17:1 When Abram was 99 years old
Yahweh
appeared to Abram and said:
I
am Almighty God.
Follow
me and become perfect.
17:2 Thus I make this promise to you
and
you will become extremely successful.
17:3 Abram bowed down before Him
and
God spoke to him:
17:4
My
promise is to you
so
you shall be a teacher
of
many people.
17:5 Nor shall you be called Abram.
Instead
your name shall be Abraham
for
I make you the teacher
of
many peoples.
17:6 I will make you very productive
and
peoples will follow you
and
their leaders will follow you.
17:7 Thus I make this promise
to
you and your followers after you
for
many generations to come
to
be your God
to
you and your followers.
17:8 I give you and your followers
a
world you do not know
beyond
the lands of
to
have as an eternal abode
for
I will become their God.
17:9 And God said to Abraham:
Remember
this promise
you
and your followers after you
throughout
their generations.
17:10 Keep this commitment
in
exchange for the promise I made you
and
your followers after you:
Purge
what is unclean
among
every person.
17:11 Thus you can cleanse the covering
of
flesh over your hearts
as
a sign of the commitment
between
Me and you.
17:12 On the eighth day
the
followers among you
will
become purified:
Those
born in your house
or
purchased from abroad
or
otherwise not your follower.
17:13 Followers born in your house
or
those who are purchased
must
be cleansed from the flesh
to
fulfill my promise.
17:14 Then the uncleansed person
who
has not undergone purification
of
the flesh covering the heart
his
soul will become lost
to
his people
because
he turned away
from
my promise.
17:15 The Almighty said to Abraham:
With
regard to Sarai your wife
you
should not call her Sarai
but
rather call her Sarah.
17:16 I will bless her
and
she will give you a son
and
she will be a mother of the people
and
chiefs of tribes will follower her.
17:17 Then Abraham bowed down
and
chuckled saying to himself:
Can
a child be born to a man
who
is one hundred years old?
Can
Sarah at ninety years old
still
bear a child?
17:18 Then Abraham said to God:
If
only Ishmael could
live
in Your presence!
17:19 Then God spoke to him:
Your
wife Sarah will bear you a son
and
you will call him Isaac.
I
will maintain My promise with him
with
a perpetual commitment
for
him and his followers after him.
17:20 As far as Ishmael
I
have heard you.
Know
that I have blessed him
and
will help him be productive
and
he will become exceedingly great.
He
will bring forth twelve chiefs
and
will be given a great people.
17:21 Then I will make My promise
also
with Isaac
whom
Sarah shall bear to you
this
time next year.
17:22 When He completed speaking
God
departed from Abraham.
17:23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son
all
who were born in his family
and
all who were purchased in trade
every
male of Abraham's household
and
cleansed them of the covering
over
their hearts that very same day
just
as God had recommended.
17:24 Abraham was 99 years old
when
he was purified
of
the covering over his heart.
