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.”
Here is, I. A famine in the land of Canaan, a grievous famine. That fruitful land was turned into barrenness, not only to punish the iniquity of the Canaanites who dwelt therein, but to exercise the faith of Abram who sojourned therein; and a very sore trial it was; it tried what he would think, 1.
Commenting on Genesis 12:10-13
Say, I pray thee, that thou art my sister,.... Which though it was not putting a direct lie into her mouth, she being his sister in some sense, as appears from Gen 20:12 yet it was done to conceal truth, and to deceive the Egyptians, and tended to endanger his wife's chastity, as well as showed great timorousness in him, and distrust of the divine...
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. (m) By this we learn not to use unlawful means nor to put others in danger to save ourselves, .