Genesis 20:2

Summary

Abraham speaks concerning Sarah his wife, saying she is his sister. Abimelech, king of Gerar, then sends and takes Sarah.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal narrative verb form, standard vayyiqtol construction that advances the storyline with "and then he said."
• ishTo ("his wife", H0802H) — noun in construct state with pronominal suffix o ("his"), forming "wife of him."
• achoti ("my sister", H0269) — noun in construct state with pronominal suffix i ("my"), forming "sister of me"; paired with the pronoun hi' to make the predication "she [is] my sister."
• hi' ("she", H1931) — independent personal pronoun functioning as the copula-subject linking Sarah to the predicate "my sister," since Hebrew has no verb "to be" in the present tense here.
• va-yiqqach ("and he took", H3947G) — qal narrative verb, third in the chain of vav-consecutive verbs (va-yomer, va-yishlach, va-yiqqach) that structures the verse's sequence of events.

What the text says

The verse is built on three successive narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive (va, H9001): va-yomer ("and he said"), va-yishlach ("and he sent"), and va-yiqqach ("and he took"). This chain presents the events as a tight sequence: Abraham speaks, Abimelech sends, Abimelech takes. The preposition 'el (H0413), here glossed "concerning," introduces the object of Abraham's speech — Sarah — rather than marking direct address, so the Hebrew frames this as a statement made about Sarah rather than necessarily to her.

The declaration itself, achoti hi' ("she [is] my sister"), uses no verb "to be." Instead, the noun achoti ("my sister", H0269) in construct form with the suffix -i ("my") is placed alongside the independent pronoun hi' ("she", H1931), which functions as the copula linking subject and predicate — a standard nominal-sentence structure in Biblical Hebrew. Sarah herself is designated ishto ("his wife," H0802H), a construct noun with the suffix -o ("his"), explicitly marking her marital relationship to Abraham within the same clause where Abraham calls her his sister.

The object marker 'et (H0853) before the second occurrence of sarah (H8283) in va-yiqqach 'et-sarah is grammatically required to mark Sarah as the direct object of "he took," though it carries no independent translation.

Differences between versions

The LXX expands the verse with an explanatory clause not present in the Hebrew: "for he feared to say, 'She is my wife,' lest the men of the city [kill him] on account of her." This motive clause appears in Swete's Septuagint text but has no corresponding Hebrew words in the Masoretic verse as given. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) and Hebrew both lack this expansion, following the shorter sequence of statement–sending–taking.