Angelic Visitation of Abraham in Hebron; Promise of Isaac's Birth repeated. The Destruction of Sodom and Lot's Deliverance (xvi. 1-9; cf. Gen. xviii.-xix.).

XVI. And on the new moon of the fourth month we appeared unto Abraham, at the oak of Mamre, and we talked with him, and we announced to him that a son would be given to him by Sarah his wife. 2. And Sarah laughed, for she heard that we had spoken these words with Abraham, and we admonished her, and she became afraid, and denied that she had laughed on account of the words. 3. And we told her the name of her son, as his name is ordained and written in the heavenly tables ( i.e.) Isaac. 4. And (that) when we returned to her at a set time, she would have conceived a son. 5. And in this month the Lord executed his judgments on Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Zeboim, and all the region of the Jordan, and He burned them with fire and brimstone, and destroyed them until this day, even as [lo] I have declared unto thee all their works, that they are wicked and sinners exceedingly, and that they defile themselves and commit fornication in their flesh, and work uncleanness on the earth. 6. And, in like manner, God will execute judgment on the places where they have done according to the uncleanness of the Sodomites, like unto the judgment of Sodom. 7. But Lot we saved; for God remembered Abraham, and sent him out from the midst of the overthrow. 8. And he and his daughters committed sin upon the earth, such as had not been on the earth since the days of Adam till his time; for the man lay with his daughters. 9. And, behold, it was commanded and engraven concerning all his seed, on the heavenly tables, to remove them and root them out, and to

execute judgment upon them like the judgment of Sodom, and to leave no seed of the man on earth on the day of condemnation.