Genesis 17

¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to him and said, ‘I am El Shaddai.[*a] Bear yourself blameless in my presence,

² and I will make a Covenant between myself and you, and increase your numbers greatly.’

³ Abram bowed to the ground and God said this to him,

⁴ Here now is my covenant with you: you shall become the father of a multitude of nations.

⁵ You shall no longer be called Abram; Your name shall be Abraham,[*b] for I make you father of a multitude of nations.

⁶ I will make you most fruitful. I will make you into nations, and your issue shall be kings.

⁷ I will establish my Covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, a Covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

⁸ I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land you are living in, the whole land of Canaan, to own in perpetuity, and I will be your God’

⁹ God said to Abraham, ‘You on your part shall maintain my Covenant, yourself and your descendants after you, generation after generation.

¹⁰ Now this is my Covenant ‘which you are to maintain between myself and you, and your descendants after you: all your males must be circumcised.

¹¹ You shall circumcise your foreskin, and this shall be the sign of the Covenant between myself and you.

¹² When they are eight days old all your male children must be circumcised generation after generation of them, no matter whether they be born within the household or bought from a foreigner not one of your descendants.

¹³ They must always be circumcised, both those born within the household and those who have been bought. My Covenant shall be marked on your bodies as a Covenant in perpetuity.

¹⁴ The uncircumcised male, whose foreskin has not been circumcised, such a man shall be cut off from his people: he has violated my Covenant.’

¹⁵ God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah.

¹⁶ I will bless her and moreover give you a son by her. I will bless her and nations shall come out of her; kings of peoples shall descend from her.’

¹⁷ Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, ‘Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?’

¹⁸ Abraham said to God, ‘Oh, let Ishmael live in your presence!’

¹⁹ But God replied, ‘No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son whom you are to name Isaac. With him I will establish my Covenant, a Covenant in perpetuity, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him.

²⁰ For Ishmael too I grant you your request: I bless him and I will make him fruitful and greatly increased in numbers. He shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.

²¹ But my Covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.’

²² When he had finished speaking to Abraham God went up from him.

²³ Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, all those born in his household and all those he had bought, in short all the males among the people of Abraham’s household, and circumcised their foreskins that same day, in accordance with God’s commands to him.

²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when his foreskin was circumcised.

²⁵ Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when his foreskin was circumcised.

²⁶ That same day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised;

²⁷ all the men of his household, both those born in the household and those who had been bought, were circumcised with him.