Genesis 20:18

Summary

Genesis 20:18 explains, as a closing note to the Abimelech narrative, that Yehovah had shut every womb in the household of Abimelech because of the matter concerning Sarah, the wife of Abraham. The verse functions as a causal clause (introduced by ki) clarifying the reason for events described earlier in the chapter.

Key words

• 'aTzor ("certainly ⟨to shut up⟩", H6113) — infinitive absolute placed before the finite verb; it has no independent subject and serves to intensify the following verb.
• 'aTzar ("⟨he⟩ had shut up", H6113) — qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular; same root as the infinitive absolute, indicating a completed action with emphatic force.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name, functioning as the grammatical subject of 'aTzar.
• reChem ("womb", H7358) — masculine singular noun in construct with kol ("every", H3605), forming the phrase "every womb."
• be'ad ("behind", H1157) — preposition governing kol-rechem, here indicating the object affected by the closing action ("behind/regarding every womb").

What the text says

The verse opens with the subordinating particle ki (H3588A), here functioning causally ("for" / "because"), linking this statement to the preceding narrative. The core clause uses a grammatical construction common in Biblical Hebrew: an infinitive absolute ('aTzor) followed immediately by the finite verb of the same root ('aTzar, qal perfect). This doubling does not add a second action but intensifies the single action expressed by the perfect verb — the shutting was thorough or certain. The subject of the perfect verb is Yehovah (H3068G), placed immediately after the verb pair, following standard Hebrew verb-subject order.

The object of the shutting is expressed through the preposition be'ad (H1157) governing the construct chain kol-rechem ("every womb", H3605 + H7358), which in turn is linked by le- (H9005) to veit 'Avimelekh ("household of Abimelech", H1004M + proper name), forming "every womb of/belonging to the household of Abimelech." A second causal phrase follows: 'al-devar ("on the matter of", H5921A + H1697M, construct), attaching to Sarah (H8283) and further specified by the construct 'eshet 'Avraham ("wife of Abraham", H0802H + H0085). The sentence thus contains two layers of construct chains — one identifying the affected household, the other identifying the person whose situation caused the divine action.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders be'ad with ἔξωθεν ("from outside"/"on the outside"), a spatial nuance not present in the Hebrew preposition, which the Vulgate and Hebrew text treat more generally as indicating the affected scope ("omnem vulvam domus Abimelech," kol-rechem le-veit Avimelekh). The Vulgate's concluserat and LXX's synekleisen both render the intensified Hebrew verb pair ('aTzor 'aTzar) with a single verb, without reproducing the infinitive-absolute emphasis visible in the Hebrew construction.