Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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innocence of the dove. It may, for aught I know, be suggested that God denied to Abraham and Sarah the blessing of children so long to punish them for this sinful compact if they will not own their marriage, why should God own it? But we may suppose that, after this reproof which Abimelech gave them, they agreed never to do so again, and then presently we read (Ge 21:1,2) that Sarah conceived.
12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but
not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. (See on Ge 11:31). What a poor defense Abraham made. The statement absolved him from the charge of direct and absolute falsehood, but he had told a moral untruth because there was an intention to deceive (compare Ge 12:11-13). "Honesty is always the best policy." Abraham's life would have been as well protected without the fraud as with it: and what shame to himself, what distrust to God, what dishonor to religion might have been prevented! "Let us speak truth every man to his neighbor" [Zec 8:16; Eph 4:25].
13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s
house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt show unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
14 And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and
women servants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
Here is,
The kindness of a prince which Abimelech showed to Abraham. See how unjust Abraham's jealousies were. He fancied that if they knew that Sarah was his wife they would kill him; but, when they did know it, instead of killing him they were kind to him, frightened at least to be so by the divine rebukes they were under.
1. He gives him his royal licence to dwell where he pleased in his country, courting his stay because he gives him his royal gifts (Ge 20:14), sheep and oxen, and (Ge 20:16) a thousand pieces of silver. This he gave when he restored Sarah, either,