Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

Chapter 20 verse 7:

Here is where the Torah tells what I had just posted, and also tells 
us that Avimelech did NOT sleep with her in the end:  G-d is talking 
to Avimelech in his dream:  "But now return the man's wife FOR HE IS 
A PROPHET"  (ie; he therefore knows that you did not touch her, and 
therefore...) "he will pray for you and you will live"

We also know that Avimelech did not touch her, because G-D SAID SO in 
verse 6 (G-d stopped him by His warning to him)

There is no need to question if Avimelech lied to his servants or 
not, because G-d doesn't lie!

(This is in response to your:  "Whether Abimelech is being truthful 
or not in claiming to  his servants that
Abimelech had not come near Sarah we will never know.  In my view, 
the author of the  Patriarchal narratives wants us to understand 
these verses as being what  Abimelech said to his servants, not as 
necessarily being what actually  happened.")

Shoshanna



 In particular, at the  point that Abraham utters that profound
fertility prayer for Abimelech, how  could Abraham have known what 
had actually gone
on the previous  night?
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois