¹Then the Lord appeared to him in the oak woods of Mamre, while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. ²And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and what he saw was three men standing in his vicinity, and when he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed down to the ground. ³And he said, “Lord^*, please, if I have found grace in your eyes, please do not pass by, away from your servant. ⁴Do let a little water be fetched and wash your feet and recline under the tree, ⁵and let me fetch a bit of food, and you refresh your hearts, and afterwards you can pass on, for that is why you came across to your servant.” Then they said, “Do so, as you have said.” ⁶So Abraham hurried to his tent, to Sarah, and he said, “Quickly prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and make bread-cake.” ⁷Meanwhile Abraham ran to the cattle and took a calf that was tender and good and gave it to the servant-lad, and he quickly cooked it. ⁸Then he took butter and milk and the calf which he had cooked, and he set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree, while they ate. ⁹And they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “Here she is, in the tent.” ¹⁰Then he said, “I will certainly return to you at this time next year, and you will see that Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹And Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in days, and it had ceased to be with Sarah the way it is with women. ¹²And Sarah laughed inwardly and said, “Will I have the pleasure, having grown old, my lord being old too?” ¹³And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really give birth, when I am so old?’? ¹⁴Is anything too stupendous for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁵Then Sarah spoke falsely and said, “I did not laugh”, for she was afraid. But he said, “No, you did laugh.” ¹⁶Then the men got up from there and peered down at the landscape of Sodom, and Abraham went with them to escort them on their way. ¹⁷Then the Lord said, “Do I conceal from Abraham what I do, ¹⁸considering Abraham will definitely be a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him? ¹⁹For I know him, in that he will command his sons and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, to exercise justice and judgment, in order that the Lord may bring over Abraham what he has told him.” ²⁰And the Lord said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very serious, ²¹I will just go down and see whether what they have done is completely in accordance with their cry which has come to me, and if it is not so, I will know.” ²²Then the men wended their way from there and went to Sodom, while the Lord was still standing in the presence of Abraham. ²³Then Abraham approached and said, “Will you really destroy the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴Suppose there are fifty righteous inside the city. Would you really destroy it and not bear with the place for the sake of fifty righteous inside it? ²⁵Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that it would be the same for the righteous and the wicked – far be it from you. Would the judge of the whole earth not execute justice?” ²⁶Then the Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous in Sodom, inside the city, then I will bear with the whole place for their sakes.” ²⁷Then Abraham responded and said, “Look, now that I have undertaken to speak to the Lord^*, although I am but dust and ashes, ²⁸suppose that fifty righteous should fall short by five, would you bring the whole city to ruin for want of five?” And he said, “I will not bring it to ruin if I find forty-five righteous there.” ²⁹Then he spoke yet again to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” And he said, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.” ³⁰Then he said, “Oh, do not let the Lord^* be angry, and let me speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” And he said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” ³¹Then he said, “Look, now that I have undertaken to speak to the Lord^*, suppose twenty are found there.” And he said, “I will not bring it to ruin for the sake of the twenty.” ³²Then he said, “Oh, do not let the Lord^* be angry, and I will speak just this one time. Suppose ten are found there.” And he said, “I will not bring it to ruin for the sake of the ten.” ³³Then the Lord went away when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham went back to his place.

Reference(s) in Chapter 18: v.14 ↔ Romans 9:9.