Genesis 18: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD appears to Abraham at the plains of Mamre, where three men come to him and he prepares a meal for them. One of them says that Sarah will have a son when he returns about a year later; Sarah, listening at the tent door, laughs to herself; the LORD asks Abraham why she laughed, and Sarah denies laughing. As the men head toward Sodom, the LORD says he will not hide from Abraham what he is doing, and speaks of the great cry against Sodom and Gomorrah and of going down to see. Abraham then asks whether the Judge of all the earth will destroy the righteous along with the wicked, and works down from fifty righteous people to ten, with the LORD answering each time that he will not destroy the city for their sake.

Claim by Claim

1. 18:1
   • The LORD appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre.
   • Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent.
   • It was the heat of the day.
2. 18:2
   • Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked.
   • Three men were standing near him.
   • When Abraham saw them he ran from the tent entrance to meet them.
   • Abraham bowed himself to the ground.
3. 18:3
   • Abraham said, addressing his visitor as lord.
   • Abraham said, if I have found favor in your sight.
   • Abraham asked him not to pass by his servant.
4. 18:4
   • Abraham asked that a little water be brought.
   • Abraham told them to wash their feet.
   • Abraham told them to rest under the tree.
5. 18:5
   • Abraham said he would bring a morsel of bread.
   • Abraham said they should refresh their hearts.
   • Abraham said that afterward they would pass on.
   • Abraham said that this was why they had come to their servant.
   • They said, do as you have said.
6. 18:6
   • Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah.
   • Abraham told Sarah to quickly prepare three seahs of fine flour.
   • Abraham told Sarah to knead it.
   • Abraham told Sarah to make cakes, which the King James says were made upon the hearth.
7. 18:7
   • Abraham ran to the herd.
   • Abraham took a calf that was tender and good.
   • Abraham gave the calf to a servant lad.
   • The servant hurried to prepare the calf.
8. 18:8
   • Abraham took curds and milk.
   • Abraham took the calf that had been prepared.
   • Abraham set the food before them.
   • Abraham stood by them under the tree.
   • They ate.
9. 18:9
   • They asked Abraham where Sarah his wife was.
   • Abraham said she was in the tent.
10. 18:10
    • He said he would surely return to Abraham at the time of life, that is, at this season next year.
    • He said Sarah, Abraham's wife, would have a son.
    • Sarah was listening at the tent entrance.
    • The tent entrance was behind him, though the text leaves unclear whether behind the speaker or behind Sarah.
11. 18:11
    • Abraham and Sarah were old.
    • Abraham and Sarah were advanced in years.
    • Sarah had ceased to have the way of women.
12. 18:12
    • Sarah laughed within herself.
    • Sarah said, after I am worn out, shall I have pleasure.
    • Sarah said her lord was old.
13. 18:13
    • The LORD said to Abraham.
    • The LORD asked why Sarah laughed.
    • The LORD said Sarah had said, shall I really bear a child when I am old.
14. 18:14
    • He asked whether anything is too wonderful or too hard for the LORD.
    • He said that at the appointed time he would return to Abraham.
    • He said he would return at the time of life, that is, at this season next year.
    • He said Sarah would have a son.
15. 18:15
    • Sarah denied it.
    • Sarah said, I did not laugh.
    • Sarah denied it because she was afraid.
    • He said, no, but you did laugh.
16. 18:16
    • The men rose up from there.
    • The men looked out toward Sodom.
    • Abraham went with them to send them on their way.
17. 18:17
    • The LORD said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing.
18. 18:18
    • Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation.
    • All the nations of the earth will be blessed in him.
19. 18:19
    • The LORD said he had known Abraham.
    • The purpose is that Abraham will command his children and his household after him.
    • They will keep the way of the LORD.
    • They will do righteousness and justice.
    • The purpose is that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken concerning him.
20. 18:20
    • The LORD said the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great.
    • The LORD said their sin is very grievous.
21. 18:21
    • The LORD said he would go down and see.
    • The LORD said he would see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to him.
    • The LORD said that if not, he would know.
22. 18:22
    • The men turned from there.
    • The men went toward Sodom.
    • Abraham still stood before the LORD.
23. 18:23
    • Abraham drew near.
    • Abraham asked whether God would indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked.
24. 18:24
    • Abraham said, suppose there are fifty righteous within the city.
    • Abraham asked whether God would sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous in it.
25. 18:25
    • Abraham said it would be far from God to do such a thing.
    • Abraham said such a thing would be to kill the righteous with the wicked.
    • Abraham said it would make the righteous like the wicked.
    • Abraham said again, far be it from you.
    • Abraham asked whether the Judge of all the earth would not do justice.
26. 18:26
    • The LORD said, if I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city.
    • The LORD said he would spare the whole place for their sake.
27. 18:27
    • Abraham answered and spoke.
    • Abraham said he had ventured to speak to the Lord.
    • Abraham said he is but dust and ashes.
28. 18:28
    • Abraham said, suppose the fifty righteous lack five.
    • Abraham asked whether God would destroy the whole city for lack of five.
    • He said he would not destroy it if he found forty-five there.
29. 18:29
    • Abraham spoke to him yet again.
    • Abraham said, suppose forty are found there.
    • He said he would not do it for the sake of the forty.
30. 18:30
    • Abraham asked that the Lord not be angry, and said he would speak.
    • Abraham said, suppose thirty are found there.
    • He said he would not do it if he found thirty there.
31. 18:31
    • Abraham said he had ventured to speak to the Lord.
    • Abraham said, suppose twenty are found there.
    • He said he would not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.
32. 18:32
    • Abraham asked that the Lord not be angry, and said he would speak just this once.
    • Abraham said, suppose ten are found there.
    • He said he would not destroy it for the sake of the ten.
33. 18:33
    • The LORD went away when he had finished speaking with Abraham.
    • Abraham returned to his place.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

18:1

"The plains of Mamre": the Hebrew word means large trees, oaks or terebinths. Mamre was a place near Hebron, in the hill country south of Jerusalem, named after a local man who was Abraham's ally. "The heat of the day" is around midday, when work stopped and people rested in the shade.

18:2

Bowing to the ground was the ordinary courtesy shown to a superior or an honored guest, not necessarily an act of worship. Note that the visitors are described simply as "three men"; the narrative moves between speaking of them as three and speaking of a single "LORD," and the Hebrew leaves that shifting exactly as it stands.

18:3

The Hebrew word here can be pointed to read either "my lord" (a polite address to a human guest, the way one might say "sir") or "my Lord" (addressing God). The traditional Hebrew text reads it the second way; the ambiguity is in the text itself. The verb that follows is singular, though three visitors are present.

18:4

Travelers wore open sandals on dusty roads, so water for the feet was the first thing a host offered. Providing it, rather than making the guest ask, was the standard mark of hospitality.

18:5

"A piece of bread" is polite understatement. A host customarily described a lavish meal in modest terms; what Abraham actually serves in the next verses is an enormous spread.

18:6

"Three measures" translates three seahs, roughly twenty quarts, or about thirty-five to fifty pounds of flour, enough bread for a large crowd, not three guests. The "loaves" are flat round cakes baked quickly on hot stones or a griddle rather than in an oven.

18:7

Meat was rare in an ordinary diet; killing a young calf marked an occasion of high honor. Abraham personally selects it and has it slaughtered and cooked on the spot, which is why the meal takes hours despite all the hurrying.

18:8

"Curds" is the KJV's "butter", a thick soured-milk food closer to yogurt or a soft cheese than to churned butter. The host standing while the guests eat, rather than joining them, was the expected posture of service.

18:10

The KJV's "according to the time of life" is an obscure Hebrew phrase, usually taken to mean "when this season comes round again" (that is, a year from now), though its exact sense is disputed.

18:11

"Well stricken in age" means far advanced in years. "It ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women" is the King James Version's discreet way of saying her monthly periods had stopped and she was past the age of having children.

18:12

The Hebrew verb for laugh, *tsachaq*, sounds like the name Isaac (*Yitzchaq*, "he laughs"), and the wordplay runs through these chapters. "My master" is the ordinary respectful way a wife referred to her husband; it is not a term of servitude.

18:13

"Wherefore" means why, and "of a surety" means for certain. The Hebrew word for laugh, tsachaq, sounds like the name Isaac, which the child is later given, so the laughing runs through this whole part of the story as a play on his name.

18:14

The Hebrew word behind "too hard" means extraordinary or beyond the ordinary run of things, rather than merely difficult.

18:16

Walking a departing guest part of the way was the closing act of hospitality, as fixed a custom as washing his feet on arrival.

18:17

The question is put in a form ancient readers would recognize from court and household settings: a master deciding whether to tell a trusted servant or friend what he is about to do.

18:18

The Hebrew verb form is ambiguous and can mean either that the nations "will be blessed through him" or that they "will bless themselves by him": that is, will use his name as the standard when wishing good on someone. Translators have split on this since antiquity.

18:19

"I know him" renders a Hebrew verb that here carries the sense of singling out or choosing, not merely being acquainted with. The pair of words behind "right and just" (*tsedaqah* and *mishpat*) is a standard Hebrew phrase for fair dealing, especially in court and toward the poor.

18:20

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities on the plain near the Dead Sea, where Abraham's nephew Lot had settled. "The cry" translates a Hebrew word used for the shout of someone being wronged or oppressed, a victim's appeal for help, not general rumor about the city.

18:21

"I will go down and see" is the language of a judge conducting an investigation before passing sentence: the charge has been made, and the facts are to be examined on site.

18:22

"The men" here means two of the three; chapter 19 has two arriving at Sodom. Ancient Jewish scribal tradition records that this line originally read "the LORD stood before Abraham," and was altered to the present wording because standing before someone suggests the lesser waiting on the greater.

18:23

"Drew near" signals approaching someone in authority to make a plea. "Righteous" and "wicked" are courtroom words in Hebrew, closer to "innocent" and "guilty" than to descriptions of personal piety.

18:24

"Peradventure" simply means suppose, or what if. It appears again in verses 28 to 32. Fifty innocent people would be a small fraction of a town's population, which is part of the point Abraham is making.

18:25

"Far be it from you" translates an exclamation of protest, roughly "unthinkable!", used when someone proposes something outrageous.

18:26

To spare a place means to leave it alone and not destroy it.

18:27

"Dust and ashes" is a set Hebrew phrase for human frailty and lowliness, used when speaking to a superior; the two words rhyme in Hebrew (*aphar* and *epher*).

18:28

Abraham asks again with a smaller number each time. Asking little by little was a polite way to ask.

18:30

"Let not the LORD be angry" is the polite formula of someone pressing a request further than they have any standing to press it, like saying "forgive me for asking again". The whole exchange in verses 24 to 32 follows the pattern of hard bargaining, where each side moves in steps, though what is being counted here is people rather than a price.

18:32

Abraham stops at ten and does not go lower. Ten was roughly the smallest group that counted as a community rather than a handful of individuals, so it is the last number at which the question is still about sparing a city for the sake of a group inside it.

18:33

"Left communing with" means finished talking with. "Returned unto his place" means went back to his camp at Mamre.