Discovery BoxGenesis 20:8-10 
Context20:8 Early in the morning 1 Abimelech summoned 2 all his servants. When he told them about all these things, 3 they 4 were terrified. 20:9 Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? 5 You have done things to me that should not be done!” 6 20:10 Then Abimelech asked 7 Abraham, “What prompted you to do this thing?” 8
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 This has been replaced by the pronoun “they” in the translation for stylistic reasons.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 tn Heb “How did I sin against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?” The expression “great sin” refers to adultery. For discussion of the cultural background of the passage, see J. J. Rabinowitz, “The Great Sin in Ancient Egyptian Marriage Contracts,” JNES 18 (1959): 73, and W. L. Moran, “The Scandal of the ‘Great Sin’ at Ugarit,” JNES 18 (1959): 280-81.
6 tn Heb “Deeds which should not be done you have done to me.” The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here.
7 tn Heb “And Abimelech said to.”
8 tn Heb “What did you see that you did this thing?” The question implies that Abraham had some motive for deceiving Abimelech.
