Abraham, Sarah, and Pharaoh. This section creates difficulties by its similarity to Genesis 12:20; Genesis 26:6-11. The three are usually regarded as variants of the same story. In each case the patriarch makes his wife out to be his sister. That twice over a similar incident should have occurred with Sarah is improbable; the improbability would be heightened if we denied the documentary analysis, since in the former case she would be approaching seventy and in the latter ninety years old. Nor is it likely that Isaac should have repeated with Rebekah his father's experience with Sarah in the same place, Gerar, and with a king of the same name. The narrative Genesis 12:20 is from E. Both the present story and that in Gen 12:26 are Yahwistic, and their presence side by side is not easy to explain. Perhaps they belong to different strata or sources of J. Of the three, that in Genesis 12:10-20 is the most antique, the least refined in feeling.
In consequence of a famine in Canaan, due presumably to failure of rain, Abraham, as often happened in other cases, went to Egypt, which was fertilised by the overflow of the Nile, and therefore independent of rain. He anticipates that the beauty of his wife will rouse the desire of the Egyptians, who may remove the legal obstacle to possession by killing her husband. To save his life he is prepared to sacrifice his wife's honour, and indeed, as it would seem (Genesis 12:13 b), to enrich himself by so shameful a sacrifice, less shameful of course to the patriarch and the narrator than to us. He begs his wife to pass herself off as his sister. She does so, and matters turn out as Abraham anticipated. The Egyptians are struck by her beauty, the princes see her for themselves, and commend her to Pharaoh. He takes her into his harem and richly endows her husband. But Yahweh intervenes to restore her. Pharaoh is smitten with sickness and learns the truth, in what way the narrative no longer says. He upbraids Abraham for his lie, which there is no attempt to palliate; but realising that he is dangerous, has him conducted to the frontier, that he may leave the country where his misconduct has worked such harm, and that no evil may happen to him on the way to provoke fresh Divine reprisals. This is not intended as punishment but as precaution, and while the wife is returned the presents are not taken back.