‘Is Anything Too Hard for Yahweh?’: Fulfillment of Promise and Threat in Genesis 18–19

Abstract

The Yahwist's narrative in Gen. 18.1–16, 20–22a, 33b, and 19.1–27a, 28 focuses on a single theological concern, namely, the power of Yahweh to fulfill the promise of a son for Sarah and Abraham. In the annunciation scene, the deity himself articulates this issue: ‘Is anything too hard for Yahweh?’ The Sodom tale suggests a negative answer—nothing is too hard for Yahweh—by demonstrating the power of Yahweh to fulfill a threat of destruction. The theological reasoning of the Yahwist who joined the Mamre and Sodom episodes is close, though not identical, to the thought of the exilic and post-exilic texts in Jeremiah 32 and Zechariah 7–8.