and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Gen 18:13, said, “ I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again” (חיּה, reviviscens, without the article, Ges. §111, 2 b), i.e., at this time next year; “ and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son.” Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; “ and it was behind Him” ( Jehovah), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham's extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed. But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, “ Is anything too wonderful (i.e., impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee,” etc.; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen 17:17), and without receiving any reproof. For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah's, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb 11:11).
verses 16-19
After this conversation with Sarah, the heavenly guests rose up and turned their faces towards the plain of Sodom (פּני על, as in Gen 19:28; Num 21:20; Num 23:28). Abraham accompanied them some distance on the road; according to tradition, he went as far as the site of the later Caphar barucha, from which you can see the Dead Sea through a ravine, - solitudinem ac terras Sodomae. And Jehovah said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I propose to do? Abraham is destined to be a great nation and a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:2-3); for I have known, i.e., acknowledged him (chosen him in anticipative love, ידע as in Amo 3:2; Hos 13:4), that he may command his whole posterity to keep the way of Jehovah, to practise justice and righteousness, that all the promises may be fulfilled in them.” God then disclosed to Abraham what he was about
