The question may naturally be asked why Abraham hid his wife from the gaze of others first then and not before. The reply is to be deduced from the following double rendering of Gen. xii. 1 1: — " Behold now I know that thou art a fair woman. " As if to say, "Usually people lose their good looks on a long journey, but thou art as beautiful as ever." The second explanation is this: — Abraham was so piously modest that in all his life he never once looked a female in the face, his own wife not excepted.
As he approached Egypt and was crossing some water, he saw in it the reflection of her face, and it was then that he exclaimed, " Behold now I know that thou art a fair woman. " As the Egyptians are swarthy, Abraham at once perceived the magnitude of the danger, and hence his precaution to hide her beauty in a chest.