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Genesis 20:2-4
New English Translation
Genesis 20:2-4
New English Translation
2 Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.
3 But God appeared[a] to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead[b] because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.”[c]
4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord,[d] would you really slaughter an innocent nation?[e]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 20:3 tn Heb “came.”
- Genesis 20:3 tn Heb “Look, you [are] dead.” The Hebrew construction uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with a second person pronominal particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with by the participle. It is a highly rhetorical expression.
- Genesis 20:3 tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.
- Genesis 20:4 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
- Genesis 20:4 tn Apparently Abimelech assumes that God’s judgment will fall on his entire nation. Some, finding the reference to a nation problematic, prefer to emend the text and read, “Would you really kill someone who is innocent?” See E. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB), 149.
New English Translation (NET)
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