Abram Named Abraham

1And after he began to be ninety and nine years old, the Lord appeared to him: and said unto him: I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be perfect.

2And I will make my covenant between me and thee: and I will multiply thee exceedingly.

3Abram fell flat on his face.

4And God said to him: I am, and my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

5Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt be called Abraham: because I have made thee a father of many nations.

6And I will make thee increase exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between thy seed after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8And I will give to thee, and to thy seed, the land of thy sojournment, all the land of Chanaan, for a perpetual possession, and I will be their God.

The Covenant of Circumcision

(Leviticus 12:1-8; Joshua 5:1-9; Acts 15:1-4)

9Again God said to Abraham: And thou therefore shalt keep my covenant, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10This is my covenant which you shall observe between me and you, and thy seed after thee: All the male-kind of you shall be circumcised. 11And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, that it may be for a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12An infant of eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every manchild in your generations: he that is born in the house, as well as the bought servant, shall be circumcised, and whosoever is not of your stock: 13And my covenant shall be in your flesh for a perpetual covenant. 14The male whose flesh of his foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be destroyed out of his people: because he hath broken my covenant.

15God said also to Abraham: Sarai thy wife thou shalt not call Sarai, but Sara. 16And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I will bless, and he shall become nations, and kings of people shall spring from him. 17Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, saying in his heart: Shall a son, thinkest thou, be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sara that is ninety years old bring forth? 18And he said to God: O that Ismael may live before thee. 19And God said to Abraham: Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for a perpetual covenant, and with his seed after him. 20And as for Ismael I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation. 21But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sara shall bring forth to thee at this time in the next year. 22And when he had left off speaking with him, God went up from Abraham.

23And Abraham took Ismael his son, and all that were born in his house: and all whom he had bought, every male among the men of his house: and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin forthwith the very same day, as God had commanded him. 24Abraham was ninety and nine years old, when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. 25And Ismael his son was full thirteen years old at the time of his circumcision. 26The self-same day was Abraham circumcised and Ismael his son. 27And all the men of his house, as well they that were born in his house, as the bought servants and strangers, were circumcised with him.