The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 331

at Gerar explained as the original legend, of tribes mts a proof thnt the hour hnd not which the story of Sarah's abduction by arrived for the infliction on them of the Pharaoh is the Jehovistic imitation. But doom of extermination, (l) tl1e use of Elohim throughout the present chapkr is sufficiently accounted for by observ- . Ver. 6.-Se.id he not unto me, She is roy ing thnt it describes tlie intercourse of Deity ~1ster 1 and she, eveu she herself said, He with a heathen monarch, to whom the name is my brother. From which it is clenr thnt of Jeho,ah was unknown, while the employ- the P~ilistine monnrch, equally with the men_t of the latter term in ver. 18 may be Egyptmn Pharaoh, shrank from the sin of ascribed to the fact that it is the covenant ~dultery. In the integrity of my heart and God of Sarah who there interposes for her mnocenoy of my hands have I done this. rrotection; and (2) the apparent resemblance I. e. h~ assumes the right of kings to take between the two incidents is more than unmarned persons into their harems. cou_nterbal~nced by the points of diversity Ver. 6.-And God said unto him in a which subsist between them-came to Abime- dream,-" It is in full agreement with the lech in a dream-the usual mode of self. nature of dreams that the communication revelation employed by Elohim towards s~ould be made in several, and not in one heathen. Cf. Pharaoh's dreams (eh. xii. 1) smgle act; cf. chs. xxxvii. and xli.; Matt. ii." and Nebuchadnezzar's (Den. iv. 5), as dis- (Lange)-Yea, I know that thou didst this tin~1ished from the visions in which Jehovah in the integrity of thy heart-1·. e. judged manifests his presence to his people. Cf. from thy moral standpoint. The words do the tbeophanies vouchsafed to Abraham (eh. n_ot imJ?IJ: a Divine acquittal as to the essen- xii. 7; xv. 1 ; xviii. 1) and to Jacob (eh. ~utl gmlt~ness ~f the ~et, which is clearly x:xv:iii. 13 ; xxxii. 24), and the visions rnvolved m the mstrucbon to seek the medi- granted to Daniel (Dan. vii. 1-28; x. 5-9) ation of God's prophet (ver. 7). For I also and the prophets generally, which, though withheld thee from sinning against me: sometimes occurring in dreams, were yet e therefore suff'ered I thee not to touch her higher form of Divine manifestation than the (vide on ver. 4). dreams-by night, and said to him, Behold, Ver. 7.-Now therefore restore the ma.n thou art but a dead man,-literally, behold his wife. Literally, the wife of the man, thyse{f dying, or about to du= av a.1ro9vf,a- God now speaking of Abraham non tanquam r:ni; (LXX. ). Abimelech, it is probable, was de homine quolibet, sed peculiariter sibi by this time suffering from the malady which cha.rum (Calvin). For he is a prophet. had fallen on his house (vide ver. 17)-for Nabi, from naba, to cause to bubble up; (i. e. on aC.JOnnt of) the woman which thou hence to pour forth, applied to one who hast taken; for she is a man's wife-liter- speaks by e. Divine afflatus (Deut. xiii. 2; ally, married to a husba'Tld, or under lord- Judges vi. 8 ; 1 Sam. ix. 9; 1 Kings xxiL ship to a lord (cf. Dent. xxii 22). 7). The office of the Na.bi was twofold-to Ver. 4. - But Abimelech had not come announce the will of God to meu (Exod. iv. near her. Apparently withheld by the 15 ; vii. 1), and also to intercede with God peculiar disease which had overtaken him. for men (ver. 7; Jer. vii. 16; xi. 14; xiv. The statement of the present verse (a similar 11). The use of the term Ne.bi in this place one to v;hich is not made with reference to neither proves the.t the sphit of propl1ecy Pharaoh) was clearly rendered necessary by had not existed from the beginning (cf. eh. the approaching birth of Isaac, who might ix. 25-27), nor shows that the Pentateur.h, oth ernise have been said to be the child not which always uses this term, cannot be of of Abraham, bnt of the Philistine king. And greater antiquity than the time of Samuel, he said, Lord,-Adonai (vide eh. xv. 2)- before which, according to 1 Sam. ix. 9, the wilt thou slay also a righteous nation 1 prophet was called a seer (Bohlen, Hart- .Anticipating that the stroke of Divine judg- mann). As used in the Pentateuch the term ment was nbout to fall upon his people ns describes the recipient of Divine revcla.tious, well as on himself, with a.llusiou to the fate and as such it was incorporated in the Mosaic of Sodom (Knobel), which he deprecates for legislation. During the period of the Judges !,is people at least on the ground that they the term Roeh appears to have corn~ into a re innocent of the offence charged against use, and to have held its ground until the l,im (cf. 2 Sam. xxiv. 17). That Abimelech reformation of Samuel, when the older theo- au<l his people, like Melchisedeck and his cratic term was again reverted to (vide subjects, had some lrnowledge of the true Hiivernick, § 19). And he shall pray for liod, and that the Canaanites generally at thee (vide supra), and thou shalt live. this period had not reached the depth of Literally, live thou, the imperative being rnora degradation into which the cities of used for the future in strong prophetio the Jordan circle had sunk before their assurances (cf. Pa. cxxviii. 5 ; vide Gesenius, overthrow, is apparent from the narrative. § 130 ). And if thou restore her not, know The comparative virtue, therefore, of these thou that thou aha.It surely dle,--Iiternlly, rl'I. 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