Genesis 12:15

The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh,.... The king of Egypt; so it seems by this, that Abram and Sarai were at the place where the court was kept, which the Arabic

The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. The Egyptians beheld the woman, that she was very fair ... and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

The princes also of Pharaoh, i.e. the officers and courtiers; whose great design was to gain their prince’ s favour by gratifying his lusts. Pharaoh was a name common to all the kings of Egypt now, and for many ages after. The woman was taken into Pharaoh’ s house, i.e. taken and brought, one word for two. So the word take is used ,10 Exodus 18:2 27:20, &c. Not to his bed, but the house of his women, where they were purified and prepared for the king’ s presence and society, as ,9, that in due time she might be his concubine or wife. Thus even the ceremonies of courts serve the providence of God, and give opportunity for working her deliverance.

Genesis 12:15 The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’ s house.Ver. 15. The princes also of Pharaoh, &c.] Flattering courtiers please princes’ humours, and serve their delights, though to the procuring of their plagues, as here, and in young King Joash. "If a ruler hearken to lies," saith Solomon, "all his servants are wicked". Aulici sunt instar speculi , saith one. And Mirifica est sympathia , said another, inter magnates and parasitos . Herodotus writeth that, when Cambyses demanded of his courtiers and counsellors whether it were not lawful for him to marry his own sister, whom he greatly desired, they answered, that they found no law to license such a match: but another law they found, that the King of Persia might do what he wanted to. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’ s house.] Not for any worse purpose than to get her goodwill to become his wife. Aλλονμεντοιεξευρηκεναινομοντωβασιλευοντιπερσεωνεξειναιπωιειναανβουλητα - Herod., lib. iii.

(15) The princes . . . commended her before Pharaoh.—In the days of Abram Canaan was the highway to Egypt, and so large an immigration of men of the Semitic stock found their way thither that they overspread the whole Delta, and finally, under the name of the Hyksôs, made themselves masters of the throne of the Pharaohs, and retained their supremacy for several centuries. To keep out these hordes, Amenemhai had built a chain of fortresses, with a connecting wall; and though probably, as M. Chabas concludes (Rev. Arch., XVe Année, Livr. ii. 7), the Hyksôs had already in Abram’s time attained to empire, nevertheless, on arriving at this wall, so powerful a sheik, with so large a following, would be interrogated by the Egyptian scribes, and a report sent to the Pharaoh. The word sar. translated here prince, is common to the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Hebrew languages; but while in Babylonia it was the title of the sovereign, in Egypt it was applied to subordinate officers, such as those in command at these fortresses. By one of these Abram would, no doubt, be conducted into Pharaoh’s presence; and on one of the sepulchres at Benihassan we find an exactly parallel occurrence in the presentation of a nomad prince, evidently of Semitic origin, who, with his family and dependents, is seeking the Pharaoh’s protection, and is received by him with honour. As women did not at that time go veiled in Egypt, this custom not having been introduced there till the Persian conquest, the officers at the frontier would have full opportunity of seeing Sarai. and would, no doubt, mention the extraordinary lightness of her complexion. The most probable derivation of the word Pharaoh is that which identifies it with a symbol constantly used in inscriptions to indicate the king, and which may be read per-ao or phar-ao. It signifies, literally, the double house, or palace. This would be a title of respect. veiling the person of the monarch under the name of his dwelling, in much the same manner as we include the sovereign and his attendants under the name of the Court. For the arguments in favour of this derivation, see Canon Cook’s Excursus on the Egyptian words in the Pentateuch, at the end of Vol. I. of the Speaker’s Commentary. He also gives there the reasons for his opinion, in opposition to that of M. Chabas, that the Pharaoh in whose days Abram visited Egypt was an early king of the twelfth dynasty, some time anterior to the usurpation of the Hyksôs.

Verse 15. The woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.] Pharaoh appears to have been the common appellative of the Cuthite shepherd kings of Egypt, who had conquered this land, as is conjectured, about seventy-two years before this time. The word is supposed to signify king in the ancient Egyptian language. If the meaning be sought in the Hebrew, the root פרע para signifies to be free or disengaged, a name which such freebooters as the Cuthite shepherds might naturally assume. All the kings of Egypt bore this name till the commencement of the Grecian monarchy, after which they were called Ptolemies. When a woman was brought into the seragilo or harem of the eastern princes, she underwent for a considerable time certain purifications before she was brought into the king's presence. It was in this interim that God plagued Pharaoh and his house with plagues, so that Sarai was restored before she could have been taken to the bed of the Egyptian king.

15. the princes of Pharaoh] i.e. the chief officers at the court of the king of Egypt. Pharaoh is not a proper name, but the title of the Egyptian king. It is the Hebrew way of transliterating the Egyptian royal title Per’o, “the Great House,” which was transferred from the dwelling to the dynasty of the sovereign. It is often compared with “the Sublime Porte.” As the king’s title, it is no more distinctive than “King,” or “Tsar,” or “Sultan.” There is nothing in this passage to shew which Egyptian king is intended, or at what place he held his court. If Abram was a contemporary of Hammurabi (see note on 14), the Pharaoh of this chapter may have belonged to the 12th or 13th dynasty of Egypt. All kings of Egypt mentioned in the O.T. (except Shishak, 1 Kings 14:25, and So, 2 Kings 17:4) are designated Pharaoh. into Pharaoh’s house] i.e. into the harem, or women’s quarter of the king’s palace. The verse illustrates the manner in which the courtiers of an Eastern monarch sought to win royal favour by recommending to his notice beautiful women who might be added to his harem. Cf. the story of the Book of Esther. The story is much abbreviated: but it is implied that Sarai consented to sacrifice her honour for her husband’s life. We must remember that in the ethics of the O.T. woman is regarded in a less honourable light than man. The idea of a man sacrificing himself to save a woman’s honour belongs almost entirely to the Christian age.

15. Commended her before Pharaoh — The result is as Abram anticipated. He sins to help Providence, and Providence abandons him.