Parshat HaShavua Vayeira Genesis 18:1- 22:24 - Robert Alter



Parshat HaShavua Vayeira Genesis 18:1- 22:24 - Robert Alter

Koren Translation

For the LORD had shut fast every womb.

Contrary to some textual critics who conjecture that this verse was inadvertently displaced from an earlier point in the story, it is a lovely piece of delayed narrative exposition. Shutting up the womb is a standard idiom for infertility, which ancient Hebrew culture, at least on the proverbial level, attributes to the woman, not to the man…. But given the earlier reference to Abimelech's having been prevented from touching Sarah this looks suspiciously like an epidemic of impotence that has struck Abimelech and his people … (Nahmanides sees an allusion to impotence here.) It is noteworthy that only in this version of the sister-wife story is the motif of infertility introduced. Its presence nicely aligns the Abimelech episode with

what precedes and what follows. That is, first we have the implausible promise of a son to the aged Sarah; then a whole people is wiped out; then the desperate act of procreation by Lot's daughters in a world seemingly emptied of men; and now an entire kingdom blighted with an interruption of procreation.

The very next words of the story- one must remember that there were no chapter breaks in the original Hebrew text, for both chapter and verse divisions were introduced only in the late Middle Ages--are the fulfillment of the promise of progeny to Sarah: "And the LORD singled out Sarah as He had said."

As several medieval Hebrew commentators note, the plague of infertility also guarantees that Abimelech cannot be imagined as the begetter of Isaac. ( Emphasis supplied)

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*Alter's Introduction to Genesis is a 17 page overview of many themes and methods. Some of these are summarized in MS Sefaria Sheet, Alter, Introduction to Genesis.

*Alter's general Introduction: Approaching the Five Books; The Bible in English and the Heresy of Explanation and overview of commentary are in his The Five Books of Moses.(Copyright material)

*Updating his decades of work is Alter's 2019 The Art of Bible Translation 2019, a very useful summary. See also MS Sefaria Sheets on Alter resources.

*"delayed narrative exposition" Alter disagrees with textual critics who claim it is in the wrong place, arguing that the story is enhanced by well developed narrative techniques.

*"ancient Hebrew culture" Alter provides background on ancient practices to frame his comments in a Note. (In this case without a citation.) Similarly, Alter uses references to the Middle Ages or how the text evolved from a scroll without chapters.

*"version of the sister-wife story" - How the Bible tells stories are explained in one of Alter's first books, the classic, updated: The Art of Biblical Narrative 2011.

* "Nachmanides" Alter frequently makes reference to commentary by masters of Traditional commentary like Rashi, or here the Ramban, Nachmanidies, a reference easily pursued because Safaria provides links.