Chapter 17
Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
1Abram was ninety-nine years old, and Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Shaddai. Walk before me and be whole.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
The Hebrew is El Shaddai. El is “God.” Shaddai is kept as a name. See the glossary. “Almighty” is a later gloss, and it is not printed.
2I will set my covenant between me and you, and I will make you very, very many.”
3Abram fell on his face, and God spoke with him:
4“As for me, look, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.
5Your name will no longer be called Abram. Your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Abraham is explained in the sentence as father of a multitude, av hamon. Abram is the shorter name. Both names are kept as names.
6I will make you bear fruit very greatly. I will make you nations, and kings will come from you.
7I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you, through their generations, as a covenant for all time, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
8I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, as a holding for all time, and I will be their God.”
9God said to Abraham, “And you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you, through their generations.
10This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.
11You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
12At eight days old every male among you shall be circumcised, through your generations, the one born in the house and the one bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your offspring.
13The one born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh will be a covenant for all time.
14An uncircumcised male, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”
15God said to Abraham, “Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, for Sarah is her name.
16I will bless her, and I will also give you a son from her. I will bless her, and she will become nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.”
17Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and he said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And will Sarah, a woman of ninety years, bear?”
18Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live before you.”
19God said, “No. Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as a covenant for all time, for his offspring after him.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Isaac is Yitschaq, “he laughs.” Abraham has just laughed. The name keeps that.
20And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Look, I will bless him, and I will make him bear fruit and make him very many. Twelve princes he will father, and I will make him a great nation.
21But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this appointed time next year.”
22He finished speaking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
23Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all those born in his house, and all those bought with his money, every male among the people of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that very day, as God had spoken to him.
24Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
25Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
26On that very day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son,
27and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.