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“Would he have wept so for his own life,” asks Nibley, “which he had so often been willing to risk?” ^[11]

Abraham proved time and again that he would gladly risk his life in the cause of truth and to protect his fellow beings, for whom he bore such love that he is remembered in Jewish tradition as the very personification of empathetic loving-kindness, ^[12] “the spring whence flowed compassion to the world.” ^[13]

Now, however, to obey God, Abraham was forced to stand by silently and without protest as Egyptian emissaries took his beloved wife to Pharaoh’s harem. This severe test “required the greatest faith yet” in the Patriarch’s life. ^[14] Even so, explains the Zohar, Abraham “firmly trusted in God that He would allow no harm to come to Sarai, as it is written, the righteous are bold as a lion.'” ^[15]

But Abraham was not the only one being tested. According to the fourth-century Christian scholar Ephrem the Syrian, God placed Sarah in this situation “because it was her trial,” for he “willed that she should be examined and tested in a woman’s task just as Abraham had been in a man’s task … It was right that both of them be tried.” ^[16] And as Hugh Nibley has pointed out, Sarah’s trial can be described as the “the test of the lion couch,” for the royal bed, like the royal altar on which Abraham had once lain, was a lion couch. ^[17]

The trial placed Sarah in jeopardy of her very life, for if she “honored both Abraham’s request (by feigning maidenhood) and her marital vows (by refusing Pharaoh’s advances), she faced certain death. The alternative was simply to accept her new role with its dazzling wealth and influence,” ^[18] for the “pomp and luxury” and utter “magnificence” of the royal palace ever “impressed on native and foreigner the glittering majesty of the Pharaoh of Egypt.” ^[19]

Indeed, this was the very era when “the cult of the pharaoh, the godking, was given monumental expression of a grandeur unsurpassed in the ancient Near East.

As Nibley notes, “there was nothing in the world to keep her from exchanging her hard life with Abraham for a life of unlimited ease and influence as Pharaoh’s favorite except her loyalty to her husband … Abraham is abiding by the law of God; the whole question now is, Will Sarah abide by the law of her husband? And she proved that she would, even if necessary at the risk of her life.” ^[22]

In the words of Ephrem the Syrian, she “did not exchange her sojourning husband for the king.” ^[23] Not even the dazzling wealth and power of Egypt’s royal throne could persuade her to forsake her covenants and loyalty to God and her husband.

However, it was not only Sarah’s life that was at stake, but also the future of the entire chosen race to be born through her. Ironically, her test involved the virtue she had so zealously protected ever since coming to the licentious land of Egypt, where from the start she had “guarded herself against immorality.” ^[24] Now, despite the severity of the trial, she “did not grumble against God,” ^[25] but rather prayed mightily to him. Great is the prayer of a righteous woman, and greater still the power of united prayer ^[26] as Abraham was praying with at least equal fervor outside the palace. ^[27]

God heard and answered. Genesis reports that “the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues” (Gen. 12:17), or, as other translations have it, “mighty plagues” (JPST Gen. 12:17) or “terrible plagues” (GTC Gen. 12:17), so that, as told in the Genesis Apocryphon, Pharaoh “was unable to approach her.” ^[28] The severe plagues included not only a violent and virulent disease but also, as Josephus mentions, civil strife that threatened Pharaoh’s power. ^[29]

The mighty kingdom of Egypt seemed to be suddenly unraveling at the seams. Meanwhile, Jewish tradition tells that God sent an angel to protect and comfort Sarah, ^[30] even as had happened with Abraham years before in his hour of great need. Rabbinic tradition mentions that the night that Sarah was taken to the palace was Passover night, thereby foreshadowing the time when again Pharaoh’s house would be plagued for the benefit of Sarah’s descendants. ^[31]

Pharaoh had questioned not only Sarah but also Lot about Abraham’s relationship with Sarah, and Lot had loyally held to the same story as told by Sarah. ^[32] And as soon as Pharaoh believed that Abraham was merely Sarah’s brother, Abraham became the recipient of royal favor. “Pharaoh pledged himself to make Abraham great and powerful, to do for him whatever she wished. He sent much gold and silver to Abraham, and diamonds and pearls, sheep and oxen, and men slaves and women slaves, and he assigned a residence to him within the precincts of the royal palace.” ^[33] A nearly contemporary account of what it was like to be favored by Pharaoh describes the “splendid things” showered upon the one favored, including royal linen, myrrh, a host of servants in a sumptuous house with exquisite woodwork and a garden, and meals furnished by the palace cooks. ^[34]

Abraham’s attitude toward such gifts may be readily deduced from his flat refusal years later to accept anything from another wicked monarch, the fawning king of Sodom. Pharaoh’s gifts to Abraham, coming from the abductor of his wife, would surely have been immediately refused were it not for the unique position Abraham and Sarah found themselves in due to God’s strange command.

With Sarah in the palace, Abraham could hardly have afforded to incur Pharaoh’s displeasure with possible consequences for Sarah. More importantly, such a refusal on Abraham’s part might have raised suspicions about Abraham’s real relationship with Sarah in a manner inconsistent with God’s commandment. These were gifts that Abraham was required to accept, although as Jewish tradition insists, “the blessings really came from God. Pharaoh was merely the instrument through whom God bestowed blessings on Abraham.” ^[35]

Abraham’s sole concern, meanwhile, was the welfare and protection of his beloved Sarah. Viewed in retrospect, however, his residence in the royal palace may well have had proven of great benefit. He was there for two years, ^[36] associating with the most learned men of the realm and learning the Egyptian language and lore so well that he would use them as a vehicle to write for his posterity what we now have as the precious Book of Abraham.

Not only Pharaoh but also all his household were afflicted with “punishments and plagues,” which only “increased and intensified” over the next two years. Nor could the royal magicians or physicians or healers, so famed for their curative powers, help the ailing king, for when they tried, they themselves became afflicted. ^[37]

All of Egypt would have been alarmed at this crisis of their king, on whose welfare was thought to rest the welfare of the entire realm and even the continuation of the cosmic order. ^[38]

The solution came when it was Pharaoh’s turn to have a dream, which showed Abraham laying his hands on the monarch’s head and healing him. ^[39] Abraham’s healing of Pharaoh is likewise attested in Samaritan ^[40] and Turkish ^[41] tradition.

So only this foreigner could cure the mighty Pharaoh! In one of the great turnabouts of history, the life of Pharaoh and all that theoretically depended on him were literally in Abraham’s hands.