The Covenant of Circumcision; Abram and Sarai Renamed

The event

Thirteen years after Ishmael's birth, God appears to Abram again, this time introducing himself with a new name: "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless." He renews the covenant of Genesis 15 and gives it, for the first time, a physical sign every male in Abram's household must carry: circumcision. It's a sign cut into the body of the very organ of procreation — a fitting mark for a covenant that runs entirely on the promise of descendants.

The names change too. Abram ("exalted father") becomes Abraham ("father of a multitude"); Sarai becomes Sarah ("princess"). God specifies that Sarah herself — not merely Abraham through another woman — will bear the promised son within the year, a promise so startling that Abraham laughs at the thought of a 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman having a child (Genesis 17:17).

This chapter also settles Ishmael's status for good: God will bless him, multiply him, and make him a great nation too, but "my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you." Two blessings run through this family from this point on — one wide and generous toward Ishmael, one narrow and covenantal toward the son not yet born.

Dating

Abraham was 99 at the covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17:1, 24), against a birth year of c. 2166 BC — roughly a year before Isaac's birth c. 2066 BC, which is why this event and the destruction of Sodom fall in the same year on the timeline.

Scripture references

• Genesis 17:1-27