Bible Strands
Genesis 21:26
Abimelech replied, “I do not know who has done this. You did not tell me, so I have not heard about it until today.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Abimelech speaks to Abraham immediately after Abraham’s complaint about a well seized by Abimelech’s servants. The exchange occurs just before Abraham provides livestock to formalize their agreement.
The words — לֹא יָדַעְתִּי (lo' yaDa'ti) conveys the literal sense "I do not know," emphasizing Abimelech’s stated lack of prior awareness regarding the well dispute.
The thread — The narrative of inter-party conflict appears in Genesis 13:7 regarding pastoral discord, while disputes over resources and subsequent negotiations surface in 2 Kings 5:20.
Why it lands — The text records a leader’s explicit denial of prior knowledge regarding a servant’s actions, requiring a reader to observe how verbal claims of ignorance function within a diplomatic negotiation.
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
And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
Cross-references
- Genesis 13:7 And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land.
- 2 Kings 5:20 Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman, by not accepting what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”