RE: Dreams | GOD Warns Abimelech from Adultery [Genesis 20:3]
Abraham, Sarah, & Abimelech
Praying for others: John 14:13; John 15:7; Romans 8:26-27; Ephesians 6:18; Job 42:10; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; James 5:16;
John 14:13 | ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in MY name, so that the FATHER may be glorified in the SON.
John 15:7 | ⁷ If you remain in ME & MY words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, & it will be done for you.
Romans 8:26-27 | ²⁶ In the same way, the SPIRIT helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the SPIRIT HIMSELF intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. ²⁷ And HE who searches our hearts knows the mind of YHWH, because the SPIRIT intercedes for the saints according to the will of GOD.
Ephesians 6:18 | ¹⁸ Pray in the SPIRIT at all times, with every kind of prayer & petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
Job 42:10 | ¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his prosperity & doubled his former possessions.
1 Timothy 2:1-2 | ¹ First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, & thanksgiving be offered on behalf of all men ² for kings & all those in authority, so we may lead tranquil & quiet lives in all godliness & dignity.
James 5:16 | ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other & pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
Psalm 143:1 | ¹ O LORD, hear my prayer. In YOUR faithfulness, give ear to my plea; in YOUR righteousness, answer me.
Jeremiah 42:4 | ⁴ “I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will surely pray to the LORD your GOD as you request, and I will tell you everything that the LORD answers; I will not withhold a word from you.”
2 Samuel 24:25 | ²⁵ And there he built an altar to the LORD & offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then the LORD answered the prayers on behalf of the land, and the plague upon Israel was halted.
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Proverbs 15:28 | ²⁸ The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil.
Matthew 25:37 | ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer HIM, ‘LORD, when did we see YOU hungry & feed YOU, or thirsty & give YOU something to drink?
Psalm 65:5 | ⁵ With awesome deeds of righteousness YOU answer us, O GOD of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth & of the farthest seas.
Filter: God/pray/righteous/ /
Job 33:26 | ²⁶ He prays to GOD & finds favor; he sees GOD’s face & shouts for joy, & GOD restores HIS righteousness to that man.
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Daniel 9:16 | ¹⁶ O LORD, in keeping with all YOUR righteous acts, I pray that YOUR anger & wrath may turn away from YOUR city Jerusalem, YOUR Holy mountain; for because of our sins & the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem & YOUR people are a reproach to all around us.
1 Peter 3:12 | ¹² For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, & HIS ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”
Filter: Lord/of the/righteous/ /
Psalm 71:16 | ¹⁶ I will enter in the strength of the LORD GOD; I will proclaim YOUR righteousness —YOURS alone.
Luke 1:6 | ⁶ Both of them were righteous in the sight of GOD, walking blamelessly in all the commandments & decrees of the LORD.
Luke 1:17 | ¹⁷ And he will go on before the LORD in the SPIRIT & power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, & the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the LORD.”
Acts 13:10 | ¹⁰ & said, “O child of the devil & enemy of all righteousness, you are full of all kinds of deceit & trickery! Will you never stop perverting the straight ways of the LORD?
John 9:31 | ³¹ We know that GOD does not listen to sinners, but HE does listen to the one who worships HIM & does HIS will.
Genesis 12:17-18; 20:7; 28:12; 31:24; 37:5-9; Ezekiel 33:14-15; Numbers 22:9; 1 Chronicles 16:21; Psalm 105:14;
● Genesis 12:17-18 | ¹⁷ The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh & his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram & asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?
● Genesis 20:7 | ⁷ Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet; he will pray for you & you will live. But if you do not restore her, be aware that you will surely die—you & all who belong to you.”
● Genesis 28:12 | ¹² And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, & GOD’s angels were going up & down the ladder.
● Genesis 31:24 | ²⁴ But that night GOD came to Laban the Aramean in a dream & warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
● Genesis 37:5-9 | ⁵ Then Joseph had a dream, & when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ HE said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, & suddenly my sheaf rose & stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around & bowed down to mine.” ⁸ “Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream & his statements. ⁹ Then Joseph had another dream & told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, & this time the sun & moon & 11 stars were bowing down to me.”
● Ezekiel 33:14-15 | ¹⁴ But if I tell the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ & he turns from his sin & does what is just & right—¹⁵ if he restores a pledge, makes restitution for what he has stolen, & walks in the statutes of life without practicing iniquity—he will surely live; he will not die.
● Numbers 22:9 | ⁹ Then GOD came to Balaam & asked, “Who are these men with you?”
● 1 Chronicles 16:21 | ²¹ HE let no man oppress them; HE rebuked kings on their behalf:
● Psalm 105:14 | ¹⁴ HE let no man oppress them; HE rebuked kings on their behalf:
Geneva: M. Coverdale & J. Knox, Baptist [1557] | Genesis 20:3
But GOD came to Abimelech in a dream by night, & said to him, Behold,
[c] You are but a dead man, for the woman which you have taken; for she is a man's wife.
[c] So greatly GOD detests the breach of marriage.
Matthew Poole, Nonconformist [1624-1679] | Genesis 20:3
GOD then used to manifest his mind in dreams, not only to his people, but even to heathens for their sakes,
or in things wherein they were concerned.
Thou art but a dead man, you deserve a present & untimely death;
& if you proceed in your intended wickedness, it shall be inflicted upon thee,
both for your injustice in taking her away by force, & for your intentions to abuse her, though not yet executed.
Matthew Henry, Nonconformist [1662-1714] | Genesis 20:1-8
Crooked policy will not prosper:
it brings ourselves & others into danger.
GOD gives Abimelech notice of his danger of sin, & his danger of death for his sin. Every willful sinner is a dead man, but Abimelech pleads ignorance.
If our consciences witness, that, however we may have been cheated into a snare, we have not knowingly sinned against GOD, it will be our rejoicing in the day of evil.
It is matter of comfort to those who are honest, that GOD knows their honesty, & will acknowledge it.
It is a great mercy to be hindered from committing sin; of this GOD must have the glory.
But if we have ignorantly done wrong, that will not excuse us, if we knowingly persist in it.
He that does wrong, whoever he is, prince or peasant, shall certainly receive for the wrong which he has done, unless he repent, &, if possible, make restitution.
John Gills, English Baptist [1748] | Genesis 20:3
1.] But GOD came to Abimelech in a dream by night—Put a dream into his mind, by which he cautioned him against taking Sarah to be his wife;
so careful was the LORD that no wrong should be done to such a godly & virtuous person, to which she was exposed through the weakness of her husband.
Aben Ezra wrongly interprets this of an angel,
when it was GOD himself:
& said unto him, behold, you art but a dead man, for the woman which you have taken; that is,
GOD would punish him with death, unless he restored the woman, whom he had taken, to her husband; not for any uncleanness he had committed with her,
but for taking her without her free & full consent, & without inquiring more strictly into her relation to Abraham, & connection with him,
& for his impure & unlawful desires after her, if persisted in:
for she is a man's wife, or "married to an husband" [c]; & therefore it was unlawful in him to take her to be his wife.
[c] "maritata marito", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Schmidt.
Charles John Ellicott, Theologian [1749–1905] | Genesis 20:3
1.] GOD [Elohim] came . . . —From the use of this title of the Deity it has been said that this narrative is an Elohistic form of the Jehovistic narrative in [Genesis 12:10-20]
But we have seen that even in the History of the Fall, where the writer in so remarkable a manner styles the Deity YHWH-Elohim,
HE nevertheless restricts Eve & the serpent in their conversation to the name Elohim.
With the same care in the application of the names, it is necessarily Elohim who appears to a heathen king;
& had the title YHWH been used it would have been a violation of the narrator’s rule.
Moreover, the sole reason for calling that narrative Jehovistic is that in Genesis 12:17 it is YHWH who plagues Pharaoh for Sarah’s sake.
But equally here, Genesis 20:18, it is YHWH who protects Sarah from Abimelech;
in both cases it being the covenant-GOD, who saves HIS people from injury.
2.] Thou art but a dead man—Hebrew, you die, or are dying. Abimelech was already suffering from the malady spoken of in Genesis 20:17,
Genesis 20:17 | ¹⁷ Then Abraham prayed to GOD, & GOD healed Abimelech & his wife & his maidservants, so that they could again bear children—
when Elohim appeared to him & warned him that death would be the result of perseverance in retaining Sarah.
It was this malady which was the cause of the abstention spoken of in Genesis 20:4-6.
Genesis 20:4-6 | ⁴ Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he replied, “LORD, would YOU destroy a nation even though it is innocent?
⁵ Didn’t Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this in the integrity of my heart & the innocence of my hands.”
⁶ Then GOD said to Abimelech in the dream,
“Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, & so I have kept you from sinning against ME.
That is why I did not let you touch her."
Joseph Benson, Methodist [1749–1821] | Genesis 20:3
But GOD came to Abimelech in a dream—It appears by this that GOD revealed HIMSELF by dreams, which evidenced themselves to be divine & supernatural,
not only to his servants the prophets, but even to those that were out of the pale of the Church; but then usually it was with some regard to GOD’s own people.
Albert Barnes, American Theologian [1798-1870] | Genesis 20:3
1.] The Supreme Being here appears as GOD— & therefore in HIS eternal power & independence, as HE was antecedent to the creation of man.
HE communicates with Abimelek in a dream.
This prince addresses him as, "LORD."
We have already seen that the knowledge of the true GOD had not yet disappeared from the Gentile world, who were under the Noachic covenant.
2.] "Thou wilt die." Thou art dying or at the point of death if you persist. A deadly plague was already in the body of Abimelek, on account of Sarah.
3.] "Will YOU slay a righteous nation also?"
Abimelek associates his nation with himself, & expects that the fatal stroke will not be confined to his own person.
He pleads his integrity in the matter, which the LORD acknowledges. Gentiles sometimes act according to the dictates of conscience, which still lives in them,
though it be obscured by sin.
Abimelek was innocent in regard to the "great sin" of seizing another man's wife, of which GOD acquitted him.
He was wrong in appropriating a woman to himself by mere stretch of power, & in adding wife to wife.
But these were common customs of the time, for which his conscience did not upbraid him in his pleading with GOD.
4.] "And the GOD." The presence of the definite article seems to intimate a contrast of the true GOD
with the false gods to which the Gentiles were fast turning. Abimelek was at least in the doubtful ground on the borders of polytheism.
Cambridge: John J.S. Perowne, Anglican Bishop [1882] | Genesis 20:3
1.] GOD came … in a dream—Scholars have noticed that Elohim frequently describes Divine interposition by means of a dream.
[Genesis 20:6; 31:11; 31:24; 37:5-9; 40:5; 41:1; 46:2]
2.] Are but a dead man—i.e. “shall die.”
This sentence is not literally fulfilled. [Genesis 2:17]
Genesis 2:17 | ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
Joseph S. Exell & Henry DM Spence-Jones, Anglican [1897] | Genesis 20:3
1.] But GOD—Elohim; whence the present CH, with the exception of v.18, is assigned to the Elohist [Tuch, De Wette, Bleek, Davidson], &
the incident at Gerar explained as the original legend, of which the story of Sarah's abduction by Pharaoh is the Jehovistic imitation.
But [1] the use of Elohim throughout the present CH is sufficiently accounted for by observing that it describes the intercourse of Deity with a heathen monarch,
to whom the name of YHWH was unknown, while the employment of the latter term in v.18 may be ascribed to the fact that it is the covenant GOD of Sarah who there interposes for her protection; &
[2] the apparent resemblance between the 2 incidents is more than counterbalanced by the points of diversity which subsist between them—came to Abimelech in a dream
—the usual mode of self-revelation employed by Elohim towards heathen.
Pharaoh's dreams [Genesis 41:1], &
Nebuchadnezzar's [Daniel 4:5], as distinguished from the visions in which YHWH manifests HIS presence to HIS people.
The theophanies vouchsafed to Abraham [Genesis 12:7; 15:1; 18:1] &
to Jacob [Genesis 28:13; 32:24], &
the visions granted to Daniel [Daniel 7:1-28; 10:5-9] &
the prophets generally, which, though sometimes occurring in dreams, were yet a higher form of Divine manifestation than the dreams—by night, & said to him,
2.] Behold, you are but a dead man—literally, behold thyself dying, or about to die—Abimelech, it is probable, was by this time suffering from the malady which had fallen on his house [vide Ver. 17]
—for [i.e. on account of] the woman which you have taken; for she is a man's wife—literally, married to a husband, or under lordship to a lord [Deuteronomy 22:22]
Keil & Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the OT
After the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah, Abraham removed from the grove of Mamre at Hebron to the south country,
hardly from the same fear as that which led Lot from Zoar, but probably to seek for better pasture.
Here he dwelt between Kadesh [Genesis 14:7] & Shur [Genesis 16:7], & remained for some time in Gerar, a place the name of which has been preserved in the deep & broad Wady Jurf el Gerr [i.e., torrent of Gerar]
about 8 miles S.S.E. of Gaza, near to which Rowland discovered the ruins of an ancient town bearing the name of Khirbet el Gerr.
Here Abimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar, like Pharaoh in Egypt, took Sarah, whom Abraham had again announced to be his sister, into his harem
—not indeed because he was charmed with the beauty of the woman of 90, which was either renovated, or had not yet faded [Kurtz],
but in all probability "to ally himself with Abraham, the rich nomad prince" [Delitzsch]
From this danger, into which the untruthful statement of both her husband & herself had brought her, she was once more rescued by the faithfulness of the covenant GOD.
In a dream by night GOD appeared to Abimelech, & threatened him with death on account of the woman, whom he had taken, because she was married to a husband.