Genesis 20:14
And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
Abimelech restored Sarah to Abraham as his wife and enriched him with sheep and oxen and male and female servants after Abraham had called her his sister during his sojourn among the Philistines, the second time he used that deception. The deception came from a failure to trust God's protecting care and shows a faith that was not yet perfect but had to learn through repeated failure to trust Him. God overruled the danger to preserve Abraham's family as the chosen line of the promised Seed, even using Abimelech, who knew the true God, to rebuke Abraham sternly. The restoration of Sarah to her husband shows marriage was already known and sacred in the patriarchal age before Sinai, when God's law was already in force against adultery and lying and for respect for property. The men and women given to Abraham became servants in his household, understood by some as showing he was a slaveholder, while others held they were dependent laborers and attendants passing with the flocks from one care to another by consent rather than as chattel slaves.
Narrative Context and Providence
Genesis 20:14 belongs to Abraham's sojourn among the Philistines and to his trials of faith, showing God's overruling providence in his life. It is the second of two times Abraham said Sarah was his sister. He did not come at once to fullness of faith, but learned the lesson over and over.
The deception came from want of trusting faith in God's protecting care and shows that his faith was not then perfect. It was an act connected with his failure to trust God, passing Sarah off as his sister. That failure was learned over and over through lack of trust.
The account presents Abimelech as knowing the true God and the Philistines as having a strong regard for morality. God used Abimelech in administering a stern rebuke to Abraham.
The gifts of sheep and oxen and male and female servants and the restoration of Sarah to him as his wife show God's overruling providence. They belong to God's providential dealings with the family of Abraham as the chosen progenitor of the promised Seed. They are part of the history of the beginning of things and the story of God's dealing with the Seed against the enemy's attempts to thwart God's plan, in a book where God's law was already in force and shining with gospel promises and prophecies made to His chosen. These gifts formed part of Abimelech's goodwill toward Abraham as his household continued its pilgrimage.
Law and Marriage Before Sinai
Genesis stands as the history of the beginning of things and of God's dealing with the chosen progenitor of the promised Seed against the enemy's attempts to thwart that plan, a book where God's law was already in force and shining with gospel promises and prophecies made to His chosen. Within that setting, the giving of sheep and oxen and male and female servants and the restoring of Sarah to her husband shows that people in the time before Moses knew and practiced moral principles, including respect for property. Abimelech knew the prohibition against adultery by God's direct instruction to him, and the taking of another man's wife was recognized as wrong. The whole account stands as proof that God condemns lying.
Abimelech's act of giving livestock and servants to Abraham and restoring Sarah to him as his wife after learning she was Abraham's wife proves that the marriage institution was known and treated as sacred in the patriarchal age before Sinai. That sacredness is not erased by violations of marriage. It does not come from the Decalogue itself, but the seventh commandment guards that pre-existing sacredness, just as the fourth commandment guards the pre-existing sacredness of the Sabbath.
Abraham's Servants and Slavery
Abimelech gave Abraham sheep and oxen and male and female servants when he gave Sarah back to him as his wife. That giving shows Abraham had servants attached to his household. It forms part of the case made that he was a holder of slaves. The word servant is broad enough to mean hired laborers or dependents, so by itself it does not prove they were slaves in the sense of owned property. The men and women here were attendants passing with the flocks and herds, a movement of subjects by their own consent from one ruler's government to another rather than a transfer of human chattels.