Глава 12

God appeared to Abram, “and said to him: get out... from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great tongue” (Gen. 12:1–2). Abram left his parents because they did not want to go with him, but he took Lot with him because he believed the promise that was given to Abram. And although God did not make Lot a participant in the inheritance of Abram, he did not allow the sons of Abram to enter into the inheritance of the sons of Lot. So Abram took Lot and Sarah with him and went to the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:5). “And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt... and Abram said to Sarah... when the Egyptians saw you, they said, because this is his wife: and they will kill me, and they will provide for you. Rtsy, for I am his sister, may it be good for me for your sake, and may my soul live for your sake” (Gen. 12:10–13). Abram said this as a man, and Sarah was taken to the king’s house so that her love for her husband would be revealed, even when in captivity she did not exchange him for the king, and so that Sarah’s daughters would see in her face an instructive example for themselves: just as she was not seduced by the kingdom of Egypt, so they should not cleave to Egyptian idols, to garlic and onions; just as the entire house of the pharaohs was subjected to executions to deliver Sarah, so with the deliverance of her children, all of Egypt will be struck. Pharaoh's household were punished for praising Sarah's beauty and arousing in the king a desire to take her, while Pharaoh himself was punished for taking her away by force and forcing her against her will to be his wife. For if Sarah had not been afraid that they would kill both her and her husband, she would not have given herself to Pharaoh. You might be interested in: