Genesis 12:15

The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
princes	שָׂרֵ֣י sa.Rei	H8269	a head person (of any rank or class) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Pharaoh	פַרְעֹ֔ה far.'Oh	H6547	Paroh · noun, masculine singular absolute
saw	וַיִּרְא֤וּ vai.yir.'U	H7200	to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
commended	וַיְהַֽלְל֥וּ vay.ha.Lu	H1984	to be clear (orig. of sound · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
before	אֶל 'el-	H413	near · preposition
Pharaoh	פַּרְעֹ֑ה par.'Oh	H6547	Paroh · noun, masculine singular absolute
woman	הָאִשָּׁ֖ה ha.'i.Shah	H802	a woman · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
taken	וַתֻּקַּ֥ח va.tu.Kach	H3947	to take (in the widest variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, hophal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
Pharaoh’s	פַּרְעֹֽה par.'Oh	H6547	Paroh · noun, masculine singular absolute
house	בֵּ֥ית beit	H1004	a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Genesis 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
Genesis 40:2 And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
Genesis 41:1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
Exodus 2:5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the a…
Exodus 2:15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he…
1 Kings 3:1 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made…
2 Kings 18:21 Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierc…
Esther 2:2-16 Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king:

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 12:14–end

Here is, I. The danger Sarai was in of having her chastity violated by the king of Egypt: and without doubt the peril of sin is the greatest peril we can be in. Pharaoh's princes (his pimps rather) saw her, and, observing what a comely woman she was, they commended her before Pharaoh, not for that which was really her praise - her virtue and modesty, her faith and piety (these were no excellencies in their eyes), but for her beauty, which they thought too good for the embraces of a subject. They recommended her to the king, and she was presently taken into Pharaoh's house, as Esther into the seraglio of Ahasuerus (Est 2:8), in order to her being taken into his bed. Now we must not look upon…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 12:15

the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house--Eastern kings have for ages claimed the privilege of taking to their harem an unmarried woman whom they like. The father or brother may deplore the removal as a calamity, but the royal right is never resisted nor questioned.

Adam Clarke on Genesis 12:15

The woman was taken into Pharaoh's house - Pharaoh appears to have been the common appellative of the Cuthite shepherd kings of Egypt, who had conquered this land, as is conjectured, about seventy-two years before this time. The word is supposed to signify king in the ancient Egyptian language. If the meaning be sought in the Hebrew, the root פרע para signifies to be free or disengaged, a name which such freebooters as the Cuthite shepherds might naturally assume. All the kings of Egypt bore this name till the commencement of the Grecian monarchy, after which they were called Ptolemies. When a woman was brought into the seragilo or harem of the eastern princes, she underwent for a considerab…

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John Gill on Genesis 12:15

The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh,.... The king of Egypt; so it seems by this, that Abram and Sarai were at the place where the court was kept, which the Arabic writers (t) say was Mesr (or Memphis), the capital of the kingdom. And these princes were the king's courtiers, who taking notice of Sarai, and admiring her beauty, praised her for it to the king, and recommended her to be taken into the number of his wives or concubines, they understanding that she was a single woman and the sister of Abram: and this they did to gratify their king, and gain his favour: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house; or palace, as the Jerusalem Targum; his royal pal…

The Church Fathers

(Vs. 15 and 16) And the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was brought into Pharaoh's house. And Abram benefitted because of her, and he had sheep, and cattle, and donkeys, and male and female servants, and mules and camels. Although the body of holy women does not see blemish, but the will does, and Sarai can be excused because, in the time of famine, she could not resist being alone in foreign places, with her husband conniving; however, the ugly necessity can also be excused in another way: that according to the book of Esther, whatever pleased the king among the women, for six months she was anointed with myrtle oil, and for six months she was in various perfumes and women's treatments, and only then she entered the king's presence. And so it happened that Sarai, after pleasing the king, while she was being prepared for a year to enter the king's presence, and Pharaoh gave many gifts to Abraham, and Pharaoh later was struck by the Lord, she still remained untouched by his concubinage.
— Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Abimelech — My father a king, or father of a king, a common name of the Philistine kings, as “Pharaoh” was of the Egyptian kings. (1.) The Philistine king of Gerar in the time of Abraham (Gen. 20:1-18). By an…
Abraham — Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred…
Cities — The earliest notice in Scripture of city-building is of Enoch by Cain, in the land of his exile. (Genesis 4:17) After the confusion of tongues the descendants of Nimrod founded Babel, Erech, Accad…
Pharaoh — The official title borne by the Egyptian kings down to the time when that country was conquered by the Greeks. (See EGYPT.) The name is a compound, as some think, of the words Ra, the “sun” or…
Abraham · General references — General references
Cowardice · .Abraham, in — .Abraham, in
Egypt · .Abraham lives in — .Abraham lives in
Egyptians · Hospitality of, to Abraham — Hospitality of, to Abraham
Ignorance · .Pharaoh — .Pharaoh
Pharaoh · 1. King of Egypt at the time of Abraham — 1. King of Egypt at the time of Abraham
Rulers · .Pharaoh, in his treatment of Abraham — .Pharaoh, in his treatment of Abraham
Sarah · .Near of kin to Abraham — .Near of kin to Abraham

Genesis 12:15

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 12:14–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 12:15

Adam Clarke on Genesis 12:15

John Gill on Genesis 12:15

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Genesis 12:15

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 12:14–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 12:15

Adam Clarke on Genesis 12:15

John Gill on Genesis 12:15

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Genesis 12:15-16

Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 12:15–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 12:15