Genesis - Week Fifteen

Introduction

This study should address...

What does the Bible say?

What does the Bible Mean?

How can we apply that to our lives

Legend

Important

Questions

References

Personal Thoughts

Chapter 12

Verses 10-16

Genesis 12:10–16 ESV

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

Thoughts or Questions?

12:10

Abram is faced with a dilemma

God has brought him into this promised land of Canaan, but there is a famine

Egypt though hostile offers a better chance of survival

So, he moves on to Egypt

God does not instruct Abram either way

12:11-13

Another dilemma faces Abram once he enters Egypt

Under fear of kidnapping for Sarai and death for himself Abram tells a half-truth

For they are technically sister and brother

Genesis 20:12 “Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.”

This fear is legitimate as Sarai is taken to Pharaoh

A choice between human dignity and human life, in which Abram chose life

Was he unfaithful by not trusting God to protect him?

The Lord does eventually intervene to protect him

Since God does not judge his decision

So what was the proper thing to do?

Some commentators have quite the obsession with her beauty

12:14-16

Sarai presumably becomes a member of Pharaohs harem

Which indicates strongly that they had relations

Though Calvin disagreed saying that God intervened before that like he does in chapter 20

This is the first mention of Pharaoh in the bible but no mention of which one

Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 12

The mention of camels is somewhat problematic, as domesticated camels may not have existed in Canaan during the time of the patriarchal stories. Camels are not mentioned in Egyptian texts until centuries after the patriarchal period, during the Persian period. In addition, camels are absent from the Mari texts of Mesopotamia, which provide abundant details about nomadic groups at this time. However, there is some other ambiguous, though suggestive, data that domesticated camels were in Mesopotamia during the patriarchal period.

Bilingual Sumerian—Akkadian texts from Mesopotamia refer to a domesticated animal called “a donkey-of-the-sea-land,” which may refer to a dromedary camel. If this is correct, the text provides evidence of camels in the Near East ca. 2000–1700 BC—a date range consistent with the patriarchs. Animal bones in eastern Iran (Shahr-I-Sokhta) dating to 2700 BC and in the Arabian Peninsula dating to 2100 BC (Umm-an-Nar) may also show evidence of domesticated camels.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 12

Some biblical scholars have maintained that the mention of camels in Genesis is anachronistic, on the assumption that they were not domesticated until about 1100 B.C. Archaeological finds of camel bones, however, suggest that some camels were in use by humans as early as the third millennium B.C. While the evidence is limited, it is hardly surprising, given the use to which camels were put. In Genesis they usually appear in passages that involve long-distance journeys through or close to deserts (see 24:10–64; 31:17, 34; 37:25). The scarcity of camels in the period of the patriarchs made them a luxury of great worth, and thus their listing here (and elsewhere) may serve to emphasize Abram’s wealth.

Verses 17-20

Genesis 12:17–20 ESV

But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

Thoughts or Questions?

12:17-20

Instead of punishing Abram, God punishes Pharaoh and protects Sarai

The plagues prefigure the later plagues of Egypt

Pharaoh called out to Abram, whereas later in Ch 20 God informs the king

Pharaoh also defends himself by claiming that he would never take a man’s wife

God delivers Abram from his own sin and mistakes

Abram gives no response to the charges from Pharaoh

And Abram is allowed to leave with all he was given

And given protection by Pharaoh as he left

General References and Sources

Study Bibles

ESV Study Bible

ESV Church History Study Bible

ESV Literary Study Bible

Spurgeon Study Bible

Faithlife Study Bible

Commentaries

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Matthew Poole’s Commentary

David Atkinson, The Message of Genesis 1-11

John Davis, Paradise to Prison