“... The targumim also left no doubts as to the nature of the three "men" of the biblical text. As expected, they are identified as angels, an identification most probably prompted by the biblical text itself, which (in Gen 18:22) asserts that the "men" went towards Sodom and that that "two angels" came to Sodom in the evening (on Gen 19:1).7 [...] One of the manuscripts from Qumran cave 4, 4Q180, makes the same identification explicit. In frag. 2 ii 3-4 it is flatly asserted: "The three men [who] appear[ed to Abraha]m at the oak of Mamre are angels". Cf. DSSSE, 372-3, and the contribution by Tigchelaar in this volume, above, esp. 52-7. [...] Three angels were sent to our father Abraham at the time he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. The three were sent for three things, because it is impossible for any angel from on high to be sent for more than one thing. The first angel was sent to announce to our father Abraham that Sarah would bear him Isaac; and the second angel was sent to deliver Lot from the destruction; and the third angel was sent to destroy Sodom and Go- morrah, Admah and Zeboiim. And the Word of the Lord was revealed to Abraham in the Valley of the Vision as he was sitting at the door of his tent in the strength of the day, warming himself because of the blood of his circumcision in the heat of the day. ...”