Pattern 03 · The Bride and the Foreign King
The shape
Israel lies and makes a deal with a foreigner. The foreigner makes the deal and is punished for it. Israel leaves richer.
Why it matters
This family runs the same shape in almost every generation. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Simeon and Levi never pay for any of it. They are paid, and the cost lands on someone else: the woman who is handed over, or the foreign house that takes her. Plagues. Closed wombs. A city of dead men. Every firstborn in Egypt. The family always walks away wealthier, and someone else is always hurt to get them there.
The question to ask yourself
Once you can see the shape, where else does it run?
Read forward into the other books and hold each story up against it. Who is handed over? Who gets paid? Who pays the cost?
The shape
Genesis 12 to Exodus 12, drawn to scale. Each bar is one story, starting where it starts in the text and ending where it ends.
The five stories
Each one told in the order of the shape.
Story 1 · Gen 12
Israel’s grandfather hands over Israel’s grandmother
A famine drives Abram into Egypt. He tells Sarai to say she is his sister. Pharaoh takes her into his house and pays Abram in livestock and servants. God strikes Pharaoh’s house with plagues. Abram leaves very rich in cattle, silver and gold.
Story 2 · Gen 20
Israel’s grandfather hands over Israel’s grandmother, again
In Gerar, Abraham says it again: she is my sister. King Abimelech takes Sarah. God tells him he is a dead man and closes every womb in his house. Abimelech gives her back with sheep, oxen, servants, land and a thousand pieces of silver.
Story 3 · Gen 26
Israel’s father hands over Israel’s mother
A famine sends Isaac to Gerar, and he tells the same lie about Rebekah. This time the king catches it before anyone touches her, and puts the family under royal protection. Nothing is struck. Isaac reaps a hundredfold and grows so great the king sends him away.
Story 4 · Gen 34
Israel’s sons hand over Israel’s daughter
Shechem, a prince’s son, takes Dinah and asks for her as his wife. Her brothers answer deceitfully: be circumcised and we will give her. Every man in the city is circumcised. Simeon and Levi kill them all while they are still sore, and the brothers take the flocks, the wealth, the wives and the children.
Story 5 · Gen 15 to Ex 12
The God of Israel hands over Israel itself
God makes a deal with Abraham: his descendants will serve a foreign nation for four hundred years, then come out with great substance. During another famine, God sends Jacob’s family down into Egypt to become a great people, and Pharaoh gives them the best of the land. Generations later, all of their descendants are enslaved. Moses asks for three days’ journey to sacrifice, and they never come back. God strikes Egypt with plagues and kills every firstborn. Israel leaves with Egypt’s silver, gold and clothing.
The shape, step by step
At each step, the passage from each story, one under the other.
“Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake.”
Gen 12:13
“She is my sister.”
Gen 20:2
“He said that she was his sister: for he feared to call her his wife.”
Gen 26:7
“Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully.”
Gen 34:13
“Let us go three days’ journey to sacrifice.”
Ex 3:18; 5:3
Where the stories line up2
Three of the lies are the same sentence.
The last two lies use a religious act as cover.
Neither promise is kept. The city is killed, and Israel never comes back from the three days.
Abraham hands over Sarai, his wife and half-sister. She is Israel’s grandmother.
Gen 12:11–15
Abraham hands over Sarah a second time. Israel’s grandmother again.
Gen 20:2
Isaac hands over Rebekah, his wife. She is Israel’s mother.
Gen 26:7
“Then will we give our daughters unto you.”
Her brothers promise Dinah. She is Israel’s daughter.
Gen 34:16
“Fear not to go down into Egypt. For I will make of thee there a great people.”
God sends Israel down to Egypt. Israel is his eldest son.
Gen 46:3; Ex 4:22
Where the stories line up3
Each time, she is closer to Israel, and handed over by the one who should protect her.
Twice, she is handed over by her own brother.
Leviticus later forbids marrying a half-sister (Lev 18:9; 20:17). It is tracked in Pattern 01.
Israel itself is handed over twice.
“And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.”
Gen 12:16
“Abimelech king of Gerar sent and fetched Sarah away.”
He takes her first. His payment comes after the punishment (step 5).
Gen 20:2
“He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely die.”
No one takes her. The king pays in protection.
Gen 26:11
“Ask freely of me both the dowry and gifts, and I will give according as ye say unto me.”
The price they name is circumcision, and every male of the city pays it.
Gen 34:12, 24
“Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years… and afterward shall they come out with great substance.”
The covenant. The deal is made with Abraham before Israel exists: the slavery and the payout, agreed together. Pharaoh’s side comes generations later, with “the best of the land” (Gen 47:11).
Gen 15:13–14
Where the stories line up2
God holds one king back from the wrong, and holds the other in it.
The same king’s name, and the same army captain.
If he is the same king, it would explain why he catches the lie this time, and makes the death threat himself: “He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely die” (Gen 26:11).
“God plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife.”
Gen 12:17
“The Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah.”
Gen 20:3, 18
Nothing is struck. No one touched her.
Gen 26:10
“Took either of them his sword and went into the city boldly and slew all that was male.”
Gen 34:25
“At midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.”
Ex 12:29
Where the stories line up1
The only story where men do the striking is the only one called wrong.
“Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold.”
Gen 13:2
“I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver.”
With sheep, oxen, servants and land to live on.
Gen 20:14–16
“Isaac sowed in that land and found in the same year an hundredfold: for the Lord blessed him.”
Gen 26:12
Their sheep, oxen and donkeys, everything in the houses, and their wives and children taken captive.
Gen 34:28–29
“Jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment.”
Ex 12:35–36
Where the stories line up3
The family plunders the foreign house on the way out.
In both, the house has already been struck, and the family takes everything it can carry. Egypt’s spoiling was promised in advance, at the burning bush (Ex 3:22).
“Mightier than we.”
The same Hebrew root in both, atsam.
The one who handed her over is never punished.
The foreign kings ask. God never does.
The first story and the last
Story 1 on one side, Story 5 on the other. Every point in the first has a match in the last.
What it adds up to
The lie is told by Israel. The deal is made by the foreigner. The punishment falls on the foreigner’s house. The wealth goes home with Israel. Inside each story, the one who told the lie pays nothing.
Story 3 is the one that breaks, and it breaks in the foreigner’s favour only because he catches the lie in time. Even then, Israel still comes out richer.
So keep reading forward. The next time Israel makes a deal with a foreigner, watch who pays.
Quotes are Tyndale (1530) in modern spelling. Thread names link through to The Compass.