Genesis 20:9

Gen 20:9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

Ver. 9. What hast thou done unto us? &c.] Some warmth must be in a reproof, but it must not be scalding hot. Words of reviling and disgrace, they scald, as it were; but words that tend to stir up the conscience to a due consideration of the fault (as here) they be duly warm, and tend to make the physic work more kindly. {a} How could Abraham resist this sweet and sovereign reprehension? How could he but be much ashamed, that he should give occasion to it? No oratory is so powerful with good natures as that of mildness. Remember to reprove with modesty and moderation.

{a} Aegros, quos potus fortis non curavit, ad salutem pristinam aqua tepens revocavit . - Greg.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wickedness of the King bringeth God’s wrath upon the whole realm.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said . . . What hast thou done?--In what a humiliating plight does the patriarch now appear--he, a servant of the true God, rebuked by a heathen prince. Who would not rather be in the place of Abimelech than of the honored but sadly offending patriarch! What a dignified attitude is that of the king--calmly and justly reproving the sin of the patriarch, but respecting his person and heaping coals of fire on his head by the liberal presents made to him.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9. Then Abimelech called Abraham. There are those who suppose that the king of Gerar did not make a complaint against Abraham; but rather declared his own repentance. If, however we fairly weigh his words we find confession mixed with expostulation. Although he complains that Abraham had acted unjustly, he yet does not so transfer the blame to him, as to free himself from all fault. And he may, with justice, impute part of the blame to Abraham, as he does; provided he also acknowledges his own sin. Let we therefore know, that this king did not act as hypocrites are in the habit of doing. For, as soon as ever a pretext is furnished for inculpating others, they confidently absolve themselves: they even esteem it a lawful purgation for themselves, if they can draw others into a participation of their crime. But Abimelech, while he complains that he had been deceived, and had fallen through impudence, yet does not, meanwhile, scruple to condemn himself as guilty of a great sin, ‘It is not,’ he says, ‘through thee, that I and my whole kingdom have been prevented from falling into the greatest wickedness.’ No one therefore may exonerate himself from blame, under the pretense that he had been induced by others to sin. It is, however to be noted, that adultery is here called a great sin; because it binds not one man only, but a whole people, as in a common crime. The king of Gerar could not indeed have spoken thus, had he not acknowledged the sacred right of marriage. But, at the present time, Christians — at least they who boast of the name — are not ashamed jocularly to extenuate so great a crime, from which even a heathen shrinks with the greatest horror. Let us however know, that Abimelech was a true herald of that divine judgment, which miserable men in vain endeavor to elude by their cavils. And let that expression of Paul ever recur to our memory, ‘Be not deceived; because of those things cometh the wrath of God upon the disobedient.’ (1 Corinthians 5:9; Ephesians 5:6.) It is not without reason, that he makes this sin common to the whole nation; for when crimes are committed with impunity, a whole region is, in a certain sense, polluted. And it is especially notorious, that the anger of God is provoked against the whole body of the people, in the person of the king. Hence, with so much the greater earnestness and care, must we beseech God to govern, by his Spirit, those whom he has placed in authority over us; and then, to preserve the country, in which he has granted us a dwelling-place, exempt and pure from all iniquity.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

9. What hast thou done unto us] Syriac Peshitto “what have I done unto thee,” which suits the second clause rather better.

deeds … that ought not to be done] Cf. Gen_34:7; 2Sa_13:12. The moral standard of the heathen king here stands higher than that of Abraham the prophet. There were at Gerar, presumably, no written laws; but the custom of the people, with which was bound up its religion, was more powerful than law. The Code of Hammurabi reflects the moral standard of the most civilized community of the time.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then Abimelech called Abraham,.... Who might be in the king's palace, being taken into it caressed by the king for the sake of Sarah:

and said unto him; not in a passion, as might have been expected, but in a mild and gentle manner, yet with great strength of reasoning, and making very just expostulations with him:

what hast thou done unto us? what evil to him, his family, and his subjects? this was very probably said in the presence of his servants he had called, and therefore the plural number is used:

and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me, and on my kingdom, a great sin? the sin of adultery, he had been in danger of committing, which by the light of nature was known and acknowledged to be a great sin, and therefore was avoided by Heathens, and prohibited and punished by them; or else a "great punishment" (d), as death to him, and all his subjects: and now Abimelech expostulates with him, and desires to know what he had done to incur his displeasure, that he should take such a method as this to avenge himself of him; he plainly intimates that he was not conscious to himself that he had done any thing to offend him; he had suffered him to come into his kingdom, and sojourn in it, and used him well, and in no instance, as he knew of, had done anything to affront him:

thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done; in saying Sarah was his sister, and persuading her to say the same, and so virtually disowning his marriage with her, equivocating in this affair, and dissembling truth, and thereby exposing the chastity of his wife, and the king to the commission of sin with her; things that ought not to be done by any man, and much less by a man professing religion and godliness.

(d) "noxam magnam", Junius & Tremellius; "poenam peccati", Menochius; so Abendana.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Why, &c. He expostulates with him in a friendly but earnest manner. --- A great sin, or punishment, (Menochius) ver. 18, and exposed me to the danger of committing adultery. Abraham might have answered, this would have been his own fault, as he could not have done it without offering violence to Sara, in whose chastity he could confide. Having an opportunity here to vindicate himself, Abraham speaks freely, which he was not allowed to do in Egypt, chap. xii. 20.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

What hast thou done unto us? How great a danger hast thou exposed us to!

A great sin: even the heathens, who thought fornication harmless, judge adultery to be a very great and heinous crime. See Gen 38:24; Lev 20:10; Eze 16:38; 23:45,47. Or, a great punishment, as this word is oft used; which seems better to answer to his offending Abraham now mentioned.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Abimelech called Abraham — The king remonstrated with Abraham “publicly, in the presence of his servants, partly for his own justification in the sight of his dependents, and partly to put Abraham to shame.” — Keil. Mark again the poetic fervour of his words:

What hast thou done to us?

And what have I sinned against thee?

That thou bringest upon me and upon my kingdom

A great sin?

Deeds which should not be done

Hast thou done with me.

Abraham seems to have been stunned and confused by this sharp rebuke, and after some silence Abimelech asks again:

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him (in the presence of his people), What hast thou done unto us? identifying himself once more with his people, as he had already done in responding to God (Ver. 4)and what have I offended thee (thus modestly allowing that he may himself have unwittingly occasioned the sin of Abraham), that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? The gravamen of Abimelech"s accusation was that Abraham had led him and his to offend against God, and so to lay themselves open to the penalties of wrong-doing. Thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. Literally, deeds which ought not to be done thou hast done with me. (cf. Gen_34:7; Lev_4:2, Lev_4:13; vide Glass, "Philol. Tract., 1. 3. t. 3. 100. 6.) The king"s words were unquestionably designed to convey asevere reproach.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou hast done deeds that ought not to be done - Equivocation and dissimulation, however they may be palliated, are very ill things, and by no means to be admitted in any case. He takes it as a very great injury to himself and his family, that Abraham had thus exposed them to sin, What have I offended thee? - If I had been thy worst enemy, thou couldst not have done me a worse turn, nor taken a more effectual course to be avenged on me. Note, We ought to reckon, that those do us the greatest dislikedness in the world, that any way tempt us or expose us to sin, though they may pretend friendship, and offer that which is grateful enough to the corrupt nature. He challenges him to assign any just cause he had to suspect them as a dangerous people for an honest man to live among.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

מעשים אשר לא יעשו THINGS THAT OUGHT NOT TO BE DONE — A plague such as does not ordinarily fall upon human beings has come upon us through you, viz, the closing up of all the secretory channels — those of semen, urine, excrement, of the ears and the nose (cf. Bava Kamma 92a).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Deeds that ought not to be done. You brought harm to a stranger with whom you had no prior relationship of enmity, and without profit to yourself.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ויקרא, he wanted to hear Avraham’s arguments and to appease him so that he would forgive him and pray on his behalf.

?מה עשית לנו, by saying that she is your sister, thereby placing traps for me and my servants.

ומה חטאתי לך, how did I sin against you that you repaid me with evil making me guilty of death?

?והבאתי עלי ועל ממלכתי חטאה גדולה, if I had been killed by G’d my kingdom would have been lost, as he said “are You going to a righteous nation also?”

אשר לא יעשו, it is not fitting for a man of your stature to be the cause of your fellowmen becoming guilty of mortal sin.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.