Cato's Hebrew Bible Deconstruction, Day 31 (Genesis 20)

In this chapter Abraham runs his last successful con on a new king, Abimelek, once again supported by LORD; and he comes out of this extortion scheme rich in silver, livestock, slaves, and land.

Earlier I pointed out that Abraham (at the time named Abram) became extremely wealthy through an operation that was essentially an extortion scheme, using his wife sexually to run a con against the Egyptian Pharaoh.

Rather than admonish or punish this dishonest and exploitative behavior, the LORD actually sanctioned it, effectively operating not only as the scheme’s mastermind, but as a powerful and intimidating protector of the gang against the Pharaoh’s revenge.

In this chapter, he’ll do it again. But this time, Sarah is the mother of his children too (the couple didn’t have any children the first time around) though even that doesn’t stop him from using her sexually to con and extort a king - again.

The same con (Abraham passing his wife off as his mere sister, who is taken as a mistress by the king – and then terrorized by LORD as a result of him sleeping with a married woman) is carried out once again, in nearly the same way, establishing what is now a behavior pattern.

(A notable difference is that, in this case, King Abimelek has not yet consummated with Sarah; the threat came from “God” before he had a chance to, so he was able to avoid his wrath, but the extortion scheme worked all the same.)

Abimelek, who had no idea Sarah was married, as he was being conned once again by the deception of Abraham. He is ordered to return Sarah at once.

Abimelek, along with all his officials, are terrified by this near-death experience. They return Sarah, but Abimelek demands an explanation – not only did LORD nearly bring wrath upon Abimelek and his court, but Abraham was really ready to let a king sleep with his wife! He is ordered to explain his bizarre and dishonest behavior (though Abimelek knows he can’t actually punish Abraham, as he is being protected by the far more powerful entity, the LORD.)