“Abraham said: Because I said: Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me over the matter of my wife” (Genesis 20:11). “And also, indeed, she is my sister; the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife” (Genesis 20:12). “Abraham said: Because I said: Surely there is no fear of God…and also, indeed, she is my sister; the daughter of my father…” – he answered them in accordance with their practice.32They permitted marrying one’s paternal sister but not one’s maternal sister.
Thus, Abraham was explaining to them that his marriage to Sarah, according to the prevailing practice, was valid. “It was, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her: This is your kindness that you shall perform for me; at every place that we will come, say of me: He is my brother” (Genesis 20:13). “It was, when God caused me to wander [hitu] from my father’s house…” – Rabbi Ḥanin said: If only we could expound this verse in three ways and thereby satisfy our obligation.33The verse contains two difficulties.
First, the fact that the verb hitu is plural, as if there were many gods commanding Abraham; second, the fact that hitu indicates that God corrupted him, as the root of that word, ta’a, can mean either to wander away or to become corrupt. By proposing these following three interpretations, my hope is that I have fulfilled my obligation to address these difficulties. [Abraham was saying:] When the nations of the world sought to fight against me while I was still in my father’s house, the Holy One blessed be He protected me.34The subject of the plural verb hitu, then is not God, but the nations of the world.
The word God is expressing a separate thought; that God saved me from them. When the nations of the world sought to lead me astray [lehatot], the Holy One blessed be He revealed Himself to me and said to me: “Go, you” (Genesis 12:1). When the nations of the world sought to stray [litot] from the ways of the Holy One blessed be He, He appointed for them two prominent leaders from my father’s family, Shem and Ever, who would give them warning [to repent].