ABRAHAM’S
INTERCESSION: 18:17-33
When Abraham departs with the men,
Yahve informs him that he’s heading to destroy Sodom (vv. 17-20), adding that
he needs to go there to see the situation first hand:
21 I must descend to see whether they
really have done according to the outcry that has come to me, and if [they
have] not, I will know.
22 Then [two of] the men turned away
from there, walking towards Sodom, while Abraham stood before Yahve (vv.
21-22).
The description is tremendously
anthropomorphic. Yahve needs to descend to Sodom to confirm whether the rumor
is true. The other two men did not disappear flying but they seem to have let
on foot (wayyēlkû). Abraham is let standing “before” Yahve, and
they enter into a dialogue which shows clearly that Abraham knows he’s talking
with a god (vv. 23-32). The section ends by saying that “Yahveh went his way (wallēlek)
. . . and Abraham returned to his place” (v. 33). (Humberto Casanova, Imagining
God: Myth and Metaphor [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2020], 81)