7. Then Abraham ran to his cattle. He took his best young calf and gave it to the servant there. He told the servant to quickly kill the calf and prepare it for food.
8. Abraham brought the meat and some milk and cheese and set them down in front of the three men. Then he stood near the men, ready to serve them while they sat under the tree and ate.
9. Then the men said to Abraham, “Where is your wife Sarah?” Abraham said, “She is there, in the tent.”
10. Then one of them said, “I will come again in the spring. At that time your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was listening in the tent and heard these things.
11. Abraham and Sarah were very old. Sarah was past the right age for women to have children.
12. So she laughed to herself and said, “I am old, and my husband is old. I am too old to have a baby.”
13. Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Sarah laughed and said she was too old to have a baby.
14. But is anything too hard for the Lord? I will come again in the spring, just as I said I would, and your wife Sarah will have a son.”
15. Sarah said, “I didn’t laugh!” (She said this because she was afraid.) Then the Lord said, “No, I know that is not true. You did laugh!”
16. Then the men got up to leave. They looked toward Sodom and began walking in that direction. Abraham walked with them to send them on their way.
17. The Lord said to himself, “Should I tell Abraham what I am going to do now?
18. Abraham will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on earth will be blessed because of him.
19. I have made a special agreement with him. I did this so that he would command his children and his descendants to live the way the Lord wants them to. I did this so that they would live right and be fair. Then I, the Lord, can give him what I promised.”
20. Then the Lord said, “I have heard many times that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are very evil.
21. I will go and see if they are as bad as I have heard. Then I will know for sure.”
22. So the men turned and started walking toward Sodom while Abraham stood there before the Lord.
23. Then Abraham approached him and asked, “Will you destroy the good people while you are destroying those who are evil?
24. What if there are fifty good people in that city? Will you still destroy it? Surely you will save the city for the fifty good people living there.