창세기 20:18의 주석

בעד כל רחם GOD HAD CLOSED UP EVERY רחם — means had closed up every opening (of the body)

כי עצר עצר ה' בעד כל רחם, to kill their (unborn) offspring if Avimelech would not display remorse and penitence. G’d had warned him specifically that not only his own life was at risk (verse 7)

כי עצור עצר ה׳ בעד כל רחם. For G'd had blocked all body orifices. This was so that people should not be able to say that Sarah had become pregnant by Avimelech. Avimelech was impotent during that period. The Torah also wanted to demonstrate that Abraham's prayer was effective to make the formerly barren fertile again. We also learn from this that if someone prays for someone else to be healed in an area that he himself needs healing, his own needs will be attended to by G'd first. This is why the next verse tells us about Sarah having become pregnant. While it is true that G'd had already promised this previously, if a certain sequence in scripture is not applicable to the subject under immediate discussion, it may be applied to another subject as will be discussed shortly.

כי עצר עצר בעד כל רחם, among the women, and possibly also among the animals which were meant to give birth at that time. (as we quoted our sages as saying). In fact the Talmud says that even hens which lay eggs instead of producing live chicks from their bodies were equally affected.

בעד כל רחם, “every womb.” Again, Rashi understands the word as applying to every bodily orifice. Nachmanides writes that the expression רחם cannot be applied to orifices other than the womb. He sees a further difficulty in the fact that according to the plain meaning of the text all of this transpired during a single night, and that Sarah was restored to Avraham on the morrow, immediately. If so when had the sealing of the orifices of potential mothers even been perceived as an affliction? Perhaps they experienced pains and were unable to give birth, or their menstrual cycle did not operate normally, or Avraham waited until he prayed on behalf of all these women. Personally, I feel that from the day that Sarah had been abducted to Avimelech’s palace, Avimelech’s reproductive organs had been stricken so that he could not have sexual relations with Sarah. Avimelech’s wife and servant maids were equally afflicted. This was the meaning of G’d telling Avimelech in his dream ולא נתתיך לנגוע אליה, “I did not allow you to touch her.” Whenever the term נגיעה or קרבה is used in connection with women, it has a sexual connotation. This is the meaning of וה' סגר רחמם. It is an expression applying only to prevention of the birthing process being initiated. A parallel expression is סגר ה' בעדה, when the prophet describes Channah’s being unable to have children at the beginning of the Book of Samuel. Apparently, Sarah was locked up in the palace of Avimelech for a considerable length of time, and until the night when G’d appeared to Avimelech in his dream, no one knew the cause of this peculiar affliction. At that point, G’d gave Avimelech a hint about what had caused this problem in his household. After Avraham’s prayer on behalf of those afflicted the problem was resolved. 21.1. וה' פקד את שרה, “at this time G’d remembered Sarah benevolently;” The words כאשר אמר, “as He had said,” implies that the word פקד refers to her becoming pregnant, whereas the words כאשר אמר, refer to her giving birth, according to Rashi. Nachmanides writes that the expression פקידה always refers to remembering something pertaining to the party that is being remembered, such as פקוד יפקוד אלוקים אתכם, “G’d will surely remember you, etc.” in Genesis Therefore, the meaning of ה' פקד את שרה is that “G’d remembered Sarah and did for her as He had said.” This formula is customary in connection with women who had been barren until G’d remembered them benevolently, as in the case of Rachel Genesis 30,22 who could give birth after being benevolently remembered by G’d. Rabbi Joseph Kimchi points out that the reason that the Torah used the term פקידה when referring to Sarah, and the term זכירה for remembering with Rachel, was that in the case of Sarah who was already way past child bearing age, G’d had to extend Himself more than in the case of Rachel who was still in her twenties. G’d had to restore bodily functions to Sarah, functions that had not ceased functioning in the case of Rachel. The Mishnaic term for the days between two menstrual cycles is מפקידה לפקידה. Rachel’s menstrual cycles had not yet ceased to occur regularly at the time she became pregnant and bore Joseph as a result. In the case of Channah giving birth to Shemuel, at a time when she was still young, the prophet uses the term זכירה, when she first prayed for children, (Samuel I 1,11) whereas when we hear about her having 5 more children in Samuel I 1,21 the prophet attributes this to a פקידה by G’d. seeing she had aged greatly in the interval.

כי עצור עצר ה' בעד כל רחם ”for the Lord had closed fast every womb, etc.” This refers both to large and small orifices. This is why the Torah repeats the verb עצר. The words בעד כל רחם are a reference to the closing of the birth-canal; it included all orifices amongst man and beast. Our sages in Baba Kama 92 state that even the hens in Avimelech’s palace stopped laying eggs. At this point the Torah spelled out the afflictions suffered by both Avimelech and his household, whereas up until now it had not specified the nature of these afflictions. It had also not mentioned Avimelech by name until he was healed in order to preserve as much of the Royal Dignity and as a sign of respect for Sarah. These names were mentioned only when they served the immediate purpose of enhancing the stature of Sarah.

According to Sarah’s words. על דבר cannot mean “because of,” as it does in Devarim 23:5 על דבר אשר לא קדמו אתכם, because [of the following difficulty:] it is written earlier (v. 6), “Also, I prevented you from sinning against Me.” This implies that Hashem deprived Avimelech alone of the ability to have relations. Yet in our verse it is written, “For Hashem had restrained every womb.” Perforce, in our verse על דבר means Adonoy did this “according to Sarah’s words.” And when it said (12:17) וינגע ה' את פרעה... על דבר שרי, on which Rashi commented: “According to her commands,” this explanation was learned from here, based on the phrases’ similarity. (author’s commentary)

'על דבר שרה וגו BECAUSE OF (literally, by the word of) SARAH — at Sarah’s bidding (Genesis Rabbah 52:13).