Genesis 20:13

20:13 When God made me wander ¹  from my father’s house, I told her, ‘This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: ²  Every place we go, say about me, “He is my brother.”’”

Lamentations 3:9

3:9 He has blocked ³  every road I take ⁴  with a wall of hewn stones;

he has made every path impassable. ⁵ 

[20:13]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb is plural. This may be a case of grammatical agreement with the name for God, which is plural in form. However, when this plural name refers to the one true God, accompanying predicates are usually singular in form. Perhaps Abraham is accommodating his speech to Abimelech’s polytheistic perspective. (See GKC 463 §145.i.) If so, one should translate, “when the gods made me wander.”

[20:13]  ² tn Heb “This is your loyal deed which you can do for me.”

[3:9]  ³ tn The verb גָּדַר (garad) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “to build up a wall” with stones, and (2) “to block a road” with a wall of stones. The collocated terms דְּרָכַי (dÿrakhay, “my roads”) in 3:9 clearly indicate that the second category of meaning is in view.

[3:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “my roads.”

[3:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “he had made my paths crooked.” The implication is that the paths by which one might escape cannot be traversed.