Genesis 20:3

3 And God came to Abimelech in a dream at night. And he said to him, "Look, you [are] a dead man on account of the woman you have taken. For she [is] {a married woman}."

Genesis 20:3 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 20:3

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night
Put a dream into his mind, by which he cautioned him against taking Sarah to be his wife; so careful was the Lord that no wrong should be done to such a godly and virtuous person, to which she was exposed through the weakness of her husband. Aben Ezra wrongly interprets this of an angel, when it was God himself: and said unto him, behold, thou [art but] a dead man, for the woman
which thou hast taken;
that is, God would punish him with death, unless he restored the woman, whom he had taken, to her husband; not for any uncleanness he had committed with her, but for taking her without her free and full consent, and without inquiring more strictly into her relation to Abraham, and connection with him, and for his impure and unlawful desires after her, if persisted in: for she [is] a man's wife,
or "married to an husband" ^F3; and therefore it was unlawful in him to take her to be his wife.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (leb tleb) "maritata marito", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Schmidt.

Genesis 20:3 In-Context

1 And Abraham journeyed from there to the land of the Negev, and he settled between Kadesh and Shur. And he dwelled as an alien in Gerar.

2 And Abraham said about Sarah his wife, "She [is] my sister." And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

3 And God came to Abimelech in a dream at night. And he said to him, "Look, you [are] a dead man on account of the woman you have taken. For she [is] {a married woman}."

4 Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, "my Lord, will you even kill a righteous people?"

5 Did not he himself say to me, 'She [is] my sister'? And she herself said, 'He [is] my brother.' With integrity of my heart and with cleanness of my hands I did this."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "married of a husband" or "a woman owned by a husband"