2496. Genesis 20

1. And Abraham travelled from there towards the land of the south, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.

2. And Abraham said of ¹ Sarah his wife, She is my sister; and Abimelech King of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

3. And God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night, and said to him, Behold, you will die because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married to a husband.

4. And Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, Lord, will You kill even a righteous nation?

5. Did he not say to me, She is my sister? And she herself also said, He is my brother. In the uprightness of my heart and in the blamelessness of my hands have I done this.

6. And God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know that in the uprightness of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not allow you to touch her.

7. And now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and will pray for you, and you will live. And if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and everyone who is yours.

8. And in the morning Abimelech rose up early and called all his servants and spoke all these words in their ears; and the men were very much afraid.

9. And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us, and what sin have I committed against you, that you have brought great sin on me and on my kingdom? Deeds which ought not to be done you have done to me.

10. And Abimelech said to Abraham, What did you see, that you have done this thing?

11. And Abraham said, Because I said, Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me on account of my wife.

12. And also she is truly my sister, my father's daughter but not my mother's daughter; and she became my wife.

13. And it happened, when God caused ² me to depart from my father's house, that I said to her, This is your kindness which you may do for me: at every place we come to, say for me, He is my brother.

14. And Abimelech took flocks and herds, and men servants and women servants, and gave to Abraham; and he restored to him Sarah his wife.

15. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you; dwell in that which is good in your eyes.

16. And to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given a thousand-pieces of silver to your brother; behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes for all who are with you, and with all; and she was vindicated.

17. And Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife, and his women servants, and they gave birth.

18. For Jehovah had completely closed every womb of Abimelech's house because of the matter of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

CONTENTS

In Chapter 12 above the subject was Abraham's sojourn in Egypt, which meant the instruction that the Lord received in factual knowledge when He was still a boy. In the present chapter the subject is Abraham's sojourn in Gerar, where Abimelech was. This sojourning in a similar way means instruction received by the Lord, but now it is in matters of doctrine regarding charity and faith. Dealt with in particular here is the origin of the doctrine of charity and faith; that is to say, that this doctrine is spiritual deriving from a celestial origin but is not from the rational.

脚注:

2559. 'It happened, when God caused me to depart from my father's house' means when He left behind factual knowledge and the appearances that arise from this, together with their delights, meant here by 'father's house'. This is clear from the meaning of 'departing' as leaving behind, and from the meaning of 'house' as good, 2233, here the good that consists in the delight received from the appearances that go with factual knowledge and rational concepts, for all delight appears as good. The reason 'father's house' here means the delights received from factual knowledge and rational concepts, and therefore from the appearances that go with these, is that they are spoken of in reference to Abraham when he departed from his father's house, for at that time, together with his father's house, Abraham worshipped other gods; see 1356, 1992. This explains why the verb in the clause God caused me to depart is plural. This clause, as is also in keeping with the original language, could be rendered, the gods caused me to wander, but because the Lord is represented by Abraham it must be rendered, 'God caused me to depart'. Now it is because the factual knowledge that existed initially with the Lord, and also the rational concepts formed from that knowledge, were human - steeped as they were in what had been inherited from the mother - and so were not purely Divine, that they are represented by 'Abraham's' first state. But how far representations go, see 665, 1097 (end), 1361, 1992.