Gen. 12:10-20 Abram in Egypt

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12:10-20Ref--Ge 20:1-18; 26:1-11

10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you."

12:10 went down to Egypt...because the famine was severe. Egypt's food supply was usually plentiful because the Nile's water supply was normally dependable.
12:11 beautiful. see v 14. She was 65 at the time (see v 4;17:17). The Genesis Apocryphon (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls) praises Sarai's beauty. Abram's experience in this episode foreshadows Israel's later experience in Egypt, as the author of Genesis, writing after the exodus, was very much aware. Abram was truly the "father" of Israel.
12:13 Say you are my sister. If Pharaoh were to add Sarai to his harem while knowing she was Abram's wife, he would have to kill Abram first.

14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. 15And when Pharaoh's officals saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

12:16 Livestock was an important measure of wealth in ancient times (see 13:2). camels. Although camels were not widely used until much later (see, e.g., Jds 6:5), archeology has confirmed their occasional domestication as early as the partriarchal period.

17 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai. 18So Pharaoh summoned Abram. "What have you done to me?" he said. "Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?" 19"Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!" 20Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

12:19 Why did you say, 'She is my sister'...? Egyptians ethics emphasized the importance of absolute truthfulness, and Abram was put in the uncomfortable position of being exposed as a liar.

'Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.'
Philippians 3:13-14 NIV

Originally posted 1/15/2006 @ 11:38 pm