Questions: What is the negotiation between Abraham and G-d about? Does this dialogue bring about any change? What obvious thing is Abraham omitting? What is the point of this entire episode?
Key Verses:
Genesis 18:23 Abraham drew near and said: “Will you even wipe away the righteous with the wicked?”
14:21 The king of Sodom said to Abram: “Give me the souls and take the riches for yourself”
18:33 G-d went on His way as soon as He finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place
15:2 Abram said, “My Lord G-d, what will you give me, being that I go childless, and he who is the possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus”
14:24 Save only that which the youths have eaten, and the portion of the men who walked with me; Aner, Eshkol and Mamre; they will take their portion
9:18 The sons of Noah who emerged from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan
Reading the story of the negotiation between Abraham and G-d in Genesis Chapter 18 raises many questions. In the text (18:23), Abraham starts by asking G-d if he will destroy the righteous with the wicked. This occurs exactly three verses after G-d’s declaration of His intent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. In 18:22, three visitors to Abraham’s tent, whom the commentators say are angels, depart for Sodom. Thus, Abraham sees his visitors leave and turns to G-d to ask this startling question. It’s a good question and we’re made to feel that Abraham is a great guy, sticking up for a group of righteous people – originally fifty constitute this group – who might incur G-d’s wrath, as they are likely inhabitants of the condemned cities and will die.
If one reads the commentaries, which are certainly needed and abundant, you might be left with the conclusion that Abraham was negotiating to save Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction. After all, Abraham had just been made privy to the fact that G-d is about to destroy these two cities and following this negotiation, the story in the text proceeds with the destruction narrative. It seems a perfect fit that Abraham’s fighting for Sodom and Gomorrah, even if we don’t really know why.
Quickly, Abraham’s logic can be seen as his “magic number” dwindles from fifty to ten before the negotiation ends. Abraham clearly never meant for G-d to change his plan for fifty righteous souls; it was probably a smaller number all along, maybe Abraham even had the figure ten in his head from the outset.
The conventional wisdom is that Abraham was negotiating on behalf of the Sodomites and Gomorrites. What happens in the end? Abraham’s tough position of squeezing G-d down to ten righteous people is completely irrelevant as there are, apparently, no righteous people in these two cities at all. One would think Abraham knows this from the outset, since his experience fighting on behalf of the five kings, one of whom was Bera the King of Sodom, and a second was Birsha, the King of Gomorrah, gave him a detailed view of the ethics of these two rulers and it wasn’t good. Abraham vanquished their enemies and won the war on their behalf, all because he wanted to save his nephew Lot, who was taken hostage and likely either going to be killed or forced into servitude for the remainder of his life. The kings knew this, but upon victory only offered a monetary reward to Abraham. Conspicuously absent from the offer was Lot (14:21). Is it possible the King of Sodom, who made the offer, was unaware of why Abraham became engaged in this battle? Clearly he knew, but yet, he tried to deprive Abraham of his just desserts. When Abraham, holding all the cards as the military victor, rejects the offer, it seems he’s succeeded in liberating Lot, yet the next time Lot’s found in the text, he’s residing in Sodom. Did Abraham’s winning the war achieve anything other than Lot’s liberation from slavery? Apparently, Abraham wanted something more than he achieved.
Lot was living in Sodom because of a breach that occurred with Abraham. The reader is told it was the shepherds of each group who quarreled (13:7). But it’s hard to accept Abraham and Lot didn’t get involved. It’s more likely there was bad blood between them and they parted ways, in this new land they both traveled so long and far to reach together. As Lot was the only family member to properly inherit Abraham at this time, the fight between Abraham and Lot was probably a lot more severe than the text lets on. However, Lot remains Abraham’s only family member within a radius of hundreds of miles, and despite the feud, Abraham has a fatherly love for his nephew. One might imagine when Abraham gathered his soldiers, who were likely the same shepherds who didn’t like Lot because it was they who fought with Lot’s workers, and told them the purpose of their mission, they weren’t all too pleased. However, they went and did what Abraham asked and succeeded. Abraham was most likely ready to patch things up, let bygones be bygones and take Lot back to live with him. However, Lot puts the kibosh to Abraham’s plan and stays in Sodom. Abraham has to be pretty upset about this.
Is it not strange that the one person Abraham should be negotiating to save, his nephew Lot, is not even brought up in the dialogue with G-d? One would expect that when Abraham learns of G-d’s plan, the very first thing he would say would be: “G-d please save Lot!” But this doesn’t happen. Instead there’s a generic “righteous person” category being alluded to throughout this intense negotiation with the Lord Himself.
Maybe it’s not so hard to understand why Lot’s omitted. After Abraham risks his life to save him and bring him back into the family fold, Lot rejects his uncle and chooses the wicked city of Sodom rather than reconcile with his family. The dialogue between Abraham and G-d makes no mention of Lot at all. One has the sense that the relationship is beyond repair. Abraham no longer cares.
As the negotiation between patriarch and Deity ends with an agreement that a city will not be destroyed if it contains ten righteous people, the two entities go their own way, leaving the feeling, in 18:33, that both parties are satisfied with the outcome. G-d “walks away” and Abraham “returns to his place.” What effect does this have on the status of the two condemned cities? None.
In sum, Abraham likely knows no righteous people exist in Sodom and Gomorrah. He doesn’t negotiate in order to save his nephew Lot. The negotiation doesn’t result in any tangible change to G-d’s plan. What is this episode doing in the Torah and what is it about? The Rabbis tell us this episode shows the righteousness of Abraham and point to the difference in his conduct to that of Noah, who accepted the destruction of his entire generation.[1] Yet, when Abraham is told of a future period of slavery of his descendants that will last for 400 years, he doesn’t negotiate that figure to a smaller term, but accepts it.[2] Can it really be Abraham is prepared to negotiate for wicked people, but not his own descendants?
Perhaps this allusion to Noah needs to be developed one step further. Could it be that Abraham, upon hearing of Sodom and Gomorrah’s imminent destruction suddenly fears, not for them, for they are wicked, but for himself? It’s true G-d has just promised Abraham a son and heir. He has promised to make him into a great nation as well (18:18). But three other things have to be taken into account. First, that G-d told Abraham to travel to this distant land of Canaan where he would make him into a great nation. It’s possible Abraham envisioned a land of wealth and prosperity, a land of vast natural resources and thriving agriculture. Instead, Abraham had to flee to Egypt a short time after arriving, for he was faced with potentially fatal famine. Second, Abraham knows very well that his ancestor Noah and family were the lone survivors of G-d’s wrath, when the world population was eviscerated. Is Abraham skeptical about G-d’s plan? Will it just be Sodom and Gomorrah, or is this the beginning of a greater campaign to wipe out humankind, evil city by evil city? Third, when Abraham is told of his wife’s imminent pregnancy, he laughs (17:17). It’s not a funny laugh. It’s a laugh of skepticism. Sarah laughs quietly, or to herself (18:12). G-d is promising things, but just how believable is any of this? They’re in a land of famine, the one living family heir, Lot, has left on bad terms and G-d has wiped out more than just two cities in the not too distant past.
Maybe Abraham is negotiating for something other than Sodom and Gomorrah.
If Abraham originally began the negotiation with G-d with a smaller number in his head, that of ten, where did this number come from, or was it just random?
What do we know about Abraham’s entourage? Isaac is still unborn. That leaves Abraham and Sarah. Eliezer, Abraham’s trusty servant, has already been identified. Then (14:24), at the tail end of the war of the five kings against the four, the text reveals Abraham has three fighters, probably also shepherds from Abraham’s group, named Aner, Eshkol and Mamre. Though the Rabbis allude to a larger entourage, these are the only ones known by name. If Abraham’s group was these three men, plus Eliezer, himself and their wives, that makes ten people. Put another way, ten righteous people.
Perhaps Abraham was negotiating for G-d not wiping out these ten in the event that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was the beginning of another Noah-generation-like campaign that might end before Isaac was even born, in which case G-d’s promise would never be fulfilled.
Where does the number ten come from? If one counts the people saved in the Great Flood, there was Noah, Shem, Ham and Japeth and their wives. That makes eight. But in Verse 9:18, as the survivors leave the ark, one more individual – Canaan – leaves the vessel. Noah proceeds to become drunk after planting a vineyard and then something happens that involves Canaan. The text is unclear about what exactly happened and who was involved, but Noah curses his grandson in the harshest of terms. It hardly seems likely that a grandfather would curse a grandson if the grandson were still a child. We can conclude then that Canaan was on the ark with his wife, or a girl earmarked to be his future wife, making ten people that were saved. What would be the point of saving Canaan to live in a world without the possibility of having a spouse?[3]
Abraham is negotiating to save his own generation. He understands that G-d promised not to wipe out the world again and the rainbow is the symbol of this promise. However, what if G-d were to wipe out the world again, but in stages? That wouldn’t violate the promise (9:15). G-d was prepared to wipe out the entire world in Noah’s time, but saved ten people only. Abraham knew from this that G-d would go no lower. If G-d was about to embark on a staged world destruction, one can understand why Abraham left the negotiation content, with a divine promise that G-d would spare his righteous group of ten, no matter where they would be.
[1] Sanhedrin 108A
[2] Genesis 15:13
[3] This might present a problem with the listing of Ham’s sons (10:6), where Canaan is last, usually implying he’s the youngest, but perhaps his being cursed sent him to the back of the list and he was in fact the eldest. Nachmanides says something similar.