Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

We read the altercations between the patriarch Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerar (Gen. 20.1–18 and 21.22–34), as paradigmatic for conflict resolution between ethnoi, one representing the resident alien, ‘stranger in a strange land’, and the other, the indigenous ruler/host in the land. The conflict centers on the misappropriation of ‘property’, a wife (Sarah) and a well respectively. Both stories entail verbal rebuke and self-defense, gift exchange and promises of protection, as well as divine fiat. In the first story (Gen. 20), God intervenes overtly in a dream and with an impending death threat; in the second (Gen. 21), divine intervention is implied by the covenant sworn on oath between the two parties at Beer-sheba. These narratives show the effectiveness of open rebuke—from God, from the Philistine king in protest against Abraham’s deception, and from the patriarch in self-defense. The stories ultimately affirm the promise that the patriarch and his descendants would be a blessing to all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:2–3) and result in protected status for the patriarch and his people in the land.

Keywords

Abimelech Abraham Beer-sheba covenant migrant oath patriarch rebuke resident alien wife-sister motif well

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alter

(2019) The Five Books of Moses. New York, NY: Norton.

Biddle

(1990) The ‘Endangered Ancestress’ and Blessing for the Nations. Journal of Biblical Literature 109: 599–611.

Brown

Driver

Briggs

CA (BDB)

(1966). Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon.

Clines

(1990) The Ancestor in Danger: But Not the Same Danger. In What Does Eve Do To Help?: And Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, pp. 1–16.

Dziadosz

(2023), The Covenants of the Patriarchs with Foreigners at Beersheba: The Historical and Legal Background of the Traditions in Gen 21.22–24, 25–33 and Gen 26.26–31. Biblical Annals 13: 335–65.

Ehrlich

(1969) Miqr’a Kifshuto (The Bible according to its Literal Meaning), 3 vols. New York, NY: Ktav.

Exum

(1993) Who’s Afraid of ‘the Endangered Ancestress’? In Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity, pp. 148–169.

Feinstein

(2014) Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Fox

(1995) The Five Books of Moses. New York, NY: Schocken Books.

10.

Friedman

(2001) Commentary on the Torah. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

11.

Frymer-Kensky

(2002) The Disposable Wife. In Reading the Women of the Bible. New York, NY: Schocken Books, pp. 93–98.

12.

Germany

(2021) Abraham and Isaac in Gerar Foreshadows Judea under Persian Rule. https://thetorah.com/article/abraham-and-isaac-in-gerar-foreshadows-judea-under-persian-rule

13.

Gordon

(1935) Fratriarchy in the Old Testament. Journal of Biblical Literature 54: 223–34.

14.

Greengus

(1975) Sisterhood Adoption at Nuzi and the ‘Wife-Sister’ in Genesis. Hebrew Union College Annual 46: 5–31.

15.

Levin

(2020) Abraham and Sarah in Egypt: A Story Composed to Prefigure the Exodus. https://thetorah.com/article/abraham-and-sarah-in-egypt-a-story-composed-to-prefigure-the-exodus

16.

Levin

(2023) Deuteronomy in Genesis: King Abimelech’s Obedience to the Torah (Genesis 20). Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 37: 116–27.

17.

Mauss

(2016) The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies; translated by Guyer

Jane I.

Chicago, IL: HAU Books.

18.

Moran

(1959). The Scandal of the ‘Great Sin’ at Ugarit. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 18: 280–81.

19.

Niditch

(1987) Underdogs and Tricksters. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.

20.

Petersen

(1973), A Thrice-Told Tale: Genre, Theme, and Motif. Biblical Research 18: 30–43.

21.

Polzin

(1975) The Ancestress of Israel in Danger. Semeia 3: 81–98.

22.

Rabinowitz

(1959). The ‘Great Sin’ in Ancient Egyptian Marriage Contracts. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 18: 73–73.

23.

Sarna

(1989) Genesis. JPS Commentary. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society.

24.

Schmutzer

(2010) Did the Gods Cause Abraham’s Wandering?: An Examination of התעו אותי אלהים‎ in Genesis 20.13. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 35: 149–66.

25.

Speiser

(1965) Genesis. Anchor Bible. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

26.

Speiser

(1967) Oriental and Biblical Studies, edited by Finkelstein

J. J.

Greenberg

Moshe

. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

27.

Strine

(2017) Sister Save Us: The Matriarchs as Breadwinners and Their Threat to Patriarchy in the Ancestral Narrative. In Women and Exilic Identity in the Hebrew Bible, edited by Halvorson-Taylor

Martien

Southwood

Katherine E.

Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 631. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 53–66.

28.

Van Seters

(1975) Abraham in History and Tradition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

29.

Von Rad

(1973). Genesis. OTL. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

30.

Warner

(2018). Re-Imagining Abraham: A Re-Assessment of the Influence of Deuteronomism in Genesis. Leiden: Brill.

31.

Weinfeld

(1985) The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East. Journal of the American Oriental Society 90: 184–203.

32.

Weinfeld

(2002) Olam HaTanakh: Bereshit. Tel Aviv: Dodson. [Hebrew].

33.

Wenham

(2014) Genesis 16–50. WBC, 2. Dallas, TX: Word Books.

34.

Yalkut Me‘am Lo‘ez (1969), Compiled by Jacob Kuli. Genesis. Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Or Hadash.

35.

Ziegler

(2008) Promises to Keep. Leiden: Brill.

Rebuke between Abraham and Abimelech: A model of conflict resolution

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References