20:3 But God appeared 1 to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead 2 because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” 3
20:4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord, 4 would you really slaughter an innocent nation? 5 20:5 Did Abraham 6 not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, 7 ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience 8 and with innocent hands!”
20:6 Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. 9 That is why I have kept you 10 from sinning against me and why 11 I did not allow you to touch her.
1 tn Heb “came.”
2 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.
3 tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.
4 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
5 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.
6 tn Heb “he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “and she, even she.”
8 tn Heb “with the integrity of my heart.”
9 tn Heb “with the integrity of your heart.”
10 tn Heb “and I, even I, kept you.”
11 tn Heb “therefore.”