Genesis 26:10

10 Abim'elech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt 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 When he had been there a long time, Abim'elech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac fondling Rebekah his wife.
9 So Abim'elech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, she is your wife; how then could you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac said to him, "Because I thought, 'Lest I die because of her.'"
10 Abim'elech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us."
11 So Abim'elech warned all the people, saying, "Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death."
12 And Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him,
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.