Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Kejadian 12:13

So that he be mollified and pray for him. [Rashi knows this] because for taking his wife, [gifts were not necessary]. As Avimelech did not touch her, it is like he never took her. [You might ask:] Why did Avimelech need to mollify Avraham, while Pharaoh did not? The answer is: Pharaoh was completely unaware [that he had taken a married woman], because Avraham on his own craftily told Sarah (12:13): “Please say that you are my sister.” But here, they asked Avraham if she is his wife or his sister. He feared they would kill him and was compelled to say, “She is my sister.” That is why Pharaoh was smitten only with a disease for which relations are harmful, and after he returned her he no longer needed a cure. Whereas even after Avimelech had returned her, mollified Avraham and gave gifts, nonetheless it says: “Adonoy restrained every womb.” This was because Avimelech was considered a nearly deliberate sinner, since they interrogated Avraham: “Is she your wife?” As it says in Bava Kama 92a, “When a guest arrives in a city... is he asked about his wife?” [see Rashi, v. 11].

Rabbenu Bahya writes in the name of the Ramban. Abraham sinned in that he brought his wife Sarah to commit a sin. Because he feared that they would kill him because of his wife, he caused that Sarah would be taken as a wife and would be another man’s wife. He should have relied on God who can protect every person. He committed another sin when he left the Holy Land, the land of Canaan, because of famine. As a result of this sin, Israel were in the exile of Egypt for four hundred years, in the very city where Abraham had sinned and this was Egypt. However, our sages say that the exile of Egypt was not because of the transgression, but because he said to the Holy One, how will I know that I will inherit the land of Canaan? This is the same as he said, “how shall I know that I am to possess it” [Genesis 15:8]. In any event, it was as it was. Was the exile in Egypt was the result of his sin of speaking evil? Therefore, because the exile in Egypt was the result of speaking evil against the Holy One, it lasted for four hundred and thirty years. However, the exile that we are in the present day is the result of three things, evil thoughts, deeds, and envy. Therefore, our exile will last three times as long as the exile of Egypt. This is three times four hundred and thirty years; this is twelve hundred and ninety years, and more.²¹Bahya, Genesis, 12:13.

One can ask another question. One should not cause people to sin, so how did Abraham say that she is my sister? With that he caused people to sin. The explanation is that he gave Sarah a divorce for the time. He thought that if they take her, she wouldn’t be a man’s wife, in any event.²⁴Imre Noam, Genesis, 12:13.