Genesis 20:4

וַאֲבִימֶלֶךְ לֹא קָרַב אֵלֶיהָ וַיֹּאמַר אֲדֹנָי הֲגוֹי גַּם־צַדִּיק תַּהֲרֹֽג׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַאֲבִימֶ֕לֶךְ לֹ֥א קָרַ֖ב אֵלֶ֑יהָ וַיֹּאמַ֕ר אֲדֹנָ֕י הֲג֥וֹי גַּם־צַדִּ֖יק תַּהֲרֹֽג׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Ἀβιμέλεχ δὲ οὐχ ἥψατο αὐτῆς, καὶ εἶπεν Κύριε, ἔθνος ἀγνοοῦν καὶ δίκαιον ἀπολεῖς;

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Abimelech vero non tetigerat eam, et ait: Domine, num gentem ignorantem et justam interficies?

Spanish

Como Abimelec todavía no la había tocado, le respondió: “Señor, ¿acaso destruirías a una nación inocente?

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Mas Abimelech no había llegado á ella, y dijo: Señor, ¿ matarás también la gente justa?

English

Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he replied, “ Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse reports that Abimelech had not approached Sarah, and introduces his response to God as a rhetorical question, asking whether a nation that is righteous would be destroyed. The clause combines a note of prior fact with a direct address using the divine title 'a.do.Nai ("O Lord", H0136).

Key words

ka.Rav ("he had drawn near", H7126G) — qal perfect, marking a completed action prior to the main narrative line; combined with lo' ("not", H3808) it states a fact that precedes the dialogue that follows.
'a.do.Nai ("O Lord", H0136) — a title used in direct address, opening Abimelech's speech to the divine interlocutor.
ha- ("¿", H9008) — interrogative particle attached to goy, turning the following clause into a question rather than a statement.
goy ("a nation", H1471A) — masculine singular noun, the subject of the rhetorical question, referring to a collective group rather than an individual.
ta.ha.Rog ("will you kill", H2026) — qal imperfect, expressing an action not yet completed, appropriate to a question about a possible future or hypothetical act.

What the text says

The verse opens with a disjunctive clause built on lo' ("not", H3808) plus the qal perfect ka.Rav ("he had drawn near", H7126G), which sets up background information: the action of approaching had not occurred before the events that follow. The narrative then shifts with the vav that introduces va.yo.mar ("and he said", H0559), moving into direct speech.

The speech itself is structured as a question using the interrogative ha- (H9008) attached to goy ("a nation", H1471A), followed by gam ("also", H1571) and the adjective tzadik ("righteous", H6662), and closing with the imperfect verb ta.ha.Rog ("will you kill", H2026). The word order places the object of the potential action, "a nation... righteous," before the verb, giving prominence to the description of the nation rather than to the verb itself. The imperfect form of ta.ha.Rog leaves the action open as a possibility rather than describing a completed event.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tzadik ("righteous", H6662) as ἔθνος ἀγνοοῦν, "a nation that does not know" or "ignorant," rather than "righteous." The Vulgate combines both notions, reading "gentem ignorantem et justam" ("a nation ignorant and just"), applying two adjectives where the Hebrew text has only one, tzadik.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.