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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
  • Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:29:47 EDT


Isaac Fried:
This is my second post in response to your analysis of chapter 20 of
Genesis.
6. Abimelech Wants Children, Not Sarah
This story in chapter 20 of Genesis is sensible, if we examine it carefully
and take the story seriously. Abimelech is desperate to sire children by
women in general, and in particular he wants to sire a son by his main wife
#1.
Abraham and Sarah know that. The text presents YHWH as having caused that
fertility problem regarding Abimelech, so that Abraham and Sarah will have
something to offer Abimelech that Abimelech really wants, namely a profound
fertility prayer from Abraham. That in turn means that Abraham and Sarah are
in
position to demand something from Abimelech that Abraham and Sarah really
want (as we can discuss in a later post). That is the meaning of the
somewhat
ambiguous final phrase in chapter 20 of Genesis: "[T]he LORD [YHWH] had fast
closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah
Abraham's
wife." Genesis 20: 18 The wombs had been closed up long before Abraham and
Sarah arrive in Gerar, so that Abimelech will be desperate to deal with
Abraham and Sarah when they arrive in Gerar. That is the reason, you see,
why
Abraham and Sarah make a beeline for Gerar. Abraham and Sarah are not
wandering
aimlessly in the Negev and Sinai Deserts. No, they head straight for
Gerar, in order to be able to deal with Abimelech, whom they know has this
pressing fertility problem of his own.
Though presented as being God's doing in the text, it is very easy to give a
purely secular explanation for what is going on here. Abimelech has been
unable to sire children by any woman. Abimelech is hoping that Abraham and
Sarah may be able to help Abimelech solve that fertility problem, if Abraham
is
a bona fide holy man who can be induced to offer a profound divine fertility
prayer on Abimelech's behalf. Abraham and Sarah know that Abimelech has
this
terrible fertility problem, and that Abimelech might want to have a profound
fertility prayer from a man (Abraham) who appears to be a holy man and a
prophet.
Abimelech perceives Abraham as possibly being a bona fide holy man, who
might possibly be able to solve Abimelech's pressing fertility problems by
virtue
of a profound fertility prayer to the divine. Abimelech has no lust for old
Sarah. Rather, Abimelech wants children by the women in his palace, and the
way to get children may be to induce Abraham to utter a profound fertility
prayer. That is exactly what the text portrays as happening: "And Abraham
prayed unto God; and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his
maid-servants; and they bore children. For the LORD [YHWH] had fast closed
up all the
wombs of the house of Abimelech…." Genesis 20: 17-18
Abraham's disingenuous public claim that Abraham had feared being murdered
by Abimelech on account of Abraham's wife is a cover story, agreed to in
advance by Abimelech. Abimelech agrees to that cover story as one element of
inducing Abraham to make a profound fertility prayer to the divine on
Abimelech's
behalf.
7. Abraham Never Has Any Fear of Abimelech
At no point in this sequence is powerful Abraham honestly afraid that
Abraham may be murdered by Abimelech, either on account of Sarah or for any
other
reason. That public statement by Abraham is, rather, an integral part of
the
elaborate cover story that Abraham and Abimelech have worked out in advance.

Abraham's 318 armed retainers (Genesis 14: 14) are much more powerful than
Abimelech's small militia of foreign mercenaries headed by the foreigner
Phicol.
You wrote: "As soon as they entered such area they had their wives and
daughters confiscated by the local ruler or strongman. So wherever you
place
Abraham it
must be a sparsely populated, semi arid region of only few herders."
That assessment is completely false in all regards. Abraham never has any
wife or any daughter confiscated by any local ruler or strongman. Abraham is
by no means limited to living in "a sparsely populated, semi arid region of
only few herders". Abraham is portrayed in the text as having 318 armed
retainers, constituting the largest private militia in Canaan. Abraham
cannot
live for any great length of time in a semi-arid region, because such a
region
would not have enough food for Abraham's 318 armed retainers, Abraham's
wives
and children, Abraham's servants and shepherds, Abraham's- huge flock of
sheep and goats, and all the other animals that Abraham has. Abraham must
be on
good pastureland, as at Hebron, or in southern Lebanon. Abraham's entourage
is too big to live in the Negev Desert for any great length of time, much
less in the Sinai Desert.
There is nothing nonsensical about the Patriarchal narratives. If one pays
close attention to what the Hebrew text actually says, and considers the
secular historical background, it all makes perfect sense.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



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