Bible Strands
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.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Abimelech addresses God in a dream, defending his refusal to touch Sarah after receiving a divine warning. He responds to his own earlier plea for justice, asserting his moral standing before judgment.
The words — הֲלֹא (halōʾ) functions as a rhetorical marker meaning "did he not," while אֲחֹתִי (ʾachōṯî) literally means "my sister." The supplied lexicon does not provide Hebrew for the integrity or innocence phrases, so the focus remains on the sibling claim.
The thread — Genesis 20:6 confirms God's knowledge of Abimelech's clear conscience and His active protection from sin. The prompt's cross-references link this theme to 1 Kings 9:4 and Psalms 7:8, which describe walking before God with integrity and being vindicated by righteousness.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to acknowledge that human claims of innocence are measured by divine knowledge, not self-assessment. It demands submission to God's standard of justice rather than reliance on personal moral accounting.
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
Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 9:4 And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,
- Psalms 7:8 The LORD judges the peoples; vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and integrity.
- Joshua 22:22 “The LORD, the Mighty One, is God! The LORD, the Mighty One, is God! He knows, and may Israel also know. If this was in rebellion or breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today.
- 2 Kings 20:3 “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
- 1 Chronicles 29:17 I know, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness. All these things I have given willingly and with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to You.
- Job 33:9 ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.
- Psalms 24:4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.
- Psalms 25:21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me, because I wait for You.
- Psalms 26:6 I wash my hands in innocence that I may go about Your altar, O LORD,
- Psalms 73:13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in innocence I have washed my hands.