7. Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender, choice calf. He gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it.
8. Then Abraham took curds and milk, and the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree.
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? ’
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.”
16. The men got up from there and looked out over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off.
17. Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham?
18. Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.
19. For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him.”
20. Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious.
21. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.”
22. The men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
23. Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
24. What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Will You really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people who are in it?