20:8 Early in the morning 1 Abimelech summoned 2 all his servants. When he told them about all these things, 3 they 4 were terrified.
22:1 Some time after these things God tested 5 Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham 6 replied.
1 tn Heb “And Abimelech rose early in the morning and he summoned.”
2 tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) followed by the preposition לְ (lamed) means “to summon.”
3 tn Heb “And he spoke all these things in their ears.”
4 tn Heb “the men.” This has been replaced by the pronoun “they” in the translation for stylistic reasons.
5 sn The Hebrew verb used here means “to test; to try; to prove.” In this passage God tests Abraham to see if he would be obedient. See T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 44-48. See also J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (OBT), 9-30; and J. I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham,” GTJ 1 (1980): 19-35.
6 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “she lifted up her eyes toward,” an expression that emphasizes her deliberate and careful scrutiny of him.
8 tn Heb “lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
sn The story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife has long been connected with the wisdom warnings about the strange woman who tries to seduce the young man with her boldness and directness (see Prov 5-7, especially 7:6-27). This is part of the literary background of the story of Joseph that gives it a wisdom flavor. See G. von Rad, God at Work in Israel, 19-35; and G. W. Coats, “The Joseph Story and Ancient Wisdom: A Reappraisal,” CBQ 35 (1973): 285-97.