Genesis 18:1–22

The Son of Promise

18Then the Lord appeared to him by ¹the ^aterebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. ^2bSo he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; ^cand when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, ³and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. ⁴Please let ^da little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. ⁵And ^eI will bring a morsel of bread, that ^fyou may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, ^ginasmuch as you have come to your servant.”

They said, “Do as you have said.”

⁶So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” ⁷And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. ⁸So ^hhe took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.

⁹Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?”

So he said, “Here, ⁱin the tent.”

¹⁰And He said, “I will certainly return to you ^jaccording to the time of life, and behold, ^kSarah your wife shall have a son.”

(Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) ¹¹Now ^lAbraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and ²Sarah ^mhad passed the age of childbearing. ¹²Therefore Sarah ⁿlaughed within herself, saying, ^o“After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my ^plord being old also?”

¹³And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ ^14qIs anything too hard for the Lord? ^rAt the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

¹⁵But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid.

And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”

Abraham Intercedes for Sodom

¹⁶Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them ^sto send them on the way. ¹⁷And the Lord said, ^t“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, ¹⁸since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be ^ublessed in him? ¹⁹For I have known him, in order ^vthat he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” ²⁰And the Lord said, “Because ^wthe outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their ^xsin is very grave, ^21yI will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, ^zI will know.”

²²Then the men turned away from there ^aand went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.