He said, “I will certainly return to you at about this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.
Parallel Translations
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He said, “I will certainly return to you at about this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.
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And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
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And He said: 'I will certainly return unto thee when the season cometh round; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.' And Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him. —
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Genesis 18:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 21:2 Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
- Genesis 17:21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
- Romans 9:8-9 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs. For this is a word of promise, “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”
- Genesis 17:16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.”
- Genesis 17:19 God said, “No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
- 2 Kings 4:16-17 He said, “At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.” The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.
- Genesis 16:10 Yahweh’s angel said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, that they will not be counted for multitude.”
- Genesis 18:13-14 Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really bear a child when I am old?’ Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
- Genesis 22:15-16 Yahweh’s angel called to Abraham a second time out of the sky, and said, “ ‘I have sworn by myself,’ says Yahweh, ‘because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,
- Luke 1:13 But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
- Galatians 4:23 However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise.
- Galatians 4:28 Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
- Judges 13:3-5 Yahweh’s angel appeared to the woman, and said to her, “See now, you are barren and childless; but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing; for, behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. He shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 10. I will certainly return unto thee Jerome translates…
10. I will certainly return unto thee Jerome translates its ‘I will return, life attending me:’ as if God, speaking in the manner of men, had said, ‘I will return if I live.’ But it would be absurd, that God, who here so magnificently proclaims his power, should borrow from man a form of speech which would suppose him to be mortal. What majesty, I pray, would this remarkable oracle possess, which treats of the eternal salvation of the world? That interpretation, therefore, can by no means be approved, which entirely enervates the force and authority of the promise. Literally it is, according to the time of life. Which some expound of Sarah; as if the angel had said, Sarah shall survive to that period. But it is more properly explained of the child; for God promises that He will come, at the just and proper time of bringing forth, that Sarah might become the mother of a living child.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, about this time when she shall be…
That is, about this time when she shall be alive, or when the child shall come into this life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 18:10 And he said, I will certainly return…
Gen 18:10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard [it] in the tent door, which [was] behind him.
Ver. 10. According to the time af life.] That is, when this time shall return again; this time twelve month. {See Trapp on "Gen 18:14"}
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Sarah heard it in the tent-door.] She was listening out of womanish curiosity. Yet some think, the angel asked for her on purpose, that she hearing her name mentioned might listen.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I will certainly return unto thee, not in a…
I will certainly return unto thee, not in a visible shape, but with my powerful and effectual presence, to fulfil my promise.
According to the time of life: this time may respect, either,
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1. Abraham and Sarah, in the time of life, i.e. when you shall be both alive and in health. But if it belonged to them, it might seem better to understand it thus; in the time when God shall restore life, i.e. vigour and activity to you; for till then both Abraham’s body and Sarah’s womb are expressly said to be dead, Rom 4:19, to which deadness this life may be opposite; and the time of restoring this lost power of generation may well be called a time of life, it being a kind of life from the dead, and an empowering of him for a vital action from which he was before disenabled, and for the conveying of life to a child, and perpetuating his own life in him. Or,
2. To the child, according to the time of life, i.e. in the time which is usual for the conception, quickening, and bringing forth of a living child. Which interpretation receiveth some countenance from 2Ki 4:16, where we have the same phrase. Or,
3. To the year, according to the time, or this time of life, or living time, i.e. when this time or season of the year shall revive, i.e. return or be restored; as cities and buildings are said to be revived, when they are repaired or rebuilt, as 1Ch 11:8; Neh 4:2. And this season might more properly be said to revive, and be called the time of life, because it may be gathered from the heat, Gen 18:1, and their refreshing themselves under the shadow of a tree, that it was the spring time, when herbs and plants and trees, which seem to be dead in the winter, recover and show forth their life and vigour: and so the sense may be this, according to this time, which is a time of life, or reviving, wherein as the beauty and fruits of the earth will be renewed and revived, so thou and Sarah shall be revived, or receive, as it were, a new life in the son that shall be born to you. This sense seems more probable than either of the former, because he speaks of a certain set or appointed time, Gen 18:14; Rom 9:9; Gen 21:2, and that time was about a year after this, as may appear by comparing Gen 17:24, and Gen 21:5.
In the tent door which was behind him, i.e. at the back of the angel that spoke with him; which is here added, to show that he knew her laughter, not by the sight of his eyes, but by his all-seeing knowledge.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he said,.... The same that put the question,…
And he said,.... The same that put the question, Jehovah himself, as appears by what follows:
I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; not by a personal appearance as now, but by the fulfilment of his promise which he had before given to Abraham, that he should have a son by Sarah, and now renews it; and this would be about the same time in the next year, perhaps at the spring of the year, which may be called "a time of life", when all things revive, which in the winter season seem to be dead; a fit emblem this of the case and condition of Abraham and Sarah, both as they now were, and afterwards would be; for, though their bodies were as it were dead and unfit for generation, yet nature would revive in them again: unless it be understood of the whole time of the conception, quickening, and birth of an infant, at the usual time a woman goes with child, which is nine months, when the infant is a perfect living child. All the Targums paraphrase it,"in which ye shall be alive,''safe and well, and so most of the Jewish commentators; as if it was a promise to Abraham and Sarah, that they should live to see the promise made good next given; but this seems not so agreeable as either of the former, see Kg2 4:16,
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and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son; it was by degrees that this was made known to Abraham; first he was told he should have a son, but it was not said by whom he should have it; some years after that he is informed he should have a son by Sarah, but not when; but now it is revealed to him, that he should have one by her the next year:
and Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him; or, "and it was behind him" (u); that is, the tent door was at the back of the person speaking; Sarah, hearing her name mentioned, got to the tent door to listen to what might be further said; and the place where she was, was behind the speaker, who stood between her and Abraham, with whom he was conversing; Abraham was before high, and Sarah behind him, so that he could not see her when she laughed, and yet he knew she did; and for the sake of that, this circumstance is remarked: both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the clause,"and Ishmael stood behind it,''the tent door; and the former adds, and hearkened to what the angel said.
(u) "et ipsum post eum", Montanus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain I will certainly return unto thee - And visit…
I will certainly return unto thee - And visit thee. God will return to those that bid him welcome.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. I will certainly return] Abraham was now…
Verse 10. I will certainly return] Abraham was now ninety-nine years of age, and this promise was fulfilled when he was a hundred; so that the phrase according to the time of life must mean either a complete year, or nine months from the present time, the ordinary time of pregnancy. Taken in this latter sense, Abraham was now in the ninety-ninth year of his age, and Isaac was born when he was in his hundredth year.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Gen 18:10. I will certainly return unto thee, and…
Gen 18:10. I will certainly return unto thee, and visit thee according to the time of life — That is, nine months hence, and, in fulfilment of my promise, Sarah shall have a son. God will return to those that bid him welcome.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Time, or season of the year ensuing, if I…
Time, or season of the year ensuing, if I be alive; which he says after the manner of men, as he had assumed also the human form. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain REPROOF OF SARAH. An inquiry about his wife, so…
REPROOF OF SARAH. An inquiry about his wife, so surprising in strangers, the subject of conversation, and the fulfilment of the fondly cherished promise within a specified time, showed Abraham that he had been entertaining more than ordinary travellers (Heb 13:2). (Gen 18:9-15)
Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him--The women's apartment is in the back of the tent, divided by a thin partition from the men's.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 10. He said — The question of Gen_18:9 was…
10. He said — The question of Gen_18:9 was common to the three — “they said.” Now HE, the prominent One, whom Abraham, in Gen_18:3, called “My Lord,” speaks in the person of the Almighty, assuming power to accomplish what he promises.
I will certainly return — He speaks as if about departing. Like a passing traveller, he will now depart, but he will return again.
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According to the time of life — Reference to what he had previously promised, in a very recent revelation, “at this set time next year.” Gen_17:21.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 10. I will certainly] A first hint of Divine…
10. I will certainly] A first hint of Divine knowledge of the parents’ grief over their childlessness.
when the season cometh round] R. V. marg. Heb. liveth, or, reviveth. A strange phrase, probably meaning “at this time a year hence,” as in Gen_17:21. Cf. 2Ki_4:16-17, LXX κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον εἰς ὥρας, Lat. tempore isto, vita comite. Skinner conjectures, with a slight alteration of the vowel points, “according to the time of a pregnant woman,” on the ground that the Heb. word for “liveth” means in modern Heb. “a woman in child-birth.”
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Sarah … in the tent door] Sarah was not visible, but the conversation of the men under the tree was easily audible to her at the tent opening.
heard] Better, “was listening,” which reproduces the Heb. participle.
which was behind him] Probably the LXX preserves the right reading, “and she was behind it,” i.e. the door.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (10) According to the time of life.—Heb., according to…
(10) According to the time of life.—Heb., according to the living time. It is evident from Gen_18:14, and 2Ki_4:16-17, that these words denote some fixed period, but the exact rendering is in dispute. “When the season revives” = next spring, is entirely remote from Oriental thought, and the rendering of Zunz “at the living time” is poetical, but meaningless. The true rendering is probably “a year hence,” as when the year is over it dies, and a new year lives in its place. Jewish tradition is strongly in favour of this view, translating “according to this time next year,” and adding that the season was the Passover. The only other tenable rendering is “in course of time.”
Which was behind him.—The LXX. has a preferable reading, and she was behind it. The door, as we have seen, was an opening made by looping back the curtain, which would effectually conceal Sarah’s person.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And he said (the Principal Guest, as above, who,…
And he said (the Principal Guest, as above, who, by the very nature and terms of his announcement, identifies himself with Jehovah), I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. Literally, at the time reviving; i.e. when the year shall have been renewed, in the next year, or rather spring (vide Ewald, "Hebrews Synt.," Rosenm Drusius, Keil, Kalisch, Lange, Ainsworth, "Speaker"s Commentary"); though other interpretations of the phrase have been suggested, as, e.g., "according to the time of that which is born," i.e. at the end of nine months (Willet, Calvin, Bush, Murphy). And, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. Ie. at the time specified. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 18:10 I will return: The Hebrew verb means “to…
18:10 I will return: The Hebrew verb means “to intervene in someone’s life to change their destiny.” The statement announced a coming dramatic change.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.