Genesis 17:25

and his son Ishmael was thirteen;

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

ASV

And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

YLT

and Ishmael his son is a son of thirteen years in the flesh of his foreskin being circumcised;

DBT

And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

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Voices3

On this verse

Even the fact that Ishmael was circumcised in his thirteenth year is for an obvious reason, because one who is beginning to be sexually active should trim the ardor of his passion, so as to abstain from illicit unions and limit himself to a legitimate union only.

Ambrose of Milan· On Abraham, 397patristic

Related commentary

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.

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

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, 1710puritan

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Cross-references

1 linked verse

The verses this one reaches1

Genesis 16:15
And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

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The quotation web

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Original language

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

Who & where

PersonPatriarchsIshmaelAbraham's son by Hagar — blessed and made a great nation, but not the covenant heir; Paul's figure of the flesh (Gal 4:21–31).

About this book

The Creation of Light — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Genesis — The book of beginnings. Creation, fall, flood, covenant, election, providence — eleven generational seams stitch one unbroken story from heaven-and-earth to a coffin in Egypt.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Moses — by traditional attribution; the book is the first of the Pentateuch
Date: Composed c. 15th–13th century BC; draws on older patriarchal sources (the toledoth framework is internal)

Where the connections lead

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