Kejadian 18:12-14

18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ¹  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ²  especially when my husband is old too?” ³ 

18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ⁴  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ⁵  have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible ⁶  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ⁷ 

Kejadian 18:19-24

18:19 I have chosen him ⁸  so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep ⁹  the way of the Lord by doing ¹⁰  what is right and just. Then the Lord will give ¹¹  to Abraham what he promised ¹²  him.”

18:20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against ¹³  Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant ¹⁴  18:21 that I must go down ¹⁵  and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. ¹⁶  If not, ¹⁷  I want to know.”

18:22 The two men turned ¹⁸  and headed ¹⁹  toward Sodom, but Abraham was still standing before the Lord. ²⁰  18:23 Abraham approached and said, “Will you sweep away the godly along with the wicked? 18:24 What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare ²¹  the place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it?

[18:12]  ¹ tn Heb “saying.”

[18:12]  ² tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.

[18:12]  ³ tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the Lord’s amazement: “Why on earth did Sarah laugh?”

[18:13]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”

[18:14]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

[18:14]  ⁷ sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

[18:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “For I have known him.” The verb יָדַע (yada’) here means “to recognize and treat in a special manner, to choose” (see Amos 3:2). It indicates that Abraham stood in a special covenantal relationship with the Lord.

[18:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they will keep.” The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive carries on the subjective nuance of the preceding imperfect verbal form (translated “so that he may command”).

[18:19]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive construct here indicates manner, explaining how Abraham’s children and his household will keep the way of the Lord.

[18:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “bring on.” The infinitive after לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) indicates result here.

[18:19]  ¹² tn Heb “spoke to.”

[18:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “the outcry of Sodom,” which apparently refers to the outcry for divine justice from those (unidentified persons) who observe its sinful ways.

[18:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “heavy.”

[18:21]  ¹⁵ tn The cohortative indicates the Lord’s resolve.

[18:21]  sn I must go down. The descent to “see” Sodom is a bold anthropomorphism, stressing the careful judgment of God. The language is reminiscent of the Lord going down to see the Tower of Babel in Gen 11:1-9.

[18:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[if] according to the outcry that has come to me they have done completely.” Even the Lord, who is well aware of the human capacity to sin, finds it hard to believe that anyone could be as bad as the “outcry” against Sodom and Gomorrah suggests.

[18:21]  ¹⁷ sn The short phrase if not provides a ray of hope and inspires Abraham’s intercession.

[18:22]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And the men turned from there.” The word “two” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied here for clarity. Gen 19:1 mentions only two individuals (described as “angels”), while Abraham had entertained three visitors (18:2). The implication is that the Lord was the third visitor, who remained behind with Abraham here. The words “from there” are not included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “went.”

[18:22]  ²⁰ tc An ancient Hebrew scribal tradition reads “but the Lord remained standing before Abraham.” This reading is problematic because the phrase “standing before” typically indicates intercession, but the Lord would certainly not be interceding before Abraham.

[18:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “lift up,” perhaps in the sense of “bear with” (cf. NRSV “forgive”).