Hagar's well, circumcision, three guests, and fire on the plain.
The reading, recorded ahead of time. The chapters play one after another.
Answer these two questions before the chapters are read.
Sarah is about to propose a plan that uses another woman's body to solve a promise, so where are you already managing God's delay at someone else's cost?
Abraham will plead for a city he does not live in, so for whom, by name, have you not yet asked God to have mercy?
Your answers stay on this device.
Chapter 16 is a wound inside a promise. Sarai gives her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abram so that she may obtain children by her. The plan works in the flesh and fails in the household. Hagar conceives, suffers harsh treatment, and flees toward Shur. The angel of the Lord finds her by a spring, tells her to return, and promises Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to her affliction. She names Him El Roi, the God who sees. Orthodox reading will not sand this smooth. The patriarch uses a means God did not command. The Lord still sees the woman the household oppressed, and He does not erase Ishmael even when the covenant line will run through Isaac.
Chapter 17 marks the promise in the body. Abram is ninety-nine. God Almighty calls him to walk before Him and be blameless, and gives the names Abraham and Sarah. Circumcision on the eighth day cuts the covenant into Abraham, Ishmael, and every male of the household. The Church confesses that this sign belonged to Israel's covenant, and that baptism is the circumcision made without hands in Christ. That confession does not pretend the household was not actually circumcised on the day this chapter names. Sarah's laughter in chapter 18 and the set time of a son sit inside the same mercy. Nothing is too hard for the Lord, including a barren tent He Himself has kept waiting.
These chapters claim that the covenant God makes is His to define. Human urgency in chapter 16 produces Ishmael, and God is not absent from Hagar, yet chapter 17 is unambiguous: the covenant will be established with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear. Names change because the Lord is doing a new thing with the same people, not because they have become impressive. The sign is not a private mood. It has a day, the eighth day, and a consequence for the male who refuses it. God binds Himself, and He also binds the family to a mark they cannot keep only in their intentions.
Chapters 18 through 20 claim that the Judge of all the earth does right, and that mercy is neither sentimental nor cheap. Abraham hosts three visitors, hears again that Sarah will have a son, and stands before the Lord to plead from fifty righteous down to ten. The city is not spared by the bargain, because that remnant is not found. Lot is taken out by a mercy he barely obeys. Chapter 20 then shows Abraham failing the same fear in Gerar, while God protects Sarah and Abimelech. The patriarch is not the savior of these stories. The Lord is.
In chapter 16 the angel says Ishmael will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone, dwelling over against his kinsmen. The text is honest about coming conflict and still treats the child's life as an answer to a woman's affliction. Hearing and struggle are both promised.
Chapter 18 pauses over cakes, a calf, curds, and milk, with Abraham standing by while the visitors eat under the oaks. Hospitality is not a footnote to the announcement. It is the way the promise of a son enters the tent at Mamre.
Chapter 19 records that Lot's sons-in-law thought he was joking when he warned them to flee. The sentence is small and terrible. A man who had moved his tents toward Sodom could not make judgment sound real to his own household.
At Mamre Abraham sees three visitors, runs to meet them, and speaks with the reverence due to the Lord. Two go on toward Sodom as angels in chapter 19, while Abraham remains standing before the Lord. The meal is real, and Sarah really laughs at the tent door. The Church's icon of the Holy Trinity contemplates this visit as a revelation of the one God who is not a lonely monad. She does not have to choose between a true meal and a true glimpse of divine life. The chapter bears both the three and the Lord.
The fire on Sodom is historical judgment on a city whose outcry had risen, not a cartoon for private grudges. Abraham rose early and saw the smoke go up like a furnace. Christian reading sees in his intercession a likeness of advocacy that stands before God for others, and in Lot's rescue a mercy that takes people by the hand when their own resolve fails. None of that turns the sulfur into a symbol that never fell. The plain was really overthrown.
World English Bible
Genesis 16
Sarai gives Hagar to Abram, Hagar flees harsh treatment, and the angel of the Lord sends her back with a promise and the name of the God who sees.
1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. 2Sarai said to Abram, “See now, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my servant. It may be that I will obtain children by her.” Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. 4He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. 5Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, she despised me. May Yahweh judge between me and you.”
6But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes.” Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.
7Yahweh’s angel found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain on the way to Shur. 8He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where did you come from? Where are you going?”
She said, “I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai.”
9Yahweh’s angel said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands.” 10Yahweh’s angel said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, that they will not be counted for multitude.” 11Yahweh’s angel said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard your affliction. 12He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. He will live opposed to all of his brothers.”
13She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?” 14Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Genesis 17
The Lord renames Abram and Sarai, commands circumcision on the eighth day, and sets the covenant with Isaac while still blessing Ishmael.
1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. 2I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”
3Abram 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. 5Your name will no more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you. 7I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you. 8I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.”
9God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you. 12He who is eight days old shall 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 offspring. 13He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14The 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.”
15God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah. 16I 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.”
17Then 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?” 18Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
19God 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 offspring after him. 20As 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. 21But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
22When he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. 23Abraham 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. 24Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26In the same day both Abraham and Ishmael, his son, were circumcised. 27All the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Genesis 18
Three visitors come to Abraham at Mamre, Sarah laughs at the promise of a son, and Abraham intercedes for Sodom down to ten righteous.
1Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood near him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, 3and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don’t go away from your servant. 4Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5I will get a piece of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant.”
They said, “Very well, do as you have said.”
6Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly prepare three seahs of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.” 7Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it. 8He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.
9They asked him, “Where is Sarah, your wife?”
He said, “There, in the tent.”
10He said, “I will certainly return to you at about this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him. 11Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
13Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really bear a child when I am old?’ 14Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes around, and Sarah will have a son.”
15Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh,” for she was afraid.
He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
16The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way. 17Yahweh said, “Will I hide from Abraham what I do, 18since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? 19For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him.” 20Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, 21I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”
22The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh. 23Abraham came near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? 24What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
26Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes. 28What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?”
He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”
29He spoke to him yet again, and said, “What if there are forty found there?”
He said, “I will not do it for the forty’s sake.”
30He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?”
He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31He said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?”
He said, “I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake.”
32He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?”
He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”
33Yahweh went his way as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
Genesis 19
Angels bring Lot out before fire falls on the plain, his wife looks back and becomes salt, and his daughters' sin in the cave begins Moab and Ammon.
1The 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, 2and 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 night.”
3He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. 5They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
6Lot went out to them through the door, and shut the door after himself. 7He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. 8See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
9They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and came near to break the door. 10But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. 11They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
12The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place: 13for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
14Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city!”
But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. 15When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” 16But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city. 17It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
18Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord. 19See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. 20See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”
21He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. 25He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. 26But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh. 28He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
29When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
30Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. 32Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 33They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 35They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up. 36Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father. 37The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
Genesis 20
Abraham again says Sarah is his sister in Gerar, God warns Abimelech in a dream and keeps him from sin, and Abraham's prayer opens the wombs of that house.
1Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar. 2Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. 3But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man’s wife.”
4Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation? 5Didn’t he tell me, ‘She is my sister’? She, even she herself, said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.”
6God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn’t allow you to touch her. 7Now therefore, restore the man’s wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don’t restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours.”
8Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared. 9Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done!” 10Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you have done this thing?”
11Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’ 12Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
14Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him. 15Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you.” 16To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated.”
17Abraham prayed to God. So God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children. 18For Yahweh had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
What does the covenant of circumcision in chapter 17 teach about how God deals with a people, and why is it not enough to say the promise lives only in Abraham's private feelings?
If nothing is too hard for the Lord in the promise to Sarah, what must the Church confess about barrenness and delay, and what must she not conclude about every disappointment?
What would a first hearer have understood Hagar's name for God in Genesis 16 to mean, and what would that hearer have made of the command that she return?
Hearing Genesis 18 and 19 together, what could a first hearer have grasped about Abraham's prayer and about why Sodom was not spared for the sake of ten?
What three steps will you take this week, a kindness toward someone your plans have used, a prayer by name for a family or place that is not your own, and a fear you will tell the truth about instead of managing with a half-lie, and what two behaviors will you change so they can be checked next week?
Your answers stay on this device.