During the meal, at which Abraham stood, and waited upon them as the host, they asked for Sarah, for whom the visit was chiefly intended. On being told that she was in the tent, where she could hear, therefore, all that passed under the tree in front of the tent, the one whom Abraham addressed as Adonai (my Lord), and who is called Jehovah in Genesis 18:13, said, "I will return to thee (חיּה כּעת) at this time, when it lives again" (חיּה, reviviscens, without the article, Ges. 111, 2b), i.e., at this time next year; "and, behold, Sarah, thy wife, will (then) have a son." Sarah heard this at the door of the tent; "and it was behind Him" (Jehovah), so that she could not be seen by Him as she stood at the door. But as the fulfilment of this promise seemed impossible to her, on account of Abraham's extreme age, and the fact that her own womb had lost the power of conception, she laughed within herself, thinking that she was not observed. But that she might know that the promise was made by the omniscient and omnipotent God, He reproved her for laughing, saying, "Is anything too wonderful (i.e., impossible) for Jehovah? at the time appointed I will return unto thee," etc.; and when her perplexity led her to deny it, He convicted her of falsehood. Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Genesis 17:17), and without receiving any reproof. For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah's, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Hebrews 11:11).

Genesis 18:18 Parallel Commentaries

become. See on ch.

Genesis 12:2,3 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing...

Genesis 22:17,18 That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven...

Genesis 26:4 And I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give to your seed all these countries...

Psalm 72:17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him...

Acts 3:25,26 You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham...

Galatians 3:8,14 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying...

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: