Genesis 17:18 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”

NIV: And Abraham said to God, 'If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!'

NASB: And Abraham said to God, 'Oh that Ishmael might live before You!'

CSB: So Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael were acceptable to you! "

NLT: So Abraham said to God, 'May Ishmael live under your special blessing!'

KJV: And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

NKJV: And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

Abraham found God's promise in the previous verse inconceivable. In fact, he literally found it fall-down-laughing funny. It was beyond imagining that a 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman could have a baby. In Abraham's mind, it was also unnecessary. He had a son, though not through Sarah. Ishmael was a young man of 13. His birth mother Hagar had received a promise from God that Ishmael's descendants would be exceedingly numerous, just as God had promised Abraham.

Abraham could picture it all. He could see Ishmael, his son, becoming the nations God had promised, receiving God's blessing, fulfilling God's plan. "If only," Abraham said to God. "If only Ishmael could live under your blessing!" In the next verse God will respond to Abraham. In a gracious example of gentle correction, God will not reply with "no," but with a "yes, but…"

God's response is gentle, but it is not without some level of irony. In it, God will declare a name for this soon-to-be-son, one which will forever remind Abraham of his reaction. The boy is to be named Isaac, which literally means "he laughs."

Genesis 17:15–27 describes God's surprising revelation to the newly renamed, 99-year-old Abraham: His presumably barren, 89-year-old wife, Sarai, now to be named Sarah, would bear him a son within a year. Ishmael, now 13, would still be abundantly blessed, but this new son, Isaac, would be the one through whom God would keep His covenant promises. As soon as God left, Abraham immediately set about obeying God's command to circumcise himself and every male in his household as a sign of the covenant with the Lord.

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.