This is a bizarre chapter, so let's get straight to it - and yes, there will be Amurrites (Amorites).

18:1  "And the Lord appeared unto him (Abe) in the plains of Mamre: and he (Abe) sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;"

    It's already getting strange, time was, in 2 Genesis, Chapter 3:8, this Bible's god used to pop down to earth for walks, "in the cool of the day."

18:2  "And he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground."

    Now I'm not anti-geriatric - with a little luck, I'll get there myself someday - but I can't repress a smile at the image of a 100-year old man running to meet ANYone --

18:3  "And he (Abe) said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
18:4  "Let a little water, I pray you (again, with the 'you'), be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
18:5  "And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
18:6  "And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and he said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
18:7  "And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
18:8  "And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat."

    As 18:1 implies, this is Abe's god, and two of his godlings, or angels. Apparently, they walk to get where they're going, their feet get as dirty as anyone else's (you'd expect them to be like teflon, wouldn't you, so that nothing of the material world would stick to them), and they eat food and drink milk - for supernatural beings, they really sound kinda Human. How long do you suppose the three waited under that tree, while Abe's hired hand killed the calf, skinned it, butchered it, and barbecued the brisket, while Sarah made and baked bread from scratch? Several hours, at least.

18:9  "And they said unto him, Where is Sarah, thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.
18:10  "And he (Abe's god) 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 (Abe's god)."

    "They said..." that's twice now that that phrase was used - did the three speak in unison? If so, that would be more than a little creepy. And asking Sarah's whereabouts, once again negates any likelihood of omniscience.

18:11 "Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken with age (but still able to run); and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
18:12  "Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
18:12  "And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?"

    Sonuvagun, he got his omniscience back! "and it ceased to be...after the manner of women"? Is it really too hard to say, menopause? Interesting to note also, this is the first time indicated, that anyone other than Abe has heard this entity - at least, that's what the writer says.

18:14  "Is any thing too hard for the Lord (modesty?)? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
18:15  "Then Sarah denied, saying , I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he (Abe's god) said, Nay, but thou didst laugh."

    I'm sure you'll recall from 2 Genesis, Chapter 17, that when Abe's god told him he would have a son, he fell on his face, laughing to himself, and here, Sarah laughs as well. Also in Chapter 17, this god told Abe he would call his son, "Issac." Interestingly, The New American Bible informs us that the word, "yishaq" was used, in describing the laughter of the two, and further explains that "yishaq" was the Hebrew form of the name, "Issac." Good thing for Issac, they didn't vomit.
    No Bronze-Age wife of a Semitic nomad, would have broken into a conversation of men to speak at all, much less dispute the word of an invited guest, even one who wasn't Abe's god. And how Human of that god to argue with her - "Did not!" - "Did too!" Really?.

18:16 "And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.
18:17 "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
18:18 "Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all of the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
18:19 "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they will keep the way of the lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord might bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

    Those last three verses appear to represent this god thinking to himself, yet the Bible would have us believe that somehow, some scribe, nearly a thousand years before Hebrews developed a written word, was trotting alongside him, iPad in hand, jotting down his thoughts. This next, he appears to say aloud, as Abe responds to it:

18:20  "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
18:21  "I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
18:22  "And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord."

    So this god isn't sufficiently omniscient to just see what's been happening in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, he appears to get reports that he feels the need to "go down" to confirm. The credibility factor on this god's omniscience rating is rapidly dropping to zero. But Abe, always an eager participant in Let's Make a Deal, steps up to the plate.

18:23  "And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
18:24  "Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
18:25  "That be far from thee (that wouldn't be like you) to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"

    You can easily see what Abe was trying to do, he was trying to save his nephew, Lot. But can you also see the exquisite manipulation techniques he used, a combination of flattery and shame, to maneuver his god into reconsidering? Clearly, the writer of this chapter believed Abe's god to possess the same frailties as the rest of us Humans.

18:26  "And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes."

    You may notice also, that in this chapter, god drops all use of the royal, "We," that we've found in previous chapters.

18:27  "And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken it upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
18:28  "Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it."

    Didn't know it could be so much fun reading the Bible, did you? I love this guy - if i owned a used car lot, Abe could work for me ANYtime!

18:29 "And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake.
18:30  "And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry (you wouldn't like him when he's angry), and I will speak: Peradventure there shall be thirty found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.
18:31  "And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.
18:32  "And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Per adventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake."

    Seriously, don't you get the impression that the writer of this chapter is really having a little fun writing it? Let's face it, even if such an impossible conversation between a Man and a god did take place, there was no one around to take notes, so you know that this author was just imagining how such a conversation might have gone. And I find it heartening that some Hebrew scribe, somewhere in Babylon, nearly three thousand years ago, had a sense of humor almost as warped as my own.

18:33 "And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned to his place."

    And not a moment too soon, another twenty paces, and Abe would have talked his god out of his toga! 
    The New American Bible informs us that the sin, or wickedness, of Sodom, mentioned in this chapter, was homosexuality, as the name of that city is where, in fact, the term, sodomy, originated. Without dwelling on those verses here, which would take up space reserved for the Amurrites (Amorites), I'll just mention that TNAB relates that other biblical authors had different ideas: Isaiah, (1:9, 3:9), claimed it was a lack of social justice; Ezeki-el (16:46-51), described it as a disregard for the poor; whereas Jeremiah (23, 14) saw it as a general immorality. It would appear the holy spirit inspired different prophets, differently.

    When last we left the Amurrites (Amorites), they had invaded Mesopotamia, but before we envision hoards of swinging scimitars, on the scale of a Genghis Khan, let me dispel that notion. Much like the Semitic Akkadians before them, they came quietly, like a guest who comes to visit and simply never goes home. I had an uncle like that once.
    The Amorites (Amurrites) were members of an ancient Semitic-speaking people who dominated the history of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine from about 2000 to about 1600 BCE.
    In the oldest cuneiform sources (c.2400 - c.2000 BCE), the Amorites were equated with the West, though their true place of origin was most likely Arabia, not Syria. During the 2nd millennium BCE, the Akkadian term, Amurru, referred, not only to an ethnic group, but to a language and a geographical and political unit in Syria and Palestine, where the newcomers were thoroughly mixed with the Hurrians. The region then called Amurru was northern Palestine, with its center at Hazor, and the neighboring Syrian desert.
    You'll recall that three of Abram's neighbors and associates, and ultimately, confederates, in 2 Genesis, Chapter 14, Mamre, Eshcol and Aner, were Amorites.  In fact the mountain of Moreh, mentioned earlier in 2 Genesis, Chapter 12, and which will figure prominently, if not ominously, in a future chapter, was named for the Hebrew word for the Amorites (Amurrites), the "mori".
    When Sargon opened the area between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean coast for a Mesopotamian trade route, he couldn't have forseen that it would become a well-traveled, two-way street.
    At the beginning of the millennium, a large-scale migration of great tribal federations from Arabia resulted in the occupation of Babylonia proper, the mid-Euphrates region, and Syria-Palestine.They were troublesome nomads and were believed to be one of the causes of the downfall of the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c.2112 - c.2004 BCE).
    A second emigration wave followed the path south of the Syrian desert, where the Amorites emerged as the people to the east of the Hebrews, in Canaan. It is possible that this group was connected with the Amorites who immigrated into Mesopotamia, but some scholars, however, prefer to call this second group Eastern Canaanites, or simply Canaanites. Bear in mind, however the Canaanite connection with the Amorites (Amurrites), as it will become important later, as both groups shared a similar religious belief system.
    Though the Amorites were originally nomadic, they were both willing and capable of embracing city cultures. Within a century of their arrival in Mesopotamia, the Amorites were split into contending city-states, with single dynasts replacing the initial tribal rule by a cabal of sheikhs or elders. They set up a mosaic of small kingdoms at first, replacing the city-states, then rapidly assimilated the Sumero-Akkadian culture. The change from city-states to kingdoms represented the most important one forced by the Amorites upon Sumer: it allowed the emergence of big farmers, it removed the structures that controlled the freedom of the citizens and allowed trade and the development of a merchant class.
    We'll end this chapter with a short history of the Amorites (Amurrites), so you can hold the entire image in perspective:

2300 BCE: Jericho is settled by the Amorites.
21st century BCE: Heavy immigration of Amorites from Arabia, into the lands of Assyria in the north, and Canaan and Lebanon in the west.
c.2017 BCE: An independent dynasty is established in Isin by Amorite chief, Ishbi-Erra.
c.1900 BCE: The Amorites conquer most of Mesopotamia, and establish its kings in Babylon.
c.1894 BCE: Babylon becomes an independent city state, under the Amorite king, Sumu-abum.
c.1830 BCE: In Northern Syria, the Amorite kingdom, Yamkhad, is established with Aleppo as its capital, near Mt. Jebel Bishri.
1792-1750 BCE: Hammurabi, the most famous Amorite ruler, is king of Babylonia.
c.1595 BCE: Hittites attack and largely destroy Babylon, ending the Amorite dynasty.

    In the Mesopotamian dark ages that followed, between about 1600 and about 1100 BCE, the language of the Amorites disappeared from Babylonia and the mid-Euphrates. In Syria and Palestine, however, it became dominant. In Assyrian inscriptions from about 1100 BCE, the term, Amurru, designated part of Syria and all of Phoenicia and Palestine, but no longer referred to any specific kingdom, language, or population.
    Around 1100 BCE, a people called Amorites conquered Padam-Aram in Haran; Pandam-Aram will also figure prominently in the continuing saga of Abraham/Issac/Jacob-Israel.
    I'll leave you with this final thought, to hold you over until next time:
    When the Amorites (Amurrites) first appeared as nomadic people in the Mesopotamian sources, they were especially connected with the mountainous region of Jebel Bishri in Syria, called the "mountain of the Amorites."
    Amorites worshiped, among others, the moon-god Sin (whom we've met as the patron god of both Ur and Haran, from whence came Abraham and family), and the god, Amurru, from whom their name was taken.
    Amurru is sometimes described as a shepherd and the son of the Mesopotamian sky-god Anu. He is called Bêl Šadê ('Lord of the mountain'), ('He who dwells on the pure mountain'), and ('He who inhabits the shining mountain'). Ever wonder how he feels about mountains?
    Until then, hasta lasagna!

pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx