God appears to Abraham. Three strangers pass by and Abraham offers them hospitality. One of them tells Abraham that Sarah will have a child. Sarah, overhearing, laughs in disbelief.

God then tells Abraham of the judgment He is about to visit on the people of Sodom. Abraham engages in a momentous dialogue with God about justice. God agrees that if there are ten innocent men in the city He will spare it.

Two of the visitors, by now identified as angels, go to Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and rescue him, his wife and two of their daughters from the destruction of Sodom.

Eventually, the promised child, Isaac, is born to Sarah. The parsha ends with the great test of the “Binding of Isaac.”

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