Sáng Thế Ký 17

Circumcision, the sign of the covenant

¹When Abram was ninety-nine, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Live your life before me and be wholehearted,^{a 2}so that I may confirm my covenant between me and you and greatly increase your descendants.” ³Abram fell face down, and God said to him, ⁴“Here is my covenant with you, from my side: you will become the father of many nations. ⁵Your name will no longer be Abram. From now on it is Abraham, since I have made you a father of many nations. ⁶I will make you abundantly fruitful; nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. ⁷I will keep my covenant with you and your descendants after you for generations to come, as an everlasting covenant: I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁸I will give you and your descendants after you all the land of Canaan, the land where you are now a foreigner, to hold for all time, and I will be their God.” ⁹God also said to Abraham, “Your part is to keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you in every generation. ¹⁰Here is the covenant you and your descendants are to keep with me: every male among you is to be circumcised. ¹¹You are to cut away the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹²Every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, generation after generation, including slaves born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner who is not one of your descendants. ¹³Every one of them, whether born in your household or bought with your money, must be circumcised. So my covenant will be in your flesh, a covenant for all time. ¹⁴A male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin is to be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”

A son promised through Sarah

¹⁵God said further to Abraham, “Your wife is not to be called Sarai any more. Sarah is her name. ¹⁶I will bless her and give you a son through her as well. I will bless her, and nations will come from her; kings of peoples will be among her descendants.” ¹⁷Abraham bowed face down, but he laughed and said to himself, “Can a man a hundred years old become a father? Can Sarah have a baby at ninety?” ¹⁸And Abraham said to God, “Oh, let Ishmael be the one who lives in your favor!” ¹⁹God replied, “No. Your wife Sarah will have a son by you, and you will name him Isaac. With him I will establish my covenant, a covenant for all time with his descendants after him. ²⁰I have heard your prayer for Ishmael too. I will bless him, give him many children and multiply his descendants greatly. He will be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make a great nation of him. ²¹But it is with Isaac, the son Sarah will bear you about this time next year, that I will establish my covenant.” ²²When God had finished speaking with Abraham, he went up and left him. ²³Abraham did it the same day. He took his son Ishmael and every male of his household, whether born there or bought with his money, and circumcised them, as God had told him. ²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine when the flesh of his foreskin was cut away, ²⁵and his son Ishmael was thirteen when he was circumcised. ²⁶So Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised together that very day, ²⁷together with all the men of his household, the slaves born in his house and those bought from foreigners.