And yet indeed [she is] my sister; she [is] the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
12. she is indeed my sister ] See Gen 11:29, Gen 12:19. The marriage with a half-sister was evidently permitted in David’s time (cf. 2Sa 13:13); and it was practised in the days of Ezekiel (Eze 22:11), though forbidden by the laws of Lev 18:9; Lev 18:9; Lev 18:11; Lev 20:17; Deu 27:22. It is said to have been permitted in Phoenicia and Egypt.
Abraham’s excuse is based upon a half truth. Sarah may have been truly his sister; but this statement was no moral justification for his suppression of the fact that she was his wife. The further excuse in Gen 20:13, that as he travelled about he always practised this mental reservation concerning Sarah, scarcely adds dignity to his line of defence.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 12. She is my sister] I have not told a lie; I have suppressed only a part of the truth. In this place it may be proper to ask, What is a lie? It is any action done or word spoken, whether true or false in itself, which the doer or speaker wishes the observer or hearer to take in a contrary sense to that which he knows to be true. It is, in a word, any action done or speech delivered with the intention to deceive, though both may be absolutely true and right in themselves. See Clarke on Ge 12:13.
The daughter of my father, but not – of my mother] Ebn Batrick, in his annals, among other ancient traditions has preserved the following: “Terah first married Yona, by whom he had Abraham; afterwards he married Tehevita, by whom he had Sarah.” Thus she was the sister of Abraham, being the daughter of the same father by a different mother.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
She is my sister, my near kinswoman; even as Lot upon the same account is called Abrahams brother, Gen 13:8.
She is the daughter of my father, i.e. the granddaughter; for grandchildren are commonly called the sons and daughters of their grandparents, as Gen 31:28; Exo 2:18. And besides, her father Haran dying before her grandfather, she was left more immediately under his care and education, and therefore was more peculiarly reputed Terahs daughter, and Abrahams sister. See Gen 11:29.
But not the daughter of my mother, because Haran was Abrahams brother only by the fathers side; for Terah had Haran by another wife.
How could Abraham marry one so near of kin to him?
Answ. There were larger allowances for marriages in those times, as it was convenient there should be; neither had God as yet given those prohibitions, Lev 18:1-30. Besides, among all nations, the mothers side was more regarded than the fathers in all prohibitions of marriage.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. yet indeed she is my sister(Seeon Ge 11:31). What a poordefense Abraham made. The statement absolved him from the charge ofdirect and absolute falsehood, but he had told a moral untruthbecause there was an intention to deceive (compare Ge12:11-13). “Honesty is always the best policy.”Abraham’s life would have been as well protected without the fraud aswith it: and what shame to himself, what distrust to God, whatdishonor to religion might have been prevented! “Let us speaktruth every man to his neighbor” [Zec 8:16;Eph 4:25].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And yet indeed [she is] my sister,…. In the same sense as Lot was his brother; for she was sister to Lot, and both were the children of Haran, the brother of Abraham:
she [is] the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; she was the daughter of his father, being his granddaughter, grandchildren are sometimes called children, but not the daughter or granddaughter of Abraham’s mother; Terah having had two wives, by the one he had Haran, the father of Sarah, and by the other Abraham. According to the Arabic writers f, Abraham and Sarah were the immediate children of Terah, but by two mothers:
“the mother of Abraham (they say) died, whose name was Juna, and Terah married another wife, whose name was Lahazib, some say Tahuitha, who bore him Sarah, afterwards married to Abraham; hence Abraham said, she is my sister on my father’s side, but not on my mother’s side:”
and she became my wife; as in those times it was judged lawful, and so it has been accounted lawful in many nations to marry sisters on the father’s side, when those on the mother’s were prohibited g.
f Elmacinus, p. 51. Patricides, p. 17. apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. p. 281. g Vid. Philo. de Special. Leg. p. 779. Clement. Alex. Stromat. l. 2. p. 421.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
12. And yet indeed she is my sister. Some suppose Sarah to have been Abraham’s own sister, yet not by the same mothers but born from a second wife. As, however, the name sister has a wider signification among the Hebrews, I willingly adopt a different conjecture; namely, that she was his sister in the second degree; thus it will be true that they had a common father, that is, a grandfather, from whom they had descended by brothers. Moreover, Abraham extenuates his offense, and draws a distinction between his silence and a direct falsehood; and certainly he professed with truth, that he was the brother of Sarah. Indeed it appears that he feigned nothing in words which differed from the facts themselves; yet when all things have been sifted, his defense proves to be either frivolous, or, at least, too feeble. For since he had purposely used the name of sister as a pretext, lest men should have some suspicion of his marriage; he sophistically afforded them an occasion of falling into error. Wherefore, although he did not lie in words, yet with respect to the matter of fact, his dissimulation was a lie, by implication. He had, however, no other intention than to declare that he had not dealt fraudulently with Abimelech; but that, in an affair of great anxiety, he had caught at an indirect method of escape from death, by the pretext of his previous relationship to his wife.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Not the daughter of my mother.This disproves the notion that Sarah was the same as Iscah (Gen. 11:29); for as Iscah was Terahs granddaughter, the distinction between the identity of the father and the diversity of the mother would in her case be unmeaning. Sarah was apparently Abrahams half-sister, being Terahs daughter by another wife; and we gather from her calling her child Saraithat is, princely (see Gen. 17:15)that she was not a concubine, but belonged to some noble race.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Daughter of my father “Sarah’s name does not occur in the genealogies, and we do not know anything of her birth but that which is here stated . Such marriages, though forbidden afterwards, (Lev 18:9; Lev 18:11; Lev 20:17; Deu 27:22,) may not have been esteemed unlawful in patriarchal times, and they were common among the heathen nations of antiquity . Many Jewish and Christian interpreters, however, think that daughter here means granddaughter, and that Sarah was the same as Iscah, the sister of Lot, (Gen 11:29,) who is called the brother of Abraham in Gen 14:16. ” Speaker’s Commentary .
Gen 20:12. And yet indeed she is my sister It appears as plain as words can make it from this verse, that Sarah was indeed the sister of Abraham, born of a different mother, but of the same father: and one would wonder whence it comes to pass, that some expositors are so industrious to justify an opinion which this verse so plainly contradicts, that Sarah is the same person with Ischah, the daughter of Haran, mentioned ch. Gen 11:29. Abraham is dealing here with Abimelech in the fairest and openest manner, and justifying himself as far as he could: but what justification would it be, to say Sarah is indeed, as I have called her, my sister, i.e.. my near relation, the daughter of my brother Haran? It is to be remembered, that he says she is the daughter of my father, not of my mother, to shew the lawful-ness of his marriage with her, which was allowed in those times with sisters by the father’s side, but not with uterine sisters.
Gen 20:12 And yet indeed [she is] my sister; she [is] the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Ver. 12. And yet indeed. ] See Trapp on “ Gen 11:29 “
sister. The daughter of Terah by another wife (than Abraham’s mother): therefore, Abraham’s half-sister. See App-29.
And yet: Gen 11:29, Gen 12:13, 1Th 5:22
she is the: Ebn Batrik, in his annals, among other ancient traditions, has preserved the following: “Terah first married Yona, by whom he had Abraham; afterwards he married Tehevita, by whom he had Sarah.
Reciprocal: Gen 26:7 – She is my sister Lev 20:17 – General Son 4:9 – my sister
20:12 And yet indeed [she is] my {m} sister; she [is] the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
(m) By sister, he means his full cousin, and by daughter Abraham’s niece, Gen 11:29 for so the Hebrews use these words.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes