Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 12:15

"And the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh`s house." — Genesis 12:15 (ASV)

The princes ... commended her before Pharaoh. — In the days of Abram, Canaan was the highway to Egypt. So large an immigration of men of Semitic stock found their way there that they overspread the whole Delta and, finally, under the name of the Hyksôs, made themselves masters of the throne of the Pharaohs, retaining their supremacy for several centuries.

To keep out these hordes, Amenemhai had built a chain of fortresses with a connecting wall. Although M. Chabas concludes (Rev. Arch., XVe Année, Livr. ii. 7) that the Hyksôs had probably already attained to empire in Abram’s time, nevertheless, when so powerful a sheik, with so large a following, arrived at this wall, he would be interrogated by the Egyptian scribes, and a report would be sent to the Pharaoh.

The word sar. translated here prince, is common to the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Hebrew languages. However, while in Babylonia it was the title of the sovereign, in Egypt it was applied to subordinate officers, such as those in command at these fortresses. Abram would, no doubt, be conducted into Pharaoh’s presence by one of these officers. On one of the tombs at Benihassan, we find an exactly parallel occurrence: the presentation of a nomad prince, evidently of Semitic origin, who, with his family and dependents, is seeking the Pharaoh’s protection and is received by him with honour.

Since women did not go veiled in Egypt at that time (this custom not having been introduced there until the Persian conquest), the officers at the frontier would have had full opportunity of seeing Sarai, and would, no doubt, mention the extraordinary lightness of her complexion.

The most probable derivation of the word Pharaoh is that which identifies it with a symbol constantly used in inscriptions to indicate the king, and which may be read per-ao or phar-ao. This term literally signifies the double house, or palace. This would be a title of respect, veiling the person of the monarch under the name of his dwelling, in much the same way as we include the sovereign and his attendants under the name of the Court.

For the arguments in favour of this derivation, see Canon Cook’s Excursus on the Egyptian words in the Pentateuch, at the end of Volume I of the Speaker’s Commentary. He also presents there the reasons for his opinion—in opposition to that of M. Chabas—that the Pharaoh in whose days Abram visited Egypt was an early king of the twelfth dynasty, some time before the Hyksôs usurpation.