What Does Genesis 20:4 Mean?
But Abimelech had not drawn near to her, and he said, Lord, will you slay also a nation in alignment?
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
But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?THE KEY
Before he argues that a people are righteous, Abimelech names the distance he has kept: the Hebrew root for “come near” also names what is brought near as an offering.
THE MEANING
You can stand at a boundary you have not crossed and still fear that judgment will sweep others into your situation. Abimelech’s question presses for a distinction: does one person’s threatened wrongdoing make an entire people guilty? The verse keeps the danger of collective destruction in view rather than treating it as self-evidently just.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The fear that one person’s alleged wrongdoing automatically makes an entire people deserving of destruction.
THE ROOT
קָרַב
qārab
GROWS FROM
קרב
Draw near; approach.
“had not drawn near to her” in this verse is qārab. The Hebrew word describes physical approach: Abimelech says he has not drawn near to her. The same root forms the word for an offering brought near, linking nearness with an act of approach rather than mere distance.
ALSO GROWS
qārōv: Near or close.
קָרוֹב
It makes the root’s sense of nearness explicit: Abimelech’s claim rests on a boundary of proximity.
qorbān: An offering brought near.
קָרְבָּן
This branch shows that the root can name the act of bringing something into approach, not only a state of being close.
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
Alignment; rightness.
“nation in alignment” in this verse is tsaddiq. The question describes a people as aligned, but this is Abimelech’s plea, not a verdict supplied by the narrator. The root keeps the issue relational: will judgment distinguish alignment from wrongdoing, or treat a whole people as one?
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice or rightness; alignment.
צֶדֶק
It links the claim of righteousness with the question of whether judgment itself is rightly aligned.
tsedaqah: Righteousness or justice expressed in action.
צְדָקָה
It carries the same root into enacted justice, sharpening the verse’s concern about what it means to judge a whole people.
THE PATTERN
The verse asks judgment to distinguish an individual’s wrongdoing from the fate of a whole people.
Far be it from you to do according to this word, to put to death the aligned with the wicked, and the aligned be as the wicked. Far be it from you! Will not the judge of all the earth make judgment?The living soul that is missing shall die. The son shall not bear the crookedness of the father, nor shall the father bear the crookedness of the son; the alignment of the aligned shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.Who will give back to each one according to his works.THE THREAD
But for me, drawing near to God is good; I have set my shelter in the Lord LORD, to recount all your works.“Draw near” comes from the same קרב (Q-R-B) root as Abimelech’s “come near.” In the psalm, nearness to God is called good; here, distance from her marks the boundary he says he has not crossed.
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