Genesis 18 · Story · Hospitality
Abraham's Three Visitors
Genesis 18:1 to 15 tells of the meal Abraham gave three visitors at the Oaks of Mamre and of the son the LORD promised to Sarah there.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when three strangers came to his tent in the heat of the day, and everything he did for them he did in haste.
And Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
- Where
- Mamre
- Who
- Abraham, Sarah
Summary
Genesis 18 shows the welcome of strangers at its plainest. Abraham puts aside his own rest to serve three travellers, and his whole household works to feed them. The meal under the tree is given to God, for the LORD Himself is among the guests. The visit ends with the promise of the son through whom God would keep His covenant with Abraham.
- Abraham bowed to the ground before the three men, called himself their servant and asked them not to pass him by (Genesis 18:2 to 5).
- Sarah baked from three seahs of fine flour and a servant prepared a tender calf, and Abraham waited on the meal himself (Genesis 18:6 to 8).
- At the meal the LORD set a date for the birth of Sarah's child, "at this time next year" (Genesis 18:10).
- Sarah laughed to herself at the promise, and the LORD answered with the question, "Is anything too difficult for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:12 to 14).
- Isaac was born to Sarah at the very time God had promised, when Abraham was a hundred years old (Genesis 21:2 and Genesis 21:5).
A Welcome at Mamre
The story is set at one tent near Hebron on a single day.
This story belongs to hospitality, the value Scripture lays on every believer when it commands the welcome of the stranger and the guest. It shows that value in a household, where a husband, a wife and a servant all work for travellers they do not know.
The question it answers is what the welcome of a stranger looked like in Abraham's household, and why Scripture remembers it. A reader who wants to practise hospitality learns here how quickly a host can act and how much a host can give. The story also raises the question of who the guests were, which the church has answered in three ways.
The Visit Event by Event
Seven of the events belong to the welcome and five to the promise.
Abraham does most of the speaking in the welcome, and the LORD does most of it in the promise.
- The LORD appears, and Abraham runs to meet three menGenesis 18:1 to 2
- He asks them to stayGenesis 18:3
- He offers water for their feet and rest in the shade"Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree."Genesis 18:4
- He offers bread, and the guests accept"And I will bring a bit of bread so that you may refresh yourselves."Genesis 18:5
- Sarah bakes bread"Prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread."Genesis 18:6
- A calf is chosen and prepared"selected a tender and choice calf, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it."Genesis 18:7
- Abraham serves the meal under the treeGenesis 18:8
- The guests ask for Sarah"Where is your wife Sarah?"Genesis 18:9
- Sarah overhears the guest's word about her childGenesis 18:10
- Sarah laughs in secret"So she laughed to herself"Genesis 18:12
- The LORD asks why she laughedGenesis 18:13 to 14
- Sarah denies it, and the LORD holds to His word"But Sarah was afraid, so she denied it"Genesis 18:15
A timeline of twelve events, seven of them with words of their verse from the Berean text.
Abraham serves the meal under the tree, The guests ask for Sarah, Sarah overhears the guest's word about her child, Sarah laughs in secret, The LORD asks why she laughed, Sarah denies it, and the LORD holds to His word
The Visit Told in Order
Genesis tells the visit in five short scenes, from the greeting to the rebuke of Sarah's laugh.
The narrator names the LORD before Abraham sees the menGenesis 18:1 to 2
Then the LORD appeared to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre in the heat of the day, while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent.The verse tells the reader who has come before the scene shows what Abraham saw, so the reader knows more than the host does.
He leaves the shade of his tent and goes out on foot to men he has never seen.
Abraham asks to serve the travellers and offers littleGenesis 18:3 to 5
“My lord,” said Abraham, “if I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by.The host makes his request as a favour to himself, though the gift is all on his side.
His offer names only "a little water" and "a bit of bread". He tells them that they may go on their way afterward, so he binds them to nothing, and they accept.
The household prepares a meal far larger than the offerGenesis 18:6 to 8
Bread is baked indoors while Abraham picks an animal from his cattle and hands it on to be cooked.
Then Abraham brought curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and he set them before the men and stood by them under the tree as they ate.The verse adds curds and milk to the meal and shows the host doing the serving himself.
The guests ask for Sarah by nameGenesis 18:9 to 11
Abraham answers that she is in the tent.
Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent.This is the turn of the visit, where the guest becomes the giver.
The narrator adds that Abraham and Sarah were already old and that Sarah was past the age of childbearing (Genesis 18:11).
Sarah laughs inside the tent, and the LORD hears itGenesis 18:12 to 15
And the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really bear a child when I am old?’The LORD repeats words Sarah spoke only inside herself, which shows that the guest knows what was hidden.
Sarah was afraid and said that she had not laughed. The LORD did not let the denial stand, and the scene ends on His words to her: "but you did laugh."
Three Misreadings Set Beside the Text
Three things often said of the visit are weighed against Genesis and the New Testament.
Abraham welcomed the men as travellersGenesis 18:3 and Hebrews 13:2
Retellings often have Abraham know at once that God stood before him. In the text he offers water for dusty feet and bread for the road, which are a host's gifts to travellers. Adam Clarke notes in his Commentary on Genesis 18:3 that Abraham used the word Adonai, "for as yet Abraham did not know the quality of his guests."
The letter to the Hebrews speaks of hosts who have entertained angels without knowing it (Hebrews 13:2).
Abraham laughed at the promise before Sarah didGenesis 17:17
Sarah's laugh is often told as the one doubt in the story. One chapter earlier, Abraham had laughed as well.
Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”Abraham's question gives the ages of both parents, a hundred and ninety, which is the ground of the laughter in both chapters.
The New Testament remembers Sarah for her faithHebrews 11:11 and 1 Peter 3:6
Sarah is often remembered only for her laugh and her denial. Peter holds her up as a wife who obeyed Abraham and called him lord (1 Peter 3:6), and in Genesis 18:12 she speaks of him as "my master".
By faith Sarah, even though she was barren and beyond the proper age, was enabled to conceive a child, because she considered Him faithful who had promised.The letter counts Sarah among the faithful because she trusted the One who made the promise she had laughed at.
The Tent at Mamre
Genesis gives the place of the visit, and the chapter before it gives the time.
So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.The visit happens at the place Abraham had chosen years before for his home and his worship.
Genesis 17:1 dates God's appearing in that chapter to Abram's ninety-ninth year. In that chapter God changed both their names, promised Abraham a son by Sarah and named the boy Isaac (Genesis 17:15 to 21).
Scripture tells of water for the feet in other welcomes as well. Abraham's servant receives it at Laban's house (Genesis 24:32), and the old man of Gibeah gives it to the Levite and his company (Judges 19:21).
Henry explained why Sarah stayed out of sightMatthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Genesis 18:9
“Care is taken that Sarah should be within hearing. She must conceive by faith, and therefore the promise must be made to her, Heb. xi. It was the modest usage of that time that the women did not sit at meat with men, at least not with strangers, but confined themselves to their own apartments; therefore Sarah is here out of sight: but she must not be out of hearing.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Genesis 18:9Puritan
From Mamre to Sodom
After the meal the guests set out toward the cities of the plain, and Lot takes in two of them at nightfall.
When the meal was over the men got up, looked out over Sodom, and Abraham walked with them to see them off (Genesis 18:16).
And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.The company parts on the road, and the one who remains with Abraham is called the LORD, which bears on who the visitors were.
The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, and Lot rose to meet them at the city gate, bowed and pressed them to stay (Genesis 19:1 to 3). Lot calls himself their servant and offers water for their feet, as Abraham had done in the heat of the day.
Theodore set the hour of each visit side by sideTheodore of Mopsuestia, Catena on Genesis, on Genesis 19:1
“It was ‘three men’ who came to Abraham, and ‘in the heat of the day’; but in the case of Sodom, ‘two angels, and in the evening.’”
Theodore of Mopsuestia · Catena on Genesis 3.1110 · on Genesis 19:1Patristic
Origen read Lot at the gate as a student of Abraham's welcomeOrigen, Selections on Genesis, on Genesis 19:1
“Lot was not inside Sodom ‘but at the gate.’ I might have said, just as Abraham was sitting outside his tent, out of hospitality, even at an inconvenient time (for it was the middle of the day) on the lookout for travelers, so his relative and the imitator of his morality ‘was sitting at the gate’ ready to invite those passing through the land, even though evening had now come. For he surely knew the impiety of the Sodomites and that there was no rest for the stranger in that place.”
Origen of Alexandria · Selections on Genesis · on Genesis 19:1Patristic
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Four things a reader may want to know about the visit are left untold in Genesis 18.
Genesis gives no names for the three men, and it does not say which of them spoke when the LORD made the promise in Genesis 18:10.
The text does not say at what moment Abraham knew who his guest was.
It does not say how the visitors knew Sarah's name.
Chapter 18 records no reply from Sarah after the LORD's last word to her.
What Abraham's Welcome Shows
The scene shows hospitality as speed and as service.
The Berean text uses five words of haste in Genesis 18:2 to 7. Abraham ran to the men, hurried into the tent and told Sarah "Quick!", then ran to the herd, and his servant hurried to prepare the calf. The welcome came before the guests asked for anything.
Hebrews 11:9 says that Abraham lived in tents as a stranger in the land of promise. At Mamre that stranger became a host to other strangers.
Teachers on Abraham's Welcome
Four teachers of the church wrote on Abraham's welcome and on the guest he received.
died 253 · Origen of Alexandria
HOMILIES ON GENESIS 4.1
Origen saw eagerness in every step Abraham took
The quotation1 quotation
“Now let us see how each man receives his guests. ‘Abraham saw,’ the text says, ‘and ran to meet them.’ Notice that Abraham immediately is energetic and eager in his duties. He runs to meet them, and when he had met them, ‘he hastens back to the tent,’ the text says, ‘and says to his wife: 'Hasten to the tent.' ‘ Behold in the individual matters how great is his eagerness to receive them. He makes haste in all things; all things are done urgently; nothing is done leisurely.”
Origen of Alexandria · Homilies on Genesis 4.1 · on Genesis 18:2Patristic
died 397 · Ambrose of Milan
On Abraham
Ambrose reminded his readers that they too are guests on earth
The quotation1 quotation
“Hospitality is good, it has its reward, first the gratitude of man, and then, what is greater, the reward of God. We are all guests in this abode; for a time we have a place to stay: we are emigrating soon. Let us beware that if we have been harsh or negligent in receiving guests, even the holy hostels may be denied to us after the course of this life. Hence in the Gospel the Savior says: Make friends for yourselves with unjust wealth, so that they may receive you into eternal dwellings.”
Ambrose of Milan · On Abraham · on Genesis 18:2Patristic
1509 to 1564 · John Calvin
Commentaries
The quotation1 quotation
“And this was done designedly, in order that he, receiving them as men, might give proof of his charity. For angels do not need those services of ours, which are the true evidences of charity. Moreover, hospitality holds the chief place among these services; because it is no common virtue to assist strangers, from whom there is no hope of reward.”
John Calvin · Commentaries · on Genesis 18:2Reformed
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“The appearance of God to Abraham seems to have had in it more of freedom and familiarity, and less of grandeur and majesty, than those we have hitherto read of; and therefore more resembles that great visit which, in the fullness of time, the Son of God was to make to the world, when the Word would be flesh, and appear as one of us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Genesis 18:1Puritan
John Calvin, Matthew Henry
Who Were the Three Visitors?
Genesis calls them three men, then names one as the LORD and two as angels, and teachers of the church have read them in three ways.
The LORD, the Son, with two angelsJustin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 56; John Calvin, Commentaries on Genesis
Justin Martyr argued in his Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 56, that "one of those three is God, and is called Angel". He reasoned from the guest who promised to return when Sarah's son was born.
“For (as we have seen) one of the messengers held the principal place, as being superior to the others in dignity. Now, although Christ was always the Mediator, yet, because he manifested himself more obscurely to Lot than he did to Abraham, the two angels only came to Sodom.”
John Calvin · Commentaries · on Genesis 19:1Reformed
Three angels through whom God spokeAugustine, City of God, book 16, chapter 29
Augustine held that all three were angels, through whom God made Himself seen and heard.
“God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Mamre in three men, who it is not to be doubted were angels, although some think that one of them was Christ and assert that he was visible before he put on flesh. Now it belongs to the divine power and invisible, incorporeal and incommunicable nature, without changing itself at all, to appear even to mortals, not by what it is but by what is subject to it. And what is not subject to it? Yet if they try to establish that one of these three was Christ by the fact that although he saw three, he addressed the Lord in the singular, as it is written, ‘He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth and said, 'My lord, if I have found favor in your sight.' ‘ Why do they not refer also to this, that when two of them came to destroy the Sodomites, while Abraham still spoke to one, calling him Lord and interceding that he would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked in Sodom, Lot received these two in such a way that he too in his conversation with them addressed the Lord in the singular? For after saying to them in the plural, ‘My lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant's house,’ yet it is afterward said, ‘So [the angels] seized him and his hand, [because] the Lord [was] merciful to him, and they brought him forth and set him outside the city.”
Augustine of Hippo · City of God 16.29 · on Genesis 18:1Patristic
A figure of the TrinityAmbrose of Milan, On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus
Ambrose read the visit as a sign of the Trinity shown to Abraham long before the church taught it in words.
“Abraham, ready to receive strangers, faithful towards God, devoted in ministering, quick in his service, saw the Trinity in a type; he added religious duty to hospitality, when beholding Three he worshipped One, and preserving the distinction of the Persons, yet addressed one Lord, he offered to Three the honour of his gift, while acknowledging one Power. It was not learning but grace which spoke in him, and he believed better what he had not learnt than we who have learnt. No one had falsified the representation of the truth, and so he sees Three, but worships the Unity. He brings forth three measures of fine meal, and slays one victim, considering that one sacrifice is sufficient, but a triple gift; one victim, an offering of three.”
Ambrose of Milan · On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus · on Genesis 18:1Patristic
Nothing Too Difficult for the LORD
The visit closes on the LORD's question to Abraham.
The chapter leaves Abraham and Sarah holding a promise that no human means could keep.
Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”The question turns the promise away from Sarah's age and toward the LORD's power.
Genesis 21:1 records that "the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said". Sarah, who had laughed in doubt, then said, "God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me" (Genesis 21:6).
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 56, translated by Marcus Dods and George Reith, Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 1 (1885)
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis (1554)
- Augustine, City of God, book 16, chapter 29.
- Ambrose of Milan, On Abraham.
- Ambrose of Milan, On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus.
- Origen, Homilies on Genesis, homily 4.
- Origen, Selections on Genesis.
- Theodore of Mopsuestia, Catena on Genesis.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832)
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