²⁴ And all who went out of the city gate heeded Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.^(A)

¹⁰ Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city,^(A)

¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but obeying the commandments of God is everything.^(A)

²⁸ For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.^{(A) 29} Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.^(B)

Profaning the Holy

⁶ “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.^(A)

¹⁸ to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, in the presence of all who went in at the gate of his city.

²³ Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.^(A)