EXPOSITION
And there was a famine. רָעָב, from a root signifying to hunger, the primary. idea appearing to lie in that of an ample, i.e. empty, stomach (Gesenius, Furst). The term is used of individuals, men or animal (Psalms 34:11; Psalms 50:12); or of regions (Psa 41:1-13 :55). In the land. Of Canaan, which, though naturally fertile, was, on account of its imperfect cultivation, subject to visitations of dearth (cf. Genesis 26:1; Genesis 41:56), especially in dry seasons, when the November and December rains, on which Palestine depended, either failed or were scanty. The occurrence of this famine just at the time of Abram's entering the land was an additional trial to his faith. And Abram went down to Egypt. Mizraim (vide Genesis 10:6) was lower than Palestine, and celebrated then, as later, as a rich and fruitful country, though sometimes even Egypt suffered from a scarcity of corn, owing to a failure in the annual inundation of the Nile. Eichhorn notes it as an authentication of this portion of the Abrahamic history that the patriarch proposed to take himself and his household to Egypt, since at that time no corn trade existed between the two countries such as prevailed in the days of Jacob (vide Havernick's Introduction, § 18). The writer to the Hebrews remarks it as an instance of the patriarch's faith that he did not return to either Haran or Ur (Hebrews 11:15, Hebrews 11:16). To sojourn there. To tarry as a stranger, but not to dwell. Whether this journey was undertaken with the Divine sanction and ought to be regarded as an act of faith, or in obedience to his own fears and should be reckoned as a sign of unbelief, does not appear. Whichever way the patriarch elected to act in his perplexity, to leave Canaan or reside in it, there was clearly a strain intended to be put upon his faith. For the famine was grievous (literally, heavy) in the land.
And it came to pass (literally, it was), when he was come near to enter into Egypt (that he had his misgivings, arising probably from his own eminence, which could scarcely fail to attract attention among strangers, but chiefly from the beauty of his wife, which was calculated to inflame the cupidity and, it might be, the violence of the warm-blooded Southrons, and) that he said unto Sarai his wife. The arrangement here referred to appears (Genesis 20:13) to have been preconcerted on first setting out from Ur or Haran, so that Abram's address to his wife on approaching Egypt may be viewed as simply a reminder of their previous compact. Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. Literally, fair of aspect (cf. 1 Samuel 17:42). Though now upwards of sixty-five years of age, she was still in middle life (Genesis 23:1), and her constitution had not been impaired by bearing children. Besides, the clear complexion of Sarah would render her specially attractive in the eyes of the Egyptians, whose women, though not so dark as the Nubians and Ethiopians, were yet of a browner tinge than the Syrians and Arabians. Monumental evidence confirms the assertion of Scripture that a fair complexion was deemed a high recommendation in the age of the Pharaohs. Therefore (literally, and) it shall come to pass, when (literally, that) the Egyptians—notorious for their licentiousness—shall see thee, that (literally, and) they shall say, this is his wife: and they will kill me—in order to possess thee, counting murder a less crime than adultery (Lyra). An unreasonable anxiety, considering that he had hitherto enjoyed the Divine protection, however natural it might seem in view of the voluptuous character of the people. But (literally, and) they will save thee alive—for either compulsory marriage or dishonorable use. Say, I pray thee,—translated in Genesis 12:11 as "now;" "verbum obsecrantis vel adhortantis" (Masius)—thou art my sister. A half-truth (Genesis 20:12), but a whole falsehood. The usual apologies, that he did not fabricate, but "cautiously conceal the truth" (Lyra), that perhaps he acted in obedience to a Divine impulse (Mede), that he dissembled in order to protect his wife's chastity (Rosenmüller), are not satisfactory. On the other hand, Abram must not be judged by the light of New Testament revelation. It is not necessary for a Christian in every situation Of life to tell all the truth, especially when its part suppression involves no deception, and is indispensable for self-preservation; and Abram may have deemed it legitimate as a means of securing both his own life and Sarah's honor, though how he was to shield his wife in the peculiar circumstances it is difficult to see. Rosenmüller suggests that he knew the preliminary core-morass to marriage required a considerable time, and counted upon being able to leave Egypt before any injury was done to Sarah. The only objection to this is that the historian represents him as being less solicitous about the preservation of his wife's chastity than about the conservation of his own life. That it may be well (not with thee, though doubtless this is implied, but) with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee. "No defense can be offered for a man who, merely through dread of danger to himself, tells a lie, risks his wife's chastity, puts temptation in the way of his neighbors, and betrays the charge to which the Divine favor had summoned him "(Dykes).
And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also—literally, and the princes (שָׂרֵי, mas. of Sarah), chief men or courtiers, who, in accordance with the ancient custom of Egypt that no slave should approach the priestly person of Pharaoh, were sons of the principal priests (vide Havernick, § 18)—of Pharaoh. The official title of the kings of Egypt (cf. Caesar, the designation of the Roman emperors, and Czar, that of the Emperor of Russia), who are never introduced in the Pentateuch, as in later books, by their individual names (1 Kings 3:1; 1Ki 9:1-28 :40); an indirect evidence that the author of Genesis must at least have been acquainted with the manners of the Egyptian Court. The term Pharaoh, which continued in use till after the Persian invasion—under the Greek empire the Egyptian rulers were styled Ptolemies—is declared by Josephus to signify "king" ('Ant.,' 8.6, 2), which agrees with the Koptic Pouro (Piouro; from ouro, to rule, whence touro, queen), which also means king. Modern Egyptologers, however, in. cline to regard it as corresponding to the Phra of the inscriptions (Rosellini, Lepeius, Wilkinson), or to the hieroglyphic Peraa, or Perao, "the great house (M. de Rouge, Brugsch, Ebers), an appellation which belonged to the Egyptian monarchs, and with which may be compared "the Sublime Porte," as applied to the Turkish sultans. The particular monarch who occupied the Egyptian throne at the time of Abram's arrival has been conjectured to be Necao (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 5. 9.4), Ramessemenes, Pharethones (Euseb; 'Praep. Ev.,' 9.8), Apappus, Achthoes, the sixth king of the eleventh dynasty, Salatis or Saitas, the first king of the fifteenth dynasty, whose reign commenced B.C. 2080 (Stuart Poole in 'Smith's Dict.,' art. Pharaoh), a monarch belonging to the sixteenth dynasty of shepherd kings (Kalisch), and a Pharaoh who flourished between the middle of the eleventh and thirteenth dynasties, most probably one of the earliest Pharaohs of the twelfth. Amid such conflicting testimony from erudite archaeologists it is apparent that nothing can be ascertained with exactitude as to the date of Abram's sojourn in Egypt; though the last-named writer, who exhibits the latest results of scholarship on the question, mentions in support of his conclusion a variety of considerations that may be profitably studied. Saw her. So that she must have been unveiled, which agrees with monumental evidence that in the reign of the Pharaohs the Egyptian ladies exposed their faces, though the custom was discontinued after the Pemian conquest. And commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken. Capta (Targum of Jonathan), rapta (Arab.), abducta (Pagnini), capta et deducta (Rosenmüller); all implying more or less the idea of violence, which, however, besides being not warranted by the text, was scarcely likely in the circumstances, the king being perfectly honorable in his proposals, and Abram and Sarai by their deception having rendered it impossible to object without divulging their secret. Into Pharaoh's house. Or harem, with a view to marriage as a secondary wife. Cf. the Papyrus D'Orbiney, now in the British Museum, but belonging to the age of Rameses II; in which the Pharaoh of the time, acting on the advice of his counselors, sends two armies to fetch a beautiful woman by force, and then to murder her husband. A translation by M. Renouf will be found in The Tale of the Two Brothers, in 'Records of the Past,' vol. 2. p. 138.
And he entreated Abram well—literally, did good to Abram; ευ} e)xrh&santo (LXX; Hieronymus, Poole) supposes that the court of Pharaoh or the Egyptian people generally conferred favors on the patriarch, which is not at all so probable as that Pharaoh did—for her sake. Marriage negotiations in Oriental countries are usually accompanied by presents to the relatives of the de as a sort of payment. "The marriage price is distinctly mentioned in Scripture (Exodus 22:15, Exodus 22:16; Ruth 4:10; 1 Samuel 18:23, 1 Samuel 18:25; Hosea 3:2); was commonly demanded by the nations of antiquity, as by the Babylonians (Herod; 1.196), Assyrians (AElian V. H; 4. 1; Strabo, 16.745), the ancient Greeks, and the Germans (Tacit; 'German.,' 18. ); and still obtains in the East to the present day". And he had—literally, there was (given) to him—sheep, and oxen. Flocks of small cattle and herds of larger quadrupeds, together constituted the chief wealth of nomads (cf. Genesis 13:5; Job 1:3). And he asses. Chamor, so named from the reddish color which in southern countries belongs not only to the wild, but also to the common or domestic, ass (Gesenius). The mention of asses among Pharaoh's presents has been regarded as an "inaccuracy" and a "blunder," at once a sign of the late origin of Genesis and a proof its author's ignorance of Egypt (Bohlen, Introd; ch. 6.); but
(1) asses were among the most common of Egyptian animals, a single individual, according to Wilkinson, possessing sometimes as many as 700 or 800; and
(2) it is certain that asses appear on the early monuments. And men-servants, and maid-servants, and she asses. Athon; from athan, to walk with short steps; so named from its slowness (Genesis 32:16), though "the ass in Egypt is of a very superior kind, tall, handsome, docile, swift" (Kitto's 'Cyclopedia,' art. Egypt). And camels. Gamal (from gamal, to repay, because the camel is an animal that remembers past injuries (Bochart), or from a cogmate Arabic root hamala, meaning he or it carried, with reference to its being a beast of burden (Gesenius); both of which derivations Stuart Poole declares farfetched, and proposes to connect the term with the Sanskrit kramela, from kram, to walk or step, which would then signify the walking animal (vide Kitto, art. Camel). Cf. with the Hebrew the Sanskrit as above, the Arab jemel or gemel, the Egyptian sjamoul, Greek κάμηλος, Latin camelus) is the well-known strong animal belonging to Palestine (Ezra 2:67), Arabia (Judges 7:12), Egypt (Exodus 9:3), Syria (2 Kings 8:9), which serves the inhabitants of the desert for travelling (Genesis 24:10; Genesis 31:17) as well as for carrying burdens (Isaiah 30:6), and for warlike operations (Genesis 21:7), and in which their fiches consisted (Job 1:3; Job 42:1-17 :21). Though the camel does not thrive well in Egypt, and seldom appears on the monuments, the historian has not necessarily been guilty of an "inaccuracy and a blunder" in assigning it to Abram as one of Pharaoh's presents (Bohlen); for
(1) the camel thrives better in Egypt than it does anywhere else out of its own proper habitat;
(2) if camels were not generally kept in Egypt, this Pharaoh may have been "one of the shepherd kings who partly lived at Avaris, the Zoan of Scripture," a region much inhabited by strangers (Poole in Kitto, art. Camel); and
(3) if camels have not been discovered among the delineations on the monuments, this may have been because of its connection with the foreign conqueror of Egypt, which caused it to be regarded as a beast of ill omen; though
(4) according to Heeren they do appear on the monuments. That horses, though the glory of Egypt, were not included among the monarch's gifts was doubtless owing to the fact that they could not have been of much service to the patriarch.
And the Lord plagued (literally, struck) Pharaoh and his house with great plagues (or strokes, either of disease or death, or some other calamity—an indication that Pharaoh was not entirely innocent) because of Sarai Abram's wife. The effect of this was to lead to the discovery, not through the aid of the Egyptian priests (Josephus), but either through a special revelation granted to him, as afterwards (Genesis 20:6) to Abimelech in a dream (Chrysostom), or through the confession of Sarai herself (A Lapide), or through the servants of Abraham (Kurtz).
And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me t why didst thou not tell me she was thy wife? In which case we are bound to believe the monarch that he would not have taken her. Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife (which as yet he had not done; an indirect proof both of the monarch's honorable purpose towards Sarai and of Sarai's unsullied purity): now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. According to Josephus ('Bell. Jud.' 5.Genesis 9:4 Genesis 9:4) Sarah was only one night in Pharaoh's house; but this is obviously incorrect.
And Pharaoh commanded his men (i.e. certain officers designated for the purpose) concerning him (to see to his departure): and they seat him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
The partitionists assign this entire section to the Jehovist.
HOMILETICS
The descent into Egypt.
I. THE STORY OF A GOOD MAN'S FALL.
1. Experiencing disappointment. Arrived in Canaan, the patriarch must have felt his heart sink as he surveyed its famine-stricken fields and heathen population; in respect of which it was so utterly unlike the fair realm of his imaginings. So God educates his children, destroying their hopes, blighting their, expectations, breaking their ideals, "having provided some better thing for them, some loftier and more beautiful ideal than they have ever ventured to conceive.
2. Declining in faith. In presence of the famine the patriarch must have found himself transfixed upon the horns of a terrible dilemma. The promised land, to all appearance, was only fit to be his grave, like the wilderness, in later years, to his descendants. To return to Ur or Haran was impossible without abandoning his faith and renouncing Jehovah's promise. The only harbor of refuge that loomed before his anxious vision was the rich corn-land of Egypt, and yet going into Egypt was, if not exhibiting a want of trust in God, voluntarily running into danger. So situated, unless the spiritual vision of the patriarch had suffered a temporary obscuration he would not have quitted Canaan. A calm, steady, unwavering faith would have perceived that the God who had brought him from Chaldaea could support him in Palestine, even should his flocks be unable to obtain pasture in its fields; and, besides, would have remembered that God had promised Canaan only to himself, and not at all to his herds.
3. Going into danger. The descent into Egypt was attended by special hazard, being calculated not only to endanger the life of Abram himself, but also to jeopardize the chastity of Sarai, and, as a consequence, to imperil the fulfillment of God's promise. Yet this very course of action was adopted, notwithstanding its peculiar risks; another sign that Abram was going down the gradient of sin. Besides being in itself wrong to court injury to our own persons, to expose to hurt those we should protect, or occupy positions that render the fulfillment of God's promises dubious, no one who acts in either of these ways need anticipate the Divine favor or protection. Saints who rush with open eyes into peril need hardly look for God to lift them out.
4. Resorting to worldly policy. Had Abram and Sarai felt persuaded in their own minds that the proposed journey southwards entirely met the Divine approval, they would simply have committed their way to God without so much as thinking of c, crooked ways." But instead they have recourse to a miserable little subterfuge of their own, in the shape of a specious equivocation, forgetting that he who trusts in his own heart is a fool, and that only they whom God keeps are perfectly secure.
5. Practicing deception. Cunningly concocted, the little scheme was set in operation. Crossing into Egypt, the Mesopotamian sheik and his beautiful partner represented themselves as brother and sister. It is a melancholy indication of spiritual declension when a saint condescends to equivocate, and a deplorable proof of obliquity of moral vision when he trusts to a lie for protection.
6. Looking after self. Anxious about his wife's chastity, the patriarch, it would appear, was much more solicitous about his own safety. The tendency of sin is to render selfish; the spirit of religion ever leads men to prefer the interests of others to their own, and in particular to esteem a wife's happiness and comfort dearer than life.
7. Caught in his own toils. The thing which Abram feared actually came upon him. Sarai's beauty was admired and coveted, and Sarai's person was conducted to the royal harem. So God frequently "disappoints the devices of the crafty," allows transgressors to be taken in their own net, and causes worldly policy to outwit itself.
II. THE STORY OF A GOOD MAN'S PROTECTION.
1. God went down with Abram into Egypt. Considering the patriarch's behavior, it would not have been surprising had he been suffered to go alone. But God is always better to his people than their deserts, and, in particular, does not abandon them even when they grieve him by their sins and involve themselves in trouble by their folly. On the contrary, it is at such times they most require his presence, and so he never leaves them nor forsakes them.
2. God protected Sarai in Pharaoh's house. Not perhaps for Sarai's or Abram's sake, who scarcely deserved, consideration for the plight, into which they had fallen, but for his own name's sake. The fulfillment of his own promise and the credit, as it were, of his own character necessitated measures for securing Sarai's honor. Accordingly, the house of Pharaoh was subjected to heavy strokes of affliction. So God can protect his people in every time and place of danger, and always finds a reason in himself, when he is able to discover none in them, for interposing on their behalf.
3. God delivered both in his own time and way. To all God's afflicted ones deliverance sooner or later crones. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations," and how to make a way of escape when his time arrives.
III. THE STORY OF A GOOD MAN'S REPROOF.
1. By his own conscience. Profoundly ashamed must the patriarch have been when he reflected on Sarai's peril in the house of Pharaoh, and on his own craven spirit which had bartered her good name for the sake of saving his own skin. It is difficult to harmonize with conscientious qualms his acceptance of the monarch's gifts. But if Abram had any manhood left after parting with Sarai, besides being humiliated before God for his wickedness, he must have been dishonored in his own eyes for what looked like selling a wife's purity for flocks and herds. No doubt conscience exacted vengeance from the guilty soul of the patriarch, as it does from that of every sinner.
2. By his unbelieving neighbor. Though not entirely guiltless, Pharaoh was unquestionably less blameworthy than Abram. And yet Abram was a saint who had been favored with Divine manifestations and enriched with Divine promises; whereas Pharaoh was a heathen, a consideration which must have added keenness to the pang of shame with which the patriarch listened to the monarch's righteous rebuke. So Christians by their worldly craft, mean duplicity, and gross selfishness, if not by their open wickedness, occasionally expose themselves to the merited censures of irreligious neighbors.
Learn—
1. That the best of men may fall into the greatest of sins.
2. That the worst of sins committed by a saint will not repel the grace of God.
3. That the severest of the world's censures are sometimes deserved by the Church.
HOMILIES BY J.F. MONTGOMERY
The Church and the world.
The genesis of intercourse and controversy between the kingdom of God and the world power, as represented in the great southern kingdom of Egypt.
I. THE PRESSURE OF EARTHLY NECESSITIES FORMS THE OCCASION OF THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT. We are not told that Abram was sent by Divine direction amongst the temptations of the South; still there is providential protection even where there is not entire Divine approval. The Lord suffers his people to mingle with the world for their trial, and out of the evil brings ultimate good. Abram went for corn, but obtained much more—the wealth and civilization of Egypt.
II. SOJOURN IN THE MIDST OF WORLDLY POWER GENERALLY INVOLVES SOME COMPROMISE OF SPIRITUAL LIBERTY, some lowering of spiritual principle. Jehovah's servant condescends to prevarication and dissembling not for protection only, but "that it may be well with him." The danger to Sarai and to Abram was great. All compromise is danger.
III. IN THE SUBORDINATE SPHERE OF SOCIAL MORALITY THERE HAVE BEEN MANY INSTANCES OF CONSCIENCE ACTING MORE POWERFULLY WHERE THE LIGHT OF TRUTH HAS SHONE LESS CLEARLY. Pharaoh was a heathen, but he compares to advantage with Abram. Notice that these early plagues of Egypt mentioned in Genesis 12:17 were very different from the later, although they illustrate the same truth, that by means of judgments God preserves his people and carries forward his kingdom, which is the truth exhibited in every apocalypse.
IV. The dismission of the little company of believers from Egypt was AT THE SAME TIME JUDGMENT AND MERCY. The beginning of that sojourn was wrong, the end of it was disgraceful. A short stay among the world's temptations will leave its results among the people of God, as the subsequent history testifies. Abram became very rich, but his riches had been wrongly obtained. There was trouble in store for him. God's method is to perfect his people not apart from their own character and ways, but by the gracious ordering of their history, so that while good and evil are mingled together, good shall yet ultimately be triumphant.—R.
HOMILIES BY W. ROBERTS
Famines.
1. Not even the Holy Land is exempt from famine. Neither is the saint's condition free from suffering, nor the believer's portion on earth from defects.
2. Lands naturally fertile can be rendered barren by a word from God. So circumstances that might conduce to the Church's comfort can be made to disappear when God wills.
3. The drought was sent on Canaan just as Abram arrived. So God often sends his judgments on the world for the sake of his people, and can always time them to meet their spiritual necessities.
4. Famines never come in all lands together, for that were a violation of the covenant; and so neither do God's judgments fall on all men or all saints at once, for that too were to gainsay his promise.—W.
HOMILIES BY F. HASTINGS
Abraham and carnal policy.
"Say, I pray thee, that thou art my sister: that it may be well with me.' These words were partially true (Genesis 11:20). Abraham had real ground for saying that Sarah was his sister, but he hid the fact that she was his wife. He asked her to consent to an equivocal statement and to repeat it.
I. CONTEMPLATE THE NATURE OF CARNAL POLICY. A truth which is part a lie is ever a dangerous lie. The temptation to this carnal policy came
(1) from his mingling with the worldly Egyptians on equal terms,
(2) from his very prosperous state, and
(3) from his having lately come from a religious observance in which he had had high spiritual revelations.
Possibly he presumed upon his visions and the Divine promises. David fell also shortly after he had attained the kingdom and been delivered from great dangers.
II. SEE HOW ALL CARNAL POLICY IS SURE IN THE LONG RUN TO FAIL. Abraham did not foresee all the consequences of his equivocations. He even made the path clear for Pharaoh to ask for Sarah. He had afterwards to know that his name was a byword among the Egyptians.
(1) He lost self-respect;
(2) he had to be rebuked by a Pharaoh, and
(3) to feel that God was dishonored by his act.
Abraham repeated his sin. That God delivered Abraham should teach us that we are not to reject others, who have committed a special sin, as past hope. God does not cast us off for one sinful action. Still Divine forbearance and love should never lead to presumption and to a tampering with carnal policy.—H.
HOMILIES BY W. ROBERTS
Abram and Israel; a parallel.
1. Both were driven into Egypt by a famine.
2. To both the land of Egypt proved a house of bondage.
3. In each case the Pharaoh of the time was subjected to plagues.
4. Both were sent away by the alarmed monarchs who were made to suffer for their sakes.
5. Both went up from Egypt laden with the spoils of those among whom they had sojourned.
6. On leaving Egypt both directed their steps to Canaan.—W.