16E a Sara disse: Eis que dei mil moedas de prata a teu irmão; olha que ele te é por véu de olhos para todos os que estão contigo, e para com todos: assim foi repreendida.

17Então Abraão orou a Deus; e Deus sanou a Abimeleque e a sua mulher, e a suas servas, e voltaram a ter filhos.

18Porque havia por completo fechado o SENHOR toda madre da casa de Abimeleque, por causa de Sara, mulher de Abraão.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Abraham again says that Sarah is his sister, this time to King Abimelech of Gerar, who takes her for himself, but God intervenes in a dream and keeps him from touching her, and everything is resolved with restitution and healing.

Explanation

This episode repeats a pattern already seen in chapter 12: Abraham's fear leads him again to resort to the half-truth that Sarah is his 'sister' (she was, in fact, his half-sister, the daughter of the same father). What stands out here is the integrity of Abimelech, a pagan king who acts in good faith and is protected by God even before doing wrong, showing that God also cares for people outside the covenant who act with sincerity of heart. Abraham, though he is the bearer of the divine promise, appears in a very human and flawed light, repeating a past mistake — a realistic portrait of how even great figures of faith wrestle with the same fears more than once. Abimelech's restitution and the prayer of healing Abraham offers on his behalf show how the conflict ends in reconciliation and restoration.

Fun facts

  • This is the second of three similar episodes in Genesis involving 'the wife posing as sister' (the third occurs with Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 26), a repeating pattern that scholars see as part of a recurring theme about fear, faith, and divine providence in Abraham's family.
  • The title 'Abimelech' appears in several Old Testament passages referring to different Philistine kings, suggesting it may have been a dynastic title (like 'Pharaoh' in Egypt) rather than necessarily a single personal name.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Gênesis 20:1Abraham moves to the region of Gerar, in the south, beginning an episode that will play out much like the one in chapter 12, in Egypt.
  2. Gênesis 20:2Abraham repeats, with a different king, the same excuse he had already used in chapter 12: saying “She is my sister” instead of wife, to protect himself. It’s the same fear of being killed over Sarah’s beauty repeating itself in a new situation, years later.
  3. Gênesis 20:3God warns Abimelech in a dream that he is in danger of death for having taken Sarah, revealing that she was already married—a direct intervention before the situation could get worse.
  4. Gênesis 20:4Abimelech had not yet had relations with Sarah, and defends himself by asking whether God would really destroy an innocent people over a mistake made in good faith.
  5. Gênesis 20:5Abimelech argues that he acted in good faith, since both Abraham and Sarah had said they were siblings—he had no reason to doubt the story.
  6. Gênesis 20:6God acknowledges Abimelech’s good faith and reveals that it was He Himself who kept him from touching Sarah, preventing him from sinning without knowing it.
  7. Gênesis 20:7God gives the solution: return Sarah to Abraham, called here a prophet, who will pray for Abimelech—and warns that not returning her means certain death for him and his household.
  8. Gênesis 20:8Abimelech tells the dream to all his servants first thing in the morning, and fear spreads among them at the seriousness of what had almost happened.
  9. Gênesis 20:9Abimelech confronts Abraham, asking why he brought this trouble upon his kingdom, feeling deceived by the half-truth he’d been told.
  10. Gênesis 20:10Abimelech asks directly what Abraham saw or thought that justified lying like that.
  11. Gênesis 20:11Abraham explains the reason for his fear: he thought there was no respect for God in that place, and feared being killed because of Sarah’s beauty.
  12. Gênesis 20:12Here a detail comes out that only appears now: Sarah really was Abraham’s half-sister, “the daughter of my father” but not of the same mother. This explains why he considered the answer “she is my sister” a half-truth rather than an outright lie—but he was still hiding the more important fact, that she was also his wife.
  13. Gênesis 20:13Abraham reveals that this same request—saying Sarah was his sister—had been an agreement between the two of them ever since they left his father’s house together, used in every city they passed through.
  14. Gênesis 20:14Abimelech returns Sarah and even gives Abraham flocks and servants as a form of compensation for what happened, even though he had acted in good faith.
  15. Gênesis 20:15Abimelech offers Abraham freedom to live anywhere in his lands—a gesture of reconciliation after the misunderstanding.
  16. Gênesis 20:16The “thousand pieces of silver” Abimelech gives Abraham function as a public settlement—the text calls this a “covering of the eyes,” an expression meaning something like a settlement that closes the embarrassment in front of everyone, making clear that Sarah hadn’t been touched and that her honor was intact.
  17. Gênesis 20:17Abraham prays for Abimelech, and God heals him, his wife, and his maidservants, allowing them to have children again—resolving the condition described in the next verse.
  18. Gênesis 20:18God had “fast closed up all the wombs” of Abimelech’s household while Sarah was there, as a direct consequence of the situation—and it’s only after Abraham prays that this condition is reversed. It’s an old way of narrating a temporary punishment tied directly to the cause of the problem.

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