Genesis 18:3 - Exposition

And said, My Lord —Adonai, literally, Lord, as in Genesis 15:2 , q.v. ( LXX ; κύριε ; Vulgate, Domine ; Syriac, Onkelos, Kalisch, Alford, Lange), though the term may have indicated nothing more than-Abraham's recognition of the superior authority of the Being addressed (Murphy). The readings Adoni, my Lord ( A . V ; Dathius, Rosenmüller), and Aden, my lords (Gesenius), are incorrect— if now I have found favor in thy sight —not implying dubiety on Abraham's part as to his acceptance before God (Knobel), but rather postulating his already conscious enjoyment of the Divine favor as the ground of the request about to be preferred (Delitzsch, Lange). Those who regard Abraham as unconscious of the Divinity of him to whom he spake see in his language nothing but the customary formula of Oriental address (Rosenmüller; cf. Genesis 30:27 ; 1 Samuel 20:29 ; Esther 7:3 )— put not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. The hospitality of the Eastern, and even of the Arab, has been frequently remarked by travelers. Volney describes the Arab as dining at his tent door in order to invite passers-by. "The virtue of hospitality is one of the great redeeming virtues in the character of the Bedouins (Kalisch). " Whenever our path led us near an encampment, as was frequently the case, we always found some active sheikh or venerable patriarch sitting 'in his tent door,' and as soon as we were within haft we heard the earnest words of welcome and invitation which the Old Testament Scriptures had rendered long ago familiar to us: Stay, my lord, stay. Pass not on till thou hast eaten bread, and rested under thy servant's tent. Alight and remain until thy servant kills a kid and prepares, a feast'".