What Does Genesis 20:2 Mean?
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister; and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.THE KEY
Abraham defines Sarah in speech, Abimelech takes her in action, and Sarah is given neither a voice nor an action of her own.
THE MEANING
You see who holds agency in this sentence: Abraham describes Sarah, Abimelech sends and takes her, and Sarah has no quoted voice. The verse keeps a man’s claim beside a king’s act, so a relationship named around her does not determine what happens to her.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a man’s description can stand in for a woman’s agency: Abraham names Sarah as his sister, while Abimelech’s action determines where she goes.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקַּח
wayyiqqaḥ
GROWS FROM
ל-ק-ח
l-q-ḥ
To take or receive.
“took” in this verse is wayyiqqaḥ. The root’s range includes both taking and receiving; its noun branch can name instruction, something taken in. Here the verb is concrete and one-sided: Sarah is the object of the king’s taking, with no consent or voice stated.
ALSO GROWS
lāqaḥ: To take, receive.
לָקַח
This is the verb’s basic form and keeps the action plain: the king takes Sarah.
leqaḥ: Teaching, instruction.
לֶקַח
This noun branch shows the root extending from taking something into one’s possession to what is taken into the mind.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
wayyishlaḥ
GROWS FROM
ש-ל-ח
sh-l-ḥ
To send, send away, or release.
וַיִּשְׁלַח (wayyishlaḥ, “he sent”) puts Abimelech in motion before וַיִּקַּח (wayyiqqaḥ, “he took”) names what follows. The root can also carry the sense of sending away or releasing, but here the sending leads to taking, keeping the unequal power visible.
ALSO GROWS
shillēaḥ: To send away, dismiss, release.
שִׁלֵּחַ
This form makes the root’s range of sending away and release visible beside the king’s act of taking.
shālūaḥ: One who is sent.
שָׁלוּחַ
This branch names the person carried by a sending, clarifying how the root gives motion and direction.
מֶלֶךְ
melekh
GROWS FROM
מ-ל-ך
m-l-k
To reign or rule.
אֲבִימֶלֶךְ (Avimelekh, “my father is king”) contains מֶלֶךְ (melekh, “king”), and the title “king of Gerar” repeats that root in his office. The verse places his kingly nature and public authority beside his action: he sends and takes Sarah.
ALSO GROWS
mālaḵ: To reign, rule as king.
מָלַךְ
The verb names the action behind the title and connects kingship with the power exercised in the verse.
malkhūt: Kingship, kingdom, rule.
מַלְכוּת
This noun names the sphere of rule that gives the king’s sending and taking their force.
THE PATTERN
When power controls another person’s movement, the verbs expose who acts and who is moved.
The princes of Pharaoh also saw her, and praised her before Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.So it came to pass, when the king's word and his decree were heard, and when many young women were gathered together to Shushan the palace, into the hand of Hegai, and Esther was taken also to the king's house, into the hand of Hegai, the keeper of the women.Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.THE THREAD
And David sent messengers, and took her, and she came in to him, and he lay with her. For she was setting herself apart from her uncleanness, and she turned back to her house.Both verses use שָׁלַח (shalach, “send”) and לָקַח (laqach, “take”): a ruler sends, then takes a woman. The repeated sequence makes the movement from royal command to a woman’s removal unmistakable.
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