1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, 'I am God Almighty. Live always in my presence and be perfect, 2so that I may set my covenant between myself and you and multiply your descendants.' 3Abram threw himself down on his face, and God spoke with him and said, 4'I make this covenant, and I make it with you: you shall be the father of a host of nations. 5Your name shall no longer be Abram , your name shall be Abraham , for I make you father of a host of nations. 6I will make you exceedingly fruitful; I will make nations out of you, and kings shall spring from you. 7I will fulfil my covenant between myself and you and your descendants after you, generation after generation, an everlasting covenant, to be your God, yours and your descendants' after you. 8As an everlasting possession I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you now are aliens, all the land of Canaan, and I will be God to your descendants.'
9God said to Abraham, 'For your part, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation by generation. 10This is how you shall keep my covenant between myself and you and your descendants after you: circumcise yourselves, every male among you. 11You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between us. 12Every male among you in every generation shall be circumcised on the eighth day, both those born in your house and any foreigner, not of your blood but bought with your money. 13Circumcise both those born in your house and those bought with your money; thus shall my covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. 14Every uncircumcised male, everyone who has not had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised, shall be cut off from the kin of his father. He has broken my covenant.'
15God said to Abraham, 'As for Sarai your wife ; you shall call her not Sarai , but Sarah . 16I will bless her and give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall be the mother of nations; the kings of many people shall spring from her.' 17Abraham threw himself down on his face; he laughed and said to himself, 'Can a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah bear a son when she is ninety ?' 18He said to God, 'If only Ishmael might live under thy special care!' 19But God replied, 'No. Your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac . With him I will fulfil my covenant, an everlasting covenant with his descendants after him. 20I have heard your prayer for Ishmael. I have blessed him and will make him fruitful. I will multiply his descendants; he shall be father of twelve princes, and I will raise a great nation from him. 21But my covenant I will fulfil with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.' 22When he had finished talking with Abraham, God ascended and left him.
23Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, everyone who had been born in his household and everyone bought with money, every male in his household, and he circumcised them that very same day in the flesh of their foreskins as God had told him to do. 24Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. 25Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26Both Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised on the same day, 27and all the men of his household, born in the house or bought with money from foreigners, were circumcised with him.
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