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Genesis / The Covenant of Circumcision
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The Covenant of Circumcision

Genesis 17:1-27

17
Chapter 17
1 And Abram was ninety-nine years old, and the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am El Shaddai. Walk before me and be blameless." 2 And I will give my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly, exceedingly. 3 And Abram fell on his face, and God spoke to him, saying. 4 Look, my covenant is with you, and you will be a father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of a multitude of nations. 6 And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, exceedingly, and I will make you into nations, and kings will come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your Seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your Seed after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for a legal possession of the everlasting covenant, and I will be their God. 9 And God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations." 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and between your Seed after you: Circumcise every male among you. 11 And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 And a son of eight days shall be circumcised among you—every male in your generations, one born in the house or one purchased with silver from any foreigner who is not from your seed. 13 He shall circumcise—he will circumcise one born in your house and one purchased with your silver—and it will be my covenant in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And an uncircumcised male who does not circumcise the flesh of his foreskin—that soul shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant. 15 And God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, for Sarah is her name." 16 And I will bless her, and I will also give you a son from her, and I will bless her, and she will be for nations; kings of peoples will be from her. 17 Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, "Shall the barren one—a hundred years old—give birth? And shall Sarah—ninety years old—bear a child?" 18 Abraham said to God: "May Ishmael live before you." 19 God said, "No, Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his seed after him." 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and made him fruitful and multiplied him exceedingly, exceedingly. He will father twelve rulers, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this appointed time next year. 22 When he finished speaking with him, God went up from Abraham. 23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son and all the ones born in his house and all the purchases of his silver—every male among the men of Abraham's house—and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the bone on that very day, just as God had spoken with him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. 26 On that very day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 27 And all the men of his house—those born in the house and those purchased with silver from a foreigner—he circumcised.