Genesis 17:9 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

NIV: Then God said to Abraham, 'As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.

NASB: God said further to Abraham, 'Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

CSB: God also said to Abraham, "As for you, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations are to keep my covenant.

NLT: Then God said to Abraham, 'Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility.

KJV: And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

NKJV: And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

God has made significant covenant promises to Abraham and Abraham's offspring through every generation. Abraham will become the father of multiple nations. Kings will come from him. His offspring will possess all the land of Canaan and God Almighty will be their God forever. This is a promise God will keep, regardless of how faithless Abraham's offspring may be in the future. God may judge them, and punish them, but He will never violate His promises.

Now, God reveals to Abraham another act of faith he must take in order to keep this covenant. In fact, every generation of Abraham's offspring will need to do what God requires in the following verses in order to keep the covenant. The requirement will be personal, painful, and intimate. It will also be symbolic, suggesting God's influence in every generation and the unending nature of the covenant agreement. This requirement is circumcision: the removal of the foreskin from the penis. For newborn boys, this ritual will happen within days of birth (Genesis 17:12).

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 5/14/2024 3:10:18 AM