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No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.
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Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.
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God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.
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Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”
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And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
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When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
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On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.
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Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,
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Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day.
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And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.
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The Three Visitors
The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.
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Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
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So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”
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Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.
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Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’
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Abraham Pleads for Sodom
When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.
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Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
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Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.
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For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
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The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
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Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
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Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
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Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
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When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
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Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.
