And the men of the place asked [him] of his wife; and he said, She [is] my sister: for he feared to say, [She is] my wife; lest, [said he], the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she [was] fair to look upon.
Ver. 7. She is my sister.] How apt are children to imitate their father's infirmities! Pατροπαραδοτου. 1Pe 1:18 Which yet is no excuse, Eze 18:14 but an aggravation. Dan 5:22-23 The orator a therefore was far wide, that said, Me ex ea opinione, quam a Maioribus accepi, de cultu deorum immortalium, nullius unquam oratio aut docti aut indocti movebit. Isaac's fault here, was greater than Abraham's, because he was not warned by domestical examples. Seest thou another make shipwreck of a good conscience? look well to thy tacklings. Sin is worse after warning.
For he feared to say, &c.] Fear and infidelity are found in the most faithful. Corruption, in the best, will have some flurts, some outbursts. As therefore Luther entreats his readers, if they find in his writings anything that smelleth of the old cask of Popery, to remember he was once a poor monk; so when we see the saints humanum aliquid pati, to play some mad pranks, we must consider they were but lately cured of a spiritual frenzy.
Because she was fair to look upon.] Beauty therefore is not much to be desired, or the want of it to be bewailed; because it creates so many dangers to them that have it, and their dearest husbands. The British virgins deformed themselves, that the Danes might not deflower them. b
a Cic., De Natur. Deor.
b Sabina, cum aliquando se non satis bona formia in speeulo cerneret, mori priusquam senesceret, optavit. - Dio.