The Hebrew Bible says three "men" appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:2). The Targum Jonathan tells you exactly what they were and exactly why each one came. They were three angels "in the resemblance of men," and each had been sent for a single task—because, the Targum explains, "it is not possible for a ministering angel to be sent for more than one purpose at a time."
One angel came to announce that Sarah would bear a son. One came to rescue Lot. One came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Three missions, three messengers, no overlap. This theological rule—one angel, one task—does not appear anywhere in the Hebrew text of Genesis. It is a principle the Targum imports from rabbinic tradition and embeds directly into the narrative.
The scene opens with Abraham recovering from circumcision, "ill from the pain," sitting at his tent door in the heat. When he sees the visitors, he begs God not to let the Shekhina depart while he tends to them. The Targum adds that Abraham asked the angels to "give thanks in the Name of the Word of the Lord" before eating. He served them rich cream, milk, and meat—"according to the way and conduct of the creatures of the world"—and then "quieted himself to see whether they would eat." The Targum preserves the tension: Abraham watches to see if these beings actually consume food. They appear to eat, but only appear.
When one angel delivers the promise of a son, the Targum adds that Ishmael "stood behind her and marked what the Angel said"—a small but vivid detail absent from the Hebrew. Sarah's inner reaction is softened from "laughed" to "wondered," and when God confronts her, the angel reassures: "Fear not—yet in truth thou didst laugh."
Then the angels depart, and the narrative splits. The angel who announced Isaac's birth "ascended to the high heavens." The remaining two looked toward Sodom. Abraham walks with them, and God decides to reveal His plan because Abraham's "piety is manifest before Me."
The Targum then reveals why Sodom's sin was unforgivable. It was not merely wickedness. The people of Sodom "oppress the poor and decree that whosoever giveth a morsel to the needy shall be burned with fire." Charity itself was criminalized. And yet God still checks: "whether they have wrought repentance." Abraham's famous bargaining—fifty righteous, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten—takes on new detail. He calculates ten righteous per city across the five cities of the plain. When he reaches ten, he adds a final offer: "I and they will pray for mercy upon all the land."
It was not enough. The Shekhina ascended. Abraham went home.