What Does Genesis 20:2 Mean in the King James?
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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 also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.Then delivered he him therefore unto 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 unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto 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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