Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 12:19

"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." — Genesis 12:19 (ASV)

So I might have taken her to be my wife. —The Hebrew is, and I took her to me to wife: that is, I took her with the intention of making her my wife. During the interval before the marriage Pharaoh and his household were visited with such marked troubles that he became alarmed, and possibly Sarai then revealed to him her true relationship to Abram. We find in Esther 2:12 that in the case of maidens there was a probation of twelve months duration before the marriage took place, and Sarai was probably saved by some such formality.

The conduct of Pharaoh is upright and dignified; nor should we disbelieve his assurance that he had acted upon the supposition that Sarai might lawfully be his. The silence of Abram seems to indicate his consciousness that Pharaoh had acted more righteously than himself, and yet his repetition of the offence (Genesis 20:0) shows that he did not feel much self-reproach for what he had done; nor, possibly, should we judge his conduct from the high standpoint of Christian morality. When, however, commentators speak of it as Abram’s fall, they forget that he arranged this matter with Sarai at the very time when he was quitting Haran (Genesis 20:13).