Once more the Lord appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre. It was noon, and Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent. Raising his eyes, he saw three men at some distance from him. Rising from his seat, he hastened to meet them and, bowing down to the ground, said: "Lord! If I have found grace before Thee, do not pass by Thy servant. Allow me to bring water and wash your feet, and in the meantime you will rest under this tree." Then he went into Sarah's tent and said to her: "Quickly knead and bake unleavened bread"; and he himself ran to his flock, and there he chose the best calf, and bade it be cooked quickly, and brought milk and butter, and offered it to his guests, and they began to eat. Then the Lord said to Abraham: "Next year I will come to you again, about this time, and then Sarah will bear you a son." Sarah, who was standing at the door of the tent, heard this and laughed. The Lord said: "Why does Sarah laugh? Is there anything impossible for God?" Sarah would not confess, saying, "I did not laugh"; but He said to her, "No, you were laughing!" and so Sarah was ashamed of her unbelief.

Then Abraham's guests arose and went to Sodom; Abraham saw them off. At the same time, the Lord said: "Will I hide from Abraham what I want to do? For I know that he commands his children and all his household to keep the ways of the Lord and to do justice and righteousness." Then the Lord revealed to Abraham that He wanted to visit the Sodomites as a punishment for their sins. Hearing this, Abraham began to intercede for them: "Are there not fifty righteous men among them? But thou, O Lord, shalt not do this, neither shalt destroy the righteous with the wicked." To this the Lord said to him: "If I had found fifty righteous men there, I would have left all the place for the sake of these fifty." But Abraham asked again: "What if forty-five? And encouraged by the merciful answer of the Lord, he continued further: "But perhaps there will be forty of them there?" – "But if there are thirty?" – "What if twenty?" – "What if ten?" And the Lord said: "I will not destroy them for the sake of ten!"

9. Sodom and Gomorrah

It was evening when two angels come to Sodom. Lot, taking them for simple travelers, went out to meet them and earnestly asked them to spend the night with him, to which they agreed. But the inhabitants of Sodom approached Lot's house by night, demanding that the two strangers be handed over to them. In their rage they were about to break into his house by force, when suddenly they were struck blind by the angels, so that they could not find the door in Lot's house. Then the strangers said to Lot: "If you have a loved one in this city, bring him out from here, for we have been sent from God to destroy this place!"

As soon as dawn broke, the angels began to hurry Lot; and as he tarried, they took him, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand, and led them hastily out of the city, saying, "Save your life, and do not look back, do not stop in all this country." The sun had hardly risen when Lot entered Zoar. Then the Lord poured down a rain of fire from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah, and laid waste all that country. On the place where once there was a beautiful valley, now stands the Dead, or Salty, Sea. To this day, the sad and gloomy appearance of this country serves as a striking testimony to how terribly God punishes iniquity. Here is Lot's wife, who, contrary to the angel's command, looked back, stands like a pillar of salt as a monument to the punished crime.

10. Izmail

Abraham was 86 years old when his first son was born to Hagar, named Ishmael. Another 14 years passed, and the Lord visited Sarah; she bore Abraham a son, who was named Isaac. But since the son of the handmaid began to offend his brother Isaac, Sarah began to say to Abraham: "Drive away this servant with her son." It was sad for Abraham to hear these words, but God said to him: "Do not be offended by what is before Ishmael and your handmaid. In whatever Sarah says to you about them, listen to her. For in Isaac thy seed shall be called. But also from the son of this handmaid I will bring forth a great nation, for he also is of thy seed."

Then Abraham gave his servant Hagar bread and skins with water, and sent her away, giving her her also her son into his arms. But she, having left him, soon lost her way in the wilderness. Her water was all gone, and there was not a single spring around. Hagar in despair left her son, who was thirsty, under a tree, and she sat down afar off, saying: "I cannot see the death of my son!" Then God heard the voice of the child, the angel of God called from heaven to Hagar and said: "What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not be afraid!" At this time, God opened her eyes, and she saw a spring of spring water, from which she gave her son to drink.

Ishmael grew up and settled in the wilderness. God blessed him with numerous descendants. From him came the Ishmaelites and Arabs, who still live in the vast lands of Asia and Africa.

11. Isaac

Once God tempted Abraham and said to him: "Take your beloved son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you." Abraham arose early in the morning, saddled an ass, took with him two servants and his son Isaac, and set out on his journey. On the third day, when the appointed place appeared in the distance, he ordered the slaves to stay with the donkey behind; and he himself, having laid the wood for the burnt offering on the back of Isaac, and taking with him a knife and a fire, went to the mountain shown by God. On the way Isaac asked: "My father! Here we have fire and wood, where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered him: "God will provide Himself with a lamb for a burnt offering, my son!"

When Abraham came to the place, he built an altar there, putting wood on it, then bound Isaac, laid him on the pyre, and had already stretched out his hand to take the knife and kill his son, when a voice was heard from heaven: "Abraham! Abraham! Thou shalt not lay thy hand on the lad. For I see now that you fear God, and have not spared your beloved son for me." Then Abraham saw a ram caught in the thicket with its horns, which he sacrificed instead of his son. The angel of the Lord again called out from heaven and said to Abraham, "By Me I have sworn." The Lord said: "Because you have not spared your beloved son for Me, I will bless you with a great blessing, and I will multiply your seed like the stars in heaven, like the sand of the sea; and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in thy seed, because thou hast obeyed my voice."

12. The Death and Burial of Sarah

Abraham lived for many years in the land of Canaan, but still did not have his own land in this country. His flocks migrated from place to place, from one pasture to another, and he himself was a stranger among the Canaanites. But then his wife Sarah died. In order to bury her body, he turned to the Hittite princes with a request to sell him a plot of land. They did not agree to this, offering him land for free. Finally, Ephron, one of the princes of the Hittites, agreed to his request; Abraham paid him 400 didrachmas of silver and buried his wife Sarah in a cave he had bought near Hebron, opposite Mamre.