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 (Gen. 18:1). Thereupon the blood flowed once again from his circumcision. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Him: By your life, in reward for your meritorious behavior, I will have compassion upon your descendants in two situations involving blood, and I will exact retribution from their enemies through blood. It is said: When I passed by thee, and saw thee wallowing in thy blood (Ezek. 16:6). Two different experiences relating to blood are indicated here, for Scripture says immediately thereafter: I said unto thee: In thy blood, live (ibid.). The word blood in the first verse refers to the blood of the paschal lamb. The word blood in the second, yea, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live (ibid.), refers to the blood of the circumcision.
When he saw them, he ran to meet them (Gen. 18:1). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: In reward for hastening three times, I will hasten three times to your descendants at the time of the giving of the Torah. The three times when Abraham hastened are as follows: And when he saw them, he ran to meet them, etc. (ibid.); And Abraham hastened into the tent (ibid., v. 6); And Abraham ran unto the herd (ibid., v. 7). What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do for his descendants at Sinai? It is said: And he said: The Lord came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran (Deut. 33:2).
Because you said: Let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves under the tree (Gen. 18:4), I will give the precept of the paschal lamb to thy descendants, as it is said: They shall fetch to them every man a lamb (Exod. 12:3). Because you said to them Let now (na), I will give your descendants the ordinance of the Passover: You shall not eat of it raw (na) (ibid., v. 20). Because you did say A little, I will drive their enemies away little by little, as it is said: By little and little I will drive them out from before you (ibid. 23:30). Inasmuch as you said water, I will give them a well in the desert, as is said: Spring up, O well (Num. 21:7). Since you said wash your feet, I will wash away all the impurity of your descendants, as it is said: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughter of Zion (Isa. 4:4). Because you did say: Recline yourselves under a tree, I will give them the precept of the sukkah, as it is written: Go forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches (Neh. 8:15). In return for your saying: I will fetch a morsel of bread, I will cause to rain bread from heaven (Exod. 16:4). And inasmuch as you offered curd and milk, I will give you curd of kine and milk of sheep (Deut. 32:14).
From this episode our sages taught that the righteous say little but do much. Abraham said: I will fetch a morsel of bread, and stay ye your heart, although he actually prepared three oxen and nine measures of meal for them, as is stated: And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said: “Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal (s’im kemah solet); knead it and make cakes” (Gen. 18:6). This verse indicates that nine measures were used in all: three measures, three measures of fine, and three measures of meal, totaling nine measures in all.
How do we know that he took three oxen? It is written: And he took an offspring of an ox, tender and good (ibid., v. 8). An offspring stands for one ox; an ox for a second; and tender for the third ox. Others insist that the word good indicates that he took a fourth ox.
The Holy One, blessed be He, also promised little to Israel but did much in her behalf, as it is said: Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs…. that nation whom they serve will I judge (Gen. 15:13–14). He promised at first to judge the nations with the letters dalet and nun (which spell dan, “judge”), but ultimately He exacted retribution from them by means of seventy-two letters, as implied in the verse Or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors? (Deut. 4:34). R. Yudan explained that there are seventy-two Hebrew letters between the words to go until great terrors.
Whence do we know that the wicked say much but do not do even a little? We find this illustrated by Ephron, who at first said to Abraham: The field I give thee, and the cave that is therein I give thee (Gen. 23:11), only to declare later: The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee? (ibid., v. 15), which it was not worth.
R. Hanina stated: Whenever a shekel is mentioned in the Pentateuch, its value is a sela; when it is mentioned in the Prophets, its value is a litra; and when it is referred to in the Hagiographa, its worth is that of a centenaria. But the shekel mentioned by Ephron had the value of a centenaria, for it is written: For the full price, let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying-place (Gen. 23:9).