Genesis 26:10

10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? One of the people might easily have slept with thy wife, and thou should have brought the sin upon us.

Genesis 26:10 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 26:10

And Abimelech said, what is this thou hast done unto us?
&c.] By entertaining suspicions and jealousies of us as bad men, and by exposing us to the temptation of committing iniquity; why hast thou dealt thus with us, and what have we done, or is in our character, that thou shouldest act after this manner? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife;
it is much one or other had not before this time, not looking upon it criminal to have to do with a single woman, when they would not have meddled with another man's wife, Jarchi interprets this of Abimelech himself; and so the Targum of Jonathan, who perhaps had been thinking of taking her to his bed; and was "within a little" F3, as the word for "lightly" may be rendered, of accomplishing his design: and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us:
been the occasion of their committing the sin of adultery, which was heinous in the eyes of Heathens, and of bringing on them the punishment due thereunto.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 (jemk) "parum abfuit", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.

Genesis 26:10 In-Context

8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking out a window, saw Isaac sporting with Rebekah, his wife.
9 And Abimelech called Isaac and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife; and how didst thou say, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die because of her.
10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? One of the people might easily have slept with thy wife, and thou should have brought the sin upon us.
11 Then Abimelech charged all the people, saying, He that touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year one hundred-fold, and the LORD blessed him.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010