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.
