Commentary for Genesis 20:13

'ויהי כאשר התעו אותי וגו AND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN GOD CAUSED ME TO WANDER etc. — Onkelos translates it in his own way, but it can be explained in another manner that is also appropriate: When the Holy One, blessed be He, brought me forth from my father’s house to be a nomad, wandering from place to place, I knew that I would traverse places where there are wicked people ואמר לה זה חסדך AND so I SAID UNTO HER THIS IS THY LOVINGKINDNESS [WHICH THOU SHALT SHOW UNTO ME].

כאשר התעו אותי, He exiled me from my home by ordering me “go forth for yourself from your homeland.” (12,1). This is the true meaning of Deut. 26,5 ארמי אובד אבי. Yaakov’s troubles stemmed from having been exiled from his father’s home, at the behest of his father, whereas Avraham’s exile was at the behest of G’d. Both the expression התעו אותי and אובד אותי are repeats of the same expression similar to Psalms 119,176 תעיתי כשה אובד, “I wandered without destination, lost like a sheep.” Lost sheep were my companions, their shepherd having misled them.

התעו אותי אלוקים, on account of the various alien gods which I despise I have been forced to leave my father’s house and to travel to areas I did not know, not to places of my own choice. This is why he described himself as תועה, someone who wanders, does not have a fixed destination.

ויהי כאשר התעו אותי אלוקים, "Ever since G'd caused me to wander, etc." Now Abraham explained the background to his behaviour from the start. It had been based on the premise that there was lack of fear of the Lord in the place. He explained that his conduct was not directed specifically against the people of Geror. He had made it a general rule in his wanderings to suspect people of lack of fear of the Lord. The Philistines had not done anything to cause him to exempt them from such a doubt.

התעו אותי אלוקים, the meaning of the word התעו is similar to הגלו, “exiled.” When someone is exiled from a place with which he is familiar, he will tend to lose his way in areas with which he is unfamiliar.

ויהי כאשר התעו אותי אלוקים מבית אבי, “Ever since Elohim caused me to wander away from my father’s home, etc.” He meant that the idolatry practiced in his father’s house caused him to abandon their idolatrous lifestyles and to have the strength to follow his monotheistic convictions. (based on Onkelos) As a result, he had been wandering from one place to another.

.ויהי כאשר התעו אותי אלוקים מבית אבי , “it was when G’d made me wander from my father’s home, etc.” By the choice of the word התעו, which also means “led me astray,” Avraham hinted that his father Terach was an idolater and that his emigration was due to his father’s teachings and the making of strange gods he had been forced to leave that environment and to move to another country and to say to his wife: “this is the loving kindness you can perform for me, etc.”

When Elokim caused me to wander. Elohim here refers to the pagan gods. Thus the verse should actually be rendered, “When the gods of my father’s house caused me to wander” — that is, when he left home to proclaim the true faith throughout the world.

Nach einer anderen, dem Plural des Wortlautes und dem התעו sich besser anschließenden Auffassung: Als nun die Götter, d. i. das allverbreitete Götterunwesen, mich aus meinem väterlichen Haus in die Irre wies, d. h. vielleicht, da ich aus meinem väterlichen Hause als ein Apostat vom Volksglauben auswandern mußte, man duldete mich als einen תועה מדרכי אלילים nicht in der Heimat. Vielleicht lag auch durch diesen Gegensatz zum Heidentum für Abraham noch mehr als für jeden andern eine Gefahr in dem Widerstande, sich einer, wer weiß, vom heidnischen Götterkult geheiligten Unsitte zu fügen, und machte eine solche Maßregel für ihn um so notwendiger. Der bekannte Kultus der phönizischen Astarte, zusammengehalten mit dem Verlangen der sodomitischen Männer, lässt wenigstens eine solche Annahme nicht eben ungeheuerlich erscheinen.

כאשר התעו אותי אלוקים, “When G-d caused me to wander, etc,” Avraham refers to the time after he had been saved from Nimrod’s furnace when that ruler had expelled him from his country. He had not really had a permanent residence anywhere ever since. He had only been relatively safe after having defeated Nimrod (Amrafel) and his armies as reported in Genesis chapter 14.

כאשר התעו WHEN GOD (CAUSED ME TO WANDER — The verb is in the plural. Do not be surprised at this for in many passages words denoting Godship or denoting Authority are grammatically treated as plural, e. g., (2 Samuel 7:23) “Whom God went (הלכו plural) to redeem”; (Deuteronomy 5:23) “the living (חיים adjective, plural) God”; (Joshua 24:19) “a Holy (קדושים adjective, plural) God”. So, too, the idea of Authority is expressed by the plural form, as (39:20) “And the master of (אדני construct plural) Joseph took him” and as (Deuteronomy 10:17) “Lord of (אדני) lords (האדנים)”, and (42:30) “the lord of (אדני) the land”; as well as (Exodus 22:14) “if its owner (בעליו) be with it”, and (Exodus 21:19) “and warning has been given to its master (בעליו)”. If you ask why does it here use the term התעו, I reply, anyone who is exiled from his home and has no settled abode may be styled תועה a wanderer (or “one moving about aimlessly”), as (21:14) “And she, Hagar, went and strayed about (ותתע) in the wilderness”; (Psalms 119:176) “I have gone astray (תעיתי) like a lost sheep”, and (Job 38:41) “they wander (יתעו) through lack of food”, i.e. they go out and wander about to seek their food.

אמרי לי, “say concerning me.”

אלוקים, this word here is sacred. The reason why the word is used in the plural is because the listeners refer to their gods in the plural, so the Torah uses a syntax familiar to ordinary people. In spite of this the word is treated as a sacred name of G’d, one that must not be erased, such as when Job speaks of אלו-ה עושי, literally: the “G’d Who have made me.” (not: has made me). (Job 35,10). We find a similar construction where אלוקים is sacred and at the same time treated as if totally in the plural mode in Psalms 149,2 ישמח ישראל בעושיו instead of בעושו. (as opposed to בראשית ברא אלוקים where the verb is in the singular) A somewhat less perplexing construction is found in Joshua 24,19 אלוקים קדושין הוא. [even though the adjective is in the plural, at least the pronoun הוא is in the singular. Ed.]

תעה identisch mit טעה, verwandt mit תהה, wovon תהו, das, was keine klare Vorstellung bietet; rabbinisch תהה erstaunen, also ebenfalls eine Unklarheit der Vorstellung und, auf Gemütsbewegung übertragen: bereuen, gemütsunruhig über etwas sein. Lautverwandt mit דחה: in das Ungefähr hin stoßen, von dem festen, gesicherten Stand wegstoßen.

אמרי לי means say regarding me (the ל of לי signifies על); similar are: (26:7) “And the men of the place asked לאשתו” where לאשתו is the same as על אשתו regarding his wife; (Exodus 14:3) “And Pharaoh will say לבני ישראל” where לבני is the same as על בני ישראל; (Judges 9:54) “That men say not (לי) regarding me, a woman slew him”.

מבית אבי, from the house of my brothers and family, as when G’d instructed him in 12,1 מארצך ומבית אביך וגו'.

ואומר לה, seeing that we were coming to countries about which we knew nothing or very little, I said to her, out of my fear of the local inhabitants,

אל כל המקום, actually, we find that this stratagem was employed by Avraham only twice. We must therefore assume that Avraham meant that he had told Sarah that in any location which appeared to warrant such a white lie, he told her to use it. As soon as we hear from others that the people in the place which we are approaching are evil people, we need to avail ourselves of this strategy in order to enhance my chances of survival. This applied to locations in which Avraham would only be a transient. Wherever he settled down, people knew who he was and respected him, and would not dream of molesting either him or Sarah. We know that Avner, Eshkol and Mamre were actually allies of Avraham. Even the people of Kiryat Arba referred to him as a “prince in our midst.” (23,6)

אמרי לי, on my account, concerning me; Actually, many people asked Avraham concerning Sarah’s marital status.