Genesis 17
Open in the reader1When Exalted-Father was ninety-nine years old, He-Who-Is appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.
2I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”
3Then Exalted-Father fell facedown, and God said to him,
4“As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.
5No longer will you be called Exalted-Father, but your name will be Father-of-a-Multitude, for I have made you a father of many nations.
6I will make you exceedingly fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you.
7I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
8And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Humbled—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
9God also said to Father-of-a-Multitude, “You must keep My covenant—you and your descendants in the generations after you.
10This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.
11You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
12Generation after generation, every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old, including those born in your household and those purchased from a foreigner—even those who are not your offspring.
13Whether they are born in your household or purchased, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh will be an everlasting covenant.
14But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
15Then God said to Father-of-a-Multitude, “As for My-Princess your wife, do not call her My-Princess, for her name is to be Princess.
16And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her.”
17Father-of-a-Multitude fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Princess give birth at the age of ninety?”
18And Father-of-a-Multitude said to God, “O that God-Hears might live under Your blessing!”
19But God replied, “Your wife Princess will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him He-Laughs. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
20As for God-Hears, I have heard you, and I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will become the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
21But I will establish My covenant with He-Laughs, whom Princess will bear to you at this time next year.”
22When He had finished speaking with Father-of-a-Multitude, God went up from him.
23On that very day Father-of-a-Multitude took his son God-Hears and all those born in his household or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Father-of-a-Multitude’s household—and he circumcised them, just as God had told him.
24So Father-of-a-Multitude was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,
25and his son God-Hears was thirteen;
26Father-of-a-Multitude and his son God-Hears were circumcised on the same day.
27And all the men of Father-of-a-Multitude’s household—both servants born in his household and those purchased from foreigners—were circumcised with him.