Entertain

Hospitality—the entertainment of guests and strangers—was a foundational social and religious obligation throughout the biblical world. The Hebrew and Greek conventions of hospitality (ḥesed-based generosity; Greek philoxenia, love of strangers) expected hosts to provide food, water, shelter, and protection to travelers and visitors. Abraham's lavish reception of the three visitors at Mamre (Genesis 18) became the paradigmatic hospitality narrative, interpreted by Hebrews 13:2 as an instance of entertaining angels unawares.

The Mosaic law consistently emphasized care for the alien and stranger, and the Proverbs tradition praised the generous host. Jesus's parables frequently feature banquet hosting as a metaphor for the kingdom of God. The New Testament exhortation to hospitality (philoxenia) in Romans 12:13 and Hebrews 13:2 roots the practice in the possibility of unrecognized divine encounter. The concept of entertaining connects the practical ethics of generosity with the theological reality that all provision comes from God, who entertains his own people at his table.