Genesis 18:31

The chapter opens with the LORD appearing to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre with two companions, and Abraham welcoming them with a meal (Genesis 18:1–8). The LORD renews the promise that Sarah will bear a son (Genesis 18:9–15). Then he tells Abraham what he is about to do. The cry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin very grievous, and he will go down and see (Genesis 18:16–21). The two companions turn toward Sodom, and Abraham is left standing before the LORD (Genesis 18:22). Sodom and Gomorrah lay in the fertile plain of the Jordan, probably near the southern end of the Dead Sea, and they were prosperous cities. Abraham’s nephew Lot lived in Sodom, and his concern for Lot belongs to this prayer as well.

God shares his plan with Abraham the way a man confides in a friend. Scripture calls Abraham the friend of God (Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23), and this chapter shows that friendship at work, with God revealing his intentions and Abraham answering with a plea for others.

“Abraham drew near” uses nâgash, the ordinary verb for coming or drawing near. Here a man comes close to the LORD in order to speak with him, and Scripture calls us to the same, to draw near to God (James 4:8).

His first words are a question: “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” The two groups are the tsaddîyq, the righteous person, who is just and upright, and the râshâʻ, the wicked person, who is guilty and ungodly. The verb for destroy is çâphâh, which means to scrape together or scrape away, and here it is the sweeping away of a whole city. Abraham asks a question whose answer he already knows. He is sure that God keeps the righteous and the wicked distinct, and he asks so that the LORD himself will say so.

Abraham’s appeal in verse 25 is an appeal to God’s own justice, and it is the heart of his prayer. “That be far from thee” stands twice in this verse. It translates châlîylâh, which comes from a verb meaning to profane and literally means “a profaned thing”. Used as an exclamation it means “far be it!” or “God forbid!” To slay the righteous with the wicked, and to treat the righteous as if they were the wicked, would be against God’s holy nature, and Abraham says so with an emphatic word.

Then comes the question the whole passage turns on: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Judge is shâphaṭ, the verb to judge, decide or govern, used here as a title for God, the one who judges. He judges all the earth, Sodom included, and the judge of everyone is himself just. In Scripture judgment often falls on a whole people together, as at the flood, and Abraham asks the Judge to tell the righteous from the wicked within the city.

The rest of Scripture says the same about him. Moses sings that God’s work is perfect and his ways are just (Deuteronomy 32:4). The LORD has set up his throne for judgment (Psalm 9:7–8) and will judge the world in righteousness (Psalm 96:13), and righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne (Psalm 89:14). He knows the way of the righteous (Psalm 1:6), and Paul says that he will repay each person according to what he has done (Romans 2:6–11).

Abraham makes six requests, and each one opens with “Peradventure”, the KJV’s word for ʼûlay, “perhaps” or “it may be”. He asks in hope and with humility, and each time he lowers the number.

Fifty. “Wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?” Spare is nâsâʼ, to lift, to bear or to carry away, and so to pardon or forgive. Abraham asks God to lift the judgment off the city and bear with it for the sake of the fifty. The LORD answers at once: “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” Find is mâtsâʼ, to find or come upon, the same verb behind “found” in verse 29 and “find” in verse 30. The LORD will look, and his judgment rests on what is really there. He also promises the whole of what Abraham hoped for: “all the place”, the entire city with its wicked people, spared “for their sakes”, the sake of the righteous. Scripture gives no reason for Abraham’s starting number. Fifty was a hopeful number for a large city and a place to begin.

Forty-five. “Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five?” Lack is châçêr, to be short or wanting. Abraham asks whether so small a shortfall should bring down a whole city, and the LORD replies, “If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.” From here on the word for destroy is shâchath, to decay and, in its causative sense, to ruin. The KJV gives it the same English word as Abraham’s çâphâh in verses 23 and 24, though the Hebrew verbs differ.

Forty. “And he spake unto him yet again.” Yet again is yâçaph, to add, so Abraham adds another word to his plea, and spake is dâbar, the ordinary verb to speak. The LORD answers, “I will not do it for forty’s sake.”

Thirty. Now Abraham first asks, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak.” Angry is chârâh, to glow or grow warm, and so to blaze up in anger. The same verb is used of God’s anger and of human anger. The LORD has shown no anger, and Abraham speaks this way because he knows how far his asking has gone. Then he goes on: “and I will speak.”

Twenty. Abraham repeats the words of verse 27, “Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord,” and asks for twenty. “I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.”

Ten. “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once.” Abraham knows this is his last request, and the LORD answers, “I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.”

The LORD answers every request at once and grants every one, and he has only patience for the man who asks. This is who he declares himself to be: “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). Moses and the psalmists say the same of him, that he is slow to anger and great in mercy (Numbers 14:18, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8). Isaiah calls judgment the LORD’s “strange work” (Isaiah 28:21), and here we see him ready to find any ground for mercy.

In the middle of his pleading Abraham says, “Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.” Taken upon me is yâʼal, to yield or assent, and from there to undertake something by one’s own choice. Abraham has ventured to speak, and he knows it. Lord here is ʼĂdônây, an emphatic form of the word for master or lord, used as a name of God only. Abraham addresses him this way in verse 27 and again in verse 30, while the narrator calls him the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh.

Dust is ʻâphâr, dust or dry, loose earth, and ashes is ʼêpher, what is left when something has burned. Together they speak of how small and passing a human life is before the eternal God. Man was formed from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7) and returns to dust (Genesis 3:19). A psalm asks what man is, that God should be mindful of him (Psalm 8:4), and Isaiah says the nations are as a drop in a bucket before him (Isaiah 40:15). Elsewhere dust and ashes go with sorrow and repentance. Job repents in dust and ashes (Job 42:6), and Nineveh repents in sackcloth and ashes (Jonah 3:6). On Abraham’s lips the phrase is a confession of humility.

The man who calls himself dust and ashes keeps on speaking, and both belong together in his prayer. His boldness rests on God’s character and God’s welcome, and his lowliness keeps that boldness reverent. The LORD began this conversation by telling Abraham his plans, and he lets it go on as long as Abraham asks.

“For their sakes”, “for forty’s sake”, “for ten’s sake”: the LORD would spare the whole city because of the righteous people in it. The presence of a few who belong to God can hold back judgment from many, and Scripture comes back to this again and again. Isaiah says that the LORD left a small remnant (Isaiah 1:9) and speaks of the remnant of Israel that will return (Isaiah 10:20–22). Paul says that a remnant remains by grace (Romans 11:5). Proverbs says that a city is lifted up by the blessing of the upright (Proverbs 11:10–11). Jesus tells his disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13–16).

The prophets later look for such people and grieve when they are missing. Jeremiah is told to search the streets of Jerusalem for one man who does justly (Jeremiah 5:1). Through Ezekiel the LORD says, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30). Abraham stands in that gap here. James says that the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much (James 5:16), and Paul asks that prayers be made for all people and for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1–2).

“And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.” LORD is Yᵉhôvâh, God’s covenant name, so the one who spoke with Abraham was the LORD himself, who had come to him at Mamre in the heat of the day. Communing is dâbar, the same verb as “spake” in verse 29 and “speak” in verses 31 and 32, and here it names the whole conversation they had. The LORD chose when it began, and he leaves when it is finished.

Abraham “returned”, shûwb, to turn back or return, to his place, most likely his tent at Mamre. The next chapter takes us to Sodom and its destruction (Genesis 19). The God who spoke with Abraham here later names himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:6).

Sodom could be spared for ten righteous people, and they were missing. The whole human race stands in the same need, for “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). God’s answer is one perfectly righteous man. Isaiah speaks of the LORD’s righteous servant who will justify many (Isaiah 53:11). Christ suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous (1 Peter 3:18), and God made him to be sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). In him God is both just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus (Romans 3:21–26), and by his obedience many are made righteous (Romans 5:19). God showed his love in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and we are justified by his blood (Romans 5:8–9). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In him justice and mercy meet, as the psalm says that righteousness and peace kiss (Psalm 85:10).

Abraham pleaded for the city on the strength of righteous people who might be in it. Christ pleads for his people on the strength of his own righteousness. He humbled himself to death on the cross (Philippians 2:7–8), entered once into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12), and now he ever lives to make intercession for those who come to God by him (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34). He is the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5) and our advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1), and whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13).

The Judge of all the earth is Christ as well. The Father has committed all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), and when he comes in glory he will separate the righteous from the wicked (Matthew 25:31–34). On that day the Judge of all the earth will do right, condemning sin justly and saving all who are in him.

This passage shows us a God who tells his friends what he is about to do and then listens while they plead for others. He hears the same request six times and grants it six times. He is the Judge of all the earth, and his judgment is right and careful, with the righteous and the wicked kept distinct. He would hold back judgment from a whole city for the sake of ten people who belonged to him.

It also shows us the place of the one who prays. Abraham was dust and ashes and knew it, and he spoke anyway, because he knew who the LORD is. The same God now hears us through a far greater intercessor, who pleads for us on the ground of his own righteousness and who ever lives to do it.