Genesis 20 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Abraham and Abimelech

Gen 20:1From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.

Gen 20:2

Gen 20:2And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

Gen 20:3

Gen 20:3But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”

Gen 20:4

Gen 20:4Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people?

Gen 20:5

Gen 20:5Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”

Gen 20:6

Gen 20:6Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

Gen 20:7

Gen 20:7Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

Gen 20:8

Gen 20:8So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid.

Gen 20:9

Gen 20:9Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.”

Gen 20:10

Gen 20:10And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”

Gen 20:11

Gen 20:11Abraham 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 20:12

Gen 20:12Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

Gen 20:13

Gen 20:13And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Gen 20:14

Gen 20:14Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.

Gen 20:15

Gen 20:15And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.”

Gen 20:16

Gen 20:16To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all[fn] who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.”

Gen 20:17

Gen 20:17Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children.

Gen 20:18

Gen 20:18For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(20:16)

Hebrew It is a covering of eyes for all

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.