Rebuke between Abraham and Abimelech: A model of conflict resolution

We read the altercations between the patriarch Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerar (Gen. 20.1–18 and 21.22–34), as paradigmatic for conflict resolution between ethnoi, one representing the resident alien, ‘stranger in a strange land’, and the other, the indigenous ruler/host in the land. The conflict centers on the misappropriation of ‘property’, a wife (Sarah) and a well respectively. Both stories entail verbal rebuke and self-defense, gift exchange and promises of protection, as well as divine fiat. In the first story (Gen. 20), God intervenes overtly in a dream and with an impending death threat; in the second (Gen. 21), divine intervention is implied by the covenant sworn on oath between the two parties at Beer-sheba. These narratives show the effectiveness of open rebuke—from God, from the Philistine king in protest against Abraham’s deception, and from the patriarch in self-defense. The stories ultimately affirm the promise that the patriarch and his descendants would be a blessing to all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:2–3) and result in protected status for the patriarch and his people in the land.