A large chunk of the Book of Genesis deals with Abraham and his offspring: the junior patriarchs Isaac and Jacob/Israel. Most of these stories are Sunday School fodder: the rejection of his father’s polytheism, the building of altars in Canaan, the repetitive covenants, the Sodom and Gomorrah interlude, the night raid on the Elamites, conflict with Lot over grazing rights, his wife Sarah’s inability to conceive, his sudden circumcision at the age of 99 and the banishing of his slave wife Hagar into the desert.
Yet there are two studiously and consistently ignored episodes in the midst of these adventures: Abraham’s for-profit loan of his wife Sarah to Pharaoh and a similar incident involving a Canaanite king.
The first story begins with a journey to Egypt to escape famine in Canaan (a theme echoed later in the Joseph cycle). Upon entering Egypt, Abraham instructs Sarah to pretend to be his sister rather than his wife.**** His fear is that the Egyptians will kill him and steal his lovely bride.
The plan works too well, however, when somehow Pharaoh’s officials catch wind of Sarah’s beauty.***** This in spite of her somewhat advanced age of 65 (desert air is great for a gal’s complexion).
She is ordered to join the harem of the king of Egypt and in return, the nomadic tribal chieftain receives a significant dowry for his sister/wife. The King grants Abraham “flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.” As his sister, Sarah would have been his property to do with as he pleased.
We do not have access to Sarah’s reaction to the deal with Pharaoh. We don’t know what her specific duties were as Pharaoh’s concubine, although we do know in general what the duties of a typical concubine are.
But all is not well. In a preview of YHWH’s punishment of Pharaoh in Exodus, the creator of the universe curses the Egyptian court and the king’s household with several unspecified plagues. Once the deception is discovered, Pharaoh complains bitterly to Abraham about his big lie, returns his wife and sends them on their way. Abraham gets to keep all the swag.
As the font of all moral guidance, the bible once again provides a curious example of divine justice. On one hand, Abraham – founder of the chosen people – committed a compound sin beginning with big whopping lie and ending with profiting from his wife’s humiliation. On the other hand, Pharaoh committed no crime. Yet Pharaoh is punished and Abraham is rewarded. A benefit of being favored by YHWH.