Psalm 113

The three visitors

18 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. ² 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.

³ He said, ‘If I have found favour in your eyes, my lord,^[a] do not pass your servant by. ⁴ Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. ⁵ Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way – now that you have come to your servant.’

‘Very well,’ they answered, ‘do as you say.’

⁶ So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. ‘Quick,’ he said, ‘get three seahs^[b] of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.’

⁷ Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸ He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

⁹ ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ they asked him.

‘There, in the tent,’ he said.

¹⁰ Then one of them said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?’

¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Will I really have a child, now that I am old?” ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.’

¹⁵ Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, ‘I did not laugh.’

But he said, ‘Yes, you did laugh.’

The birth of Isaac

21 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac^[a] to the son Sarah bore him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’ ⁷ And she added, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’

²³ Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’

²⁴ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is^[a] to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’

²⁶ The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’

²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’