Genesis 18:9-15

Sarah Laughs

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!"^[a] Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

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

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?'

14 Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son."

15 Sarah denied it. "I did not laugh," she said, because she was afraid. But He replied, "No, you did laugh."

Genesis 18:9-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 18

Another appearance of God to Abraham is here recorded; three persons are seen by him in an human form, whom he kindly invites to stop with him, and generously entertains them, Ge 18:1-8; they inquire concerning Sarah his wife, and one of them renews the promise of her bearing a son to him, which occasions laughter in her, for which she is reproved, Ge 18:9-15; upon their departure the Lord thought fit, for reasons given, to make known to Abraham his intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Ge 18:16-22; when Abraham intercedes for the preservation of those cities in a most importunate and affectionate manner, Ge 18:23-33.

Footnotes

• [a] Gn 17:10; 21:1
• [b] Lit days
• [c] Lit The way of women had ceased for Sarah