The moral ambiguity of Abraham’s actions is explained, in part, by Abraham himself during his second “wife-sister act,” described in Genesis 20. When confronted for his duplicity, Abraham explains, “She really is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not of my mother” (Genesis 20:12). Moreover, Abraham felt compelled to lie, since “I said to myself, ‘There is certainly no fear of God in this place and they will kill me on account of my wife’” (Genesis 20:11). Whether these explanations clear Abraham of wrongdoing, I’ll let the reader decide.