So Sarah laughed to herself: both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation use So to mark this clause as a consequence of overhearing that she would have a son. The narrator allows the reader to know the innermost thoughts of Sarah at this point. Sarah’s laughter is more audible than she suspects, as becomes clear in the next verse. Laughed is not an expression of amusement here, but a laughter of disbelief, of doubt about what the visitor has said about her having a son. Laughing at someone’s statement because it is incredible suggests a degree of scorn or mockery. It is Sarah’s disbelief and scorn that causes the speaker to ask Abraham why she laughed in the next verse. See also the comments on 17.17.
Saying: the question Sarah asks is to herself, and it may be more appropriate to say “asked herself” or “thought to herself.” The question she then puts to herself is rhetorical.
After I have grown old: this is not a future state but present, so Good News Translation says “Now that I am old….” Grown old translates a word used in Deut 8.4 to refer to clothing that wears out and falls to pieces, and to bones that have dried up in Psa 32.3 (New International Version “my bones wasted away”). See also Psa 102.26; Isa 50.9. In some languages it may be good to bring this out in translation, as in “After I am worn out” (New International Version) and “old and worn out” (Good News Translation).
My husband translates Hebrew ʾadoni “my lord,” a polite form of reference as well as address. This is a variant form of the word used in verse 2 by Abraham to address (one of) the visitors. Is old renders the normal term for an elderly person. In this context it implies that he, too, is too old to have children.
Shall I have pleasure?: the way Good News Translation expresses this thought is technically correct: “Can I still enjoy sex?” The Hebrew term refers to sensual pleasure. However, such a direct rendering may be offensive in some languages. Accordingly it may be necessary to say this more indirectly; for example, “Will I still want to sleep with him?” “Will I like going to bed with him?” “Will I still like to lie down with him?” “How can I be happy when I sleep with my man?” “How can Abraham make me happy when we-two sleep together?”
In some languages an answer must be given to this question: “Certainly not,” “Of course not,” “I can’t.” Others may prefer to express the question as a negative statement; for example, “Now that I am worn out and my husband is old, I certainly cannot enjoy lying down with him,” or “That old man can’t make me find a baby: I’m a very old woman.” In some translations a literal rendering of pleasure or a vague avoidance of its sexual reference leads the reader to understand the meaning as the pleasure of having a child, which is not what the text says. (For instance, New International Version “this pleasure” relates directly back to “childbearing” in the previous verse.)
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .