Skip to the text

Genesis · Literal Standard Version

Genesis 20 Literal Standard Version

Leer en español
About LSV
  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Majority (Byzantine) text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Very literal
  • 2020
  • CC BY-SA 4.0

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 And Abraham journeys from there toward the land of the south, and dwells between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourns in Gerar; 2 and Abraham says concerning his wife Sarah, “She is my sister”; and Abimelech king of Gerar sends and takes Sarah. 3 And God comes to Abimelech in a dream of the night and says to him, “Behold, you [are] a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken—and she married to a husband.” 4 And Abimelech has not drawn near to her, and he says, “Lord, do you also slay a righteous nation? 5 Has he not himself said to me, She [is] my sister! And she, even she herself, said, He [is] my brother; in the integrity of my heart, and in the innocence of my hands, I have done this.” 6 And God says to him in the dream, “Indeed, I have known that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I withhold you, even I, from sinning against Me, therefore I have not permitted you to come against her; 7 and now send back the man’s wife, for he [is] inspired, and he prays for you, and you live; and if you do not send back, know that dying you die, you and all that you have.” 8 And Abimelech rises early in the morning, and calls for all his servants, and speaks all these words in their ears; and the men fear exceedingly; 9 and Abimelech calls for Abraham and says to him, “What have you done to us? And what have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me, and on my kingdom, a great sin? Works which are not done you have done with me.” 10 Abimelech also says to Abraham, “What have you seen that you have done this thing?” 11 And Abraham says, “Because I said, Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they have slain me for the sake of my wife; 12 and also, she is truly my sister, daughter of my father, only not daughter of my mother, and she becomes my wife; 13 and it comes to pass, when God has caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I say to her, This [is] your kindness which you do with me: at every place to where we come, say of me, He [is] my brother.” 14 And Abimelech takes sheep and oxen, and servants and handmaids, and gives to Abraham, and sends back his wife Sarah to him; 15 and Abimelech says, “Behold, my land [is] before you, where it is good in your eyes, dwell”; 16 and to Sarah he has said, “Behold, I have given one thousand pieces of silver to your brother; behold, it is to you a covering of eyes, to all who are with you”; and by all this she is reasoned with. 17 And Abraham prays to God, and God heals Abimelech and his wife, and his handmaids, and they bear: 18 for YHWH restraining had restrained every womb of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Abimelech

    King of Gerar

    King of Gerar who took Sarah, was warned by God in a dream and returned her to Abraham, and made a covenant with Abraham at Beersheba; an Abimelech king of the Philistines at…

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 20:2–3; Genesis 21:22–27; Genesis 26:1

  • Abraham

    Father of nations

    Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25

  • Sarah

    Matriarch, mother of Isaac

    Wife of Abraham who bore Isaac in her old age, long after hope seemed gone.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 17-21

Cross references (16)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Genesis 26:6; Genesis 26:1; Psalm 29:8; 2 Chronicles 14:13–14; Genesis 18:1
  2. 2 Genesis 12:15; Genesis 26:7; Genesis 12:11–13; Proverbs 24:16; Genesis 20:12
  3. 3 Genesis 20:7; Matthew 27:19; Job 33:15; Psalm 105:14; Genesis 28:12
  4. 4 Genesis 18:23–25; 1 Chronicles 21:17; 2 Samuel 4:11; Genesis 20:6; Genesis 19:24
  5. 5 Psalm 7:8; 1 Kings 9:4; Proverbs 11:3; Proverbs 20:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:10
  6. 6 1 Samuel 25:34; 1 Samuel 25:26; Proverbs 21:1; Genesis 35:5; Genesis 31:7
  7. 7 Job 42:8; 1 Samuel 7:5; Hebrews 13:4; 2 Samuel 24:17; Revelation 11:5–6
  8. 9 Genesis 12:18; Genesis 39:9; Genesis 26:10; 2 Samuel 13:12; Romans 2:11
  9. 11 Genesis 26:7; Genesis 12:12; Psalm 36:1–4; Proverbs 2:5; Genesis 42:18
  10. 12 Genesis 11:29; Genesis 12:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:22
  11. 13 Genesis 12:1; Genesis 12:9; Acts 7:3–5; Psalm 64:5; Acts 5:9
  12. 14 Genesis 12:16; Genesis 20:2; Genesis 12:19–20; Genesis 20:11; Genesis 20:7
  13. 15 Genesis 13:9; Genesis 34:10; Genesis 47:6
  14. 16 Genesis 20:5; Proverbs 27:5; Genesis 24:65; Jonah 1:6; Revelation 3:19
  15. 17 James 5:16; Job 42:9–10; Proverbs 15:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:25; Philippians 4:6
  16. 18 Genesis 12:17; Genesis 30:2; Genesis 16:2; 1 Samuel 1:6; Genesis 20:7

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Quotes verse 20:12 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 29–32)

    … when the king rebuked Abraham for not saying she was his wife, and calling her his sister, he explained what he had been afraid of, and added this further, "And yet indeed she is my sister by the father's side, but not by the mother's; for she was Abraham's sister by his own father, and so near of kin.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)