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 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.

² I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."

³ Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying,

⁴ "As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.

⁵ Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.

⁷ I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.

⁸ I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God."

⁹ God said to Abraham, "As for you, you will keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations.

¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you.

¹² He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your seed.

¹³ He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴ The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant."

¹⁵ God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name will be Sarah.

¹⁶ I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her."

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?"

¹⁸ Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!"

¹⁹ God said, "No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.

²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹ But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year."

²² When he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

²³ Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money; every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the same day, as God had said to him.

²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁵ Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁶ In the same day both Abraham and Ishmael, his son, were circumcised.

²⁷ All the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money of a foreigner, were circumcised with him.