UST GEN Chapter 17

More Details about God’s Agreement with Abram, including Circumcision

17:1-27

17 Years later, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh came to him and told him, “I am God who is all-powerful. Live in a way that pleases me so that you will be blameless. 2 I will establish my agreement with you, and I will increase the number of your descendants so that they are very numerous.”

3 When Abram heard that, he bowed with his face to the ground before God to show respect, and God continued speaking to him, 4 “Listen, this is what I will do to fulfill my agreement with you: I will make you the ancestor of many people groups. 5 So your name will no longer be Abram. Rather, from now on it will be Abraham, because you will be the ancestor of many people groups. 6 Yes, I will give you many, many descendants, so that you will become the ancestor of many people groups. In fact, some of your descendants will be kings. 7 I will establish my agreement with you and all your descendants who live after you for all generations to come. It will be an agreement that never ends, that I will be your God and the God of all your descendants. 8 I will also give to you and your descendants this land where you have been living as a foreigner, yes, the entire region of Canaan. They will own it forever, and I will be their God.”

9 Then God continued, “Now as for your part in this agreement, you must obey me. That applies to you as well as all your descendants for all generations to come. 10 This is what I require in my agreement with you and your descendants, which you all must obey: You must circumcise all males who live among you. 11 Yes, you must circumcise the foreskins of all the males among you, and that custom will remind you all that I made this agreement with you. 12 For all future generations you must circumcise every baby boy who is eight days old, as well as all other males among your people. That includes males from your own family as well as those who are not your descendants but are servants whom you bought from foreigners. 13 Yes, you must definitely circumcise all of them, regardless of whether they are sons from your own family or servants whom you have bought. That is how you must mark my agreement on your bodies to show that it is an agreement that never ends. 14 In fact, if any man refuses to let you circumcise him, you must send him away and not allow him to associate with my people, because he has disobeyed what I require in my agreement.”

15 God also told Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai anymore. Rather, from now on her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her, and I will definitely enable her to bear a son for you. In fact, I will bless her so that she will have many descendants that will become many people groups, and some of her descendants will even be kings who rule over people groups.”

17 When Abraham heard that, he bowed with his face to the ground before God to respect him, but he laughed silently and thought to himself, “How can a hundred-year-old man like me father a child? And how can Sarah who is ninety years old still have a baby?” 18 So Abraham said to God, “Please let Ishmael be the one whom you bless as my heir!” 19 God replied, “Yes, but it is your wife Sarah who will give birth to a son for you. You must name him Isaac. He is the one I will establish my agreement with, as a permanent agreement that I will also keep with all his descendants who live after him.

20 “I also heard what you asked me to do for Ishmael. So this is what I will do: I will also bless him, and I will give him many children and greatly increase the number of his descendants. In fact, he will be the father of twelve sons who become powerful leaders, and I will make him the ancestor of a large people group. 21 But I will establish my agreement with your son Isaac. Sarah will give birth to him at this time next year.” 22 After he had finished talking to Abraham, God left him and ascended to heaven.

23 Then Abraham gathered his son Ishmael and all the other males who were born in his household and all his male servants whom he had bought, yes, every male in his household. Then on that same day he circumcised them, exactly as God had commanded him to do. 24 Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when Abraham circumcised him. 26 So it was, on that same day both Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. 27 And all the other males in Abraham’s household, including those who had been born in his household as well as those whom he had bought as servants from foreigners, were also circumcised.