Genesis 17:1-13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Sign of the Covenant
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;[a] walk before me, and be blameless.(A) 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you and will make you exceedingly numerous.”(B) 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.(C) 5 No longer shall your name be Abram,[b] but your name shall be Abraham,[c] for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.(D) 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.(E) 7 I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.(F) 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding, and I will be their God.”(G)
9 God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.(H) 11 You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.(I) 12 Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.(J) 13 Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
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Romans 2:17-29
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Jews and the Law
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God(A) 18 and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, 19 and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,(B) 21 you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?(C) 22 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed[a] among the gentiles because of you.”(D)
25 Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision.(E) 26 So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.(F) 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.(G)
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- 2.24 Or despised
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.