I beseech thee, Lord, that Ishmael may live before thee.  Our Lord said to Abraham, Sarah shall bring forth a son whom thou shalt name Isaac, and I shall keep my covenant to him for evermore, and to his heirs after him.  And I have heard thy request for Ishmael also.  I shall bless him and increase, and shall multiply his seed into much people, twelve dukes shall come of him.  I shall keep my covenant to Isaac, whom Sarah shall bring forth the next year.

After this on a time, as Abraham sat beside his house in the vale of Mamre in the heat of the day, and as he lift up his eyes, he saw three young men coming to him, and anon as he saw these three standing by him he ran to them and worshipped one alone; he saw three and worshipped but one.  That betokeneth the Trinity, and prayed them to be harboured with him, and took water and washed their feet:  and prayed them to tarry under the tree, and he would bring bread to them for to comfort them.  And they bade him do as he had said, he went and bade Sarah to make three ashy cakes and sent his child for a tender fat calf, which was sodden and boiled.  And he served them with butter and milk, and the calf, and set it tofore them.  He stood by them, and when they had eaten they demanded him:  Where is Sarah thy wife?  And he said:  Yonder in the tabernacle.  And he said, I shall go and come again, and Sarah thy wife shall have a child.  And she stood behind the door and heard it and laughed, and said softly to herself:  How may it be that I should bear a child?  She thought it impossible.  Then said our Lord to Abraham:  Why laugheth Sarah thy wife, saying in scorn, Shall I bear a child? but as I said to thee before, I shall return and come again, and she shall have a child in that time.  And he asked Sarah why she smiled in scorn, and she said she smiled ne laughed not, and our Lord said, It is not so, for thou laughedst.

When they had rested Abraham conveyed them on the way.  And our Lord said to Abraham:  I have not hid from thee what I purpose to do.  The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is multiplied and their sin is much grievous.  I shall descend and see if the sin be so great, the stench thereof cometh to heaven, I shall take vengeance and destroy them.  Then Abraham said:  I hope, Lord, thou wilt not destroy the just and righteous man with the wicked sinner.  I beseech thee, Lord, to spare them.  Our Lord said:  If there be fifty good and righteous men among them, I shall spare them.  And Abraham said:  Good Lord, if there be found forty, I pray thee to spare them.  Our Lord said:  If there be forty, I shall spare them, and so from forty to thirty and from thirty to twenty and from twenty to ten, and our Lord said:  If there be found ten good men among them, I shall not destroy them.  And then our Lord went from Abraham, and he returned home again.  That same eventide came two angels into Sodom, and Lot sat at his gate, and when he saw them he went and worshipped them and prayed them to