Genesis 20:3

3 One night God appeared to him in a dream and said, "You are going to die, because you have taken this woman; she is already married."

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 Abraham moved from Mamre to the southern part of Canaan and lived between Kadesh and Shur. Later, while he was living in Gerar,

2 he said that his wife Sarah was his sister. So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

3 One night God appeared to him in a dream and said, "You are going to die, because you have taken this woman; she is already married."

4 But Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, "Lord, I am innocent! Would you destroy me and my people?

5 Abraham himself said that she was his sister, and she said the same thing. I did this with a clear conscience, and I have done no wrong."