GenesisChapter 17

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¹When Abram was 99 years old, the LORD appeared to him. He said, "I am God Almighty. Live your life before me, and be without fault. ²I will make my covenant between me and you. I will give you a very great number of descendants." ³Abram bowed down with his face to the ground. And God said to him, ⁴"Here is my covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations. ⁵Your name will not be Abram anymore. Your name will be Abraham, because I have made you a father of many nations.a ⁶I will give you very, very many children. I will make nations come from you. Kings will come from you. ⁷I will make my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you. It will be a covenant that lasts forever. I will be your God. And I will be the God of your descendants after you. ⁸You are living as a stranger in this land. I will give all the land of Canaan to you and your descendants. It will belong to you forever. And I will be their God." ⁹God also said to Abraham, "You must keep my covenant. You and your descendants must keep it in all the generations to come. ¹⁰This is my covenant with you and your descendants that you must keep. Every male among you must be circumcised. ¹¹You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin. This will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹²In every generation, every male among you must be circumcised when he is eight days old. This includes those born in your household. It also includes those bought from a foreigner, even though they are not your children. ¹³Those born in your household and those bought with money must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh will be a covenant that lasts forever. ¹⁴But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant." ¹⁵Then God said to Abraham, "As for your wife Sarai, don't call her Sarai anymore, because her name will be Sarah.b ¹⁶I will bless her. I will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her." ¹⁷Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground. Then he laughed. He said to himself, "Can a man who is 100 years old have a child? Can Sarah have a baby at 90?" ¹⁸And Abraham said to God, "Oh, please let Ishmael live under your blessing!" ¹⁹But God answered, "Your wife Sarah will surely have a son for you. You must name him Isaac. I will make my covenant with him. It will be a covenant that lasts forever for his descendants after him.c ²⁰As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will surely bless him too. I will give him many children and greatly increase his descendants. He will be the father of twelve rulers. I will make him into a great nation. ²¹But I will make my covenant with Isaac. Sarah will have him for you at this time next year." ²²When God finished talking with Abraham, he went up from him. ²³On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael. He took every male in his household, both those born there and those bought with his money. He circumcised them all, just as God had told him. ²⁴Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised. ²⁵His son Ishmael was 13. ²⁶Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the same day. ²⁷All the men of Abraham's household were circumcised with him. This included servants born in his household and those bought from foreigners.