Genesis 20:4

But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? - х 'Adonaay (H136), Lord: see the note at Genesis 15:2.] The use of this term shows that true religion still lingered in Gerar, as it appears from the case of Melchizedek to have done among a few of the native Canaanites; because Abimelech was evidently acquainted with the name and attributes of the Divine Being to whom he appealed as a worshipper; while the anxious enquiry, "Wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?" suggested, doubtless, by the recent awful fate of the cities of the plain, implied that in national character his subjects bore an advantageous contrast with the debased and idolatrous inhabitants of that land.