What Does Genesis 20:5 Mean?

"Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister,' and didn't she also say, 'He is my brother'? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands." The double testimony, Abraham said "she is my sister" and Sarah said "he is my brother", is the evidence Abimelech presents for his innocence. Both the man and the woman he took her from presented her as his sister; his action was based on what he was told by both parties. The "clear conscience and clean hands" is the formal language of moral innocence in the ancient Near Eastern world, combining interior state (conscience, intent) with exterior action (hands, deeds).

The fact that Sarah also confirmed the "sister" description is new information. The chapter 12 account features only Abraham's presentation of Sarah as his sister; here both Sarah and Abraham are identified as participants in the deception. The cooperation of both in the deception is not presented as commendable but as the context within which Abimelech's innocence is established. He was deceived by both parties; his conscience was clear; his hands were clean. The divine treatment of him in verses 6-7 will confirm this assessment: God acknowledges his innocence while still requiring restoration.

The principle of "clear conscience and clean hands" as the basis of the innocence claim is the same principle that the Psalms apply to covenant faithful persons seeking divine vindication: "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalm 24:3-4). Abimelech's claim to clean hands is vindicated by God in verse 6; the Psalm's connection of clean hands to access to God is being enacted in the foreign king's dream encounter with the divine. Jesus brought the clean-hands standard to the interior: it is the intention and the heart from which the act proceeds.