We wrote this commentary introducing Chapter 25 in July 2012:

This chapter is supposed to be concerned with Isaac but it is dominated by Eliezer, the faithful servant who is commissioned by Abraham to bring back a wife from the land of his birth and from among his kindred. It is obvious Eliezer’s God is his master Abraham’s God, to whom he prays that his mission be successful.  (We should not impose our faith on others but if others in our employ embrace our faith willingly because of what they observe from our life witness, that is better.)

Just a few observations about Isaac:

• he doesn’t make things happen, rather, things happen to him.  
• He’s passive through the Mt. Moriah experience, except perhaps when he helped carry the wood;
• he’s passive at Sarah’s passing;
• he has no participation in seeking a wife for himself although that was Abraham’s decision, not his;
• he’s just there waiting to receive his prospective bride;
• about his one moment of greatness is as the passive compliant elevation offering, submitting to his father’s strange actuations.  
• What was he thinking when he didn’t see any lamb offering and he was being bound and placed on the altar?
• To his credit, he must have had total faith in his father as well as in his father’s God.   

His prospective bride Rebecca, on the other hand is a woman of action, observable from the time she fetched water from the well, interacted with a stranger, gave him a drink, watered all 10 of his camels, guided him home, then agreed to travel all the way to her prospective husbands home without having met him; she certainly more than makes up for Isaac’s passivity.  It is a divinely-arranged match indeed.  

The narrative is self-explanatory, no interpretation needed except perhaps for that strange custom of swearing an oath by placing the swearer’s hand on the sworn-to’s thigh, supposedly a euphemism for touching the genitalia, equivalent to raising the right hand with the left hand on the bible . . . which, thankfully, is what is done today.  

Now that we’re reviewing/revisiting our reading of the TORAH books two years hence, here is an interesting commentary from Everett Fox whose translation we use in this website. This is from Part III of this The Five Books of Moses, his introduction to the cycle focusing on the third Patriarch, Yaakov;

BEFORE COMMENTING ON THE YAAKOV CYCLE, it is appropriate to consider why his father Yitzhak, the second of the Patriarchs, receives no true separate group of stories on his own.

Yizchak functions in Genesis as a classic second generation—-that is, as a transmitter and stabilizing force, rather than as an active participant in the process of building the people.  There hardly exists a story about him in which he is anything but a son and heir, a husband, or a father.  His main task in life seems to be to take roots in the land of Canaan, an admittedly important task in the larger context of God’s promises in Genesis.  What this means, unfortunately, is that he has almost no personality of his own.  By Chapter 27, a scant two chapters after his father dies, he appears as (prematurely?) old, blind in both a literal and figurative sense, and as we will see, he fades out of the text entirely, only to die several chapters, and many years, later.

The true dynamic figure of the second generation here is Rivka.  It is she to whom God reveals his plan, and she who puts into motion the mechanism for seeing that it is properly carried out.  She is ultimately the one responsible for bridging the gap between the dream, as typified by Avraham, and the hard-won reality, as realized by Yaakov.

—Admin1. 

 

Genesis/Bereshith 24

1 Now Avraham was old, advanced in days,

and YHVH had blessed Avraham in everything

2 Avraham said to his servant, the elder of his household, who ruled over all that was his:

Pray put your hand under my thigh!

3 I want you to swear by YHVH, the God of Heaven and the God of Earth,

that you will not take a wife for my son from the women of the Canaanites, among whom I am settled;

 

4 rather, you are to go to my land and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son, for Yitzhak.

5 The servant said to him:

Perhaps the woman will not be willing to go after me to this land;

may I then bring your son back there,

back to the land from which you once went out?

6 Avraham said to him:

Watch out that you do not ever bring my son back there.

7 YHVH, the God of Heaven,

who took me from my father’s house and from my kindred,

who spoke to me, who swore to me, saying: I give this land to your seed—

he himself will send his messenger on before you,

so that you take a wife for my son from there.

8 Now if the woman is not willing to go after you,

you will be clear from this sworn-oath of mine,

only: You are not to bring my son back there! 

9 The servant put his hand under the thigh of Avraham his lord,

and swore to him (an oath) about this matter.

10 The servant took ten camels from his lord’s camels and went, all kinds of good-things from his lord in his hand.

He arose and went to Aram Of-Two-Rivers, to Nahor’s town.

11 He had the camels kneel outside the town at the water well at setting time, at the time when the water-drawers go out,

12 and said:

YHVH, God of my lord Avraham,

pray let it happen today for me, and deal faithfully with my lord Avraham!

13 Here, I have stationed myself by the water spring as the women of the town go out to draw water.  

14  May it be

that the maiden to whom I say:  Pray lower your pitcher that I may drink,

and she says:  Drink, and i will also give your camels to drink—

let her be the one that you have decided on for your servant, for Yitzhak,

by means of her may I know that you have dealt faithfully with my lord.

15 And it was: Not yet had he finished speaking,

when here, Rivka came out,

—she had been born to Betuel, son of Milca, wife of Narhor, brothr of Avraham—

16 The maiden was exceedingly beautiful to look at,

a virgin-no man had known her.

Going down to the spring, she filled her pitcher and came up again.

17 The servant ran to meet her and said:

Pray let me sip a little water from your pitcher!

18 She said:

Drink, my lord!

And in haste she let down her pitcher on her arm and gave him to drink. 

19 When she had finished giving him to drink, she said:

I will also draw for your camels, until they have finished drinking.

20 In haste she emptied her pitcher into the drinking-trough,

then she ran to the well again to draw,

and drew for all his camels.

21 The man kept staring at her,

(waiting) silently to find out whether YHVH had granted success to his journey or not.

22 It was, when the camels had finished drinking,

that the man took a gold nose-ring, a half-coin in weight, and two bracelets for her wrists, ten gold-pieces in weight,

23 and said:

Whose daughter are you? Pray tell me!

And is there perhaps in your father’s house a place for us to spend the night? 

24 She said to him:

I am the daughter of Betuel, son of Milca, whom she bore to Nahor. 
25 And she said to him:

Yes, there is straw, yes, plenty of fodder with us, (and) yes, a place to spend the night.

26 In homage the man bowed low before YHVH 
27 and said:

Blessed be YHVH, God of my lord Avraham,

who has not relinquished his faithfulness and his trustworthiness from my lord!

While as for me, YHVH has led me on the journey to the house of my lord’s brothers!

28 The maiden ran and told her mother’s household according to these words.

29 Now Rivka had a brother, his name was Lavan.

Lavan ran to the man, outside, to the spring:

30 and it was,

as soon as he saw the nose-ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists,

and as soon as he heard Rivka his sister’s words, saying: Thus the man spoke to me,

that he came out to the man—there, he was still standing by the camels, by the spring—

31 and said:

Come, you who are blessed by YHVH, why are you standing outside?

I myself have cleared out the house and a place for the camels!

32 The man came into the house and unbridled the camels,

they gave straw and fodder to the camels

and water for washing his feet and the feet of the men that were with him.

33 (Food) was put before him to eat, but he said:

I will not eat until I have spoken my words.

He said: Speak! 
34 He said:

I am Avraham’s servant

35 YHVH has blessed my lord exceedingly, so that he has become great,

he has given him sheep and oxen, silver and gold, servants and maids, camels and donkeys.

36 Sara, my lord’s wife, bore my lord a son after she had grown old, and he has given him all
that is his. 
37 Now my lord had me swear, saying:

You are not to take a wife for my son from the women of the Canaanites, in whose land I am settled! 
38 No! To my father’s house you are to go, to my clan,

and take a  wife for my son. 

39 I said to my lord:

Perhaps the woman will not go after me!

40 He said to me:

YHVH, in whose presence I have walked, will send his messenger with you,

he will grant success to your journey,

so that you take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s house.

41 Only then will you be clear from my oath-curse:

When you come to my clan,

if they do not give her to you, you will be clear from my oath-curse.

42 Now I came to the well today and said:

YHVH, God of my lord Avraham,

pray, if you wish 
to grant success to the journey on which I am going, 
43 here: I have stationed myself by the water spring;

may it be

that the girl who comes out to draw,

to whom I say: Pray give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,

44 and she says to me: You drink, and I will also draw for your camels—

let her be the woman whom YHVH has decided on for the son of my lord. 
45 (And) I, even before I had finished speaking in my heart, here,

Rivka came out, her pitcher on her shoulder,

she went down to the spring and drew.

I said to her: Pray give me to drink! 
46 In haste she let down her pitcher from herself and said:

Drink, and I will also give your camels to drink.

I drank, and she also gave the camels to drink. 
47 Then I asked her, I said: Whose daughter are you?

She said: The daughter of Betuel, son of Nahor, whom Milca bore to him.  

I put a ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.  

48  and in homage I bowed low before YHWH, and blessed YHWH, God of my lord Abraham,

who led me on the true journey to take the daughter of my lord’s brother for his son. 

49 So now, if you wish to deal faithfully and truly with my lord, tell me,

and if not, tell me,

that I may (know to) turn right or left.

50 Lavan and Betuel answered, they said:

The matter has come from YHVH;

we cannot speak anything to you evil or good.

51 Here is Rivka before you,

take her and go, that she may be a wife for the son of your lord,

as YHVH has spoken.

52 It was

when Avraham’s servant heard their words, that he bowed to the ground before 
YHVH. 
53 And the servant brought out objects of silver and objects of gold and garments, and gave 
them to Rivka,

and he gave presents to her brother and to her mother.

54 They ate and drank, he and the men that were with him, and spent the night.

When they arose at daybreak, he said:

Send me off to my lord

55 But her brother and her mother said:

Let the maiden stay with us a few days, perhaps ten-after that she may go.

56 He said to them:

Do not delay me, for YHVH has granted success to my journey;

send me off, that I may go back to my lord. 
57 They said:

Let us call the maiden and ask (for an answer from) her own mouth.

58 They called Rivka and said to her:

Will you go with this man?

She said: I will go. 
59 They sent off Rivka their sister with her nurse, and Avraham’s servant with his men,

60 and they gave Rivka farewell-blessing and said to her:

Our sister, may you become thousandfold myriads!

May your seed inherit the gate of those who hate him!

61 Rivka and her maids arose, they mounted the camels and went after the man.

The servant took Rivka and went away.

62  Now Yitzhak had come from where you come to the Well-of-the-Living-One Who-sees-me—for he had settled in the Negev.

63 And Yitzhak went out to stroll in the field around the turning of sunset.

He lifted up his eyes and saw: here, camels coming!

64 Rivka lifted up her eyes and saw Yitzhak;

65 she got down from the camel and said to the servant:

Who is the man over there that is walking in the field to meet us?

The servant said:

That is my lord. She took a veil and covered herself.

66 Now the servant recounted to Yitzhak all the things that he had done. 
67 Yitzhak brought her into the tent of Sara his mother,

he took Rivka and she became his wife, and he loved her.

Thus was Yitzhak comforted after his mother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previous: Revisited: Understanding Christianity and Jesus of Nazareth – A Jewish Perspective

Next: Revisited: בראשית Bere’shiyth 25a: ‘Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn . . . look into Abraham your father’

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8:1 Now YHVH was seen by him by the oaks of Mamre

as he was sitting at the entrance to his tent at the heat of the day. 

and the LORD appeared unto him.  

Image from www.tamilcatholic.de

The Rabbis connect this chapter with the preceding, and declare that God visited the Patriarch during the indisposition which resulted from his circumcision.  From this passage they deduce the duty of visiting the sick.

in the tent door. Abraham was watching for passers-by to offer them hospitalit, an occupation in which he delighted.

[EF]  entrance to his tent: Also used in vv. 2 and 10, it may hint at the important events being portrayed: the “entrance to the tent” is often a sacred spot in subsequent books of the Bible.

[RA]  And the LORD appeared.  The narrator at once apprises us of the divine character of Abraham’s guests, but when Abraham peers out through the shimmering heat waves of the desert noon (verse 2), what he sees from his human perspective is three “men.”  The whole scene seems to be a monotheistic adaptation to the seminomadic early Hebrew setting of an episode from the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat (tablet V:6-7) in which the childless Dan’el is visited by the craftsman-god Kothar.  As Moshe Weinfeld has observed, there are several verbal links between the two texts: Dan’el also is sitting by an entrance, overshadowed by a tree; he also “lifts up his eyes” to behold the divine visitor; and similarly enjoins his wife to prepare a meal from the choice of the flock.

[EF] three men: See note on 16.7. over against him: Heb. alav could mean “over” or “next to” him.

3 and said:

My lords,

pray if I have found favor in your eyes,

pray do not pass by your servant! 

my lord.  Abraham speaks to the one who appeared to be the chief of the three men.

Image from st-takla.org

[EF] My lords: Some use ‘My Lord.”

[RA]  My lord.  The Masoretic Text vocalizes this term of courtly address (not YHWH) to read “my lords,” in consonance with the appearance of three visitors.  But the vocative terms that follow in this verse are in the singular, and it is only in verse 4 that Abraham switches to plural vers.  Rashi, plausibly, suggests that Abraham initially addresses himself to “the greatest” of the three.  As verses 10 and 13-15 make clear, that greatest one is God Himself, who will tarry to speak with Abraham while the two-human-seeming angels of destruction who accompany Him head down to the cities of the plain.

wash your feet.  A refreshing comfort to travellers who wore sandals; XIX,2;XXIV,32; XLIII,24.

recline yourselves. While the meal was being prepared for them, they could enjoy the shade of the tree in front of his tent (see v.1).

[EF] wash your feet: Customary for weary travelers in the ancient world.

[RA]  Let a little water be fetched.  With good reason, the Jewish exegetical tradition makes Abraham figure as the exemplary dispenser of hospitality.  Extending hospitality, as the subsequent contrasting episode in Sodom indicates, is the primary act of civilized intercourse.  The early Midrash (Abot di Rabbi Nathan) aptly noted that Abraham promises modestly, a little water and a morsel of bread, while hastening to prepare a sumptuous feast.  “Fetch” appears four times in rapid succession, “hurry” three times, as indices of the flurry of hospitable activity.

5 let me fetch (you) a bit of bread, that you may refresh your hearts,

then afterward you may pass on—

for you have, after all, passed your servant’s way!

They said:

Do thus, as you have spoken. 

and I will fetch a morsel of bread. It is a mark of the good man, declare the Rabbis, to perform more than he promises. The Patriarch belittles the fare he offers to provide for his guests, but gives them of his best.

state ye your heart.  Refresh your strength.

forasmuch as. Seeing that you are in haste, for otherwise you would not be passing my tent in the heat of the day.

6 Avraham hastened into his tent to Sara and said:

Make haste! Three measures of choice flour! 
Knead it, make bread-cakes! 

and Abraham hastened.  Note also the instruction to Sarah, ‘make ready quickly.’

7 Avraham ran to the oxen,

he fetched a young ox, tender and fine, and gave it to a serving-lad, that he might hasten to make it ready; 

unto the servant. lit. ‘the lad’, Ishmael, whom Abraham was thus instructing in the duties of hospitality (Midrash).  Such instruction in the duty of hospitality to strangers may appear superfluous in the eyes of some parents and teachers today.  They are in error.  In Western countries, the old Bible command, Love ye the stranger (Deut. X,19), is honoured more in the breach than in the observance.  The vulgar, high and low, deem it ‘patriotic’ to despise aliens, and find their foreign manners and language contemptible.

8 then he fetched cream and milk and the young ox that he had made ready, and placed it before 
them. 

The verse may be understood as meaning that the guests were given curd and milk to slake their thirst and refresh them (Judges, IV,19), and then followed the meal proper, which consisted of the calf.  This procedure would be quite in accord with the dietary laws.

and he stood by them. In the East, the host does not sit with his guests, but stands and attends to their needs.

9 They said to him:

Where is Sara your wife?

He said:

Here in the tent. 

Now he said:

in the tent.  The Talmud sees herein praise of Sarah, the highest excellence of a wife being her domesticity.

[RA]  Where is Sarah.  The fact that the visitors know her name without prompting is the first indication to Abraham (unless one assumes a narrative ellipsis) that they are not ordinary humans.

10 I will return, yes, return to you when time revives,

and Sara your wife will have a son!

Now Sara was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.

and He said. One of the angels.

cometh round.  lit. ‘reviveth’—this time next year.

and Sarah heard in the tent door. More accurately, ‘now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent.’

[EF] when time revives: An idiom for “next year.” B-R uses “at the time of life-bestowing.”

[RA]   he said, “I will surely return.” Evidently, one of the three visitors, unless the text reflects a fusion of two traditions, one in which there were three visitors, another in which there was one (which old then explain the switch from singular to plural early in the story).at this very season. This phrase or its equivalent, recurs in the various annunciation type-scenes, of which this is the first instance.  The narrative motifs of the annunciation type-scene, in sequence, are: the fact of barrenness, the promise of a son by God or angel or holy man, and the fulfillment of the promise in conception and birth.  But only here is the emphatically matriarchal annunciation displaced from wife to husband, with the woman merely eavesdropping on the promise; only here is the barren woman actually postmenopausal; and only here is there a long postponement, filled in with seemingly unrelated episodes, until the fulfillment of the promise (chapter 21).  Thus the patriarch takes over the center-stage location of the matriarch, and the difficult–indeed, miraculous–nature of the fulfillment is underscored.

11  And Avraham and Sara were old, advanced in days,

the way of women had ceased for Sara.

[EF] the way of women: The menstrual period.

12  Sara laughed within herself, saying:

After I have become worn, is there to be pleasure for
me? And my lord is old!

[EF] pleasure: Sexual.

[RA] 11-13.  This sequence of three utterances is a brilliant example of how much the definition of position and character can be achieved in biblical narrative through variation in repetition.  First the narrator informs us, objectively and neutrally, of Abraham’s and Sarah’s advanced age, stating the fact, repeating it with the emphasis of a synonym, and reserving for last Sarah’s menopausal condition, which would appear to make conception a biological impossibility.  When Sarah repeats this information in her interior monologue, it is given new meaning from her bodily perspective as an old and barren woman: her flesh is shriveled, she cannot imagine having pleasure again (the term ‘ednah is cognate with Eden and probably suggests sexual pleasure, or perhaps even sexual moistness), and besides–her husband is old.  The dangling third clause hangs on the verge of a conjugal complaint: how could she expect pleasure, or a child, when her husband is so old? Then the LORD, having exercised the divine faculty of listening to Sarah’s unspoken words, her silent laughter of disbelief, reports them to Abraham, tactfully editing out (as Rashi saw) the reference to the patriarch’s old age and also suppressing both the narrator’s mention of the vanished menses and Sarah’s allusion to her withered flesh–after all, nothing anaphrodisiac is to be communicated to old Abraham at a moment when he is expected to cohabit with his wife in order at last to beget a son.

13 But YHVH said to Avraham:

Now why does Sara laugh and say: Shall I really give birth,
now that I am old? 

shall I . . . who am old?  Sarah had referred both to her and to Abraham’s extreme age.  God only mentioned the reference to herself.  This was done so as not to give cause for quarrel between husband and wife, say the Rabbis.

14 Is anything beyond YHVH?

At that set-time I will return to you, when time revives, and Sara  will have a son.

is anything too hard for the LORD? Or, ‘Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?’

15 Sara pretended (otherwise), saying:

No, I did not laugh.

For she was afraid.

But he said:

[RA] I did not laugh. . . Yes, you did laugh.  Sarah’s fearful denial and God’s rejection of it afford an opportunity to foreground the verb of laughter, tsaaq, already stressed through Abraham’s laughter in chapter 17, which will become the name of her son.  After the birth, Sarah will laugh again, not in bitter disbelief but in joy, though perhaps not simply in joy, as we shall have occasion to see in chapter 21.

16 The men arose from there, and looked down upon the face of Sedom,

and Avraham went with them to escort them.

to bring them on the way. The final act of courtesy of a gracious host.

17-33. ABRAHAM’S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM

17 Now YHVH had said (to himself):

Shall I cover up from Avraham what I am about to do? 

the LORD said. Equivalent to ‘the LORD thought’—a usage often found in the Bible.

18 For Avraham is to become, yes, become a nation great and mighty (in number),

and all the nations of the earth will find blessing through him. 

blessed in him. See on XII,3.

[RA]  And the LORD had thought.  The verb ‘amar, “say,” is sometimes used elliptically for ‘amar belibo, “said to himself,” and that seems clearly the case here.  With the two divine messengers about to be sent off on their mission of destruction, God will be left alone with Abraham, and before addressing him, He reflects for a moment on the nature of His covenantal relationship with the patriarch and what that dictates as to revealing divine intention to a human partner.  Abraham is in this fashion thrust into the role of prophet, and God will so designate him in chapter 20.

19 Indeed, I have known him,

in order that he may charge his sons and his household after him: 
they shall keep the way of YHVH,

to do what is right and just,

in order that YHVH may bring upon 
Avraham what he spoke concerning him. 

for I have known him. i.e. regarded and chosen him; Amos III,2. ‘You only have I known of all the families of the earth’; Psalm I,6, ‘The LORD regardeth the way of the righteous.’ God’s choice of Abraham is no arbitrary election.

command to the children. Or, ‘charge his children.’ An important doctrine is here taught in connection with the word’ command’, which has played a conspicuous part in Jewish life.  It is the sacred duty of the Israelite to transmit the Jewish heritage to his children after him. The last injunction of the true Jewish father to his children is that they walk in ‘the way of the LORD’ and live lives of probity and goodness.  These injunctions were often put in writing; and this custom has given rise to a distinct type of literary production, the Jewish Ethical Will.

[RA]  to do righteousness and justice.  This is the first time that the fulfillment of the covenantal promise is explicitly contingent on moral performance.  The two crucial Hebrew nouns, tsedeq and mishpat, will continue to reverberate literally and in cognate forms through Abraham’s pleas to God on behalf of the doomed cities, through the Sodom story itself, and through the story of Abraham and Abimelech that follows it.

20 So YHVH said:

The outcry in Sedom and Amora-how great it is!

And their sin-how exceedingly heavily it weighs! 

the cry of Sodom.  The cries of those who suffered from the atrocious wickedness of the inhabitants of Sodom and who implored Heaven’s vengeance against their cruel oppressors (Ezek. XVI,49).  the following legend graphically describes their hatred of all strangers and their fiendish punishment of all who departed from their ways.  A girl, overcome by pity, supplied food to a poor stranger. On detection, she was stripped, bound, daubed with honey and palced on the roof under the burning sun to be devoured by the bees.

their sin. Exemplified in the narrative of the next chapter.

[RA] outcry.  The Hebrew noun, or the verb from which it is derived, tsa’aq or za’aq, is often associated in the Prophets and Psalms with the shrieks of torment of the oppressed.

21 Now let me go down and see:

if they have done according to its cry that has come to me–
destruction!

I will go down now.  An anthropomorphic expression, as in XI,7, to convey the idea that before God decided to punish the dwellers of the cities, ‘He descended,’ as it were, to obtain ocular proof of, or extenuating circumstances for, their crimes.

[EF] destruction: Some read “altogether (according to its cry)”

[RA]  Let Me go down. The locution indicating God’s descent from on high echoes the one in the story of the Tower of Babel.

dealt destruction. Some construe the Hebrew noun as an adverb and render this as “done altogether.”  But the verb “to do” (‘asah) with the noun kalah as direct object occurs a number of times in the Prophets in the clear sense of “deal destruction.”

22 The men turned from there and went toward Sedom,

but Avraham still stood in the presence of YHVH. 

from thence.  From the place to which Abraham had accompanied them.

[EF] but Avraham still stood in the presence of YHWH: Some manuscripts read “But YHWH still stood in the presence of Avraham.”  The subject of the sentence has been reversed by scribes who were uncomfortable with the passage’s human portrayal of God.

[RA] while the LORD was still standing before Abraham. The Masoretic Text has Abraham standing before the LORD, but this reading is avowedly a scribal euphemism, what the Talmud calls a tiqun sofrim, introduced because the original formulation smacked of lese-majeste.

23 Avraham came close and said:

Will you really sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?

The remainder of the chapter forms one of the sublimest passages in the Bible or out of the Bible.  Abraham’s plea for Sodom is a signal illustration of his nobility of character.  Amid the hatreds and feuds of primitive tribes who glorified brute force and despised pity, Abraham proves true to his new name and embraces in his sympathy for all the children of men.  Even the wicked inhabitants of Sodom were his brothers, and his heart overflows with sorrow over their doom.  The unique dialogue between God and Abraham teaches two vital lessons: first, the supreme value of righteousness: and, secondly, God’s readiness to pardon (Ezek. XXXIII,11), if only He can do so consistently with justice.

drew near. By the act of prayer (Abarbanel).

righteous. . . wicked. i.e. ‘innocent . . . guilty.’ Abraham rests his case in the conviction but only in accordance with perfect justice.  In an indiscriminate destruction, however, all the inhabitants, whether good or wicked, would share the same fate. Abraham pleads that as it would not be just to destroy the righteous, therefore, in order to save the righteous, the judgment which had been pronounced over the cities should be stayed (Ryle).  This intercession on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah—Abraham arguing with God, yea, bargaining with Him, to save their depraved inhabitants from merited destruction—is the highest spiritual pinnacle reached by the Patriarch.  Its grandeur exceeds even the willingness to sacrifice his son at the Divine bidding.  Within his breast there was a conflict between his sense of justice that the wicked must pay the penalty of their misdeeds, and his anguish at the thought that human beings were about to perish.

[RA] And Abraham stepped forward.  The verb, often used for someone about to deliver a legal plea, introduces an Abraham who is surprisingly audacious in the cause of justice, a stance that could scarcely have been predicted from the obedient and pious Abraham of the preceding episodes.

the innocent.  The term tsadiq has a legal usage—the party judged not guilty in the court of law, though it also has the moral meaning of “righteous.”  Similarly, the term here for guilty, rasha’, also means wicked.”  Tsadiq is derived from the same root as tsedaqah, “righteousness,” the very term God has just used in His interior monologue reflecting on what it is the people of Abraham must do.

24 Perhaps there are fifty innocent within the city,

will you really sweep it away?

Will you not bear with the place because of the fifty innocent that are in its midst? 

25 Heaven forbid for you to do a thing like this,

to deal death to the innocent along with the guilty,

that it should come about: like the innocent, like the guilty,

Heaven forbid for you!

The judge of 

all the earth-will he not do what is just? 

far from Thee. i.e. it would be unworthy of Thee (Mendelssohn).

shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly? These words have been well described as an epochal sentence in the Bible (Zangwill).  They make Justice the main pillar of God’s Throne: without it, the whole idea of the Divine totters.  Justice, it is true, is not the only ethical quality in God or man, nor is it the highest quality: but it is the basis for all the others.  ‘That which is above justice must be based on justice, and include justice, and be reached through justice’ (Henry George).  Only Israel, the justice-intoxicated people, in time became ‘merciful children of merciful ancestors.’  The boldness of the Patriarch’s ringing challenge, the universality of the phrase ‘all the earth’, an the absolute conviction that the infinite might of God must be controlled by the decrees of Justice—that, in fact, an unjust God would be a contradiction in terms—are truly extraordinary.  Despite the lapse of thousands of years, mankind has not yet fully grasped this lofty conception of God and its ethical consequences in human society.  ‘When Abraham could not find fifty righteous men in Sodom, and pleaded on behalf of forty, thirty, twenty, ten, that the great city might be spared, do you think God did not know all the time that there were not even ten righteous men in Sodom?  But God wanted our father Abraham to show whether he was a man or no; and didn’t he show himself a man!’

[EF] Heaven forbid: Lit. “May you have a curse,” an ironic turn of phrase in this situation.  like the innocent, like the guilty: Or “innocent and guilty alike.”

[RA]  the Judge of all the earth.  The term or “judge,” shofet, is derived from the same root as mishpat, “justice,” which equally occurs in God’s interior monologue about the ethical legacy of the seed of Abraham.

26 YHVH said:

If I find in Sedom fifty innocent within the city,

I will bear with the whole place for their sake. 

27 Avraham spoke up, and said:

Now pray, I have ventured to speak to my Lord,

and I am but earth and ashes: 

[EF] earth and ashes: Heb. afar va-efer, traditionally “dust and ashes.”  The phrase, while common in English, is used in the Bible again only in Job 30:19, 42:6).

28 Perhaps of the fifty innocent, five will be lacking—

will you bring ruin upon the whole city because of the five?

He said:

I will not bring ruin, if I find there forty-five. 

[RA]  Here, pray, I have presumed to speak to my Lord when I am but dust and ashes.  Like the previous verbal exchange with the three divine visitors, this whole scene is a remarkable instance of the use of contrastive dialogue in biblical narrative.  In the preceding scene, Abraham is voluble in his protestations of hospitable intention, whereas the three visitors only answer impassively and tersely, “Do as you have spoken.”  Here, Abraham, aware that he is walking a dangerous tightrope in reminding the Judge of all the earth of the necessity to exercise justice, deploys a whole panoply of the abundant rhetorical devices of ancient Hebrew for expressing self-abasement before a powerful figure.  At each turn of the dialogue, God responds only by stating flatly that He will not destroy for the sake of the number of innocent just stipulated.  The dialogue is cast very much as a bargaining exchange—it is not the last time we shall see Abraham bargaining.  After Abraham’s second bid of forty-five, each time he ratchets down the number he holds back the new, smaller number, in good bargaining fashion, to the very end of this statement.

29 But he continued to speak to him and said:

Perhaps there will be found there only forty!

He said:

I will not do it, for the sake of the forty. 

30 But he said: Pray let not my Lord be upset that I speak further:

Perhaps there will be found there only thirty!

He said:

I will not do it, if I find there thirty. 

31 But he said:

Now pray, I have ventured to speak to my Lord:

Perhaps there will be found there only twenty!

He said:

I will not bring ruin, for the sake of the twenty. 

32 But he said:

Pray let my Lord not be upset that I speak further just this one time:

Perhaps there will be found there only ten!

He said:

I will not bring ruin, for the sake of the ten. 

[RA] just this time . . . ten.  Abraham realizes he dare not go any lower than ten, the minimal administrative unit for communal organization in later Israelite life.  In the event, Lot’s family, less than the requisite ten, will be the only innocent souls in Sodom.

returned unto his place. From where he prayed, unto his own abode, Mamre: see v.1.

[EF]  YHWH went: See note on 17:22.

[RA]  and Abraham returned to his place.  The report of a character’s returning to his place or home is a formal convention for marking the end of an episode in biblical narrative.  But this minimal indication has a thematic implication here—the contrast between Abraham’s “place” in the nomadic, uncorrupted existence in the land of promise and Lot’s location in one of the doomed cities of the plain.

[Translation:  EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses; this translation is downloadable from http://toby.weebly.com/uploads/2/7/4/8/2748917/everett_foxxstorah.pdf.  

The commentary is from a Sinaite’s perspective. —Admin1.]

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Christian prooftexts list Genesis 18 among the ‘pre-incarnation’ appearances of Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity who is said to be the active member of the Godhead from OT to NT and is therefore identified as one of the 3 “men” here with the other 2 being angels.

Jewish interpretation, on the other hand, suggests these “3 men” were actually the angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, each with a specific assignment to accomplish relating to Sarah, to Abraham, and to the execution of divine judgment upon Sodom.   

Since we’ve set out to reread the TNK with “fresh eyes,” determined not to be influenced by anything extraneous to the text and context, we gather information only from—-

• what is written, no more, no less, 
• what we know so far, having read Genesis 1 to 17, 
• and what we know about YHWH from His self-revelation in the whole TNK.

The last factor—what we know about YHWH—-is ultimately the deciding factor in the conclusions we reach in our Torah discussions; it overrides all other considerations, and specially vague or confusing texts due to translators who have preconceived interpretations that influence the way they render the original Hebrew text.  

Rule of thumb:

 If the text or translation goes against what we know about YHWH gained from our study of the whole of TNK, we relegate the questionable text to faulty translation.  This is the most we can do as readers dependent on English translations.

——————————-

Before anything else, it helps to understand exactly how God interacted with Abraham.  Notice the wording in these Genesis/Bereshith verses:

From these descriptions, just like the interactions of the Creator with Adam and Eve, Cain, and Noah, we’re not sure in what form the Creator was “appearing” to these biblical figures:

• Do they just hear an audible voice giving them instructions?  
• Or do they hear a voice in their mind? 
• They are portrayed as conversing with God as though it was the most natural thing to do. 

‘Said’ . . . ‘appeared, saying’ . . . ‘the word of YHWH came in a vision saying’ . . .’appeared to him saying’  . . .  none of these give any mental picture of how YHWH presents HImself to Abraham; it seems the initiative to communicate usually starts with YHWH.  

Finally in 17:1  YHVH was seen by Avram and said to him . . . in this translation by Everett Fox; others express it differently.  One has to ask, how did YHWH manifest Himself to Avram here?  Later, with Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness, we are told YHWH manifests in theophanies of fire and light, as in the burning bush and shekinah glory cloud. But here?

The image of the smoking fire-pot at the ceremonial cutting of the Covenant is the first graphic divine manifestation, moving between the cut-up 3-year old heifer and she-goat and uncut birds, following the ratifying ceremony of treaties:

“the most widely used rite was that of cutting the bodies of animals in halves and placing them in two rows with enough space between for the two parties of the treaty to walk side by side. As they walked between the pieces, they were vowing to each other, ‘May what has happened to these animals, happen to me if I break this covenant with you'” [www.fivesolas/suzerain, htm].

Too bad Abraham missed an awesome moment by falling into a deep sleep, but perhaps the message here is the unconditional nature of this relationship between two unequal parties, with YHWH committing Himself to fulfilling everything He promised to Abraham and his descendants.

A word about fire being one of God’s physical manifestations in the TNK (theophany).  On the one hand, fire is associated with gentle comforting warmth, heat, light.  On the other, one of YHWH’s  self-descriptions is that He is a “consuming fire” [Deuteronomy/Dabarim 4:24].  

Just think —there is no hell-fire eternally burning, so the One Who does and can consume by fire is YHWH Himself.  Fire is not only a purifying agent but also reduces even the human body to ashes. YHWH appears to Moses as a burning bush that does not consume itself. YHWH’s Presence accompanies the desert-wandering Israelites as a pillar of fire by night, Shekinah by day.

To go now to the question about this chapter:  Does YHWH ever manifest Himself in human form?  Are we to infer from this narrative that YHWH is one of the “3 men” who appear to Abraham?

8:1 Now YHVH was seen by him by the oaks of Mamre as he was sitting at the entrance to his
tent at the heat of the day.
2 He lifted up his eyes and saw: here, three men standing over against him. When he saw them,
he ran to meet them from the entrance to his tent and bowed to the earth

Because the narrative flows from vs 1 which says YHWH appeared to Abraham, and vs 2 which says Abraham lifted his eyes and spotted 3 men, the presumption is YHWH was one of the 3 men.   Perish the thought!  Imagine this scenario instead:  YHWH and Abraham were into one of their usual tete-a-tete when Abraham spotted 3 men at a distance.  As hospitality to strangers was a cherished custom in Abraham’s times and culture, he proceeded to do as was expected of him as a host. 

Image from www.patheos.com

3 and said: My lords, pray if I have found favor in your eyes, pray do not pass by your servant!
4 Pray let a little water be fetched, then wash your feet and recline under the tree; 

5 let me fetch (you) a bit of bread, that you may refresh your hearts, then afterward you may
pass on- for you have, after all, passed your servant’s way! They said: Do thus, as you have spoken.
6 Avraham hastened into his tent to Sara and said: Make haste! Three measures of choice flour!
Knead it, make bread-cakes!
7 Avraham ran to the oxen, he fetched a young ox, tender and fine, and gave it to a serving-lad,
that he might hasten to make it ready;
8 then he fetched cream and milk and the young ox that he had made ready, and placed it before
them. Now he stood over against them under the tree while they ate.

Imagine! What Abraham did in these 5 verses must have taken a whole day, just to feed his guests and after all that work, he does not sit down to eat with them, Now he stood over against them under the tree while they ate. Sarah does not help him serve, he does it all himself!  Notice so far, the reference to the three men is consistently “they” and “them” as if they spoke together as a company of one. 

9 They said to him: Where is Sara your wife? He said: Here in the tent.

Notice in vs 9 that “they” asked the question about Sarah . . . but read vs 10 where, “He” (in some versions) and “he” (in others) announces ‘he’ will return at the specific time Sarah births the promised heir.

Now he said: 10 I will return, yes, return to you when time revives, and Sara your wife will have a son! Now  Sara was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.

Who spoke the prophecy, YHWH or one of the 3 men? Who was standing in front of the tent door, Abraham or one of the 3 men?

It is inconsistency in English translations from the Hebrew that makes this confusing. Some translators render “Him” while others “him”.  Readers automatically will read capitalized pronouns as YHWH, while “him” in this context could be Abraham. But using simple logic which is what we should ALWAYS resort to FIRST, why should YHWH be standing in front of the tent door? In what form is He manifesting? We might surmise He was one of the 3 men, but why should we infer that from the text alone, minus previous religious interpretive baggage?

For now, we will choose the lower case “him” as  the more accurate one, since our stand is that YHWH does not manifest in the whole of TNK as a “man.”  Anthromorphisms or the attribution of human traits to God are widely used all over the bible, but that’s different from YHWH taking on human form.

11-12  And Avraham and Sara were old, advanced in days, the way of women had ceased for Sara.
Sara laughed within herself, saying: After I have become worn, is there to be pleasure for
me? And my lord is old!

Nothing wrong with Abraham’s capability to procreate at his age, the difficulty would indeed be with Sarah conceiving at her age, what woman would not laugh.  Their God truly had a sense of humor but then who would miss the point that this pregnancy leading to the birth of the ‘promised’ son, like many other births among other biblical barren matriarchs, had to be miraculous, divinely proclaimed, determined and arranged, to validate that YHWH made all of it happen according to what He had previously announced.

13 But YHVH said to Avraham: Now why does Sara laugh and say: Shall I really give birth,
now that I am old?
14 Is anything beyond YHVH? At that set-time I will return to you, when time revives, and Sara
will have a son.

Here, YHWH is clearly identified as the One who had spoken in verse 10.

15 Sara pretended (otherwise), saying: No, I did not laugh. For she was afraid. But he said: No,
indeed you laughed.

It’s not as though Sarah sinned by laughing, it isn’t as though she was doubting God’s word.  To be barren for almost nine decades and then birth a firstborn?  The text says her denial was out of fear; that is a normal human response.

16 The men arose from there, and looked down upon the face of Sedom, and Avraham went with
them to escort them.

Abraham went with the men to show them the way and that is when YHWH reveals the impending judgment on Sodom, but allows Abraham to plead for mercy in behalf of the righteous (if any) among the evil population of Sodom.  Following the alternative scenario we suggested earlier, YHWH and Abraham resume their discourse after the “guests” had left Abraham’s tent.   

24 Perhaps there are fifty innocent within the city, will you really sweep it away? Will you not bear with the place because of the fifty innocent that are in its midst? 

The rest of the narrative doesn’t need further interpretation. YHWH allows Abraham to plead for the righteous among the evil population of Sodom, thereby giving Abraham a sense of divine justice—that He is willing to withhold judgment where righteous people live among the majority evil population.  The standard is different with Israel later on, where the nation is judged as a whole, innocents among the guilty.  Here, YHWH repeatedly declares He will not destroy for the sake of the few righteous.  After this bargaining exchange, YHWH and Abraham go their separate ways. Where are the 3 men? On their way to Sodom.

To conclude:

• YHWH does not appear in the TNK in human form. 
•  If so, then He was not one of the “3 men” in this narrative.  
• There is an explanation given in the notes of ArtScroll Tanach as to the presentation of this story which explains the confusion readers might have.  

(NOTE: COMMENTARY FROM ARTSCROLL ENGLISH TANACH):  

• This narrative supposedly fuses 3 separate themes in the original manuscripts: one is the visit of the 3 men [angel messengers with specific assignments from YHWH]; another is the reiteration of the promised heir which amuses Sarah; and the third is Abraham’s plea for the righteous few in Sodom.  In fusing these themes together, the progress of the narrative weaves in YHWH’s exchanges with Abraham the interlude of the appearance of the 3 men and Abraham’s hospitality, and Sarah’s laughter.  

Mentally rearrange such possibility:

• YHWH’s conversation with Abraham from beginning to end, without the interruption of the 3 men.
• Abraham spots the 3 men from a distance, plays host to them until they leave.

Makes sense to us, and that is why this article was titled “YHWH, Abraham and 3 Men” and not “YHWH, Abraham and the 2 Men.”

NSB@S6K