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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Genesis 20:17 Commentaries: Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children.</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/newcom.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader.js'></script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../vmenus/genesis/20-17.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcom/genesis/20-17.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/">Commentaries</a> > Genesis 20:17</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../genesis/20-16.htm" title="Genesis 20:16">◄</a> Genesis 20:17 <a href="../genesis/20-18.htm" title="Genesis 20:18">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare <i>children</i>.</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/barnes/genesis/20.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/genesis/20.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/genesis/20.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/calvin/genesis/20.htm" title="Calvin's Commentaries">Calvin</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/genesis/20.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/genesis/20.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/genesis/20.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/genesis/20.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/genesis/20.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a href="/commentaries/edt/genesis/20.htm" title="Expositor's Dictionary">Exp Dct</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gaebelein/genesis/20.htm" title="Gaebelein's Annotated Bible">Gaebelein</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gsb/genesis/20.htm" title="Geneva Study Bible">GSB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gill/genesis/20.htm" title="Gill's Bible Exposition">Gill</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gray/genesis/20.htm" title="Gray's Concise">Gray</a> • <a href="/commentaries/guzik/genesis/20.htm" title="Guzik Bible Commentary">Guzik</a> • <a href="/commentaries/haydock/genesis/20.htm" title="Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary">Haydock</a> • <a href="/commentaries/hastings/genesis/5-24.htm" title="Hastings Great Texts">Hastings</a> • <a href="/commentaries/homiletics/genesis/20.htm" title="Pulpit Homiletics">Homiletics</a> • <a href="/commentaries/jfb/genesis/20.htm" title="Jamieson-Fausset-Brown">JFB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/kad/genesis/20.htm" title="Keil and Delitzsch OT">KD</a> • <a href="/commentaries/king-en/genesis/20.htm" title="Kingcomments Bible Studies">King</a> • <a href="/commentaries/lange/genesis/20.htm" title="Lange Commentary">Lange</a> • <a href="/commentaries/maclaren/genesis/20.htm" title="MacLaren Expositions">MacLaren</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhc/genesis/20.htm" title="Matthew Henry Concise">MHC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhcw/genesis/20.htm" title="Matthew Henry Full">MHCW</a> • <a href="/commentaries/parker/genesis/20.htm" title="The People's Bible by Joseph Parker">Parker</a> • <a href="/commentaries/poole/genesis/20.htm" title="Matthew Poole">Poole</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pulpit/genesis/20.htm" title="Pulpit Commentary">Pulpit</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sermon/genesis/20.htm" title="Sermon Bible">Sermon</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sco/genesis/20.htm" title="Scofield Reference Notes">SCO</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ttb/genesis/20.htm" title="Through The Bible">TTB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/wes/genesis/20.htm" title="Wesley's Notes">WES</a> • <a href="#tsk" title="Treasury of Scripture Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/ellicott/genesis/20.htm">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</a></div>(17) <span class= "bld">Abraham prayed . . . —</span>As Abimelech had now made very liberal compensation, it became the duty of Abraham to intercede for him. The malady seems to have been one confined to Abimelech, as its object was to protect Sarah; but in some way it so affected the whole household as to produce general barrenness.<p><span class= "bld">Maidservants.</span>—Not the word rendered <span class= "ital">women-servants </span>in <a href="/genesis/20-14.htm" title="And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.">Genesis 20:14</a>, but one specially used of concubines.<p><span class= "bld"><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/genesis/20.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>20:14-18 We often trouble ourselves, and even are led into temptation and sin, by groundless suspicions; and find the fear of God where we expected it not. Agreements to deceive generally end in shame and sorrow; and restraints from sin, though by suffering, should be thankfully acknowledged. Though the Lord rebuke, yet he will pardon and deliver his people, and he will give them favour in the sight of those with whom they sojourn; and overrule their infirmities, when they are humbled for them, so that they shall prove useful to themselves and others.<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/genesis/20.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>These verses record the fact of Abraham's intercession for Abimelek, and explain in what sense he was on the point of dying (<a href="/genesis/20-3.htm">Genesis 20:3</a>). "They bare" means that they were again rendered capable of procreating children, and in the natural course of things did so. The verb is in the masculine form, because both males and females were involved in this judicial malady. The name Yahweh is employed at the end of the chapter, because the relation of the Creator and Preserver to Sarah is there prominent. <p> - The Birth of Isaac<p>7. מלל mı̂lēl "speak," an ancient and therefore solemn and poetical word.<p>14. חמת chêmet "bottle," akin to חמה chāmâh, "surround, enclose," and הוּם chûm "black. באר שׁבע beêr-sheba‛, Beer-sheba', "well of seven."<p>22. פיכל pı̂ykol, Pikhol, "mouth or spokesman of all."<p>23. נין nı̂yn "offspring, kin;" related: "sprout, flourish." נכד neked "progeny," perhaps "acquaintance," cognate with נגד ngd, "be before" (the eyes) and נקד nqd, "mark."<p>33. אשׁל 'êshel "grove;" ἄρουρα aroura, Septuagint.; אילבה 'ı̂ylābâh, "a tree," Onkelos.<p>This chapter records the birth of Isaac with other concomitant circumstances. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of the second part of the covenant with Abraham - that concerning the seed. This precedes, we observe, his possession of even a foot-breadth of the soil, and is long antecedent to the entrance of his descendants as conquerors into the land of promise.<a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/genesis/20.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>12. yet indeed she is my sister—(See on [8]Ge 11:31). What a poor defense Abraham made. The statement absolved him from the charge of direct and absolute falsehood, but he had told a moral untruth because there was an intention to deceive (compare Ge 12:11-13). "Honesty is always the best policy." Abraham's life would have been as well protected without the fraud as with it: and what shame to himself, what distrust to God, what dishonor to religion might have been prevented! "Let us speak truth every man to his neighbor" [Zec 8:16; Eph 4:25]. <div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/poole/genesis/20.htm">Matthew Poole's Commentary</a></div> No text from Poole on this verse. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/genesis/20.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>So Abraham prayed unto God,.... As the Lord had told Abimelech be would, <a href="/genesis/20-7.htm">Genesis 20:7</a>; he might pray for the forgiveness of him and his wife, and might give thanks that Sarah had been restored to him; but chiefly it was on account of Abimelech and his family: <p>and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants: who by reason of some disease were rendered unfit for and incapable of cohabitation with their husbands, and they with them; but upon Abraham's prayer for them, who was heard, they were healed, and the disorder removed; the Targum of Jonathan is,"his wife and concubines;" <p>and they bare children; cohabited and conceived, and bare and brought forth children, all which are comprehended in this expression. <a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/genesis/20.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.</span></div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/genesis/20.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld">17</span>. <span class="ital">Abraham prayed</span>] See note on <span class="ital"><a href="/genesis/20-7.htm" title="Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for you, and you shall live: and if you restore her not, know you that you shall surely die, you, and all that are yours.">Genesis 20:7</a></span>. This verse explains <span class="ital"><a href="/genesis/20-4.htm" title="But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD, will you slay also a righteous nation?">Genesis 20:4</a></span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Barrenness was regarded as the sign of Divine displeasure, which might be averted by prayer and intercession: cf. <a href="/genesis/25-21.htm" title="And Isaac entreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.">Genesis 25:21</a>, <a href="/genesis/30-2.htm" title="And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?">Genesis 30:2</a>; <a href="/genesis/30-22.htm" title="And God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.">Genesis 30:22</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/1-10.htm" title="And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD, and wept sore.">1 Samuel 1:10</a>. See note on <a href="/genesis/12-17.htm" title="And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.">Genesis 12:17</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="pul" id="pul"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/pulpit/genesis/20.htm">Pulpit Commentary</a></div><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 17.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">So Abraham prayed unto God</span>. Literally, <span class="accented">the Elohim</span>, the personal and true God, and not Elohim, or Deity in general, to whom belonged the cure of Abimelech and his household (Keil), as the next clause shows. <span class="cmt_word">And God</span> (<span class="accented">Elohim</span>, without the art.) <span class="cmt_word">healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants;</span> - <span class="accented">i.e.</span> his concubines, as distinguished from the women servants (Ver. 14) - <span class="cmt_word">and they bare children.</span> The verb may apply to both sexes, and the malady under which they suffered may be here described as one which prevented procreation, as the next verse explains. Genesis 20:17<a name="kad" id="kad"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/kad/genesis/20.htm">Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament</a></div>After this reparation, God healed Abimelech at Abraham's intercession; also his wife and maids, so that they could bear again, for Jehovah had closed up every womb in Abimelech's house on Sarah's account. אמהות, maids whom the king kept as concubines, are to be distinguished from שׁפחות female slaves (<a href="/genesis/20-14.htm">Genesis 20:14</a>). That there was a material difference between them, is proved by <a href="/1_samuel/25-41.htm">1 Samuel 25:41</a>. כּל־רחם עצר כּל does not mean, as is frequently supposed, to prevent actual childbirth, but to prevent conception, i.e., to produce barrenness (<a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/1-5.htm">1 Samuel 1:5-6</a>). This is evident from the expression "He hath restrained me from bearing" in <a href="/genesis/16-2.htm">Genesis 16:2</a> (cf. <a href="http://biblehub.com/isaiah/66-9.htm">Isaiah 66:9</a>, and <a href="/1_samuel/21-6.htm">1 Samuel 21:6</a>), and from the opposite phrase, "open the womb," so as to facilitate conception (<a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/29-31.htm">Genesis 29:31</a>, and <a href="/genesis/30-22.htm">Genesis 30:22</a>). The plague brought upon Abimelech's house, therefore, consisted of some disease which rendered the begetting of children (the coitus) impossible. This might have occurred as soon as Sarah was taken into the royal harem, and therefore need not presuppose any lengthened stay there. There is no necessity, therefore, to restrict ויּלדוּ to the women and regard it as equivalent to ותּלדנה, which would be grammatically inadmissible; for it may refer to Abimelech also, since ילד signifies to beget as well as to bear. We may adopt Knobel's explanation, therefore, though without approving of the inference that <a href="/genesis/20-18.htm">Genesis 20:18</a> was an appendix of the Jehovist, and arose from a misunderstanding of the word ויּלדוּ in <a href="/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17</a>. A later addition <a href="/genesis/20-18.htm">Genesis 20:18</a> cannot be; for the simple reason, that without the explanation give there, the previous verse would be unintelligible, so that it cannot have been wanting in any of the accounts. The name Jehovah, in contrast with Elohim and Ha-Elohim in <a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17</a>, is obviously significant. The cure of Abimelech and his wives belonged to the Deity (Elohim). Abraham directed his intercession not to Elohim, an indefinite and unknown God, but to האלהים; for the God, whose prophet he was, was the personal and true God. It was He too who had brought the disease upon Abimelech and his house, not as Elohim or Ha-Elohim, but as Jehovah, the God of salvation; for His design therein was to prevent the disturbance of frustration of His saving design, and the birth of the promised son from Sarah.<p>But if the divine names Elohim and Ha-Elohim indicate the true relation of God to Abimelech, and here also it was Jehovah who interposed for Abraham and preserved the mother of the promised seed, our narrative cannot be merely an Elohistic side-piece appended to the Jehovistic account in <a href="/genesis/12-14.htm">Genesis 12:14</a>., and founded upon a fictitious legend. The thoroughly distinctive character of this event is a decisive proof of the fallacy of any such critical conjecture. Apart from the one point of agreement-the taking of Abraham's wife into the royal harem, because he said she was his sister in the hope of thereby saving his own life (an event, the repetition of which in the space of 24 years is by no means startling, when we consider the customs of the age) - all the more minute details are entirely different in the two cases. In king Abimelech we meet with a totally different character from that of Pharaoh. We see in him a heathen imbued with a moral consciousness of right, and open to receive divine revelation, of which there is not the slightest trace in the king of Egypt. And Abraham, in spite of his natural weakness, and the consequent confusion which he manifested in the presence of the pious heathen, was exalted by the compassionate grace of God to the position of His own friend, so that even the heathen king, who seems to have been in the right in this instance, was compelled to bend before him and to seek the removal of the divine punishment, which had fallen upon him and his house, through the medium of his intercession. In this way God proved to the Philistine king, on the one hand, that He suffers no harm to befall His prophets (<a href="/psalms/105-15.htm">Psalm 105:15</a>), and to Abraham, on the other, that He can maintain His covenant and secure the realization of His promise against all opposition from the sinful desires of earthly potentates. It was in this respect that the event possessed a typical significance in relation to the future attitude of Israel towards surrounding nations. <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/genesis/20-17.htm">Genesis 20:17 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../genesis/20-16.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Genesis 20:16"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Genesis 20:16" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../genesis/20-18.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Genesis 20:18"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Genesis 20:18" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>