Passage

Genesis 18.2

Book: Genesis · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"1. And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;"

"2. and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,"

"3. and said, My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: 4. let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:" (Genesis 18:1-4, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"1. Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day."

"2. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,"

"3. and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don’t go away from your servant. 4. Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree." (Genesis 18:1-4, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"1. And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;"

"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,"

"3. And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: 4. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:" (Genesis 18:1-4, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"1. And Jehovah appeareth unto him among the oaks of Mamre, and he is sitting at the opening of the tent, about the heat of the day;"

"2. and he lifteth up his eyes and looketh, and lo, three men standing by him, and he seeth, and runneth to meet them from the opening of the tent, and boweth himself towards the earth,"

"3. And he saith, 'My Lord, if, I pray thee, I have found grace in thine eyes, do not, I pray thee, pass on from thy servant; 4. let, I pray thee, a little water be accepted, and wash your feet, and recline under the tree;" (Genesis 18:1-4, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Moses (traditional authorship) / narrator
Audience: Israelite congregation post-Exodus
Location: various ANE settings (Eden → Mesopotamia → Canaan → Egypt)
Time period: events c. creation-c. 1800 BC; composed c. 1446-1406 BC

Theological reading

Key words

No Strong's-tagged lexicon matches found in this passage. (Lexicon coverage is curated, ~159 of the most apologetically-loaded Greek/Hebrew terms.)

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.