Genesis 17:2 - Printer Friendly

ESV: that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly."

NIV: Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."

NASB: I will make My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.'

CSB: I will set up my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you greatly."

NLT: I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.'

KJV: And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

NKJV: And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

This appearance by God to Abram differs from their previous encounters in the book of Genesis. In the previous verse, God began by placing an expectation on Abram. He told Abram to walk before Him and to be blameless. God now restates that He will make His covenant between Himself and Abram and will multiply him exceedingly by greatly increasing Abram's numbers.

The next verses will reveal that Abram received this covenant promise from God very reverently. At the same time, he also wants to understand how this could happen. After all, Abram was 99 years old at this time (Genesis 17:1). It has been 13 years since the birth of his only child, Ishmael, through his servant Hagar (Genesis 16:16). It has been 23 years since God began making these repeated promises (Genesis 12:4), which do not seem to line up with Abram's everyday experience.

God has asked Abram to continue to believe. This time, though, God will ask for even more.

Genesis 17:1–14 describes God's appearance to a 99-year-old Abram. Again God confirms His expansive covenant promises: to make Abram a father of nations and to give to him and his offspring the land of Canaan. At this time, God even changes Abram's name to Abraham to mark the occasion. This time, though, the repetition of the promise comes with God's requirements for Abraham: walk with me, be blameless, and circumcise yourself and every male of your household from now through every generation in the future.

God appears to Abram once more in Genesis 17, but this instance is very different from prior meetings. God reconfirms His promises to make Abram a father of nations and to give to him and his descendants the land of Canaan. This time, though, God changes Abram's name to Abraham and gives him a requirement to circumcise himself and every male in his household forever. He also changes Sarai's name to Sarah. God announces that Abraham and Sarah will have a son, after all. His 13-year old son Ishmael will be blessed, but this new son, Isaac, to be born within the year, will be the one to whom God's covenant promises will pass.

Genesis 17 records the details of God's appearance to Abram, now 99. Thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael to Sarah's servant Hagar, God arrives to change Abram's name to Abraham, to confirm the covenant promises, and to command Abraham. He is to circumcise every male in his household as a sign of the covenant. Then the big news: within a year, Abraham's wife—now renamed Sarah—would bear Abraham a son. This long-awaited son would be the one through whom God would keep all of His promises to Abraham.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.

Accessed 12/18/2024 8:52:45 AM