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Genesis · Majority Standard Bible

Genesis 17 Majority Standard Bible

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  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Majority (Byzantine) text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Formal (word for word)
  • 2022
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

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

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Abraham

    Father of nations

    Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25

  • Ishmael

    Abraham's firstborn

    Abraham's son by Hagar, blessed by God to become a great nation.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 16; 17:20; 21; 25:12–18

  • Sarah

    Matriarch, mother of Isaac

    Wife of Abraham who bore Isaac in her old age, long after hope seemed gone.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 17-21

Cross references (26)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Philippians 4:13; Ephesians 3:20; Luke 1:6; Genesis 18:14; Genesis 6:9
  2. 2 Genesis 17:4–6; Genesis 12:2; Genesis 15:18; Psalm 105:8–11; Genesis 13:16
  3. 3 Genesis 17:17; Judges 13:20; Matthew 17:6; Joshua 5:14; Numbers 16:45
  4. 4 Genesis 35:11; Romans 4:11–18; Galatians 3:28–29; Genesis 12:2; Genesis 22:17
  5. 5 Matthew 1:21–23; Nehemiah 9:7; Romans 4:17; Genesis 17:15; Genesis 32:28
  6. 6 Genesis 17:4; Matthew 1:6–17; Genesis 35:11; Genesis 17:16; Genesis 17:20
  7. 7 Romans 9:7–9; Genesis 26:24; Acts 2:39; Genesis 15:18; Hebrews 8:10
  8. 8 Leviticus 26:12; Psalm 105:11; Genesis 12:7; Exodus 6:7; Genesis 13:15
  9. 9 Psalm 25:10; Psalm 103:18; Isaiah 56:4–5
  10. 10 Acts 7:8; Colossians 2:11–12; Galatians 5:3–6; Romans 4:9–11; Joshua 5:2
  11. 11 Romans 4:11; Acts 7:8; Deuteronomy 10:16; Exodus 4:25; Joshua 5:3
  12. 12 Leviticus 12:3; Luke 2:21; Philippians 3:5; Exodus 12:48–49; Luke 1:59
  13. 13 Exodus 12:44; Nehemiah 5:8; Genesis 37:36; Exodus 21:16; Genesis 37:27
  14. 14 Exodus 4:24–26; Numbers 15:30–31; Exodus 12:19; Exodus 30:33; Isaiah 33:8
  15. 15 Genesis 32:28; Genesis 17:5; 2 Samuel 12:25
  16. 16 Genesis 35:11; 1 Peter 3:6; Isaiah 49:23; Galatians 4:26–31; Genesis 18:10–14
  17. 17 Genesis 18:12; Genesis 21:6; Romans 4:19–20; John 8:56; Revelation 11:16
  18. 18 Acts 2:39; Psalm 4:6; Psalm 41:12; Genesis 4:14; Jeremiah 32:39
  19. 19 Genesis 21:2–3; Luke 1:13–20; Genesis 18:10–14; Galatians 4:28–31; Genesis 21:6
  20. 20 Genesis 21:18; Genesis 21:13; Genesis 25:12–18; Genesis 16:10–12
  21. 21 Genesis 21:2–3; Genesis 26:2–5; Genesis 18:10; Romans 9:9; Galatians 3:29
  22. 22 Genesis 35:9–15; Genesis 18:33; John 10:30; Deuteronomy 5:4; Judges 13:20
  23. 23 Psalm 119:60; Proverbs 27:1; Genesis 17:10–14; Genesis 18:19; Genesis 17:26–27
  24. 24 Romans 4:11; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 17:17; Romans 4:19–20; Genesis 17:1
  25. 26 Psalm 119:60; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 22:3–4
  26. 27 Genesis 18:19

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Quotes verse 17:9–11 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book IV, Chapter IX)

    For it declares: "God said unto Abraham, Every male among you shall be circumcised; and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, as a token of the covenant between Me and you." This same does Ezekiel the prophet say with regard to the Sabbaths: "Also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that …

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  2. Quotes verse 17:1–22 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 25–27)

    … handmaid's son, "when Abram was ninety years old and nine, God appeared to him, and said unto him, I am God; be well-pleasing in my sight, and be without complaint, and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will fill thee exceedingly." Here there are more distinct promises about the calling of the nations in Isaac, that …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)

  3. Quotes verse 17:5 Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures (Lecture V)

    Being faithful in these things, he was sealed for righteousness, and received circumcision as a seal of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, having received a promise that he should be the father of many nations.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)

  4. Quotes verse 17:14 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 25–27)

    When it is said, "The male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he hath broken my covenant," some may be troubled how that ought to be understood, since it can be no fault of the infant whose life it is said must perish; nor has the …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)

  5. Quotes verse 17:5 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 25–27)

    And I will give thee a son of Sarah; and I will bless him, and he shall become nations, and kings of nations shall be of him," --a promise which we now see fulfilled in Christ,--from that time forward this couple are not called in Scripture, as formerly, Abram and Sarai, but Abraham and Sarah, as we have called them …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)