Chapter 18
Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
1Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day.
2He lifted his eyes and looked, and look, three men were standing opposite him. He saw, and he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, and he bowed to the ground.
3He said, “My lord, if I have found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant.
4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
5Let me bring a bit of bread, and refresh your heart. After that you may pass on, since you have passed by your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.”
6Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick, three measures of fine flour. Knead it and make cakes.”
7Abraham ran to the herd, took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it.
8He took curds and milk and the calf he had prepared and set them before them. He stood by them under the tree while they ate.
9They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He said, “There, in the tent.”
10He said, “I will return to you at this season, when it lives again, and look, Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, and it was behind him.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Ka-et chayyah is “at the time that lives,” the season when it comes around alive again. “This time next year” is the sense. The phrase is not the ordinary word for year.
11Abraham and Sarah were old, well along in days. The way of women had ceased for Sarah.
12Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I am worn out, will I have pleasure, and my lord is old?”
13Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I really bear, and I am old?’
14Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this season when it lives again, and Sarah will have a son.”
15Sarah denied it. She said, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. He said, “No, you did laugh.”
16The men got up from there and looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked with them to send them on.
17Yahweh said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
18since Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?
19For I have known him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of Yahweh, doing what is right and just, so that Yahweh may bring on Abraham what he has spoken about him.”
20Yahweh said, “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very heavy.
21I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry that has come to me. If not, I will know.”
22The men turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before Yahweh.
23Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will you really sweep away the just with the wicked?
24Suppose there are fifty just people inside the city. Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the fifty just people who are in it?
25Far be it from you to do a thing like this, to put the just to death with the wicked, so that the just and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from you. Shall the judge of all the earth not do justice?”
26Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty just people inside the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27Abraham answered, “Look, I have undertaken to speak to my Lord, and I am dust and ashes.
28Suppose the fifty just people lack five. Will you ruin the whole city for five?” He said, “I will not ruin it if I find forty-five there.”
29He spoke to him again: “Suppose forty are found there.” He said, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”
30He said, “Please let my Lord not be angry, and let me speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31He said, “Look, I have undertaken to speak to my Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He said, “I will not ruin it for the sake of the twenty.”
32He said, “Please let my Lord not be angry, and let me speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He said, “I will not ruin it for the sake of the ten.”
33Yahweh went when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.