Genesis Chapter 12 verse 14 Holy Bible
And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
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And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair.
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And it came to pass when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
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And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
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And it came to pass, that when Abram had come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
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It happened that when Abram had come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
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And it cometh to pass, at the entering of Abram into Egypt, that the Egyptians see the woman that she `is' exceeding fair;
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 14, 15. - And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also - literally, and the pronces (שָׂרֵי, mas. of Sarah), chief men or courtiers, who, in accordance with the ancient custom of Egypt that no slave should approach the priestly person of Pharaoh, were sons of the principal priests (vide Havernick, § 18) - of Pharaoh. The official title of the kings of Egypt (cf. Caesar, the designation of the Roman emperors, and Czar, that of the Emperor of Russia), who are never introduced in the Pentateuch, as in later books, by their individual names (1 Kings 3:1; 9:40); an indirect evidence that the author of Genesis must at least have been acquainted with the manners of the Egyptian Court. The term Pharaoh, which continued in use till after the Persian invasion - under the Greek empire the Egyptian rulers were styled Ptolemies - is declared by Josephus to signify "king" ('Ant.,' 8:06, 2), which agrees with the Koptic Pouro (Piouro; from ouro, to rule, whence touro, queen), which also means king. Modern Egyptologers, however, in. cline to regard it as corresponding to the Phra of the inscriptions (Rosellini, Lepeius, Wilkinson), or to the hieroglyphic Peraa, or Perao, "the great house (M. de Rouge, Brugsch, Ebers), an appellation which belonged to the Egyptian monarchs, and with which may be compared "the Sublime Porte," as applied to the Turkish sultans (cf. Canon Cook in 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. 1. p. 47?). The particular monarch who occupied the Egyptian throne at the time of Abram's arrival has been conjectured to be Necao (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 5. 9:4), Ramessemenes (Syncellus, p. 101), Pharethones (Euseb., 'Praep. Ev.,' 9:8), Apappus (Wilkinson, 'Anc. Egypt.,' vol. 1. p. 13, note 5, Dr. Bitch's edition), Achthoes, the sixth king of the eleventh dynasty (Osburn, 'Men. Hist. of Egypt,' vol. 1. Genesis 7. p. 375), Salatis or Saitas, the first king of the fifteenth dynasty, whose reign commenced B.C. 2080 (Stuart Peele in 'Smith's Dict.,' art. Pharaoh), a monarch belonging to the sixteenth dynasty of shepherd kings (Kalisch), and a Pharaoh who flourished between the middle of the eleventh and thirteenth dynasties, most probably one of the earliest Pharaohs of the twelfth (Canon Cook in 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. 1. p. 447). Amid such conflicting testimony from erudite archaeologists it is apparent that nothing can be ascertained with exactitude as to the date of Abram's sojourn in Egypt; though the last-named writer, who exhibits the latest results of scholarship on the question, mentions in support of his conclusion a variety of considerations that may be profitably studied. Saw her. So that she must have been unveiled, which agrees with monumental evidence that in the reign of the Pharaohs the Egyptian ladies exposed their faces, though the custom was discontinued after the Pemian conquest (vide Hengstenberg's 'Egypt and the Books of Moses,' p. 199). And commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken. Capta (Targum of Jonathan), rapta (Arab.), abducta (Pagnini), capta et deducta (Rosenmüller); all implying more or less the idea of violence, which, however, besides being not warranted by the text, was scarcely likely in the circumstances, the king being perfectly honorable in his proposals, and Abram and Sarai by their deception having rendered it impossible to object without divulging their secret. Into Pharaoh's house. Or harem, with a view to marriage as a secondary wife. Cf. the Papyrus D'Orbiney, now in the British Museum, but belonging to the age of Rameses II., in which the Pharaoh of the time, acting on the advice of his counselors, sends two armies to fetch a beautiful woman by force, and then to murder her husband. A translation by M. Renouf will be found in The Tale of the Two Brothers, in 'Records of the Past,' vol. 2. p. 138.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14, 15) Pharaoh is not the name of a person, but was the title borne by all the Egyptian monarchs.
