¹ Now the Lord came to him by the holy tree of Mamre, when he was seated in the doorway of his tent in the middle of the day;

² And lifting up his eyes, he saw three men before him; and seeing them, he went quickly to them from the door of the tent, and went down on his face to the earth;

³ And said, My Lord, if now I have grace in your eyes, do not go away from your servant:

⁴ Let me get water for washing your feet, and take your rest under the tree:

⁵ And let me get a bit of bread to keep up your strength, and after that you may go on your way: for this is why you have come to your servant. And they said, Let it be so.

⁶ Then Abraham went quickly into the tent, and said to Sarah, Get three measures of meal straight away and make cakes.

⁷ And running to the herd, he took a young ox, soft and fat, and gave it to the servant and he quickly made it ready;

⁸ And he took butter and milk and the young ox which he had made ready and put it before them, waiting by them under the tree while they took food.

⁹ And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent.

¹⁰ And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-door.

¹¹ Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the time for giving birth.

¹² And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old?

¹³ And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying, Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child?

¹⁴ Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and Sarah will have a child.

¹⁵ Then Sarah said, I was not laughing; for she was full of fear. And he said, No, but you were laughing.

¹⁶ And the men went on from there in the direction of Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way.

¹⁷ And the Lord said, Am I to keep back from Abraham the knowledge of what I do;

¹⁸ Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing?

¹⁹ For I have made him mine so that he may give orders to his children and those of his line after him, to keep the ways of the Lord, to do what is good and right: so that the Lord may do to Abraham as he has said.

²⁰ And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil,

²¹ I will go down now, and see if their acts are as bad as they seem from the outcry which has come to me; and if they are not, I will see.

²² And the men, turning from that place, went on to Sodom: but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord.

²³ And Abraham came near, and said, Will you let destruction come on the upright with the sinners?

²⁴ If by chance there are fifty upright men in the town, will you give the place to destruction and not have mercy on it because of the fifty upright men?

²⁵ Let such a thing be far from you, to put the upright to death with the sinner: will not the judge of all the earth do right?

²⁶ And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the town, I will have mercy on it because of them.

²⁷ And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord:

²⁸ If by chance there are five less than fifty upright men, will you give up all the town to destruction because of these five? And he said, I will not give it to destruction if there are forty-five.

²⁹ And again he said to him, By chance there may be forty there. And he said, I will not do it if there are forty.

³⁰ And he said, Let not the Lord be angry with me if I say, What if there are thirty there? And he said, I will not do it if there are thirty.

³¹ And he said, See now, I have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: what if there are twenty there? And he said, I will have mercy because of the twenty.

³² And he said, O let not the Lord be angry and I will say only one word more: by chance there may be ten there. And he said, I will have mercy because of the ten.

³³ And the Lord went on his way when his talk with Abraham was ended, and Abraham went back to his place.

¹ O foolish Galatians, by what strange powers have you been tricked, to whom it was made clear that Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross?

² Give me an answer to this one question, Did the Spirit come to you through the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

³ Are you so foolish? having made a start in the Spirit, will you now be made complete in the flesh?

⁴ Did you undergo such a number of things to no purpose? if it is in fact to no purpose.

⁵ He who gives you the Spirit, and does works of power among you, is it by the works of law, or by the hearing of faith?

⁶ Even as Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

⁷ Be certain, then, that those who are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham.

⁸ And the holy Writings, seeing before the event that God would give the Gentiles righteousness by faith, gave the good news before to Abraham, saying, In you will all the nations have a blessing.

⁹ So then those who are of faith have a part in the blessing of Abraham who was full of faith.

¹⁰ For all who are of the works of the law are under a curse: because it is said in the Writings, A curse is on everyone who does not keep on doing all the things which are ordered in the book of the law.

¹¹ Now that no man gets righteousness by the law in the eyes of God, is clear; because, The upright will be living by faith.

¹² And the law is not of faith; but, He who does them will have life by them.

¹³ Christ has made us free from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: because it is said in the Writings, A curse on everyone who is put to death by hanging on a tree:

¹⁴ So that on the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; in order that we through faith might have the Spirit which God had undertaken to give.

¹⁵ Brothers, as men would say, even a man's agreement, when it has been made certain, may not be put on one side, or have additions made to it.

¹⁶ Now to Abraham were the undertakings given, and to his seed. He says not, And to seeds, as of a great number; but as of one, he says, And to your seed, which is Christ.

¹⁷ Now this I say: The law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, does not put an end to the agreement made before by God, so as to make the undertaking without effect.

¹⁸ Because if the heritage is by the law, it is no longer dependent on the word of God; but God gave it to Abraham by his word.

¹⁹ What then is the law? It was an addition made because of sin, till the coming of the seed to whom the undertaking had been given; and it was ordered through angels by the hand of a go-between.

²⁰ Now a go-between is not a go-between of one; but God is one.

²¹ Is the law then against the words of God? in no way; because if there had been a law which was able to give life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.

²² However, the holy Writings have put all things under sin, so that that for which God gave the undertaking, based on faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who have such faith.

²³ But before faith came, we were kept in prison under the law, waiting for the revelation of the faith which was to come.

²⁴ So the law has been a servant to take us to Christ, so that we might have righteousness by faith.

²⁵ But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a servant.

²⁶ Because you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁷ For all those of you who were given baptism into Christ did put on Christ.

²⁸ There is no Jew or Greek, servant or free, male or female: because you are all one in Jesus Christ.

²⁹ And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and yours is the heritage by the right of God's undertaking given to Abraham.