Genesis 17

1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless,

2and I will make my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you greatly.”

3Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,

4“As for me, this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

5No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

6I will make you extremely fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.

7I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you, throughout their generations, as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your offspring after you.

8I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land where you are now a foreigner, the whole land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

9Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you, throughout their generations.

10This is my covenant, which you are to keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: every male among you must be circumcised.

11You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.

12Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household and those bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.

13Both those born in your household and those bought with your money must be circumcised. So my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant.

14Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

15God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are not to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.

16I will bless her, and I will also 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 fell facedown and laughed, and he said to himself, “Can a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

18Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live before you!”

19God said, “No, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

20As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Look, I have blessed him, and I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will father twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

21But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”

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

23Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household and all those bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s household, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that very day, as God had told him.

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

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

26On that very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.

27All the men of his household, those born in the household and those bought with money from foreigners, were circumcised with him.