Discovery BoxGenesis 18:12-15 
Context18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, 1 “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, 2 especially when my husband is old too?” 3
18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why 4 did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really 5 have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible 6 for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” 7 18:15 Then Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. But the Lord said, “No! You did laugh.” 8
1 tn Heb “saying.”
2 tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.
3 tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.
4 tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the
5 tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”
6 tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”
7 sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the
8 tn Heb “And he said, ‘No, but you did laugh.’” The referent (the
