Kommentar zu Bereschit 20:11

רק אין יראת אלהים SURELY THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD — When a stranger arrives in a city do people ask him about what he would like to eat or to drink, or do they ask him about his wife—“Is this your wife?” or “Is this your sister?” (Bava Kamma 92a) (Surely if they ask at all, it is about his needs; if they ask regarding his relationship to the lady accompanying him, it is evidence that they are not God-fearing people!)

רק אין יראת אלוקים במקום הזה, there is no respect for the government’s authority. The Philistines did not have kings, but their political leaders were known as סרנים, as we know from the story of Goliath, who was a law unto himself due to his personal strength and was not subject to the authority of such סרנים. Compare Goliath’s boast הלא אנכי הפלשתי ואתם עבדים לשאול, “am I not the Philistine, whereas you are slaves of Sha-ul.” (Samuel I 17,8)

בי אמרתי…אין יראת אלוקים במקום הזה. "For I said (to myself) that there is no fear of the Lord in this place." This is the answer to the question: "what did you see?" Abraham prefaced his answer with the word רק, "only." He wanted to forestall Avimelech saying to him that if he, Abraham, considered the men as lacking in basic fear of the Lord, why did he worry more about their murdering him and then taking his wife? He should have worried more about the latter! Abraham said: רק, i.e. "I reasoned that they would try and minimise their culpability. As long as I would be alive every man sleeping with my wife would commit a capital offence every time, and would accordingly face many punishments. If they killed me first, they would only be guilty of murder once, whereas they would not become culpable for sleeping with my widow. If a number of them would conspire to kill me, each one causing a single injury not in itself fatal, they would claim that they were not even guilty of murder." Abraham said that this was why he decided to describe Sarah as his sister.