The Lord confirms His promise to bring life where barrenness and impossibility remain, and He reveals Himself as the righteous Judge whose mercy and justice are both perfectly governed by His holy character.
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Genesis 18
The Lord Visits Abraham, Reaffirms the Promised Son, and Reveals His Just Judgment on Sodom
The Lord confirms His promise to bring life where barrenness and impossibility remain, and He reveals Himself as the righteous Judge whose mercy and justice are both perfectly governed by His holy character.
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Chapter Summary
The Lord confirms His promise to bring life where barrenness and impossibility remain, and He reveals Himself as the righteous Judge whose mercy and justice are both perfectly governed by His holy character.
Overview
Genesis 18 teaches that the God of the covenant is both the giver of impossible life and the Judge of moral evil, and these realities are not in tension but belong together in His holiness. The opening scene of divine visitation shows that the covenant promise is not abstract. The Lord comes near, receives hospitality, and speaks directly into the ordinary life of Abraham’s household.
The promise of Isaac is reaffirmed in the face of Sarah’s inward laughter, demonstrating that human inability cannot nullify divine determination. The key theological center of the first half of the chapter is the Lord’s question, 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?' This establishes that the covenant future depends on divine power, not human capacity. The second half of the chapter turns to Sodom.
God’s disclosure to Abraham reveals both covenant privilege and covenant purpose: Abraham is chosen not only for private blessing, but for a future in which righteousness and justice matter. The Lord’s announced investigation of Sodom shows that His judgment is never arbitrary. He judges with moral clarity and perfect knowledge. Abraham’s intercession then reveals both the boldness of covenant relationship and the moral confidence that God will act justly.
The repeated appeal rests on one foundational truth: the Judge of all the earth must do right. Thus Genesis 18 argues that God brings promised life out of impossibility, that He governs judgment with full righteousness, and that His covenant relationship with Abraham includes participation in the moral seriousness of His rule.
Genesis 18 stands as a pivotal chapter in the Abraham narrative because it joins together covenant promise, divine visitation, impossible birth, and coming judgment. Following Genesis 17, where God formally clarified that Sarah would bear the son of promise and that Isaac would be the covenant heir, Genesis 18 confirms that promise in a deeply personal and dramatic way.
At the same time, the chapter opens a second major movement in the Abraham cycle by turning attention toward Sodom and Gomorrah. Within the flow of Genesis, this chapter therefore functions in two directions at once: it strengthens the covenant future of Abraham’s household, and it prepares the judicial downfall of the cities of the plain. The chapter is also important because it reveals the character of God with unusual richness.
He is the God who visits, speaks, knows, promises, hears, investigates, and judges with perfect righteousness. In canonical perspective, Genesis 18 becomes foundational for themes of divine hospitality, miraculous promise, intercessory pleading, and the moral certainty that the Judge of all the earth always does what is right.
Structural Flow
The Lord appears to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. Abraham sees three men, hastens to welcome them, offers hospitality, and prepares an abundant meal, which is set before them.
The visitors ask for Sarah, reaffirm that she will have a son at the appointed time, Sarah laughs inwardly at the seeming impossibility, and the Lord confronts her unbelieving laughter with the rhetorical question, 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?' 18:16–21 — The men rise toward Sodom, and the Lord discloses that He will not hide from Abraham what He is about to do, since Abraham is chosen to become a great and mighty nation through whom all nations will be blessed.
The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and the Lord announces His descent to see whether their wickedness is as full as reported.
Abraham remains before the Lord and intercedes for Sodom, appealing repeatedly to divine justice, asking whether the city might be spared for the sake of fifty, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and ten righteous people. The chapter closes with the Lord departing and Abraham returning to His place.
Chapter Outline
- 18:1–8: The Lord appears to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. Abraham sees three men, hastens to welcome them, offers hospitality, and prepares an abundant meal, which is set before them.
- 18:9–15: The visitors ask for Sarah, reaffirm that she will have a son at the appointed time, Sarah laughs inwardly at the seeming impossibility, and the Lord confronts her unbelieving laughter with the rhetorical question, 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?' 18:16–21 — The men rise toward Sodom, and the Lord discloses that He will not hide from Abraham what He is about to do, since Abraham is chosen to become a great and mighty nation through whom all nations will be blessed. The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and the Lord announces His descent to see whether their wickedness is as full as reported.
- 18:22–33: Abraham remains before the Lord and intercedes for Sodom, appealing repeatedly to divine justice, asking whether the city might be spared for the sake of fifty, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and ten righteous people. The chapter closes with the Lord departing and Abraham returning to His place.
Theological Focus
- Divine Promise
- Divine Omnipotence
- Justice
- Judgment
- Intercession
- Covenant Privilege
- Hospitality
- Holiness
- Theology Proper
- Covenant Theology
- Providence
- Christology Preparation
Covenant Significance
Genesis 18 is covenantally significant because it reaffirms the promised son through Sarah and further explains Abraham’s covenant role in relation to the nations and to righteousness. The chapter makes clear that Abraham has been chosen not merely to receive blessing, but to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has promised.
This chapter therefore deepens the ethical dimension of covenant life. Covenant election is joined to covenant responsibility, and covenant privilege includes insight into God’s purposes in history. The promise of Isaac is also confirmed again in a way that secures the covenant line against lingering doubt.
Canonical Connections
Genesis 18 is covenantally significant because it reaffirms the promised son through Sarah and further explains Abraham’s covenant role in relation to the nations and to righteousness. The chapter makes clear that Abraham has been chosen not merely to receive blessing, but to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has promised.
This chapter therefore deepens the ethical dimension of covenant life. Covenant election is joined to covenant responsibility, and covenant privilege includes insight into God’s purposes in history. The promise of Isaac is also confirmed again in a way that secures the covenant line against lingering doubt.
Genesis 17:1-21
Genesis 19:1-29
Exodus 32:11-14
Psalm 89:14
Jeremiah 32:17
Genesis 17:1-27
Genesis 19:1-29
Exodus 32:7-14
Hebrews 11:11
Cross References
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
Clarifies how the passage points to the gospel of Christ.
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh. Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. For I was...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought...
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh; “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?
Shows Old Testament grounding that frames or supports this passage.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
Develops the same theological theme in another location.
Gospel Clarity
Genesis 18 strengthens the gospel trajectory in two major ways. First, it confirms that the promised son will come not by human strength but by God’s power, reinforcing the pattern that redemption depends on divine initiative. Second, it reveals the moral seriousness of the world under God’s judgment and the need for righteous mediation. Abraham intercedes, but the chapter leaves open the need for a greater mediator and a deeper deliverance than temporary sparing.
In the fullness of Scripture, Christ is both the true promised Son and the greater mediator who intercedes for His people and secures deliverance from the judgment their sin deserves.
Gospel Cross References
Primary Emphasis
Genesis 18 contributes to Christology by intensifying the miraculous-son pattern that ultimately prepares for the greater promised Son. Isaac’s coming birth remains humanly impossible and depends wholly on divine power, reinforcing the principle that God brings redemptive life where human capacity fails. The chapter also contributes to the biblical theology of mediation and intercession through Abraham’s pleading, which anticipates a greater intercessor to come.
In the wider canonical frame, Christ is the true promised Son, the one in whom divine power, covenant promise, righteousness, and mediation reach their fullest expression.
Chapter Contribution
Genesis 18 teaches that the God of the covenant is both the giver of impossible life and the Judge of moral evil, and these realities are not in tension but belong together in His holiness. The opening scene of divine visitation shows that the covenant promise is not abstract. The Lord comes near, receives hospitality, and speaks directly into the ordinary life of Abraham’s household.
The promise of Isaac is reaffirmed in the face of Sarah’s inward laughter, demonstrating that human inability cannot nullify divine determination. The key theological center of the first half of the chapter is the Lord’s question, 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?' This establishes that the covenant future depends on divine power, not human capacity. The second half of the chapter turns to Sodom.
God’s disclosure to Abraham reveals both covenant privilege and covenant purpose: Abraham is chosen not only for private blessing, but for a future in which righteousness and justice matter. The Lord’s announced investigation of Sodom shows that His judgment is never arbitrary. He judges with moral clarity and perfect knowledge. Abraham’s intercession then reveals both the boldness of covenant relationship and the moral confidence that God will act justly.
The repeated appeal rests on one foundational truth: the Judge of all the earth must do right. Thus Genesis 18 argues that God brings promised life out of impossibility, that He governs judgment with full righteousness, and that His covenant relationship with Abraham includes participation in the moral seriousness of His rule.
Doctrines in This Chapter
Human sin is known to God and will be judged.
God’s people are called to uphold righteousness and justice.
God graciously confronts unbelief to lead His people into faith.
God judges with perfect righteousness and never acts unjustly.
God shows willingness to spare judgment in the presence of righteousness.
God draws near to His people in personal and relational ways.
God has unlimited power to accomplish what is impossible for humans.
God knows the hidden thoughts and responses of the heart.
God chooses individuals for both blessing and responsibility.
Welcoming others reflects reverence toward God and covenant awareness.
Humans struggle with doubt when faced with divine promises.
Proper approach to God is marked by humility and reverence.
God invites His people to intercede as part of His redemptive purposes.
A mediator stands between judgment and those under threat, pointing forward to Christ.
God’s promises are certain and fulfilled according to His timing.
God’s people are to be prepared to respond when He draws near.
God reveals His purposes to His covenant people.
God reveals Himself in visible form to interact with His people.
Service rendered to God is marked by humility and generosity.
Reading Lenses
3 Imperatives
- Quickly prepare hospitality
- Receive the promise in faith rather than unbelieving laughter
- Live out covenant calling in righteousness and justice
Key Hebrew Terms
Individual words וְיָדְעוּ כִּי־אֲנִי יְהוָה wəyāḏəʿû kî-ʾănî YHWH · בְּאֵר לַחַי רֹאִי Be'er Lahai Roi
Sense the LORD appeared
Definition the LORD appeared
Why it matters The chapter opens with divine visitation, emphasizing that the covenant God draws near personally to confirm His word and reveal His purposes.
Sense hurry, hasten
Definition hurry, hasten
Why it matters Abraham’s haste in hospitality reflects reverent readiness before divine guests and underscores the seriousness of receiving them.
Sense I will surely return
Definition I will surely return
Why it matters The emphatic promise formula underlines the certainty of God’s appointed return and the certainty of Isaac’s birth.
Sense appointed time
Definition appointed time
Why it matters The promised birth of Isaac is tied to God’s appointed time, reinforcing that fulfillment belongs to divine timing rather than human urgency.
Sense laugh
Definition laugh
Why it matters Sarah’s laughter exposes the tension between divine promise and human impossibility, and becomes a window into unbelief confronted by God.
Sense be too difficult, be wonderful, be beyond ability
Definition be too difficult, be wonderful, be beyond ability
Why it matters The Lord’s rhetorical question about whether anything is too hard for Him forms the theological center of the promise section.
Sense I have known/chosen him
Definition I have known/chosen him
Why it matters God’s statement about knowing Abraham grounds the covenant relationship and Abraham’s vocation in divine election and purpose.
Sense righteousness and justice
Definition righteousness and justice
Why it matters These terms define Abraham’s covenantal calling and reveal that God’s covenant purposes are morally shaped, not morally indifferent.
Sense outcry
Definition outcry
Why it matters The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah signals accumulated wickedness that has risen before God and demands judicial attention.
Sense go down, descend
Definition go down, descend
Why it matters The Lord’s descent language reveals judicial seriousness and the fairness of divine investigation before judgment.
Sense judge
Definition judge
Why it matters Abraham’s appeal to the Judge of all the earth crystallizes the chapter’s theology of perfect divine justice.
Lexicon data: MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML (CC0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon (CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible Data (CC BY 4.0) · Full details
Commentary (Keil & Delitzsch)
C.F. Keil & F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–91) — public domain
Warnings and Misreadings
- Genesis 18 warns that unbelieving laughter at God’s promise and entrenched wickedness before God’s face both stand exposed before the Lord who sees, knows, and judges rightly.
- Treating the hospitality scene as merely an example of ancient courtesy while missing its significance as a setting of divine visitation and covenant confirmation.
- Reducing Sarah’s laughter to harmless amusement rather than recognizing it as unbelief confronted by the Lord’s all-sufficiency.
- Reading the chapter as though the promise and the judgment sections are unrelated, when both reveal the same holy and sovereign God.
- Assuming Abraham’s intercession suggests God is morally uncertain, rather than seeing it as a God-given participation in divine justice and mercy.
- Ignoring the covenant purpose statement about righteousness and justice and thus missing a major theological description of Abraham’s calling.
- Treating the investigation of Sodom as though God lacks knowledge, instead of recognizing this as judicial language revealing the fairness and moral seriousness of His judgment.
Discipleship Questions
- Where are You tempted to laugh inwardly at what God has promised because it seems too difficult or too late?
- How does the question, 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?' confront Your fears and limitations?
- Do righteousness and justice meaningfully shape Your walk with God, or do You think of faith mostly in personal and private terms?
- How does Abraham’s intercession challenge You to pray more earnestly for people under the shadow of judgment?
- Do You truly believe that the Judge of all the earth will always do right, even when You cannot see the full outcome?
Pastoral Applications
- Preach Genesis 18 as a chapter that reveals the nearness of God, the certainty of His promise, and the holiness of His judgment all at once.
- Use Sarah’s laughter to expose subtle unbelief that hides beneath outward participation in covenant life.
- Encourage believers facing impossible situations with the truth that God’s power is not limited by age, barrenness, delay, or human weakness.
- Teach the church that covenant life includes righteousness and justice, not merely personal blessing and inward experience.
- Use Abraham’s intercession to cultivate a serious theology of prayer that pleads with God on the basis of His righteous character.
- Warn plainly that societies can become so morally corrupt that divine judgment is no abstraction, while also showing that God judges with perfect justice.
- Show that faithful hospitality, attentiveness, and readiness to serve can become settings in which the Lord’s purposes are freshly revealed.
Pastoral Trajectories
Genesis 18 strengthens the gospel trajectory in two major ways. First, it confirms that the promised son will come not by human strength but by God’s power, reinforcing the pattern that redemption depends on divine initiative. Second, it reveals the moral seriousness of the world under God’s judgment and the need for righteous mediation. Abraham intercedes, but the chapter leaves open the need for a greater mediator and a deeper deliverance than temporary sparing.
In the fullness of Scripture, Christ is both the true promised Son and the greater mediator who intercedes for His people and secures deliverance from the judgment their sin deserves.
Genesis 18 strengthens the gospel trajectory in two major ways. First, it confirms that the promised son will come not by human strength but by God’s power, reinforcing the pattern that redemption depends on divine initiative. Second, it reveals the moral seriousness of the world under God’s judgment and the need for righteous mediation. Abraham intercedes, but the chapter leaves open the need for a greater mediator and a deeper deliverance than temporary sparing.
In the fullness of Scripture, Christ is both the true promised Son and the greater mediator who intercedes for His people and secures deliverance from the judgment their sin deserves.
Genesis 18 strengthens the gospel trajectory in two major ways. First, it confirms that the promised son will come not by human strength but by God’s power, reinforcing the pattern that redemption depends on divine initiative. Second, it reveals the moral seriousness of the world under God’s judgment and the need for righteous mediation. Abraham intercedes, but the chapter leaves open the need for a greater mediator and a deeper deliverance than temporary sparing.
In the fullness of Scripture, Christ is both the true promised Son and the greater mediator who intercedes for His people and secures deliverance from the judgment their sin deserves.
Genesis 18 strengthens the gospel trajectory in two major ways. First, it confirms that the promised son will come not by human strength but by God’s power, reinforcing the pattern that redemption depends on divine initiative. Second, it reveals the moral seriousness of the world under God’s judgment and the need for righteous mediation. Abraham intercedes, but the chapter leaves open the need for a greater mediator and a deeper deliverance than temporary sparing.
In the fullness of Scripture, Christ is both the true promised Son and the greater mediator who intercedes for His people and secures deliverance from the judgment their sin deserves.
Genesis 18 strengthens the gospel trajectory in two major ways. First, it confirms that the promised son will come not by human strength but by God’s power, reinforcing the pattern that redemption depends on divine initiative. Second, it reveals the moral seriousness of the world under God’s judgment and the need for righteous mediation. Abraham intercedes, but the chapter leaves open the need for a greater mediator and a deeper deliverance than temporary sparing.
In the fullness of Scripture, Christ is both the true promised Son and the greater mediator who intercedes for His people and secures deliverance from the judgment their sin deserves.
Imperatives
3
High
Imperative Themes
- Quickly prepare hospitality
- Receive the promise in faith rather than unbelieving laughter
- Live out covenant calling in righteousness and justice
Motifs in This Chapter
The Biblical World
Chapter At A Glance
Genesis 18 is covenantally significant because it reaffirms the promised son through Sarah and further explains Abraham’s covenant role in relation to the nations and to righteousness. The chapter makes clear that Abraham has been chosen not merely to receive blessing, but to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has promised.
This chapter therefore deepens the ethical dimension of covenant life. Covenant election is joined to covenant responsibility, and covenant privilege includes insight into God’s purposes in history. The promise of Isaac is also confirmed again in a way that secures the covenant line against lingering doubt.
Genesis 18 strengthens the gospel trajectory in two major ways. First, it confirms that the promised son will come not by human strength but by God’s power, reinforcing the pattern that redemption depends on divine initiative. Second, it reveals the moral seriousness of the world under God’s judgment and the need for righteous mediation. Abraham intercedes, but the chapter leaves open the need for a greater mediator and a deeper deliverance than temporary sparing.
In the fullness of Scripture, Christ is both the true promised Son and the greater mediator who intercedes for His people and secures deliverance from the judgment their sin deserves.
Focus Points
- Divine Promise
- Divine Omnipotence
- Justice
- Judgment
- Intercession
- Covenant Privilege
- Hospitality
- Holiness
- Theology Proper
- Covenant Theology
- Providence
- Christology Preparation
Cross References
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to Him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and You, and will multiply You exceedingly.” Abram fell on His face. God talked with Him, saying,
Old Testament foundation
The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed Himself with His face to the earth, and He said, “See now, my lords, please come into Your servant’s house, stay all night, wash Your feet, and You can rise up early, and go on Your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all...
Old Testament foundation
Moses begged Yahweh His God, and said, “Yahweh, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people, that You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?’ Turn from Your...
Old Testament foundation
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before Your face.
Old Testament foundation
“Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.
Old Testament foundation
Yahweh visited Sarah as He had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as He had spoken. Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in His old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to Him.
Gospel resolution
For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”
Gospel resolution
For this is a word of promise, “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”
Gospel resolution
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, seeing that He lives forever to make intercession for them.
Gospel resolution
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way; and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in His righteous soul from day to day with seeing and...
Gospel resolution
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to Him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and You, and will multiply You exceedingly.” Abram fell on His face. God talked with Him, saying,
Thematic parallel
The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed Himself with His face to the earth, and He said, “See now, my lords, please come into Your servant’s house, stay all night, wash Your feet, and You can rise up early, and go on Your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all...
Thematic parallel
Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, get down; for Your people, who You brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves! They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are Your gods, Israel, which brought You up out of the...
Thematic parallel
By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted Him faithful who had promised.
Thematic parallel
Passages
Chapter opening: Genesis 18:1-8
Having been received into the covenant with God through the rite of circumcision, Abraham was shortly afterwards honoured by being allowed to receive and entertain the Lord and two angels in his tent. This fresh manifestation of God had a double purpose, viz. , to establish Sarah’s faith in the promise that she should bear a son in her old age (Gen 18:1-15), and to announce the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (vv.
16-33). Gen 18:1-5 When sitting, about mid-day, in the grove of Mamre, in front of his tent, Abraham looked up and unexpectedly saw three men standing at some distance from him (עליו above him, looking down upon him as he sat), viz. , Jehovah (Gen 18:13) and two angels (Gen 19:1); all three in human form. Perceiving at once that one of them was the Lord (אדני, i.
e. , God), he prostrated himself reverentially before them, and entreated them not to pass him by, but to suffer him to entertain them as his guests: “ Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves (השּׁען( sevle to recline, leaning upon the arm) under the tree . ” - “ Comfort your hearts: ” lit. , “ strengthen the heart, ” i. e. , refresh yourselves by eating and drinking (Jdg 19:5; 1Ki 21:7).
“ For therefore (sc. , to give me an opportunity to entertain you hospitably) have ye come over to your servant: ” כּן על כּי does not stand for כּי כּן על ( Ges. thes. p. 682), but means “because for this purpose” (vid. , Ewald , §353).
Having been received into the covenant with God through the rite of circumcision, Abraham was shortly afterwards honoured by being allowed to receive and entertain the Lord and two angels in his tent. This fresh manifestation of God had a double purpose, viz. , to establish Sarah’s faith in the promise that she should bear a son in her old age (Gen 18:1-15), and to announce the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (vv.
16-33). Gen 18:1-5 When sitting, about mid-day, in the grove of Mamre, in front of his tent, Abraham looked up and unexpectedly saw three men standing at some distance from him (עליו above him, looking down upon him as he sat), viz. , Jehovah (Gen 18:13) and two angels (Gen 19:1); all three in human form. Perceiving at once that one of them was the Lord (אדני, i.
e. , God), he prostrated himself reverentially before them, and entreated them not to pass him by, but to suffer him to entertain them as his guests: “ Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves (השּׁען( sevle to recline, leaning upon the arm) under the tree . ” - “ Comfort your hearts: ” lit. , “ strengthen the heart, ” i. e. , refresh yourselves by eating and drinking (Jdg 19:5; 1Ki 21:7).
“ For therefore (sc. , to give me an opportunity to entertain you hospitably) have ye come over to your servant: ” כּן על כּי does not stand for כּי כּן על ( Ges. thes. p. 682), but means “because for this purpose” (vid. , Ewald , §353).
Having been received into the covenant with God through the rite of circumcision, Abraham was shortly afterwards honoured by being allowed to receive and entertain the Lord and two angels in his tent. This fresh manifestation of God had a double purpose, viz. , to establish Sarah’s faith in the promise that she should bear a son in her old age (Gen 18:1-15), and to announce the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (vv.
16-33). Gen 18:1-5 When sitting, about mid-day, in the grove of Mamre, in front of his tent, Abraham looked up and unexpectedly saw three men standing at some distance from him (עליו above him, looking down upon him as he sat), viz. , Jehovah (Gen 18:13) and two angels (Gen 19:1); all three in human form. Perceiving at once that one of them was the Lord (אדני, i.
e. , God), he prostrated himself reverentially before them, and entreated them not to pass him by, but to suffer him to entertain them as his guests: “ Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves (השּׁען( sevle to recline, leaning upon the arm) under the tree . ” - “ Comfort your hearts: ” lit. , “ strengthen the heart, ” i. e. , refresh yourselves by eating and drinking (Jdg 19:5; 1Ki 21:7).
“ For therefore (sc. , to give me an opportunity to entertain you hospitably) have ye come over to your servant: ” כּן על כּי does not stand for כּי כּן על ( Ges. thes. p. 682), but means “because for this purpose” (vid. , Ewald , §353).
Having been received into the covenant with God through the rite of circumcision, Abraham was shortly afterwards honoured by being allowed to receive and entertain the Lord and two angels in his tent. This fresh manifestation of God had a double purpose, viz. , to establish Sarah’s faith in the promise that she should bear a son in her old age (Gen 18:1-15), and to announce the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (vv.
16-33). Gen 18:1-5 When sitting, about mid-day, in the grove of Mamre, in front of his tent, Abraham looked up and unexpectedly saw three men standing at some distance from him (עליו above him, looking down upon him as he sat), viz. , Jehovah (Gen 18:13) and two angels (Gen 19:1); all three in human form. Perceiving at once that one of them was the Lord (אדני, i.
e. , God), he prostrated himself reverentially before them, and entreated them not to pass him by, but to suffer him to entertain them as his guests: “ Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves (השּׁען( sevle to recline, leaning upon the arm) under the tree . ” - “ Comfort your hearts: ” lit. , “ strengthen the heart, ” i. e. , refresh yourselves by eating and drinking (Jdg 19:5; 1Ki 21:7).
“ For therefore (sc. , to give me an opportunity to entertain you hospitably) have ye come over to your servant: ” כּן על כּי does not stand for כּי כּן על ( Ges. thes. p. 682), but means “because for this purpose” (vid. , Ewald , §353).
Having been received into the covenant with God through the rite of circumcision, Abraham was shortly afterwards honoured by being allowed to receive and entertain the Lord and two angels in his tent. This fresh manifestation of God had a double purpose, viz. , to establish Sarah’s faith in the promise that she should bear a son in her old age (Gen 18:1-15), and to announce the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (vv.
16-33). Gen 18:1-5 When sitting, about mid-day, in the grove of Mamre, in front of his tent, Abraham looked up and unexpectedly saw three men standing at some distance from him (עליו above him, looking down upon him as he sat), viz. , Jehovah (Gen 18:13) and two angels (Gen 19:1); all three in human form. Perceiving at once that one of them was the Lord (אדני, i.
e. , God), he prostrated himself reverentially before them, and entreated them not to pass him by, but to suffer him to entertain them as his guests: “ Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves (השּׁען( sevle to recline, leaning upon the arm) under the tree . ” - “ Comfort your hearts: ” lit. , “ strengthen the heart, ” i. e. , refresh yourselves by eating and drinking (Jdg 19:5; 1Ki 21:7).
“ For therefore (sc. , to give me an opportunity to entertain you hospitably) have ye come over to your servant: ” כּן על כּי does not stand for כּי כּן על ( Ges. thes. p. 682), but means “because for this purpose” (vid. , Ewald , §353).
Gen 18:6-8 When the three men had accepted the hospitable invitation, Abraham, just like a Bedouin sheikh of the present day, directed his wife to take three seahs (374 cubic inches each) of fine meal, and back cakes of it as quickly as possible (עגּות round unleavened cakes baked upon hot stones); he also had a tender calf killed, and sent for milk and butter, or curdled milk, and thus prepared a bountiful and savoury meal, of which the guests partook. The eating of material food on the part of these heavenly beings was not in appearance only, but was really eating; an act which may be attributed to the corporeality assumed, and is to be regarded as analogous to the eating on the part of the risen and glorified Christ (Luk 24:41.)
, although the miracle still remains physiologically incomprehensible.
Gen 18:6-8 When the three men had accepted the hospitable invitation, Abraham, just like a Bedouin sheikh of the present day, directed his wife to take three seahs (374 cubic inches each) of fine meal, and back cakes of it as quickly as possible (עגּות round unleavened cakes baked upon hot stones); he also had a tender calf killed, and sent for milk and butter, or curdled milk, and thus prepared a bountiful and savoury meal, of which the guests partook. The eating of material food on the part of these heavenly beings was not in appearance only, but was really eating; an act which may be attributed to the corporeality assumed, and is to be regarded as analogous to the eating on the part of the risen and glorified Christ (Luk 24:41.)
, although the miracle still remains physiologically incomprehensible.
Gen 18:6-8 When the three men had accepted the hospitable invitation, Abraham, just like a Bedouin sheikh of the present day, directed his wife to take three seahs (374 cubic inches each) of fine meal, and back cakes of it as quickly as possible (עגּות round unleavened cakes baked upon hot stones); he also had a tender calf killed, and sent for milk and butter, or curdled milk, and thus prepared a bountiful and savoury meal, of which the guests partook. The eating of material food on the part of these heavenly beings was not in appearance only, but was really eating; an act which may be attributed to the corporeality assumed, and is to be regarded as analogous to the eating on the part of the risen and glorified Christ (Luk 24:41.)
, although the miracle still remains physiologically incomprehensible.
Gen 18:9-15 During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Gen 18:13, said, “ I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again ” (חיּה, reviviscens , without the article, Ges.
§111, 2 b ), i. e. , at this time next year; “ and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son . ” Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; “ and it was behind Him ” ( Jehovah ), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham’s extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed.
But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, “ Is anything too wonderful (i. e. , impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee, ” etc. ; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof.
For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb 11:11).
Gen 18:9-15 During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Gen 18:13, said, “ I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again ” (חיּה, reviviscens , without the article, Ges.
§111, 2 b ), i. e. , at this time next year; “ and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son . ” Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; “ and it was behind Him ” ( Jehovah ), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham’s extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed.
But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, “ Is anything too wonderful (i. e. , impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee, ” etc. ; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof.
For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb 11:11).
Gen 18:9-15 During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Gen 18:13, said, “ I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again ” (חיּה, reviviscens , without the article, Ges.
§111, 2 b ), i. e. , at this time next year; “ and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son . ” Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; “ and it was behind Him ” ( Jehovah ), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham’s extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed.
But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, “ Is anything too wonderful (i. e. , impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee, ” etc. ; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof.
For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb 11:11).
Gen 18:9-15 During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Gen 18:13, said, “ I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again ” (חיּה, reviviscens , without the article, Ges.
§111, 2 b ), i. e. , at this time next year; “ and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son . ” Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; “ and it was behind Him ” ( Jehovah ), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham’s extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed.
But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, “ Is anything too wonderful (i. e. , impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee, ” etc. ; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof.
For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb 11:11).
Gen 18:9-15 During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Gen 18:13, said, “ I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again ” (חיּה, reviviscens , without the article, Ges.
§111, 2 b ), i. e. , at this time next year; “ and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son . ” Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; “ and it was behind Him ” ( Jehovah ), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham’s extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed.
But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, “ Is anything too wonderful (i. e. , impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee, ” etc. ; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof.
For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb 11:11).
Gen 18:9-15 During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Gen 18:13, said, “ I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again ” (חיּה, reviviscens , without the article, Ges.
§111, 2 b ), i. e. , at this time next year; “ and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son . ” Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; “ and it was behind Him ” ( Jehovah ), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham’s extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed.
But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, “ Is anything too wonderful (i. e. , impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee, ” etc. ; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof.
For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb 11:11).
Gen 18:9-15 During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Gen 18:13, said, “ I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again ” (חיּה, reviviscens , without the article, Ges.
§111, 2 b ), i. e. , at this time next year; “ and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son . ” Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; “ and it was behind Him ” ( Jehovah ), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham’s extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed.
But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, “ Is anything too wonderful (i. e. , impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee, ” etc. ; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof.
For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb 11:11).
Gen 18:16-19 After this conversation with Sarah, the heavenly guests rose up and turned their faces towards the plain of Sodom (פּני על, as in Gen 19:28; Num 21:20; Num 23:28). Abraham accompanied them some distance on the road; according to tradition, he went as far as the site of the later Caphar barucha , from which you can see the Dead Sea through a ravine, - solitudinem ac terras Sodomae .
And Jehovah said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I propose to do? Abraham is destined to be a great nation and a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:2-3); for I have known, i. e. , acknowledged him (chosen him in anticipative love, ידע as in Amo 3:2; Hos 13:4), that he may command his whole posterity to keep the way of Jehovah , to practise justice and righteousness, that all the promises may be fulfilled in them.
” God then disclosed to Abraham what he was about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, not, as Kurtz supposes, because Abraham had been constituted the hereditary possessor of the land, and Jehovah , being mindful of His covenant, would not do anything to it without his knowledge and assent (a thought quite foreign to the context), but because Jehovah had chosen him to be the father of the people of God, in order that, by instructing his descendants in the fear of God, he might lead them in the paths of righteousness, so that they might become partakers of the promised salvation, and not be overtaken by judgment. The destruction of Sodom and the surrounding cities was to be a permanent memorial of the punitive righteousness of God, and to keep the fate of the ungodly constantly before the mind of Israel.
To this end Jehovah explained to Abraham the cause of their destruction in the clearest manner possible, that he might not only be convinced of the justice of the divine government, but might learn that when the measure of iniquity was full, no intercession could avert the judgment-a lesson and a warning to his descendants also.
Gen 18:16-19 After this conversation with Sarah, the heavenly guests rose up and turned their faces towards the plain of Sodom (פּני על, as in Gen 19:28; Num 21:20; Num 23:28). Abraham accompanied them some distance on the road; according to tradition, he went as far as the site of the later Caphar barucha , from which you can see the Dead Sea through a ravine, - solitudinem ac terras Sodomae .
And Jehovah said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I propose to do? Abraham is destined to be a great nation and a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:2-3); for I have known, i. e. , acknowledged him (chosen him in anticipative love, ידע as in Amo 3:2; Hos 13:4), that he may command his whole posterity to keep the way of Jehovah , to practise justice and righteousness, that all the promises may be fulfilled in them.
” God then disclosed to Abraham what he was about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, not, as Kurtz supposes, because Abraham had been constituted the hereditary possessor of the land, and Jehovah , being mindful of His covenant, would not do anything to it without his knowledge and assent (a thought quite foreign to the context), but because Jehovah had chosen him to be the father of the people of God, in order that, by instructing his descendants in the fear of God, he might lead them in the paths of righteousness, so that they might become partakers of the promised salvation, and not be overtaken by judgment. The destruction of Sodom and the surrounding cities was to be a permanent memorial of the punitive righteousness of God, and to keep the fate of the ungodly constantly before the mind of Israel.
To this end Jehovah explained to Abraham the cause of their destruction in the clearest manner possible, that he might not only be convinced of the justice of the divine government, but might learn that when the measure of iniquity was full, no intercession could avert the judgment-a lesson and a warning to his descendants also.
Gen 18:16-19 After this conversation with Sarah, the heavenly guests rose up and turned their faces towards the plain of Sodom (פּני על, as in Gen 19:28; Num 21:20; Num 23:28). Abraham accompanied them some distance on the road; according to tradition, he went as far as the site of the later Caphar barucha , from which you can see the Dead Sea through a ravine, - solitudinem ac terras Sodomae .
And Jehovah said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I propose to do? Abraham is destined to be a great nation and a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:2-3); for I have known, i. e. , acknowledged him (chosen him in anticipative love, ידע as in Amo 3:2; Hos 13:4), that he may command his whole posterity to keep the way of Jehovah , to practise justice and righteousness, that all the promises may be fulfilled in them.
” God then disclosed to Abraham what he was about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, not, as Kurtz supposes, because Abraham had been constituted the hereditary possessor of the land, and Jehovah , being mindful of His covenant, would not do anything to it without his knowledge and assent (a thought quite foreign to the context), but because Jehovah had chosen him to be the father of the people of God, in order that, by instructing his descendants in the fear of God, he might lead them in the paths of righteousness, so that they might become partakers of the promised salvation, and not be overtaken by judgment. The destruction of Sodom and the surrounding cities was to be a permanent memorial of the punitive righteousness of God, and to keep the fate of the ungodly constantly before the mind of Israel.
To this end Jehovah explained to Abraham the cause of their destruction in the clearest manner possible, that he might not only be convinced of the justice of the divine government, but might learn that when the measure of iniquity was full, no intercession could avert the judgment-a lesson and a warning to his descendants also.
Gen 18:16-19 After this conversation with Sarah, the heavenly guests rose up and turned their faces towards the plain of Sodom (פּני על, as in Gen 19:28; Num 21:20; Num 23:28). Abraham accompanied them some distance on the road; according to tradition, he went as far as the site of the later Caphar barucha , from which you can see the Dead Sea through a ravine, - solitudinem ac terras Sodomae .
And Jehovah said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I propose to do? Abraham is destined to be a great nation and a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:2-3); for I have known, i. e. , acknowledged him (chosen him in anticipative love, ידע as in Amo 3:2; Hos 13:4), that he may command his whole posterity to keep the way of Jehovah , to practise justice and righteousness, that all the promises may be fulfilled in them.
” God then disclosed to Abraham what he was about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, not, as Kurtz supposes, because Abraham had been constituted the hereditary possessor of the land, and Jehovah , being mindful of His covenant, would not do anything to it without his knowledge and assent (a thought quite foreign to the context), but because Jehovah had chosen him to be the father of the people of God, in order that, by instructing his descendants in the fear of God, he might lead them in the paths of righteousness, so that they might become partakers of the promised salvation, and not be overtaken by judgment. The destruction of Sodom and the surrounding cities was to be a permanent memorial of the punitive righteousness of God, and to keep the fate of the ungodly constantly before the mind of Israel.
To this end Jehovah explained to Abraham the cause of their destruction in the clearest manner possible, that he might not only be convinced of the justice of the divine government, but might learn that when the measure of iniquity was full, no intercession could avert the judgment-a lesson and a warning to his descendants also.
Gen 18:20 “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, yea it is great; and their sin, yea it is very grievous.” The cry is the appeal for vengeance or punishment, which ascends to heaven (Gen 4:10). The כּי serves to give emphasis to the assertion, and is placed in the middle of the sentence to give the greater prominence to the leading thought (cf. Ewald , §330).
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.
Gen 18:21-33 God was about to go down, and convince Himself whether they had done entirely according to the cry which had reached Him, or not. כלה עשׂה, lit. , to make completeness, here referring to the extremity of iniquity, generally to the extremity of punishment (Nah 1:8-9; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10): כּלה is a noun, as Isa 10:23 shows, not an adverb, as in Exo 11:1.
After this explanation, the men (according to Gen 19:1, the two angels) turned from thence to go to Sodom (Gen 18:22); but Abraham continued standing before Jehovah , who had been talking with him, and approached Him with earnestness and boldness of faith to intercede for Sodom. He was urged to this, not by any special interest in Lot, for in that case he would have prayed for his deliverance; nor by the circumstance that, as he had just before felt himself called upon to become the protector, avenger, and deliverer of the land from its foes, so he now thought himself called upon to act as mediator, and to appeal from Jehovah 's judicial wrath to Jehovah 's covenant grace ( Kurtz ), for he had not delivered the land from the foe, but merely rescued his nephew Lot and all the booty that remained after the enemy had withdrawn; nor did he appeal to the covenant grace of Jehovah , but to His justice alone; and on the principle that the Judge of all the earth could not possibly destroy the righteous with the wicked, he founded his entreaty that God would forgive the city if there were but fifty righteous in it, or even if there were only ten.
He was led to intercede in this way, not by “ communis erga quinque populos misericordia ” ( Calvin ), but by the love which springs from the consciousness that one’s own preservation and rescue are due to compassionate grace alone; love, too, which cannot conceive of the guilt of others as too great for salvation to be possible. This sympathetic love, springing from the faith which was counted for righteousness, impelled him to the intercession which Luther thus describes: “ sexies petiit, et cum tanto ardore ac affectu sic urgente, ut prae nimia angustia, qua cupit consultum miseris civitatibus, videatur quasi stulte loqui .
” There may be apparent folly in the words, “ Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ” but they were only “ violenta oratio et impetuosa, quasi cogens Deum ad ignoscendum . ” For Abraham added, “ peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou also destroy and not forgive (נשׁא, to take away and bear the guilt, i. e. , forgive) the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
” and described the slaying of the righteous with the wicked as irreconcilable with the justice of God. He knew that he was speaking to the Judge of all the earth, and that before Him he was “ but dust and ashes ” - “dust in his origin, and ashes in the end;” and yet he made bold to appeal still further, and even as low as ten righteous, to pray that for their sake He would spare the city.
- הפּעם אך (Gen 18:32) signifies “ only this (one) time more, ” as in Exo 10:17. This “seemingly commercial kind of entreaty is,” as Delitzsch observes, “the essence of true prayer. It is the holy ἀναιìδεια, of which our Lord speaks in Luk 11:8, the shamelessness of faith, which bridges over the infinite distance of the creature from the Creator, appeals with importunity to the heart of God, and ceases not till its point is gained.
This would indeed be neither permissible nor possible, had not God, by virtue of the mysterious interlacing of necessity and freedom in His nature and operations, granted a power to the prayer of faith, to which He consents to yield; had He not, by virtue of His absoluteness, which is anything but blind necessity, placed Himself in such a relation to men, that He not merely works upon them by means of His grace, but allows them to work upon Him by means of their faith; had He not interwoven the life of the free creature into His own absolute life, and accorded to a created personality the right to assert itself in faith, in distinction from His own. ” With the promise, that even for the sake of ten righteous He would not destroy the city, Jehovah “went His way,” that is to say, vanished; and Abraham returned to his place, viz.
, to the grove of Mamre. The judgment which fell upon the wicked cities immediately afterwards, proves that there were not ten “ righteous persons ” in Sodom; by which we understand, not merely ten sinless or holy men, but ten who through the fear of God and conscientiousness had kept themselves free from the prevailing sin and iniquity of these cities.