Bereishit (Genesis) 17

1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, GOD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Walk in My ways and be blameless.†

2I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will make you exceedingly numerous.”

3Abram threw himself on his face; and God spoke to him further,

4“As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

5And you shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I make you the father of a multitude of nations.†

6I will make you exceedingly fertile, and make nations of you; and kings shall come forth from you.

7I will maintain My covenant between Me and you, and your offspring to come, as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, to be God to you and to your offspring to come.

8I assign the land you sojourn in to you and your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting holding. I will be their God.”

9God further said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep My covenant.

10Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow that you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.

11You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.

12And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days. As for the homeborn slave and the one bought from an outsider who is not of your offspring,

13they must be circumcised, homeborn and purchased alike. Thus shall My covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting pact.

14And if any male who is uncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from kin; he has broken My covenant.”

15And God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah.†

16I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she shall give rise to nations; rulers of peoples shall issue from her.”

17Abraham threw himself on his face and laughed, as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man a hundred years old, or can Sarah bear a child at ninety?”

18And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live by Your favor!”

19God said, “Nevertheless, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac;, from ṣaḥaq, “laugh.” and I will maintain My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring to come.†

20As for Ishmael, I have heeded you., play on “Ishmael.” I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.†

21But My covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”

22Done speaking with him, God was gone from Abraham.†

23Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, and all his homeborn slaves and all those he had bought, every male in Abraham’s household, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that very day, as God had spoken to him.

24Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin,

25and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

26Thus Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on that very day;

27and all his household, his homeborn slaves and those that had been bought from outsiders, were circumcised with him.†