Genesischapter 17
27 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
Moses wrote this chapter for Israel in the wilderness, a circumcised people being told where their mark came from. It comes after thirteen years in which Genesis records no word from God to Abram. Almost all of it is God speaking, and the man hearing it is ninety-nine with one son by a servant. Listen for the new names given to husband and wife, for the sign and who must bear it, and for the one son the covenant will pass through. Notice too what Abraham does on the day the speaking ends.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, a circumcised people being told where the mark came from
- What
- God's full statement of His covenant with Abraham, with its terms, its sign of circumcision, two new names and a named heir.
- Where
- Abraham's encampment in Canaan, the land where he lived as a foreigner and which is promised here as an eternal possession.
- When
- The patriarchal age, thirteen years after Ishmael's birth, about 2067 BC on the traditional dating, from the ages the chapter gives.
- Why
- To give Israel the origin and meaning of circumcision as the sign of a covenant older than the nation itself.
Historical context
The chapter is God's speech to Abram, who is ninety nine and has one son by a servant woman. Sarai is ninety and has borne nothing.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The date is fixed by the ages the chapter gives, about 2067 BC on the traditional reckoning, and thirteen years of silence stand between Genesis 16:16 and this verse 1.
The place is Abraham's own camp in Canaan, the land he is living in as a foreigner and is here promised as an eternal possession.
The occasion is the covenant stated in full, with terms, a sign, two new names and an heir named a year before he is born.
A first hearer knew that renaming was a sovereign's act, since a king renamed a vassal he installed, and both names in this chapter are changed by God in one conversation.
He also knew that circumcision was practised by several peoples of the region, the Egyptians among them, usually at puberty or as a priestly rite. What is distinctive here is the timing, the eighth day, the reach, every male of the household including those purchased from a foreigner, and the meaning, a sign of a covenant rather than a mark of coming of age.
Significance
Every Israelite man in the wilderness carried this chapter in his own body, and the chapter told him the mark was the signature on a covenant older than his nation.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The example set beside it was a man of ninety nine taking a knife to himself on the strength of a promise, and doing it on the same day he was told.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter closes the third portion of the annual cycle, and the portion ends with its last verse (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). The visit at the oaks opens the next portion on the Sabbath after it.
The commandment of circumcision stands in this chapter, and the eighth day named in its twelfth verse is the day a Jewish boy is circumcised. The corpus shows the practice being argued from these verses. It records the Talmud citing the tenth verse at Kiddushin 29a:11, the eleventh at Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 1:7:2, and the ninth and thirteenth at Avodah Zarah 26b:12, 27a:1, 27a:5 and 27a:6. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.
How it is read
The corpus holds the English text of two comments on this chapter and the reference alone for twenty two more. Radak is quoted from the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash.
Radak reads the promise of the fourth verse against the name of God given in the first. The One who can change the course of nature is the One who promises, and the promise is of many nations rather than one. He names Isaac, Ishmael and the sons of Keturah as those nations (Radak on Genesis 17:4:1). On the appointed time of the twenty first verse he writes that "we do not know precisely on what date" the vision was given (Radak on Genesis 17:21:1).
Rashi comments on twenty two verses of this chapter, and the corpus holds the text of none of them, because the licence Sefaria reports for that English version keeps it out. They run from Rashi on Genesis 17:1:1 on the name of God to Rashi on Genesis 17:24:1 on the age of Abraham at his circumcision. They cover the new names in the fifth and fifteenth verses and the everlasting covenant in the seventh. They cover the command of the flesh in the tenth to the fourteenth, the laughter in the seventeenth and the promise for Ishmael in the twentieth.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty under Midrash and ten under Talmud, with the locator for each one and no text. The chapter carries no quoted saying in this corpus, so the references stand here and the sayings are read at the source.
Bereshit Rabbah reads the second verse at 49:2, the fourth at 46:7, the eleventh at 46:10 and the twelfth at 46:11 and 53:7. It reads the fourteenth verse at 46:13, the sixteenth at 47:2, the seventeenth at 45:1 and the nineteenth at 45:8. It reads the twenty first verse at 56:5, the twenty second at 47:6, the twenty third at 42:8, the twenty fourth at 47:8 and the twenty seventh at 47:10.
Aggadat Bereshit reads the first verse at 16:1, the second at 16:2, the third at 11:2, the tenth at 71:2 and the fifteenth at 37:1. It reads the eighteenth verse at 73:1 and the twenty sixth at 19:1. Bamidbar Rabbah reads the first verse at 12:8, the fifth at 14:10, the seventh at 12:4, the eighth at 9:7 and the twentieth at 11:2. Bereshit Rabbati reads the fourth and seventh verses in Parashat Lech Lecha at 35 and 29.
The Talmud weight of this chapter falls on the commandment of the flesh, and six of the ten locators stand on the verses that give it. Beside those, Berakhot 13a:5 is cited on the new name of Abraham, Bava Metzia 86b:13 and 86b:14 on the sixth verse, and Jerusalem Talmud Makkot 2:6:11 on the third.
Sources: Radak, Radak on Genesis 17:4:1 and 17:21:1, in HaChut Hameshulash, translated by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY, about 1200; Rashi, his twenty two comments on Genesis 17, cited by reference; the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out of the corpus, about 1090; The Midrash and the Talmud, the forty locators on Genesis 17 in scripts/data/sources/sefaria/genesis/17.json; MannaFest, the annual cycle table at src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Abram Becomes Abraham
Genesis 17:1-2
Thirteen years pass in silence between Ishmael's birth at 16:16 and this appearing. God names Himself God Almighty here, El Shaddai in Hebrew, and the name is spoken nowhere earlier in Scripture. Enoch and Noah are each said to have walked with God, and Abram is told to walk before Me and be blameless. Then comes the promise to multiply him exceedingly.
Genesis 17:1
“BELOVED, all Scripture is the Word of God but some Scripture is expressly so. Much of its teaching comes through inspired men but some of it was spoken by God's own mouth, directly and without instrumentality. Such are the Words now before us which were of old spoken to Abram by the Almighty God. These sentences ought for this reason to be regarded with peculiar reverence and considered with double attention. The glow of Divinity is fresh upon the lines— bend, then, your souls to the understanding of them.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Genesis 17:1
“What God requires that we should be to him. The covenant is mutual: Walk before me, and be thou perfect, that is, upright and sincere; for herein the covenant of grace is well-ordered that sincerity is our gospel perfection.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 17:1
“I am the Almighty God--the name by which He made Himself known to the patriarchs (Ex 6:3), designed to convey the sense of "all-sufficient" (Ps 16:5, 6; 73:25). walk . . . and . . . perfect--upright, or sincere (Ps 51:6) in heart, speech, and behavior.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsExodus 6:3
I will establish My covenant between Me and you: Matthew Henry reads it as a covenant of God's own making, and God names it as His own. Charles Spurgeon hears these as words spoken by God's own mouth, with no prophet or messenger between. Abram answers by falling facedown.
Genesis 17:3-5
Abram fell facedown: while God was still speaking. Bede notes that no one earlier in Genesis is recorded doing this. Abram becomes Abraham by one added Hebrew letter, and Sarai is renamed the same way in verse 15. The name states what God has made him, a father of many nations.
Genesis 17:3
“Abram fell face down. We read that in the earlier places of sacred history, holy men invoked the Lord, offered him sacrifices of praise, and lived innocently in his sight, but none had fallen face down before the Lord before Abram.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 17:3
“Abram fell on his face--the attitude of profoundest reverence assumed by Eastern people. It consists in the prostrate body resting on the hands and knees, with the face bent till the forehead touches the ground. It is an expression of conscious humility and profound reverence.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jerome notes that the Hebrew word for covenant here is berith, a pact, which the Greek Bible renders as testament. God states His own part first, that Abram will be the father of many nations. Abraham's part comes at verse 9.
Genesis 17:4
“The promise of a bodily posterity was made to Abraham, for it is written: "So shall your posterity be." The promise of a spiritual posterity was also made to him, for through faith he was to be the father of a multitude.”
Bonaventure · written before 1257 · Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 10patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 17:4
“And God said to him: I am, and my covenant is with you. For what is it for the Lord to say: I am, if not to clearly declare the state of his eternity, in which he is always the same?”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)patristic
your name will be Abraham: Adam Clarke gives Abram as exalted father and calls the exact meaning of Abraham hard to fix, though the verse ties it to a father of many nations. Origen notes that the covenant of circumcision is given only after the new name. God speaks of the fatherhood as already done.
Genesis 17:5
“It is surprising how soon a new name is known and its import spread through the country. In dealing with Abraham and Sarai, God was pleased to adapt His procedure to the ideas and customs of the country and age. Instead of Abram, "a high father," he was to be called Abraham, "father of a multitude of nations" (see Re 2:17).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 17:5
“This was to confirm the faith of Abraham, while he was childless; perhaps even his own name was sometimes an occasion of grief to him; Why should he be called a high father, who was not a father at all? But now God had promised him a numerous issue, and had given him a name which signified so much; that name was his joy.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 17:5
“Thy name shall be Abraham - Abram אברם literally signifies a high or exalted father. Ab-ra-ham אברהם differs from the preceding only in one letter; it has ה he before the last radical. Though this may appear very simple and easy, yet the true etymology and meaning of the word are very difficult to be assigned.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cross references
Genesis 17:5
- Quoted inRomans 4:17“As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.”
'I have made thee a father of many nations' ('as it is written')
Genesis 17:6-7
kings will descend from you: Kings are promised to a man who has one son by a servant and no child by his wife. Sarah receives the same promise in verse 16. Matthew opens his gospel by tracing that line from Abraham through David to Jesus Christ. God calls this covenant everlasting here and again in verses 8, 13 and 19.
Genesis 17:6
“Hence, the Stoic philosophers drew their doctrine as if from a source, saying that all things belong to the wise. For the East and the West, the North and the South are parts of the universe. The whole world is enclosed in them. When God promised Abraham that He would give him these things, what else does He declare but that He will provide everything to the wise and faithful, leaving nothing lacking? Thus, Solomon also says in Proverbs: the whole world of riches belongs to the faithful.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
an everlasting covenant: Adam Clarke reads everlasting here, olam in Hebrew, in its full sense, and he takes the promise that follows, to be your God, as the reason. John Wesley reads the covenant as everlasting in its purpose and in its effects. It passes to each generation of descendants.
Genesis 17:7
“An everlasting covenant - ברית עולם berith olam. See note on Gen 13:15. Here the word olam is taken in its own proper meaning, as the words immediately following prove - to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after thee; for as the soul is to endure for ever, so it shall eternally stand in need of the supporting power and energy of God; and as the reign of the Gospel dispensation shall be as long as sun and moon endure, and its consequences eternal, so must the covenant be on which these are founded.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 17:7
“The covenant of grace is everlasting; it is from everlasting in the counsels of it, and to everlasting in the consequences of it; and the external administration of it is transmitted, with the seal of it, to the seed of believers, and the internal administration of it by the Spirit to Christ's seed in every age. This is a covenant of exceeding great and precious promises.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 17:7
“What God is himself, that he will be to his people: his wisdom theirs, to guide and counsel them; his power theirs, to protect and support them; his goodness theirs, to supply and comfort them. What faithful worshippers can expect from the God they serve believers shall find in God as theirs. This is enough, yet not all.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
God gives Canaan as an eternal possession to a man living there as a foreigner. The only ground Abraham ever owns in it is the cave at Machpelah, bought for four hundred shekels of silver in 23:16-20. Hebrews 11:13 says they all died in faith without receiving what was promised. God ends it by saying He will be their God.
Genesis 17:8
“Everlasting possession - Here עולם olam appears to be used in its accommodated meaning, and signifies the completion of the Divine counsel in reference to a particular period or dispensation. And it is literally true that the Israelites possessed the land of Canaan till the Mosaic dispensation was terminated in the complete introduction of that of the Gospel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 17:8
“I will give unto thee . . . the land--It had been previously promised to Abraham and his posterity (Ge 15:18). Here it is promised as an "everlasting possession," and was, therefore, a type of heaven, "the better country" (Heb 11:16).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The Covenant Cut in Flesh
Genesis 17:9-11
The sign is cut into the flesh of the foreskin, at the place a man's offspring come from. Abraham was counted righteous by faith in 15:6, years before he was circumcised, and Paul builds Romans 4 on that order. Ambrose reads the mark in the body as a pointer to the reality it stands for. The mark goes on every male.
Genesis 17:9
“And God said unto Abraham, thou shalt keep my covenant therefore,.... Observe the sign or token of it, circumcision, in the manner after related: thou, and thy seed after thee, in their generations; in successive ages until the Messiah come, the end of the law for righteousness.”
Every male among you must be circumcised: Every male of Abraham's household and his descendants was to keep this sign, and John Wesley notes that it gives the covenant its later name, the covenant of circumcision at Acts 7:8. Matthew Henry reads circumcision as giving way to baptism once Christ had shed His blood. Women were included, Henry adds.
ConnectionsColossians 2:11
a sign of the covenant: Origen reads the cut in the flesh as the figure of a spiritual circumcision, and he takes Paul's claim at Philippians 3:3 that believers are the circumcision. Moses calls Israel to circumcise the heart at Deuteronomy 10:16. The sign stood between God and Abraham.
Genesis 17:11
“And it shall be a token - לאות leoth, for a sign of spiritual things; for the circumcision made in the flesh was designed to signify the purification of the heart from all unrighteousness, as God particularly showed in the law itself. See Deu 10:16; see also Rom 2:25-29;Col 2:11. And it was a seal of that righteousness or justification that comes by faith, Rom 4:11. That some of the Jews had a just notion of its spiritual intention, is plain from many passages in the Chaldee paraphrases and in the Jewish writers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 17:11
“I know that this part of the text is disturbing to many. Indeed, if circumcision is a good thing, it should be maintained today as well. If it is useless, it never should have been mandated in the first place, particularly not by divine precept. But, inasmuch as the apostle said, "Abraham received the sign of circumcision," certainly the sign is not the reality itself but points to another reality. That is, it is not the truth but points to the truth.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
ConnectionsRomans 4:11
Genesis 17:12-14
when he is eight days old: The eighth day is fixed, and Clarke ties it to the law that no calf, lamb or kid was offered to God before it was eight days old. The sign is commanded for every male in the household, the one born there and the one purchased from a foreigner. A man who refuses it is cut off from his people.
Genesis 17:12
“He that is eight days old - Because previously to this they were considered unclean, Lev 12:2, Lev 12:3, and circumcision was ever understood as a consecration of the person to God. Neither calf, lamb, nor kid, was offered to God till it was eight days old for the same reason, Lev 22:27.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
My covenant in your flesh: John Gill notes the doubled Hebrew verb, which makes the rule certain for those born in the household and those purchased alike. Bede reads a covenant in the flesh as a pledge of renewal and immortality for body and soul. The covenant is worn for life.
Genesis 17:13
God's covenant is "in the flesh" of the person who "does not fight on the terms of the flesh" and who "always carries about in his body the death of Jesus."
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · CATENA ON GENESIS 3.1027patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 17:13
“He that is born in thy house - The son of a servant; he that is bought with thy money - a slave on his coming into the family. According to the Jewish writers the father was to circumcise his son; and the master, the servant born in his house, or the slave bought with money. If the father or master neglected to do this, then the magistrates were obliged to see it performed; if the neglect of this ordinance was unknown to the magistrates, then the person himself, when he came of age, was obliged to do it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
he will be cut off from his people: Adam Clarke names two readings of cut off, a sudden death sent by God, which some hold, and the loss of every share in the blessings of the covenant, which he holds. Philo of Alexandria asks why an infant is threatened for what he cannot choose. The verse calls it breaking the covenant.
Genesis 17:14
“The uncircumcised - shall be cut off from his people - By being cut off some have imagined that a sudden temporal death was implied; but the simple meaning seems to be that such should have no right to nor share in the blessings of the covenant, which we have already seen were both of a temporal and spiritual kind; and if so, then eternal death was implied, for it was impossible for a person who had not received the spiritual purification to enter into eternal glory.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Sarah Will Bear a Son
Genesis 17:15-16
do not call her Sarai: Sarah is renamed in the same conversation as her husband. God will bless her, and the same promise of nations and kings goes to her. Genesis stated her barrenness at 11:30, before the promise was ever made. She is ninety years old when God calls her the mother of nations.
Genesis 17:15
“Sarai signifies my princess, as if her honour were confined to one family only. Sarah signifies a princess --namely, of multitudes, or signifying that from her should come the Messiah the prince, even the prince of the kings of the earth.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
she will be the mother of nations: Adam Clarke sets Sarah at the head of the women of the Old Testament, and he follows Paul in Galatians 4 in reading her as a figure of the heavenly Jerusalem. Peter calls faithful women her daughters at 1 Peter 3:6. Matthew Henry reads the kings of peoples who descend from her as a blessing of ordered government.
Genesis 17:16
“I will bless her, etc. - Sarah certainly stands at the head of all the women of the Old Testament, on account of her extraordinary privileges. I am quite of Calmet’s opinion that Sarah was a type of the blessed Virgin. St. Paul considers her a type of the New Testament and heavenly Jerusalem; and as all true believers are considered as the children of Abraham, so all faithful holy women are considered the daughters of Sarah, Gal 4:22, Gal 4:24, Gal 4:26. See also 1Pe 3:6.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 17:17-18
Then he laughed and said to himself: Abraham laughed and no rebuke follows. The Hebrew verb behind the laugh, tsachaq, becomes the boy's name, Isaac. Clarke reads it as joy and points to Paul's word in Romans 4 that Abraham was strengthened in faith. His next words ask God to let Ishmael live under His blessing.
Genesis 17:17
“Now it was that Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day. Now he saw it and was glad ( John viii. 56 ); for, as he saw heaven in the promise of Canaan, so he saw Christ in the promise of Isaac.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke reads the prayer as a father's fear that Ishmael had been shut out, and he finds its answer in verse 20. Matthew Henry reads live under Your blessing as a request that the boy be kept in covenant with God. The prayer is heard.
Genesis 17:18
“O that Ishmael might live before thee! - Abraham, finding that the covenant was to be established in another branch of his family, felt solicitous for his son Ishmael, whom he considered as necessarily excluded; on which God delivers that most remarkable prophecy which follows in Gen 17:20, and which contains an answer to the prayer and wish of Abraham: And as for Ishmael I have heard thee; so that the object of Abraham’s prayer was, that his son Ishmael might be the head of a prosperous and potent people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 17:18
“The great thing we should desire of God for our children is that they may live before him, that is, that they may be kept in covenant with him, and may have grace to walk before him in their uprightness. Spiritual blessings are the best blessings, and those for which we should be most earnest with God, both for ourselves and others.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 17:18
“O that Ishmael might live before thee--natural solicitude of a parent. But God's thoughts are not as man's thoughts [Isa 55:8]. The blessings of the covenant are reserved for Isaac, but common blessings were abundantly promised to Ishmael; and though the visible Church did not descend from his family, yet personally he might, and it is to be hoped did, enjoy its benefits.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 17:19-20
you are to name him Isaac: God answers both prayers, and the covenant goes to one of the two sons. God will bless Ishmael and make him into a great nation of twelve rulers. The twelve match the twelve tribes that come from the younger son. Sarah's son carries the name Isaac before he is conceived.
Genesis 17:19
“If Abraham, in his prayer for Ishmael, meant that he would have the covenant made with him, and the promised seed to come from him, then God did not answer him in the letter, but in that which was equivalent, nay, which was every way better. (1.) God repeats to him the promise of a son by Sarah: She shall bear thee a son indeed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
He will become the father of twelve rulers: Adam Clarke traces the Arab tribes to Ishmael and points to the twelve names at 25:12 to 16. Matthew Henry hopes that spiritual blessings reached Ishmael as well, though the covenant was lodged elsewhere. God's answer echoes the name Ishmael, God hears.
Genesis 17:20
“This is the fruit of the blessing, as that, ch. i. (2.) They shall be considerable: Twelve princes shall he beget. We may charitably hope that spiritual blessings also were bestowed upon him, though the visible church was not brought out of his loins and the covenant was not lodged in his family.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 17:21-22
God puts a date on it, at this time next year. The same appointment is repeated at 18:10 and 18:14. The speaking ends, then God went up from him. Clarke reads the going up as the proof to Abraham that God Himself had spoken.
Genesis 17:21
“My covenant will I establish with Isaac - All temporal good things are promised to Ishmael and his posterity, but the establishment of the Lord’s covenant is to be with Isaac. Hence it is fully evident that this covenant referred chiefly to spiritual things - to the Messiah, and the salvation which should be brought to both Jews and Gentiles by his incarnation, death, and glorification.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
God went up from him: The LORD appeared at verse 1 and departs here, and the two frame the whole speech. Genesis 35:13 closes God's words to Jacob the same way. John Gill notes that God had finished speaking all He meant to say at this time.
Genesis 17:22
“God went up from Abraham - Ascended evidently before him, so that he had the fullest proof that it was no human being, no earthly angel or messenger, that talked with him; and the promise of a son in the course of a single year, at this set time in the next year, Gen 17:21, which had every human probability against it, was to be the sure token of the truth of all that had hitherto taken place, and the proof that all that was farther promised should be fulfilled in its due time.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Circumcised That Very Day
Genesis 17:23-24
On that very day: Abraham obeys the same day, and the text says so twice. He is ninety-nine, and the command falls on his own body as much as on his household. Ishmael is circumcised with the rest, though the covenant has just been directed to Isaac. Henry takes the household sign as ground for counting believers' children with the church.
Genesis 17:23
“And Abraham took Ishmael, etc. - Had not Abraham, his son, (who was of age to judge for himself), and all the family, been fully convinced that this thing was of God, they could not have submitted to it. A rite so painful, so repugnant to every feeling of delicacy, and every way revolting to nature, could never have sprung up in the imagination of man. To this day the Jews practice it as a Divine ordinance; and all the Arabians do the same.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 17:23
“This is a good example to masters of families; they and their houses must serve the Lord. Though God's covenant was not established with Ishmael, yet he was circumcised; for children of believing parents, as such, have a right to the privileges of the visible church, and the seals of the covenant, whatever they may prove afterwards.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised: John Chrysostom reads the stated age as the point of the verse, since a man of ninety-nine submitted to pain on God's command. Abraham's age opens the chapter at verse 1 and returns here. Only a day has passed.
Genesis 17:24
“He was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael his son had completed thirteen years at the time of his circumcision.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 17:24
“Don't think it was without purpose that Scripture indicated to us his age; instead, it was for you to learn from the just man's obedience in meekly submitting to pain despite his extreme old age on account of God's command, and not only he but also Ishmael and all the servants—that was the reason for giving the ages.”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 40.14patristic
Genesis 17:25-27
his son Ishmael was thirteen: Ishmael is thirteen, the exact length of the silence since 16:16. Gill records the Arab custom of circumcising at thirteen, taken from Ishmael's age here. The chapter ends with every male in the household circumcised, those born there and those purchased. The two sons stand together again at 25:9, burying their father.
Genesis 17:25
“And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. Hence the Arabians, as Josephus (w) relates, circumcise their children when at thirteen years of age, because Ishmael, the founder of their nation, was circumcised at that age; and Origen (x) asserts the same; and with which agrees what an Arabic writer says (y) of the Arabians before Mahomet, that they used to circumcise at a certain age, between the tenth and fifteenth years of their age.”
on the same day: John Gill reads the repetition as a record that father and son obeyed on the very day the command was given. Ishmael bears the sign of a covenant that runs through Isaac. Isaac is promised for the next year.
Genesis 17:26
“In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. This is repeated, that it might be taken notice of that both were circumcised according to the command of God, and on the very day in which it was given.”
John Gill, following Aben Ezra, reads the servants as circumcised by their own consent, men Abraham had already trained in his worship. John Chrysostom notes that the sign marked the household off from other peoples. Foreigners were counted in from the first.
Genesis 17:27
“And all the men of his house,.... All the males, whether children or adult: born in the house, or bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him; by their will, and with their consent; not forced to it, as Aben Ezra rightly observes; and these being before trained up by him in religious exercises, were more easily prevailed upon by him to follow his example; this also is repeated, that it might be served, and be an example to follow in after generations.”
How this psalm is built
The form: A covenant speech in which God states the terms, and a mutual covenant that asks something of the man, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| As for Me, as for you, as for Sarai, as for Ishmael | God's speech divides into four addresses and each one opens by naming who is in view. Verse 4 turns to God's own part in the covenant, verse 9 to what Abraham must keep, verse 15 to Sarai and her new name, and verse 20 to Ishmael and what he will receive. The chapter's shape is the order of those four. | Genesis 17:4, Genesis 17:9, Genesis 17:15, Genesis 17:20 |
| Everlasting, said over the covenant four times | The word everlasting stands at verses 7, 8, 13 and 19 of the Berean text in the store, over the covenant, over the possession of the land, over the sign in the flesh and over the covenant with Isaac. Adam Clarke reads berith olam at verse 7 in the word's proper sense, since the covenant runs on to the end, and reads the same word at verse 8 in an accommodated sense that reaches the completion of a particular period. The repetition is what makes the question worth asking.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 17:7. | Genesis 17:7, Genesis 17:8, Genesis 17:13, Genesis 17:19 |
| The two new names | Adam Clarke reads Abram as a high or exalted father, and Abraham as the same name with one Hebrew letter, he, added inside it, so that the new name states what God has made him. Matthew Henry reads Sarai as my princess, an honour held inside one family, and Sarah as a princess of multitudes. Both names are changed in the same conversation and both changes point outward to nations.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 17:5. | Genesis 17:5, Genesis 17:15 |
| Who the sign falls on, listed and listed again | The command names the same three classes each time it is given: the male born in the household, the male purchased with money from a foreigner, and the one who is no offspring of Abraham at all. The list stands at verses 12 and 13 in the command and again at verses 23 and 27 in the obedience. John Gill notes from Aben Ezra that the men of the house came to it by their own will and consent.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Genesis 17:27. | Genesis 17:12, Genesis 17:13, Genesis 17:23, Genesis 17:27 |
The New Testament's use
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The order of Genesis 15 and Genesis 17 is the whole of Paul's argument in Romans 4. Abraham was counted righteous by faith at Genesis 15:6, years before the sign was given here, so the righteousness cannot depend on the sign. Acts 7:8 names the arrangement the covenant of circumcision, which is where John Wesley and Matthew Henry both take the title from.
The kings promised at verse 6 are traced by Matthew, whose gospel opens with the line from Abraham through David to Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry reads verse 17 against John 8:56, that Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day, and says that as he saw heaven in the promise of Canaan he saw Christ in the promise of Isaac. Adam Clarke reads the laugh itself as joy and points to Romans 4:20, where Abraham is strengthened in faith.
The debated concept
The word everlasting is the chapter's long question, because it stands over four different things.
Adam Clarke divides it. He reads berith olam at verse 7 in the word's own proper meaning, since what follows makes the covenant run on without end, and reads the everlasting possession of verse 8 in an accommodated meaning that reaches the completion of a divine counsel for a particular period. On that reading the covenant and the land grant are given different lengths by the same word.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the land promise of verse 8 as an everlasting possession in a fuller sense and read it as a type of heaven, the better country of Hebrews 11:16. On that reading the word keeps one meaning and the possession is raised rather than shortened.
The objection to Clarke is that one word is being read two ways within eight verses. The objection to Jamieson, Fausset and Brown is that Genesis 17:8 names the land of Canaan by name, which sets a limit the reading has to carry.
The second argument is over what the household sign proves. Matthew Henry reads the circumcision of every male in the house, including servants and including Ishmael, as ground for counting the children of believers with the church. Adam Clarke keeps the weight on the person rather than the house, and reads the mark in the flesh as designed to signify the purification of the heart from all unrighteousness, which is how the prophets and Paul use it.
The divine connection
The promise is stated to a man of ninety nine with one son by a servant, and it is stated in the past tense: I have made you a father of many nations. The name is changed before there is any evidence for the name. Abraham carries a name that means what he is promised to be for a year before Isaac is born, and his wife carries hers at ninety.
The sign is placed where offspring come from, which ties the mark to the promise it seals. Ambrose of Milan, cited in the chapter's exposition, reads the mark in the body as a pointer to the reality it stands for. The New Testament reads it the same way, and Paul's whole case in Romans 4 depends on this chapter standing after Genesis 15 and before Genesis 21.
Keep studying
Studies7
Places1
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 17:7 and 17:8; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 17:1; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 17:10 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 17:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, On Abraham; Bede, Commentary on Genesis; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1082: The Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith; Chuck Missler, The Book of Genesis; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Genesis and Philo of Alexandria, Questions on Genesis.