So Abimelech rose early in the morning: Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew connective as So, marking what follows as a consequence of his dream. Good News Translation “Early the next morning Abimelech…” shifts the action immediately to a new scene. Both are possible.

Called all his servants: called means “sent for his servants,” “had his servants brought to him.” These servants are probably to be understood as his representatives or officials, the officers of his court. Good News Translation calls them “officials,” New Jerusalem Bible “his full court,” Revised English Bible “court officials.”

Told them all these things is literally “spoke all these words in their ears.” “These words” refers to the conversation he had had with God in his dream. In translation all these things, or Good News Translation “what had happened,” may be too general. In that case we may say, for example, “what God had said to him,” “the words God spoke to him,” or “all that was said in his dream.”

And the men were very much afraid: men refers to the officials who were listening to Abimelech, and may often be rendered as “they,” as in Good News Translation. The reaction of these officials reveals the presence in Abimelech and his court of “what Abraham had not thought he could count on, namely, the fear of God” (von Rad).

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .