Genesis 18

¹ Yahweh appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day.

² He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed to the ground.

³ ‘My lord,’ he said ‘I beg you, If I find favour with you kindly do not pass your servant by.

⁴ A little water shall be brought; you shall wash your feet and lie down under the tree

⁵ Let me fetch a little bread and you shall refresh yourselves before going further. That is why you have come in your servant’s direction. They replied ‘Do as you say’.

⁶ Abraham hastened to the tent to find Sarah. ‘Hurry’ he said ‘knead three bushels of flour and make loaves.’

⁷ Then running to the cattle Abraham took a fine and tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it.

⁸ Then taking cream, milk and the calf he had prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate while he remained standing near them under the tree.

⁹ Where is your wife Sarah? they asked him. ‘She is in the tent’ he replied.

¹⁰ Then his guest said, ‘I shall visit you again next year without fail, and your wife will then have a son’. Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

¹¹ Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well on in years, and Sarah had ceased to have her monthly periods

¹² So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ‘Now that I am past the age of child-bearing, and my husband is an old man, is pleasure to come my way again!’

¹³ But Yahweh asked Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say,

¹⁴ “Am I really going to have a child now that I am old?” ‘is anything too wonderful for Yahweh? At the same time next year I shall visit you again and Sarah will have a son.’

¹⁵ ‘I did not laugh’ Sarah said, lying because she was afraid. But he replied, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh’.

¹⁶ From there the men set out and arrived within sight of Sodom, with Abraham accompanying them to show them the way.

¹⁷ Now Yahweh had wondered,

¹⁸ ‘Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do, ‘seeing that Abraham will become a great nation with all the nations of the earth blessing themselves by him?

¹⁹ For I have singled him out to command his sons and his household after him to maintain the way of Yahweh by just and upright living. In this way Yahweh wilt carry out for Abraham what he has promised him.’

²⁰ Then Yahweh said, ‘How great an outcry there is against Sodom and Gomorrah! How grievous is their sin!

²¹ I propose to go down and see whether or not they have done all that is alleged in the outcry against them that has come up to me. I am determined to know.’

²² The men left there and went to Sodom while Abraham remained standing before Yahweh.

²³ Approaching him he said, ‘Are you really going to destroy the just man with the sinner?

²⁴ Perhaps there are fifty just men in the town. Will you really overwhelm them, will you not spare the place for the fifty just men in it?

²⁵ Do not think of doing such a thing: to kill the just man with the sinner, treating just and sinner alike! Do not think of it! Will the judge of the whole earth not administer justice?’

²⁶ Yahweh replied, ‘If at Sodom I find fifty just men in the town, I will spare the whole place because of them’.

²⁷ Abraham replied, ‘I am bold indeed to speak like this to my Lord, I who am dust and ashes.

²⁸ But perhaps the fifty just men lack five: will you destroy the whole city for five?’ ‘No,’ he replied ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty five just men there.’

²⁹ Again Abraham said to him, ‘Perhaps there will only be forty there’. ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the forty.’

³⁰ Abraham said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be angry, but give me leave to speak: perhaps there will only be thirty there’. ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘if I find thirty there.’

³¹ He said, ‘I am bold indeed to speak like this, but perhaps there will only be twenty there’. ‘I will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the twenty.’

³² He said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps there will only be ten’. ‘I will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the ten.’

³³ When he had finished talking to Abraham Yahweh went away, and Abraham returned home.