Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 12:10-20

"And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: and it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they will say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and that my soul may live because of thee. And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. And the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh`s house. And he dealt well with Abram for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels. And Jehovah plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram`s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? why saidst thou, She is my sister, so that I took her to be my wife? now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. And Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him: and they brought him on the way, and his wife, and all that he had." — Genesis 12:10-20 (ASV)

פרעה par‛oh—Par‘oh, “ouro.” This is Coptic for “king,” with the masculine article pi or p. P-ouro means “the king.” If we separate the article p from the Hebrew form, we have רעה re‛oh for king, which may be compared with רעה ro‛eh—“pastor, leader,” and the Latin rex, king. This is the common title of the Egyptian sovereigns, to which the personal name is occasionally added, as Pharaoh-Necho, Pharaoh-Hophrah (Genesis 12:10).

This first visit of Abram to Mizraim, or Egypt, is caused by the famine in the land of promise. This land is watered by periodical rains. A season of drought stops the progress of vegetation and brings on a famine. But in Egypt, the fertility of the loamy soil depends not on local showers, but on the annual rise of the Nile, which is fed by the rains of a far-distant mountain range. Therefore, when the land of Kenaan was wasted by drought and resulting famine, Egypt was generally so productive as to be the granary of the neighboring countries.

Since Kenaan was the brother of Mizraim, contact between the two countries in which they lived was natural and frequent. Dry seasons and scarcity of provisions seem to have frequently occurred in the land of Kenaan (Genesis 26:1; Genesis 41:56–57).

Even Egypt itself was not exempt from such calamities. Famine is one of God’s rods for the punishment of the wicked and the correction of the penitent (2 Samuel 24:13). It visits Abram even in the land of promise.

Doubtless, the wickedness of the inhabitants was great even in his day. Abram himself was not beyond the need for that tribulation that works patience, experience, and hope. He may have been left to himself under this trial so that he might find out by experience his own weakness, and at the same time the faithfulness and omnipotence of Yahweh the promiser. In his moment of perplexity, he flees to Egypt, and the Lord, having a lesson for him there, permits him to enter that land of plenty (Genesis 12:11–13).

It is not without misgivings, however, that Abram approaches Egypt. All the way from Ur to Haran, from Haran to the land of Kenaan, and from north to south of the land in which he was a stranger, we hear no word of apprehension. But now he resorts to a stratagem that had been arranged beforehand between him and Sarai before they set out on their earthly pilgrimage (Genesis 20:13). There are some obvious reasons for the change from composure to anxiety he now shows. Abram was previously obeying the voice of the Lord and walking in the path of duty, and therefore he was full of unwavering confidence in the divine protection. Now he may be pursuing his own course and, without waiting patiently for the divine counsel, venturing to cross the boundary of the land of promise.

He may therefore be without the fortifying assurance of the divine approval. There is often a whisper of this kind heard in the soul, even when it is not fully conscious of the wrongdoing that causes it.

Again, the countries through which he had already passed were inhabited by nomadic tribes, each kept in check by all the others, all unsettled in their habits, and many of them no more powerful than himself. The Kenaanites spoke the same language as he did and were probably only a dominant race among others whose language they spoke, if they did not adopt it. But in Egypt, all was different. Mizraim had seven sons, and, on average, the daughters are as numerous as the sons. In eight or nine generations, there might be from half a million to a million inhabitants in Egypt, if we allow five daughters as the average for a family.

The defined area of arable land on both sides of the Nile, its fertilization by a natural cause without much human labor, the periodic regularity of the inundation, and the extraordinary abundance of grain crops—all these factors combined to multiply the population with great rapidity and to accelerate amazingly the rise and growth of fixed institutions and a stable government.

Here there was a settled country with a foreign language, a prosperous people, and a powerful sovereign. All this rendered it more perilous to enter Egypt than Kenaan.

If Abram is about to enter Egypt of his own accord, without any divine intimation, it is easy to understand why he resorts to a device of his own to escape the peril of assassination. In an arbitrary government, where the will of the sovereign is law and passions are uncontrolled, public or private resolve is sudden, and execution is summary. The East still retains its character in this respect. In these circumstances, Abram proposes to Sarai to conceal their marriage and state that she was his sister—which was perfectly true, as she was the daughter of his father, though not of his mother.

At a distance of three or four thousand years, with all the development of mind that a completed Bible and an advanced philosophy can bestow, it is easy to pronounce, with dispassionate coolness, the course of conduct proposed here to be immoral and imprudent. It is not incumbent on us, indeed, to defend it; but neither does it become us to be harsh or excessive in our censure. In the state of manners and customs that then prevailed in Egypt, Abram and Sarai were certainly not bound to disclose all their private concerns to every impertinent inquirer. The seeming simplicity and experience that Abram shows in seeking to secure his personal safety by a stratagem that exposed his wife’s chastity and his own honor to risk are not to be pressed too far. The very uncertainty concerning the strangers' relationship tended to lessen that momentary caprice in the treatment of individuals which is the result of a despotic government.

And the primary fault and folly of Abram consisted in not waiting for divine direction in leaving the land of promise, and in not committing himself wholly to divine protection when he took that step.

It may seem strange that Scripture contains no express disapproval of Abram’s conduct. But its manner is to affirm the great principles of moral truth, on suitable occasions, with great clearness and decision, and in ordinary circumstances simply to record the actions of its characters with faithfulness, leaving it to the reader’s intelligence to mark their moral quality. And God’s mode of teaching the individual is to implant a moral principle in the heart, which, after many struggles with temptation, will eventually root out all lingering aberrations.

Sarai was sixty-five years of age (Genesis 17:17) at the time when Abram describes her as a woman fair to look upon. But we are to remember that beauty does not vanish with middle age; that Sarai’s age corresponds with twenty-five or thirty years in modern times, as she was at this time not half the age to which people were then accustomed to live; that she had no family or other hardship to bring on premature decay; and that the women of Egypt were far from being distinguished for regularity of feature or freshness of complexion (Genesis 12:14–16).

The inadequacy of Abram’s stratagem appears in the outcome, which is different from what he expected. Sarai is admired for her beauty and, being professedly single, is selected as a wife for Pharaoh, while Abram, as her brother, is generously entertained and rewarded.

His property seems to be enumerated according to the time of acquisition or the quantity, and not the quality of each kind. Sheep and oxen and he-asses he probably brought with him from Kenaan; menservants and maidservants were no doubt increased in Egypt.

For she-asses, the Septuagint has mules. These, and the camels, may have been received in Egypt. The camel is the carrier of the desert. Abram had now become involved in perplexities from which he had neither the wisdom nor the power to extricate himself.

With what bitterness of spirit he must have kept silent, received these additions to his wealth which he dared not refuse, and allowed Sarai to be removed from his temporary dwelling! His cunning device had saved his own person for the time, but his beautiful and beloved wife was torn from his embrace.

The Lord, who had chosen him—unworthy though he was, yet no more unworthy than others—to be the agent of His gracious purpose, now intervenes to deliver him. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh (Genesis 12:17). The mode of the divine interference is suited to have the desired effect on the parties concerned. Since Pharaoh is punished, we conclude he was guilty in the sight of heaven in this matter. He committed a breach of hospitality by invading the stranger's private dwelling. He further infringed the law of equity between individuals on the most sensitive point by taking—if not with violence, at least with a show of arbitrary power that could not be resisted—a woman, whether sister or wife, from the home of her natural guardian without the consent of either.

A deed of ruthless self-will, also, is often rendered more heinous by a blameworthy inattention to the character or position of the one who is wronged. So it was with Pharaoh. Abram was a man of blameless life and inoffensive manners. He was, moreover, the chosen and special servant of the Most High God. Pharaoh, however, does not condescend to inquire who the stranger is whom he is about to wrong, and is thus unknowingly involved in an aggravated crime.

But the hand of the Almighty brings even tyrants to their senses. And his house. The princes of Pharaoh were accomplices in his crime (Genesis 12:15), and his servants were cooperating with him in carrying it into effect. But even apart from any positive consent or connivance in a particular act, people, otherwise culpable, are brought into trouble in this world by the faults of those with whom they are associated. On account of Sarai. Pharaoh was made aware of the cause of the plagues or strokes with which he was now visited.

Pharaoh rebukes Abram for his deception, and doubtless not without reason. He then commands his men to send him and all that belonged to him away from the country, unharmed. These men were probably an escort for his safe conduct out of Egypt. Abram was thus reproved through the mouth of Pharaoh and will be less hasty in abandoning the land of promise and resorting to carnal resources (Genesis 12:18–20).