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Chapter 20

Genesis 20:3

Verse

RBT Translation:
And elohim is coming in toward Father-King in the Bonded-one of the Night-ward, and is saying to-him,699 `Behold-yourself700 is he-who-dies upon the Woman whom you have taken, and himself is she-who-is-owned of an owner.`701
LITV Translation:
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Behold, you are about to die because of the woman you have taken, she being married to a husband.
ESV Translation:
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
Brenton Septuagint Translation:
And God came to Abimelech by night in sleep, and said, Behold, thou diest for the woman, whom thou hast taken, whereas she has lived with a husband.

Footnotes

699

The unusual use of the preposition ל֗וֹ low to-him here. See note on Genesis 2:19.

700

An unusual instance of behold as it has a second-person singular suffix – behold you. This occurs only here and in Deuteronomy 31:16.

701

Hebrew בעלת בעל, beulat baal. Beulat is a passive participle verb that functions as an “attributive adjective”. Beulat means one-who-is-owned in the feminine. The text thus says, “owned of an owner.” The common Hebrew noun for “virgin” is bethulah, Strong’s #1330. Bethulah stems from a root meaning, “separate” and thus is taken to mean “unowned”. Baal literally means “owner, lord” and not “husband”. See Strong’s #1166 and #1167. Baal and Beulat share the same root in the same way the words for “man” and “woman” do (ish and ishah). See also Exodus 21:3,22; Deuteronomy 22:22; Deuteronomy 24:4; 2 Samuel 11:26; Joel 1:8; Proverbs 12:4; Proverbs 31:11,23,28; Esther 1:17,20; Hosea 2:18.