And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand [pieces] of silver: behold, he [is] to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that [are] with thee, and with all [other]: thus she was reproved.
16. I have given thy brother ] Abimelech emphasizes the word which Sarah had used ( Gen 20:5), and which freed his conscience from any blame. By the sarcastic use of the word “brother,” Abimelech implies that compensation for wrong done to her is due to Abraham as one of her family, not as her husband.
a thousand pieces of silver ] Lit. “1000 silver.” The word shekel, meaning “a weight,” is omitted. Money in the patriarchal times was reckoned by weight: there were no stamped coins. The standard weight was supplied, as a rule, by metal, generally silver. Hence the word “silver” is in Hebrew often used for “money”; and the word shekel, or weight, is equivalent to “a piece of money.” See note on Gen 23:16. 1000 shekels of silver would be worth about 137. 10 s., reckoning a shekel = 2 Samuel 9 d. But the purchasing value of silver varies. A slave in Exo 21:32 is worth 30 shekels.
it is for thee a covering of the eyes ] R.V. marg. he (= A.V.) is unsuitable and improbable. “A covering of the eyes” is a metaphor for a gift, which will have the effect of appeasing indignation and of causing the offended person to forget, or be blind to, the offence. Cf. Gen 32:20, “I will appease him,” lit. “cover his face”; 1Sa 12:3, “of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind mine eyes therewith”; Job 9:24, “he covereth the faces of the judges.” There is no need to suppose that there is any reference to a woman’s veil (Gen 24:65), as if the money paid was to be in lieu of lost modesty, symbolized by the veil.
to all that are with thee ] i.e. those of her family will recognize that full amends have been made. LXX introducing a special reference to Sarah’s personal attendants.
in respect of all ] R.V. marg. before all men. The text in the original is very doubtful. The meaning is fairly clear. Sarah is righted, and her honour saved; but whether the translation should be “and in respect of all that has happened,” or “and in regard to all men, thou art put right,” remains uncertain.
LXX = “and in all things observe truth,” furnishes a good moral, but a fantastic rendering. Lat. quocunque perrexeris: mementoque te deprehensam is no translation of our text.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 16. And unto Sarah he said] But what did he say? Here there is scarcely any agreement among interpreters; the Hebrew is exceedingly obscure, and every interpreter takes it in his own sense.
A thousand pieces of silver] SHEKELS are very probably meant here, and so the Targum understands it. The Septuagint has , a thousand didrachma, no doubt meaning shekels; for in Ge 23:15-16, this translation uses for the Hebrew shekel. As shakal signifies literally to weigh, and the shekel was a coin of such a weight, Mr. Ainsworth and others think this to be the origin of our word scale, the instrument to weigh with.
The shekel of the sanctuary weighed twenty gerahs, Ex 30:13. And according to the Jews, the gerah weighed sixteen grains of barley. R. Maimon observes, that after the captivity the shekel was increased to three hundred and eighty-four grains or barley-corns. On the subject of ancient weights and measures, very little that is satisfactory is known.
Behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes] It – the one thousand shekels, (not he-Abraham,) is to thee for a covering – to procure thee a veil to conceal thy beauty (unto all that are with thee, and with all other) from all thy own kindred and acquaintance, and from all strangers, that none, seeing thou art another mans wife; may covet thee on account of thy comeliness.
Thus she was reproved] The original is venochachath, but the word is probably the second person preterite, used for the imperative mood, from the root nachach, to make straight, direct, right; or to speak rightly, correctly; and may, in connection with the rest of the text, be thus paraphrased: Behold, I have given thy BROTHER (Abraham, gently alluding to the equivocation, Ge 20:2; Ge 20:5) a thousand shekels of silver; behold, IT is (that is, the silver is, or may be, or let it be) to thee a covering of the eyes (to procure a veil; see above) with regard to all those who are with thee; and to all (or and in all) speak thou the truth. Correctly translated by the Septuagint, , and in all things speak the truth-not only tell a part of the truth, but tell the whole; say not merely he is my brother, but say also, he is my husband too. Thus in ALL things speak the truth. I believe the above to be the sense of this difficult passage, and shall not puzzle my readers with criticisms. See Kennicott.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thy brother; a sharp rebuke and irony: q.d. he whom thou didst miscall thy brother.
A thousand pieces of silver, to wit, shekels, which is commonly understood when a sum of silver or gold is indefinitely mentioned, as Num 7:13,85; 2Sa 18:12; 2Ki 6:25.
He is to thee a covering of the eyes, i.e. a protection to thee from the wanton eyes and attempts of others, whilst they know thee to be the wife of another man, and he such a one whom they reverence and fear; and therefore thou didst take a very wrong course to disown him, whereby thou didst expose thyself to great danger. Or, this is to thee, & c., i.e. this I give to thee to buy thee a veil, wherewith thou mayst cover thy face, as it is fit and usual for married persons to do. Compare Gen 24:65; 1Co 11:3,6,7,10.
Unto all that are with thee; unto all that here live with thee, or near thee, and with all men whomsoever.
Thus she was reproved, or admonished to be more circumspect for the future; or, and be thou admonished; for they may be the words of Abimelech.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And unto Sarah he said, behold, I have given thy brother a thousand [pieces] of silver,…. Or shekels of silver, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, which, if two shillings and sixpence of our money, amount to one hundred and twenty five pounds; though perhaps little pieces of silver, current in this country, may be meant, that were not worth so much. Some think that the sheep, oxen, c. Abimelech had given to Abraham, were worth so many pieces of silver: but it rather seems that he gave these over and above them, and chiefly for Sarah’s use, as will be observed hereafter since the words are directed to her, and in which there is a sharp cutting expression, calling Abraham her brother, and not her husband, thereby putting her in mind and upbraiding her with her equivocation and dissimulation:
behold, he [is] to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that [are] with thee; a protection of her person and chastity: so an husband, in our language, is said to be a cover to his wife, and she under a cover: thus Abraham being now known to be the husband of Sarah, would for the future be a covering to her, that no one should look upon her, and desire her, and take her to be his wife; and he would also be a protection to her maidens that were with her, the wives of his servants, that these also might not be taken from him: but it seems best to refer this to the gift of the thousand pieces of silver, and read the words, “behold, this is to thee h a covering of the eyes”; so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem; for the words are a continued biting sarcasm on Sarah; as Abimelech twits her with calling Abraham her brother in the preceding clause, so in this he tells her that he had given him so much money to buy her a veil with, and to supply her with veils from time to time to cover her eyes, that nobody might be tempted to lust after her, and that it might be known she was a married woman; for in these countries married women wore veils for distinction,
Ge 24:65; and so not to be had by another, nor would any be deceived by her; and not only was this money given to buy veils for her, but for her female servants also that were married, that they might be knows to be another’s property; though this latter phrase “unto”, or “with all that [are] with thee” i, may be understood, not of persons, but of things, even of all the girls which Abimelech had given her while in his house; these he did not, take back again, but continued them with her, either for the above use, or whatever she pleased; and the following phrase,
and with all [other], as we render it, making a considerable stop, should, according to the accents, be read with what follows thus, “and with all this was she reproved” k; so Aben Ezra; and so they are the words of Moses, observing, that by and with all this that Abimelech had said and done,
thus she was reproved; Sarah was reproved for saying that Abraham was her brother: or the words may be rendered thus, “and so before all she was reproved” l; before her husband, and before Abimelech’s courtiers, and perhaps before her own servants; though Ainsworth, and others, take them to be the words of Abimelech, and render them, “and all that”, or “all this is that thou mayest be rebuked” m, or instructed; all that I have said and done is for this end, that thou mayest be warned and be careful for the future to speak out truth, without any equivocation, and not call Abraham thy brother, when he is thy husband.
h , Sept. “hoe erit tibi”, V. L. Schmidt; so Tigurine version, Montanus, Jarchi Ben Melech. i “cum omni quod tecum est”, Schmidt. k “et sic cum omnibus reprehensa est”, Munster. l “Atque ita coram omnibus increpata fuit”, Noldii Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 314. No. 1219. m “Atque haec omnia, ut erudita sis”, Junius & Tremellius “reprehensa es”, De Dieu.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16. He is to thee a covering of the eyes. Because there is, in these words, some obscurity, the passage is variously explained. The beginning of the verse is free from difficulty. For when Abimelech had given a thousand pieces of silver; in order that his liberality might not be suspected, he declare6 that he had given them to Abraham; and that since Abraham had been honorably received, his wife was not to be regarded as a harlot. But what follows is more obscure, ‘He shall be a veil to thee.’ Many interpreters refer this to the gift; in which they seem to me to be wrong. The Hebrews, having no neuter gender, use the feminine instead of it. But Moses, in this place, rather points to the husband; and this best suits the sense. For Sarah is taught that the husband to whom she is joined was as a veil, with which she ought to be covered lest she should be exposed to others. Paul says, that the veil which the woman carries on her head, is the symbol of subjection. (1Co 11:10.) This also belongs to unmarried persons, as referring to the end for which the sex is ordained; but it applies more aptly to married women; because they are veiled, as by the very ordinance of marriage. I therefore thus explain the words, ‘Thou, if thou hadst no husband, wouldst be exposed to many dangers; but now, since God has appointed for thee a guardian of thy modesty, it behoves thee to conceal thyself under that veil. Why then hast thou of thine own accords thrown off this covering?’ This was a just censure; because Sarah, pretending that she was in the power of her husband, had deprived herself of the divine protection.
Thus she was reproved. Interpreters distort this clause also. The natural exposition seems to me to be, that the Lord had suffered Sarah to be reproved by a heathen king, that he might the more deeply affect her with a sense of shame. For Moses draws especial attention to the person of the speaker; because it seemed a disgrace that the mother of the faithful should be reprehended by such a master. Others suppose that Moses speaks of the profit which she had received; seeing that she, instructed by such a lesson, would henceforth learn to act differently. But Moses seems rather to point out that kind of correction of which I have spoken; namely, that Sarah was humbled, by being delivered over to the discipline of a heathen man.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) A thousand pieces of silver.Heb., a thousand of silver. This was the total value of Abimelechs present, and not an additional gift. A thousand shekels would be about 125, a large sum at a time when silver was scarce and dear.
He is to thee a covering of the eyes.This speech of Abimelech is full of difficulty. It begins with a touch of irony in calling Abraham thy brother. Next, if the pronoun is translated in the masculine, he, the meaning would be that Abraham ought to have been Sarahs protector, but had failed in this duty; but, more probably, it is neuter, and refers to the gift. The covering of the eyes may mean a veil to protect her from the wanton desires of others, or to conceal her shame at the wrong done to her. Finally, the verb rendered reproved is equivocal, and should rather be translated righted. It may also be the third person singular feminine, as in our version, or the second person, in which case it is part of Abimelechs speech. The clause and with all must then be taken with this verb, and the whole be rendered, and in everything thou art even righted. The correct rendering probably is, And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother (a gift worth) a thousand (pieces) of silver: behold, it shall be to thee for a covering of the eyes to all that are with thee (that is,so large a compensation for the wrong done thee in taking thee from thy husband, will be a proof to all thy friends and attendants that thou hast not been disgraced, but treated with honour); and in respect of all that has happened thou art thus righted.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. I have given thy brother The use of the word brother, in this connexion, must have had for Sarah a pungent significance .
A thousand pieces of silver Hebrews, a thousand of silver. Whether they were shekels, or other coin, is a matter of mere conjecture, and the exact value of “a thousand of silver” is, therefore, unknown. It is also uncertain whether the silver here spoken of was an additional gift, or merely a round estimate of the value of the gifts specified in Gen 20:14.
Behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes These words have been understood in three different ways: 1) The pronoun he should be translated it, or this, (so Sept. and Vulg.,) referring to the gift of silver, which was presented to Abraham to purchase a veil to cover Sarah’s face. It is alleged that in the ancient East it was a custom for married women to go veiled, and unmarried women to go unveiled a custom which Sarah seems to have disregarded. 2) The silver was given as an expiation or atonement to make satisfaction for the wrong done to Sarah and all others connected with Abraham. The expression cover the eyes, is thus supposed to be equivalent with cover the face, in the Hebrews of Gen 32:20, and there translated “appease . ” 3) Abraham himself is declared to be a veil unto Sarah; that is, an all-sufficient covering and protection from the eyes and hands of other men . For he was a prophet, and she a prophet’s wife, and God would not suffer them to come to harm . We believe this last to be the true interpretation . For the first would seem too much like trifling, and a thousand of silver would be an extravagant sum to name as the price of a veil . The second involves a notion too theological to be expressed by a heathen king; and the word for covering is , (which is always used of a garment,) not , which is used in Gen 32:20, and is the common word for cover, in the sense of making atonement . The third follows the simple and natural meaning of the words, and gives a suitable turn to the narrative by reminding Sarah and all connected with her that her lord, whom she had called her brother, and whom God so signally honoured, was a sufficient covering and defence .
With all other As distinguished from all that are with thee. Happy all who may thus be covered with the garment of Abraham . Some critics construe the words , and with all, with what follows, , translated in our version, thus she was reproved, Keil renders: And with all so art thou justified; and observes: “ can only be the second person, fem . sing . perf. Niphal, although the Daghesh lene is wanting in the ; for the rules of syntax will hardly allow us to regard this form as a participle . The literal meaning is, so thou art judged; that is, justice has been done thee . ”
Murphy renders: “And all this that thou mayest be righted.” But such a construction is contrary to the Masoretic pointing and accents, and is exceedingly awkward. It certainly has as much against it as for it, and we prefer the interpretation expressed in the common version. “thus she was reproved.” The words of Abimelech convicted her, set her right, ( ,) and thereafter we read no more of her resorting to such duplicity .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 20:16. Behold, I have given thy brother, &c. There is nothing in the Hebrew for pieces, and therefore nothing certain can be determined as to the quantity of this silver. The opinions of expositors are various respecting this difficult passage. The authors of the Universal History appear to me to have given a just translation of this passage, though contrary to our own: “Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver, or thirty of silver money, and behold it (this present) may serve to buy thee a veil to cover thy eyes, before all those with whom thou shalt converse for the future, as well as before all those who shall be with thee:” thus she was reproved. For a veil was worn in token of subjection to the husband, and that the wife’s chastity might be thereby preserved from the insults and snares of others.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 20:16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand [pieces] of silver: behold, he [is] to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that [are] with thee, and with all [other]: thus she was reproved.
Ver. 16. I have given thy brother. ] Not thee, to avoid suspicion, “Provide,” we must, “things honest in the sight of all men”; Rom 12:17 and not only keep a good conscience, but a good name as much as may be; learning this of the unjust steward, by lawful (though he did it by unlawful) means. For our Saviour noted this defect, when he said, “The children of this world,” &c. Luk 16:8 It was good counsel that Livia gave her husband Augustus. It behoveth thee not only not to do wrong, but not to seem to do so, &c. a We must shun, and be shy of, the very show and shadow of sin, if we tender either our credit abroad or comfort at home. The Church took it ill, that her veil was pulled off, and that she was judged to be a dishonest woman. Son 5:7 As in the first chapter, she prays her spouse to tell her, where she may come to him: for “why should she be as one that turneth aside,” or as one that was veiled or covered, a sign of lightness and dishonesty? Gen 38:14-15 She was willing to eschew all appearance of evil. Some take the sense of the text thus: – I have given thy husband money to buy thee a veil, to cover thy face that all may know thee to be a married woman.
a L , A, , . – Dio in Vita.
brother. Figure of speech Irony.
covering, &c. Figure of speech Periphrasis. App-6. Having called Abraham her “brother”, he uses this beautiful Figure for her husband. Compare Gen 24:65. 1Co 11:5, &c.
reproved, i.e. by the Irony.
thy: Gen 20:5, Pro 27:5
thousand: What these pieces were is not certain; but it is probable they were shekels, as it is so understood by the Targum; and the LXX render it didrachma, by which the Hebrew shekel is rendered in Gen 23:15, Gen 23:16.
behold: Or, “behold IT (the 1,000 shekels) is to thee,” etc. Gen 26:11
a covering: Gen 24:65
thus: 1Ch 21:3-6, Pro 9:8, Pro 9:9, Pro 12:1, Pro 25:12, Pro 27:5, Jon 1:6, Rev 3:19
Reciprocal: Son 8:11 – a thousand 1Co 11:10 – power Eph 5:11 – but
Gen 20:16. He, or this, is to thee a covering of the eyes For the words may be expounded either of the money given to Abraham to buy a veil for the covering of her face, and to be worn in token of her subjection to her husband; or of Abraham, that he must be a covering of her eyes, that she should look at no other, nor desire to be looked at by any other. Yoke- fellows must be to each other for a covering of the eyes. The marriage covenant is a covenant with the eyes, like Jobs; Job 31:1. Thus she was reproved Or instructed. The Septuagint is , speak thou the truth in all things, referring, no doubt, to the equivocation she and Abraham had used.
20:16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand [pieces] of silver: behold, he [is] to thee a {n} covering of the eyes, unto all that [are] with thee, and with all [other]: {o} thus she was reproved.
(n) Such a head as with whom you may be preserved from all dangers.
(o) God caused this heathen king to reprove her because she concealed her identity, seeing that God had given her a husband as her veil and defence.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes