Bible Strands
Genesis 17:12
Generation after generation, every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old, including those born in your household and those purchased from a foreigner—even those who are not your offspring.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Abraham during a covenant establishment, mandating a physical sign for his lineage. The words — The text specifies שְׁמֹנַ֣ת (she.mo.Nat) = eight [H8083] and יִמּ֥וֹל (yi.Mol) = he will be circumcised [H4135], fixing the timing and required action. The thread — This eight-day requirement recurs in Leviticus 12:3 and Luke 2:21, while Exodus 12:48 extends the practice to foreign households joining Passover. Why it lands — The command requires immediate physical marking of every male in the household, including non-biological members, with no provision for delay or exemption.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 12:3 And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy’s foreskin is to be circumcised.
- Luke 2:21 When the eight days before His circumcision had passed, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He was conceived.
- Exodus 12:48 If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.
- Luke 1:59 On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were going to name him after his father Zechariah.
- Philippians 3:5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
- Genesis 17:23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised them, just as God had told him.
- Genesis 21:4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.
- John 7:22 But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)
- Acts 7:8 Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
- Romans 2:28 A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical.