Genesis 18

Notes

1. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 112, 18

   אֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא "the terebinths of Mamre" (112), as at 13:18. Mamre is also an Amorite, Abram's ally (14:13, 24), and the trees may bear his name. The chapter follows straight on the circumcision. b. Bava Meṣiʿa 86b and Genesis Rabbah 48:1 date the visit to the third day after it and read it as Adonai visiting the sick; b. Soṭah 14a: "as he visits the sick, so you visit the sick." "Was seen" holds the verb of 17:1 (see the note there). On "the heat of the day," Rashi says Adonai drew the sun out so that no traveller would trouble the sick man, and then sent guests when he grieved at having none.

2. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 46, 51

   "Three men," and the address shifts. "My lord … your eyes … your servant" are singular (v. 3); "your feet … your heart" are plural (vv. 4–5); "they said" (vv. 5, 9); "he said" (v. 10); Adonai speaks (vv. 13–14); "the men" rise and go while Abraham stands before Adonai (vv. 16, 22); two "messengers" reach Sodom (19:1). The WPB and the WPRB keep every number as written. b. Bava Meṣiʿa 86b gives the three their three errands: Michael to announce, Gabriel to overturn Sodom, Raphael to heal Abraham. Justin Martyr (Dialogue 56) takes one of the three for the Logos, with two messengers; Ambrose (De Abraham 1.5.33) writes "he saw three and worshipped one," and Augustine (De Trinitate 2.10–12) weighs the Trinitarian reading; Rublev's icon paints it. Heb 13:2: "some have entertained messengers unawares."

3. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "stood by him" (KJV) / "stood in front of him" (RSV)

   Ruling 2

   נִצָּב is the niphal of נָצַב, to take one's stand or be stationed: the servant stationed by the spring (24:13), Adonai stationed above the ladder (28:13), Miriam stationed at a distance (Exod 2:4). It is kept apart from עָמַד "stand" (vv. 8, 22) and קוּם "rise" (v. 16). The men are there when Abraham looks up; the text does not say that they came.

4. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "My Lord" (KJV) / "My lord" (RSV)

   Rulings 9, 1, 46

   The word is pointed אֲדֹנָי, with qamets, the form the Masoretes keep for the divine title, as in vv. 27 and 30–32. The human address is אֲדֹנִי "my lord" (v. 12), and the plural אֲדֹנַי "my lords" (19:2). (a) The divine title: Abraham asks Adonai, who appeared in v. 1, to wait while he runs to his guests; b. Shabbat 127a draws from it that welcoming guests is greater than receiving the Presence. (b) A plural of respect to all three, or an address to the greatest of them, which the singulars that follow support; Rashi gives both (a) and (b). b. Shevuʿot 35b records the dispute: one view makes this the one profane name in the Abraham story, the other holds it holy. The source's id here is the human noun (H113), and the verse's singulars address one person; "my lord" is printed, lowercase (9), and the vowel that makes the crux is recorded here.

5. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "rest yourselves" (KJV, RSV)

   Ruling 2

   שָׁעַן in the niphal is to lean or support oneself: Samson leaning on the pillars (Judg 16:26), Saul on his spear (2 Sam 1:6), Israel on Adonai (Isa 10:20; Prov 3:5). Guests reclined; "lean" keeps the posture.

6. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "comfort ye your hearts" (KJV) / "refresh yourselves" (RSV)

   Rulings 2, 39

   סָעַד is to prop up, sustain: "bread sustains the heart of a human" (Ps 104:15); "your right hand sustains me" (Ps 18:36). The heart is kept (39). The host promises "a morsel of bread" and serves calf, curds and milk; b. Bava Meṣiʿa 87a draws the lesson that the righteous say little and do much.

7. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 39, 5

   A seah is a dry measure, about a third of an ephah; three seahs is a great deal of baking for three guests. קֶמַח "meal" is the general word and סֹלֶת "fine flour" the flour of offerings (Lev 2:1); the second sharpens the first. The woman who hides leaven in "three seahs of meal" (Matt 13:33, σάτα τρία) bakes as much as Sarah.

8. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 46

   "And they ate." Genesis Rabbah 48:14 and b. Bava Meṣiʿa 86b say they only appeared to eat, following the proverb "when you come into a town, follow its custom"; Raphael says the same of himself in Tob 12:19, and Josephus (Antiquities 1.197) has them make a show of eating. The text says they ate.

9. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 79

   The Masoretic text sets dots over three letters of אֵלָיו "to him," another of the ten dotted passages of the Torah (Avot de-Rabbi Natan A 34). Translated as written (79). Genesis Rabbah 48:15 and Rashi take the dots as a sign that the visitors also asked Sarah where Abraham was.

10. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "according to the time of life" (KJV) / "in the spring" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 40

    כָּעֵת חַיָּה is "as the time living": when the season comes to life again, the same time next year. Elisha says it to the Shunammite: "at this appointment, as the time living, you will embrace a son" (2 Kgs 4:16–17), with מוֹעֵד as in v. 14 and 17:21. No other sense is attested, so the phrase is printed as it stands (40), and חַי keeps its home gloss. The infinitive absolute "returning I will return" is kept (10).

11. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 41, 8

    וְהוּא אַחֲרָיו "and it was behind him": the doorway behind the speaker, so Sarah hears unseen. הוּא could also be a person, "and he was behind him." The Vulgate refers it to the door (quae erat post tergum eius). The doorway is the nearest masculine noun, and an inanimate takes "it" (41).

12. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women" (KJV, RSV)

    Rulings 2, 39

    אֹרַח is a path or track (49:17; Ps 16:11; Prov 2:8). The euphemism for menstruation keeps the image of a road walked each month; Rachel uses דֶּרֶךְ "way" for the same at 31:35, and the two words are kept apart. "Coming into the days" (בָּאִים בַּיָּמִים) is old age as a road walked (24:1; Josh 13:1).

13. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure" (KJV) / "After I have grown old … shall I have pleasure?" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 17

    בָּלָה is the wearing out of a garment (Deut 8:4; 29:4; Josh 9:13). עֶדְנָה, found only here, is of the root of עֵדֶן "Eden" and of the "delights" of 2 Sam 1:24 and Ps 36:9. Sarah asks after Eden. Genesis Rabbah 48:17 and b. Bava Meṣiʿa 87a take it that her flesh became young again and her periods returned. הָיְתָה is a qatal, "has there been," which can look back or, as a certainty, ahead; the WPRB keeps the question open.

14. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 9, 22

    אֲדֹנִי, human, "my lord" (9). 1 Pet 3:6 holds Sarah up because she "obeyed Abraham, calling him lord" (κύριον αὐτὸν καλοῦσα), following this verse in its Greek (LXX ὁ δὲ κύριός μου πρεσβύτερος). The WPRB keeps "my lord," since the letter builds on the word.

15. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 46

    Adonai reports Sarah's words with one change: "and I am old" for "and my lord is old." b. Yevamot 65b and Genesis Rabbah 48:18 draw from it that a word may be altered for the sake of peace. "Even truly" renders הַאַף אֻמְנָם, two particles of emphasis in one question.

16. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "Is any thing too hard for the LORD?" (KJV) / "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 4

    פָּלָא in the niphal is to be wondrous, beyond reach: "things too wondrous for me" (Ps 131:1; Job 42:3); "nothing is too wondrous for you" (Jer 32:17, 27). The messenger's name in Judg 13:18 is פֶּלִאי "wondrous," and the child of Isa 9:5 is called "Wonder." דָּבָר is "word" (115). The LXX has μὴ ἀδυνατεῖ παρὰ τῷ θεῷ ῥῆμα, and Gabriel answers Mary in the same Greek: "no word shall be impossible with God" (Luke 1:37), following its own text (4). On "appointment," see the note at 17:21.

17. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 51

    לֹא כִּי "No, but" corrects a denial, as at 19:2 and 42:12. The speaker is "he," after Adonai has spoken in vv. 13–14; the WPRB keeps "he." The scene ends on his word, with no answer from Sarah.

18. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "looked toward Sodom" (KJV, RSV)

    Ruling 2

    שָׁקַף is to look down from a height or through a window: Abimelech through the window (26:8), Michal (2 Sam 6:16), Adonai from the skies on the children of humans (Ps 14:2; 102:20). At 19:28 Abraham peers down on the same plain and sees the smoke. "Send them away" is the piel of שָׁלַח, here the escort that sees guests off (12:20; 31:27).

19. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 2, 46

    "Am I covering from Abraham …?" Amos 3:7: "Adonai does nothing without revealing his counsel to his slaves the prophets"; Abraham is called a prophet at 20:7. 2 Chr 20:7, Isa 41:8 and Jas 2:23 call him the friend of Elohim.

20. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "shall be blessed in him" (KJV) / "shall bless themselves by him" (RSV)

    Rulings 1, 46

    נִבְרְכוּ is a niphal, passive or reflexive. The niphal of בָּרַךְ occurs only here, at 12:3 and at 28:14; the hithpael at 22:18 and 26:4 is plainly "bless themselves." The LXX has the passive, ἐνευλογηθήσονται, and Paul argues from it: "in you shall all the nations be blessed" (Gal 3:8; Acts 3:25). The reflexive makes Abraham the name the nations use in blessing (48:20). The passive, the stem's common sense, is printed, and the reflexive is noted (46). The infinitive absolute "becoming he shall become" is kept (10); the לְ is one of result, so "become" (104).

21. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "For I know him" (KJV) / "No, for I have chosen him" (RSV)

    Ruling 2

    יָדַע keeps its home gloss. To know a person is to choose and bind: "you only have I known of all the clans of the land" (Amos 3:2); "I knew you in the wilderness" (Hos 13:5); "I know you by name" (Exod 33:12, 17); "before I shaped you in the belly I knew you" (Jer 1:5). The RSV's "chosen" gives the sense and loses the verb. "Justice and judgment" stand together here for the first time; the pair returns at Isa 5:7 and Ps 33:5.

22. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "the cry of Sodom" (KJV) / "the outcry against Sodom" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 33

    זְעָקָה here and צְעָקָה in v. 21 are one word in two spellings, the cry of the wronged (Exod 3:7, 9; 22:22–26). In Isa 5:7 צְעָקָה is the pun on צְדָקָה "justice," what Abraham's house is to do (v. 19). Ezek 16:49 names Sodom's guilt: "pride, plenty of bread and careless ease, and she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." "Of Sodom" may be the cry from Sodom's victims or the cry about Sodom; the WPB and the WPRB keep "of." Each כִּי is emphatic, "yes."

23. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it" (KJV) / "whether they have done altogether according to the outcry" (RSV)

    Rulings 1, 46

    כָּלָה is a noun of the root of כָּלָה "finish" (17:22), "a full end" (Jer 4:27; Nah 1:8–9). Either it is adverbial, "they have done it completely," or it is a sentence of its own: "have they done according to its outcry? Then, a finish." Targum Onkelos and Rashi take the second: if they persist, I will make an end of them; if not, I will know, and not punish. "Its outcry" has a feminine suffix, the city's; a city takes "it" (41).

24. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "turned their faces from thence" (KJV) / "turned from there" (RSV)

    Ruling 2

    פָּנָה is the verb of פָּנִים "face," to face toward or away: "face me and be saved" (Isa 45:22). "Turn" is the gloss of הָפַךְ, the verb of Sodom's overturning (19:21–29). The men face away while Abraham stays before the face of Adonai.

25. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 79, 46, 74

    Genesis Rabbah 49:7 and Rashi count this among the "corrections of the scribes" (tiqqune soferim): the original read "and Adonai was still standing before Abraham," as one who waits on another, and the scribes reversed it out of reverence. The Masoretic text is printed as it stands (79).

26. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "Wilt thou also destroy" (KJV) / "Wilt thou indeed destroy" (RSV)

    Ruling 2

    סָפָה is to sweep off or snatch away: "lest you be swept away in the iniquity of the city" (19:15, 17); "lest you be swept away in all their sins" (Num 16:26); 1 Sam 12:25. The ruin of the cities is שָׁחַת, "ruin" (vv. 28–32).

27. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "spare the place" (KJV, RSV)

    Rulings 2, 37

    נָשָׂא לְ, "lift for," is to bear with or forgive: "lifting iniquity" (Exod 34:7); "lift, please, the iniquity of this people" (Num 14:19). It is the verb of 4:7 and 4:13, and the chain holds (37). The WPRB has "spare."

28. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "for the fifty righteous" (KJV, RSV)

    Ruling 2

    לְמַעַן before a noun is "because of," the cause, where before a verb it is purpose, "so that" (v. 19). The plain "for the sake of" belongs to בַּעֲבוּר, which Adonai uses in his answers (vv. 26, 29, 31–32); the two words are kept apart, and "on account of" is בִּגְלַל's (12:13).

29. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 40, 20

    חָלִלָה is of the root of חָלַל "profane," "to profanation!": an oath-like refusal (44:7, 17; 1 Sam 24:7; Job 34:10). Its use is fixed as "far be it," and no other sense is attested, so the expected reading is printed (40) and the root recorded here. "Shall the judge of all the land not do judgment?" Paul puts the same question and answers it: "is Elohim unjust? Far be it!" (Rom 3:5–6, μὴ γένοιτο).

30. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "the Lord" (KJV, RSV)

    Rulings 9, 49, 1

    Here and in vv. 30–32 אֲדֹנָי is pointed and identified as the divine title, printed Adonai in regular type (49). The same form at v. 3 raises whether Abraham addresses Adonai or a guest; see the note there.

31. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 24

    עָפָר וָאֵפֶר, ʿafar wa-ʾefer, rhymes; "dust and ashes" is the established English pair and is kept. Abraham speaks of himself in the words of 3:19 ("dust you are"), and Job ends in them (Job 30:19; 42:6). b. Soṭah 17a draws from them the ashes of the red heifer and the dust of the suspected woman.

32. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 91

    The numbers keep the Hebrew order, "forty and five"; the WPRB gives figures (91). The count runs fifty, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten. Genesis Rabbah 49:13 asks why Abraham stopped at ten: Noah's house was eight, and they did not save the world. b. Megillah 23b takes ten as the number of a congregation.

33. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 97, 2

    הַפַּעַם "this turn" (97), as Gideon says: "let me speak only this turn" (Judg 6:39). אַךְ is "only."