The Covenant of circumcision.
17:1. And after he began to be ninety and nine years old, the Lord
appeared to him: and said unto him: I am the Almighty God: walk before
me, and be perfect.
17:2. And I will make my covenant between me and thee: and I will
multiply thee exceedingly.
17:3. Abram fell flat on his face.
17:4. And God said to him: I am, and my covenant is with thee, and thou
shalt be a father of many nations.
17:5. Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt
be called Abraham: because I have made thee a father of many nations.
Abram.... in the Hebrew, signifies a high father: but Abraham, the
father of the multitude; Sarai signifies my Lady, but Sara absolutely
Lady.
17:6. And I will make thee increase exceedingly, and I will make
nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
17:7. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between
thy seed after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to
be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee.
17:8. And I will give to thee, and to thy seed, the land of thy
sojournment, all the land of Chanaan, for a perpetual possession, and I
will be their God.
17:9. Again God said to Abraham: And thou therefore shalt keep my
covenant, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
17:10. This is my covenant which you shall observe between me and you,
and thy seed after thee: All the male-kind of you shall be circumcised.
17:11. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, that it may
be for a sign of the covenant between me and you.
17:12. An infant of eight days old shall be circumcised among you,
every manchild in your generations: he that is born in the house, as
well as the bought servant, shall be circumcised, and whosoever is not
of your stock:
17:13. And my covenant shall be in your flesh for a perpetual covenant.
17:14. The male whose flesh of his foreskin shall not be circumcised,
that soul shall be destroyed out of his people: because he hath broken
my covenant.
17:15. God said also to Abraham: Sarai thy wife thou shalt not call
Sarai, but Sara.
17:16. And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I
will bless, and he shall become nations, and kings of people shall
spring from him.
17:17. Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, saying in his heart:
Shall a son, thinkest thou, be born to him that is a hundred years old?
and shall Sara that is ninety years old bring forth?
17:18. And he said to God: O that Ismael may live before thee.
17:19. And God said to Abraham: Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son,
and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant
with him for a perpetual covenant, and with his seed after him.
17:20. And as for Ismael I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless
him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve
chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.
17:21. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sara shall
bring forth to thee at this time in the next year.
17:22. And when he had left off speaking with him, God went up from
Abraham.
17:23. And Abraham took Ismael his son, and all that were born in his
house: and all whom he had bought, every male among the men of his
house: and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin forthwith the
very same day, as God had commanded him.
17:24. Abraham was ninety and nine years old, when he circumcised the
flesh of his foreskin.
17:25. And Ismael his son was full thirteen years old at the time of
his circumcision.
17:26. The self-same day was Abraham circumcised and Ismael his son.
17:27. And all the men of his house, as well they that were born in his
house, as the bought servants and strangers, were circumcised with him.