Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, see your wife, take her, and go your way.” Pharaoh commanded men concerning him, and they escorted him away with his wife and all that he had.”
(Genesis 12:17-20)

Pharaoh must have been a wise person. Able to not only see what was happening to them, but to realise when it started occurring. I think God probably nudged him in that direction. His issue with Abram was NOT the loss of Sarai. His issue with Abram was the DECEIT. Pharaoh shows that he would NOT have sought Sarai OR harmed Abram had he known that they were married. He was a person of integrity and horrified that he might have consummated the relationship with Sarai. He was offended by the behaviour so much that he kicked Abram out of the country. He didn’t take back anything he had given Abram, as payment for the wrongdoing he inadvertently inflicted on Sarai, but he wasn’t going to let the deceiver stay in his country anymore. Pharaoh showed more character than Abram had.

This offense and rejection of Abram was the seed that led to the harvest of affliction and later the abuse that Abram’s descendants endured.

Even though Abram was totally in the wrong, Pharaoh and his household were the ones afflicted with punishment. The reason is that God had a covenant with Abram, not with Pharaoh. Yes, God corrects those who are in covenant with Him, but the relationship in covenant is TOTALLY different than the situation without covenant. Covenant makes a difference.

The sage Sforno writes: ‘וינגע ה’ את פרעה נגעים גדולים, only Pharaoh was struck with “great” afflictions, whereas his household suffered lesser afflictions. This was arranged by G’d so that the Egyptians, when they saw that only Sarai had remained completely immune to these afflictions, would conclude that the afflictions were on account of her and her fate. למה לא הגדת לי, even if you had reason to suspect the ordinary citizens would harm you on account of her, surely you could have told me, the king, the truth, seeing that it is my task to rule with justice.’

The sage Chizkuni writes: ‘וינגע ה’ את פרעה, “Hashem afflicted Pharaoh with a painful plague;” the reason why the Torah offers no further details about the nature of this plague, as opposed to when Avimelech was struck with impotence and the women in his country were afflicted in their birth canals, is because shortly after the episode with Avimelech the Torah reported that Sarah conceived and became pregnant (Genesis 21,1). Had the Torah not spelled out that Avimelech had become totally impotent, people might have attributed Sarah’s pregnancy to her having stayed in Avimelech’s Palace. The episode with Pharaoh had occurred perhaps a s long as 20 years earlier, so that no one could have fabricated such a story. To the question why Pharaoh was punished, seeing that Avram had deceived him by saying that she was his sister, as we know from the Torah quoting him, Sarai had described herself as Avram’s wife even if he had not said so. This is the meaning of the words: על דבר שרי אשת ברם “on account of what Sarai, Avram’s wife had said.” Pharaoh had ignored her. Gentiles do not have to be warned not to violate the commandments they have accepted to observe, as we pointed out in connection with Genesis 20,5. (The second Avimelech and Rivkah) וינגע ה׳ את פרעה, “Hashem afflicted Pharaoh.” According to Rashi, He afflicted him with a kind of gonorrhea, thus making the punishment fit the crime. The same occurred with Sarai and Avimelech. G-d interfered with all the women in the land of the Philistines being unable to give birth to fetuses that were ready to be born. (Bereshit Rabbah end of chapter 52.) According to a dissenting view, Pharaoh had become afflicted with tzoraat, a skin eczema resulting in the afflicted persons being ostracized.’

The sage Rabbeinu Bahya writes: ‘הנה אשתך קח ולך, “here is your wife, take her and go!” Avram did not bother to make a response to Pharaoh although he did make a response to Avimelech in chapter twenty. In the latter case he excused his conduct by saying he had feared for his life if he would have declared that Sarai was his wife. The obvious question is that seeing that both kings had asked him about his relationship to Sarai, why did Avram see fit to explain his conduct to Avimelech whereas he did not do so vis-a-vis Pharaoh?
We must conclude that the manner in which Pharaoh restored his wife to him by saying only the minimum words required “take and go,” indicated to Avram that he was not interested in listening to explanations.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘Why did you say: She is my sister? I took her for myself as my wife. Since you claimed to be her brother, I intended to take her as my wife. I acted properly; I did not rape her or take her by force. On the contrary, I treated her with full respect and wished to marry her. It is only now that I have become aware that I took your wife from you. And therefore now, here is your wife. She is too great a temptation for the men who live here. We want neither her nor the troubles and plagues she has brought upon us, so take her and go. Pharaoh commanded men regarding him to accompany Abram. The escort was provided not merely as a mark of honor; their mission was to compel Abram to leave their place. And so they sent forth him, and his wife, and everything that was his.‘

The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘Although Abram and Sarai are willing to overlook her predicament for his sake, God intervenes to protect her—another sign that she is crucial to God’s plans. The plagues upon the Egyptians here prefigure the plagues of the Exodus, but without the latter’s world-altering significance. What have you done to me. A formulaic expression of wrong-doing. (See the parallels in Genesis 20:9; 26:10.) take [her] and begone. The Hebrew is even more abrupt—literally, “Take! Go!” The trickster never fully succeeds in emerging from his marginal status. Revelation of the deception brings a new reduction in status.’