Bible Strands
Genesis 12:13
Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Abram addresses Sarai at the Egyptian border as they prepare to enter the land, instructing her to claim he is her brother to prevent the Egyptians from killing him upon seeing her beauty.
The words — The imperative אִמְרִי־ נָא ('imri- na) translates to “please say,” directing Sarai to verbally identify herself as אֲחֹתִי ('achoti), “my sister,” to secure Abram’s survival.
The thread — Abram repeats this deception in Genesis 20:2, Isaac echoes it in Genesis 26:7, and Genesis 20:12 clarifies that Sarai was actually Abram’s half-sister, making the claim technically true but strategically misleading.
Why it lands — The text records Abram’s request that Sarai lie about their relationship to secure his physical safety. This establishes a recurring pattern where patriarchal fear overrides covenantal trust, forcing readers to confront the gap between divine promise and human compromise.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
Cross-references
- Genesis 26:7 But when the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” since he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is so beautiful.”
- Genesis 20:2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.
- Genesis 20:12 Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father—though not the daughter of my mother—and she became my wife.
- Genesis 20:5 Didn’t Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.”
- Jeremiah 17:5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
- Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, every soul belongs to Me; both father and son are Mine. The soul who sins is the one who will die.
- Genesis 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
- Psalms 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
- Isaiah 57:11 Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lied and failed to remember Me or take this to heart? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear Me?
- John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.