Bible Time

¹AND Yahvah revealed himself to him by the oak of Mamre, as he was sitting at the door of the tent in the heat of the day; ²And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw 3 men stood at a distance from him; and when he saw them, he ran from the door of the tent to meet them and bowed himself to the ground, ³And said, Oh Yahvah, if I have now found mercy in your sight, do not pass away from your servant; ⁴Let me bring a little water and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree; ⁵And take a morsel of bread and sustain your hearts; after that you will go on your way, since you have come to your servant. And they said, Do as you have said. ⁶So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly 3 measures of fine flour, knead it, and make cakes on a griddle. ⁷And Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf fat and good, and gave it to a servant, and he hurried to prepare it. ⁸And he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set them before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they ate.

⁹And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, Look, she is in the tent. ¹⁰And Yahvah said, I will certainly return to you at this time next year, and look, Sarah your wife will be pregnant, and will have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind her. ¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well advanced in years; and Sarah was beyond the age of childbearing. ¹²Therefore Sarah laughed inside herself, saying, After I am grown old, will I renew my youth, my lord also being old? ¹³And Yahvah said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Will I truly bear a child, when I am so old? ¹⁴Is anything too hard for Yahvah? I will return to you at this season, and Sarah your wife will be pregnant, and will have a son. ¹⁵Then Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh; because she was afraid. And he said, No; but you did laugh.

¹⁶And the men rose up from there and looked toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to see them off. ¹⁷And Yahvah said, Will I hide from my servant Abraham the thing which I am going to do, ¹⁸Seeing that Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him? ¹⁹For I know him well, that he will command his children and his household after him, to keep the ways of Yahvah, to do justice and righteousness; for Yahvah will fulfill for Abraham the thing that he has spoken concerning him. ²⁰And Yahvah said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has come before me and their sins are very grievous, ²¹I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to their cry which has come before me; and if not, I will know. ²²So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom; but Abraham stood yet before Yahvah.

²³And Abraham drew near and said, Will you in your anger destroy the righteous with the sinners? ²⁴Suppose there are 50 righteous inside the city; will you in your anger destroy it, and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous that are in it? ²⁵Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the innocent with the guilty, far be it from you, oh Judge of the whole earth. Such a judgment should never be carried out. ²⁶And Yahvah said, If I find in Sodom 50 righteous inside the city, then I will spare the whole country for their sake. ²⁷And Abraham answered and said, Look, I have ventured to speak before Yahvah, yet I am but dust and ashes; ²⁸Suppose there will lack 5 of the 50 righteous; will you destroy the whole city for the lack of 5 men? And he said, If I find 45 there, I will not destroy it. ²⁹And Abraham spoke to him and said, Suppose 40 will be found there? And he said, I will not destroy it, if I find 40 there. ³⁰Then Abraham said, Oh do not let Yahvah be displeased and I will speak: Suppose 30 will be found there? And he said, I will not destroy it, if I find 30 there. ³¹And he said, Look, I have ventured to speak before Yahvah; suppose 20 will be found there? And he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of 20. ³²And he said, Oh, do not let Yahvah be displeased, and I will speak only once more; suppose 10 will be found there? And he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of 10. ³³And Yahvah went his way when he had finished communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.