Genesis 12:16

12:10-20 There is no state on earth free from trials, nor any character free from blemishes. There was famine in Canaan, the glory of all lands, and unbelief, with the evils it ever brings, in Abram the father of the faithful. Perfect happiness and perfect purity dwell only in heaven. Abram, when he must for a time quit Canaan, goes to Egypt, that he might not seem to look back, and meaning to tarry there no longer than needful. There Abram dissembled his relation to Sarai, equivocated, and taught his wife and his attendants to do so too. He concealed a truth, so as in effect to deny it, and exposed thereby both his wife and the Egyptians to sin. The grace Abram was most noted for, was faith; yet he thus fell through unbelief and distrust of the Divine providence, even after God had appeared to him twice. Alas, what will become of weak faith, when strong faith is thus shaken! If God did not deliver us, many a time, out of straits and distresses which we bring ourselves into, by our own sin and folly, we should be ruined. He deals not with us according to our deserts. Those are happy chastisements that hinder us in a sinful way, and bring us to our duty, particularly to the duty of restoring what we have wrongfully taken or kept. Pharaoh's reproof of Abram was very just: What is this that thou hast done? How unbecoming a wise and good man!

If those who profess religion, do that which is unfair and deceptive, especially if they say that which borders upon a lie, they must expect to hear of it; and they have reason to thank those who will tell them of it. The sending away was kind. Pharaoh was so far from any design to kill Abram, as he feared, that he took particular care of him. We often perplex ourselves with fears which are altogether groundless. Many a time we fear where no fear is. Pharaoh charged his men not to hurt Abram in any thing. It is not enough for those in authority, that they do not hurt themselves; they must keep their servants and those about them from doing hurt.

(16) He entreated Abram well. —Heb., did good to Abram. It was usual to give the relatives a sum of money when taking a daughter or sister to wife. The presents here show that Pharaoh fully believed that he was acting lawfully, while the largeness of them proves that Sarai, in spite of her years, was looked upon as a valuable acquisition. Among the presents are “asses.” The charge on this account brought against the author of “inaccuracy,” as if asses were not known at this time in Egypt, is disproved by the occurrence of representations of this animal on the tombs of Benihassan: we have proof even that they were numerous as far back as when the Pyramids of Gizeh were built. The horse is not mentioned, and the earliest representation of one is in the war-chariot of Ahmes, the first: Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty, who expelled the Hyksôs. Male and female slaves are, curiously enough, introduced between “he-asses” and “she-asses.” As she-asses were especially valuable, perhaps these and the camels were looked upon as the monarch’s choicest gifts. Camels are not represented on the monuments, and are said not to thrive well in Egypt; but the Semitic hordes who were peopling the Delta would certainly bring camels with them.

Many, too, of the Egyptian monarchs—as, for instance, those of the twelfth dynasty—held rule over a great part of the Sinaitic peninsula, and must have known the value of the camel for transporting heavy burdens in the desert, and its usefulness to a nomad sheik like Abram. (See Genesis 24:10.)

16 . entreated ] Old Eng. word for “treated,” or “used.” The manner in which Abram received and retained these extensive gifts implies his consent to Sarai’s position at the court. Abram’s acceptance of the purchase-money was his ratification of the transaction. If it struck the Hebrew mind as clever, it seems to us only base and despicable. sheep, and oxen , &c.] This list represents the principal possessions of a nomad chieftain. The following points should be noticed: ( a ) men-servants and maidservants (i.e. male and female slaves) are placed between the animals, either by mistake of a copyist, or being regarded as the chattels of the household, cf. Genesis 24:35 ; ( b ) the mention of camels has been criticized as an anachronism, because the camel is not represented in the Egyptian inscriptions before the Persian period. But, whether used or not by the ancient Egyptians, the camel was certainly employed both by traders and nomads in Western Asia, and in the tradition, whether correctly or not, would be considered to be obtainable; ( c ) the horse is omitted; and the omission has been considered a sign of ignorance of Egyptian life. But the horse never appears among the possessions of the patriarchs, e.g. Genesis 24:35 , Genesis 30:43 , and its use is condemned in Deuteronomy 17:16 ; ( d ) the order of the items in the list may possibly denote their relative values, the camel being the most precious.

Verse 16. - And he entreated Abram well - literally, did good to Abram ; εϋ ἐχρήσαντο (LXX., Hieronymus, Poole) supposes that the court of Pharaoh or the Egyptian people generally conferred favors on the patriarch, which is not at all so probable as that Pharaoh did - for her sake. Marriage negotiations in Oriental countries are usually accompanied by presents to the relatives of the de as a sort of payment. "The marriage price is distinctly mentioned in Scripture ( Exodus 22:15, 16 ; Ruth 4:10 ; 1 Samuel 18:23, 25 ; Hosea 3:2 ); was commonly demanded by the nations of antiquity, as by the Babylonians (Herod., 1:196), Assyrians (AElian V. H., 4. 1; Strabo, 16:745), the ancient Greeks ('Odyss.,' 8:318 ff.), and the Germans (Tacit., 'German.,' 18. ); and still obtains in the East to the present day" ( vide Kitto's 'Cyclopedia,' art. Marriage, by Dr. Ginsburg). And he had - literally, there was (given) to him - sheep , and oxen . Flocks of small cattle and herds of larger quadrupeds, together constituted the chief wealth of nomads (cf. Genesis 13:5 ; Job 1:3 ). And he asses . Chamor , so named from the reddish color which in southern countries belongs not only to the wild, but also to the common or domestic, ass (Gesenius).

The mention of asses among Pharaoh's presents has been regarded as an " inaccuracy" and a "blunder," at once a sign of the late origin of Genesis and a proof its author's ignorance of Egypt (Bohlen, Introd., Genesis 6 .); but (1) asses were among the most common of Egyptian animals, a single individual, according to Wilkinson (vol. 3. p. 34), possessing sometimes as many as 700 or 800; and (2) it is certain that asses appear on the early monuments (cf. ' Records of the Past,' vol. 2. p. 26). And men-servants, and maid-servants, and she asses. Athon ; from athan , to walk with short steps; so named from its slowness ( Genesis 32:16 ), though "the ass in Egypt is of a very superior kind, tall, handsome, docile, swift" (Kitto's 'Cyclopedia,' art. Egypt). And camels . Gamal (from gamal, to repay, because the camel is an animal that remembers past injuries (Bochart), or from a cogmate Arabic root hamala , meaning he or it carried, with reference to its being a beast of burden (Gesenius); both of which derivations Stuart Poole declares farfetched, and proposes to connect the term with the Sanskrit kramela , from kram, to walk or step, which would then signify the walking animal ( vide Kitto, art. Camel).