Genesis 18:11

11 Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years.^[a] Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.^[b]

Genesis 18:11 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 18:11

Now Abraham and Sarah [were] old, [and] well stricken in
age
The one being ninety nine years of age, and the other eighty nine; and which is observed to make it the more surprising that they should have a son at such an age; and what follows still makes it more so: [and] it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women;
her monthly visitors had left her, so that she was unfit for conception, and there could be no hope of it in a natural way; though the philosopher ^F23 intimates, that there are some, that it is possible, may conceive without them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 7. c. 2.

Genesis 18:11 In-Context

9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. "There, in the tent," he answered.

10 The Lord said, "I will certainly come back to you in about a year's time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!" Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

11 Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

12 So she laughed to herself: "After I have become shriveled up and my lord is old, will I have delight?"

13 But the Lord asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Can I really have a baby when I'm old?'

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit days
• [b]. Lit The way of women had ceased for Sarah