Genesis 20:2

And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she [is] my sister,.... This he gave out in all conversation he came into, and said it to every one that asked who she was, which was little better than a lie; it

And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. Abraham said of Sarah ... She is my sister - fear of the people among whom he was, tempted him to equivocate.

Abraham said this lest they should slay him for his beautiful wife’ s sake, as himself tells us, . For though Sarah was ninety years old, yet she retained her beauty in good measure, partly, because she had not been broken by bearing and nursing of children; partly, because in that age of the world men and women, as they lived longer, so they did not so soon begin to decay, as now they do; and partly, because of God’ s especial blessing upon her. Abimelech took Sarah, not without violence, for it is not to be thought that either Abraham or Sarah would consent to it.

Genesis 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She [is] my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.Ver. 2. She is my sister.] This is the second time he thus sinned, both against piety by distrust; and charity, in exposing his wife to other men’ s pleasure, and his neighbour thereby to God’ s displeasure. So Jehoshaphat was twice taken tardy in Ahab’ s amity; Jonah twice reproved for rebellion; and John for angel worship; Samson, twenty years after he had loved the Philistine woman, goes down to Gaza, and went into Delilah. Lot committed incest two nights together. Indeed, the orifice of his lust was not yet stopped by repentance. But Jonah had surely repented of his former frowardness; and so had Samson, Jehoshaphat, and Abraham too, of his former hypocrascy; which made the Lord to move Pharaoh to deal kindly with him, so that "he had sheep and oxen," &c. But what shall we say to that example of the apostles, among whom "there was a strife who should be accounted the greatest?" And this was not the first, but the third time they had thus offended by ambition; and even after our Saviour had discoursed unto them of his cross. But this last time, most absurdly, and unseasonably, after that he had foretold his passion to follow within two days; had taught them that he was anointed by the woman for the day of his burial; had administered to them the sacrament, that seal of mutual love; had washed their feet, to teach them humility and charity, &c. Oh, the incredible perverseness of corrupt nature! How strongly do the best still smell of the old cask, taste of the old stock, though ingrafted into Christ, and though poured from vessel to vessel. "And this have ye done again," saith the Lord. A great aggravation, as numbers added to numbers, are first ten times more, and then a hundred, and then a thousand. "How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert". A regenerate man may fall into the same sin again that he hath truly repented of nor can we define how oft, and into how heinous but surely, not oft into the same, that is heinous and scandalous. That is a graceless person that hath "eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin". An enemy to God, that "goeth on still in his trespasses". It is expressly noted of Judah, that "he knew Tamar again no more." And Abimelech king of Gerar.] A fit name for a king; and a common name to the kings of this country: it signifies father king. "I was a father to the poor," saith Job. And "kings shall be nursing fathers" to the Church, saith Isaiah. Augustus was styled Pater Patriae. And Trajan gloried most in his title Optimus. He desired more to be loved, than honoured, and counted it a greater dignity, Prodesse quam praeesse .

(2) She is my sister.—Twenty years before, Abraham had acted in the same way in Egypt, and Pharaoh had rebuked him, but sent him away with large presents. We learn from this chapter, Genesis 20:13, that the false representation which twice brought them into trouble was habitual with the two; nor does Abraham ever seem conscious that he was acting in it wrongfully. To us it seems cowardly, in one who had so many men trained to battle, thus to expose his wife to danger; and to have recourse to deceit, at the very time when such abundant revelations were being made to him, also shows an apparent want of faith in God. But Holy Scripture neither represents its heroes as perfect, nor does it raise them disproportionately above the level of their own times. Its distinguishing feature rather is that it ever insists upon a perpetual progress upwards, and urges men onward to be better and holier than those that went before. Abraham was not on the same high spiritual level as a Christian ought to be who has the perfect example of Christ as his pattern, and the gift of the Holy Ghost for his aid; and the fact that God rescued him and Sarah from all danger in Egypt may have seemed to him a warrant that in future difficulties he would have the same Divine protection. Human conduct is ever strangely chequered, but we have a wholesome lesson in the fact, that it was Abraham’s politic device which twice entangled him in actual danger. Abimelech (called in Genesis 26:1, king of the Philistines, where see Note) . . . took Sarah.—She was now ninety years of age, and naturally her beauty must have faded. Some, however, think that with the promise of a son her youth had been renewed, while others suppose that the purpose uppermost in the mind of Abimelech was political, and that what he really desired was an alliance with the powerful sheik who had entered his territories.

Verse 2. She is my sister] See the parallel account, Genesis 12:11-20, and the notes there. Sarah was now about ninety years of age, and probably pregnant with Isaac. Her beauty, therefore, must have been considerably impaired since the time she was taken in a similar manner by Pharaoh, king of Egypt; but she was probably now chosen by Abimelech more on the account of forming an alliance with Abraham, who was very rich, than on account of any personal accomplishments. A petty king, such as Abimelech, would naturally be glad to form an alliance with such a powerful chief as Abraham was: we cannot but recollect his late defeat of the four confederate Canannitish kings. See Clarke on Genesis 14:14, c. This circumstance was sufficient to establish his credit, and cause his friendship to be courted and what more effectual means could Abimelech use in reference to this than the taking of Sarah, who he understood was Abraham's sister, to be his concubine or second wife, which in those times had no kind of disgrace attached to it?

2. She is my sister] See notes on Genesis 12:13. It seems almost incredible that, after the event recorded in Genesis 12:13-20, Abraham should once again have displayed the same faults of cowardice and dissimulation. Sarah also is advanced in years; and, in Genesis 18:10-14, had received the promise of a son. The narrative most probably is a duplicate of the tradition of Gen 12:13-20. Its present position, between the promise of a son in Genesis 18:10-14, and its fulfilment in chap. 21, becomes intelligible on the supposition of its derivation from an independent source, not connected with chap. 18. Abimelech] i.e. “my father is Melech.” This is probably a name compounded with that of a Canaanite deity, Milk (= Molech in the English Bible).

2. She is my sister — Here Abraham repeats the folly he had shown in Egypt. Comp. Genesis 12:11-17.