ואבימלך לא קרב אליה, this conforms what G’d told him in response, that it was He, G’d, Who had prevented him from having sexual relations with her. (verse 6)

כי נביא הוא, the expression נביא, is based on ניב שפתים, (Isaiah 57,19) “words of comfort, heartening words.” He is familiar to Me, he speaks My language, and I love to listen to his prayer.

ויתפלל בעדך, and he will pray on your behalf. Avimelech and entourage were in need of G’d’s mercy, as we know from verse 18.

אחותי בת אבי, grandchildren are treated just like children and Sarah was a granddaughter of Terach.

אך לא בת אמי, however she is not a sister who was born to my biological mother. This is why she is permitted for me to marry, and she became my wife.

כאשר התעו אותי, He exiled me from my home by ordering me “go forth for yourself from your homeland.” (12,1). This is the true meaning of Deut. 26,5 ארמי אובד אבי. Yaakov’s troubles stemmed from having been exiled from his father’s home, at the behest of his father, whereas Avraham’s exile was at the behest of G’d. Both the expression התעו אותי and אובד אותי are repeats of the same expression similar to Psalms 119,176 תעיתי כשה אובד, “I wandered without destination, lost like a sheep.” Lost sheep were my companions, their shepherd having misled them.

אמרי לי, “say concerning me.”

ולשרה אמר, words of appeasement and consolation, explaining to her that when he had first taken her he had not employed forceful means but had treated her as if she had been a willing bride, giving her a dowry as was customary in those days for the groom to do. He had given 1000 pieces of silver to her brother, seeing that he had assumed that Avraham was no more than her brother to her as he had been led to believe. She herself had said so. This is not to be confused with the livestock which Avimelech gave Avraham at the conclusion of this story, the gifts mentioned in verse 14. The 1000 pieces of silver he had given before Sarah was taken to his palace. Even Pharaoh who had been punished more severely had made generous gifts not only to Avraham but even Lot had been enriched. (12,15). All this had been before any marriage ceremony. Avimelech clearly had been at least as generous.

נתתי אלף כסף, the distant past tense, i.e. “I had given it “ at the very beginning. The same sequence occurred when Pharaoh abducted Sarah, and the same procedure was offered by Shechem and Chamor in Genesis 34,12 as part of the offer to marry Dinah. Also, in Genesis 24,53 we find Eliezer making such generous gifts prior to obtaining Lavan’s consent for Rivkah to marry Yitzchok.

הנה הוא לך כסות עינים לכל אשר אתך ואת כל, the thousand pieces of silver I had given to your brother represent a great honour for you, and they will serve as proof for one and all that you have not been disgraced in any way. Nobody will ever be able to claim that you have been treated as helpless, as a woman who had no honour to lose.

כסות עינים, they will not be able to look at you as someone who had been discredited. We find the word כסה used in a similar sense in Exodus 10,5 וכסה את עין הארץ, “it (the locust) will cover the visible part of the earth, i.e. the earth will not be “naked,” “exposed.” A similar sequence appears in this sense in Ezekiel 28,17 לראוה בך, “so that they may gaze upon,” (not turn away in shame and disgust). The expression also occurs in a similar sense in Micah 7,10 עיני תראינה בה, “my eyes shall behold her.”

ונוכחת, you will be able to hold your head high in view of the fact that you have been treated with so much honour and respect. Avimelech said all this in honour of Sarah and not as a rebuke to her.