And Abraham said of Sarah his wife: who Abraham said this to is not stated in the text. In 12.13 Abraham instructs Sarah to say that she is his sister. In languages in which it must be made clear who Abraham tells that Sarah is his sister, it may be necessary to say, for example, “Abraham told the people that his wife Sarah was his sister.” It is probably not necessary to be more exact than this.

She is my sister: the text does not use quote marks, but the construction shows this to be a direct quotation. If an indirect quotation is required, we may say “Abraham said that his wife Sarah was his sister.” Abraham’s intention is clearly to protect his life, as seen in verse 11. Accordingly he wishes to give the impression that she is not his wife, and of course this will mean that she is available for marriage.

Many languages must distinguish between older and younger sister, and younger sister will probably be more appropriate. In some languages it may be necessary to say “We are brother and sister.” For further discussion see 12.13.

And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah: by comparing the account in 12.10-20 with the present one, translators will notice how our present story is shorter in some details. There the Egyptians saw Sarah, the princes of Pharaoh (the king) saw her, and they praised her beauty to the king. By contrast, in this chapter there is no report of people seeing Sarah’s beauty, and without anyone reporting to Abimelech, he takes her.

Revised Standard Version renders the Hebrew connective as And, but the context calls for a connector that shows consequence or result; for example, “So,” “As a result,” “Therefore,” “Because Abraham said this.”

The name Abimelech means “Melech is [my] father” or “the king is my father.” Driver says that Phoenician proper nouns show that there was an old Canaanite god called milk, meaning “king,” and this name is the equivalent of Hebrew melech or molech. For the treatment of names in Genesis, see “Translating Genesis,” page 8.

Sent and took Sarah: sent and took may be viewed as a single event. “He sent for her” or “he took her.” It may also be regarded as two events: “he sent people to bring her to him,” which is a fuller form of Good News Translation‘s passive rendering, “he had Sarah brought to him.” We may also say, for example, “So Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah.” Took Sarah means that he took her as one of his wives or took her into his harem.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .