The Covenant of Circumcision

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old,^(A) the Lord appeared to him^(B) and said, “I am God Almighty^[a];^(C) walk before me faithfully and be blameless.^{(D) 2} Then I will make my covenant between me and you^(E) and will greatly increase your numbers.”^(F)

³ Abram fell facedown,^(G) and God said to him, ⁴ “As for me, this is my covenant with you:^(H) You will be the father of many nations.^{(I) 5} No longer will you be called Abram^[b]; your name will be Abraham,^[c](J) for I have made you a father of many nations.^{(K) 6} I will make you very fruitful;^(L) I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.^{(M) 7} I will establish my covenant^(N) as an everlasting covenant^(O) between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God^(P) and the God of your descendants after you.^{(Q) 8} The whole land of Canaan,^(R) where you now reside as a foreigner,^(S) I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you;^(T) and I will be their God.^(U)”

⁹ Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant,^(V) you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.^{(W) 10} This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.^{(X) 11} You are to undergo circumcision,^(Y) and it will be the sign of the covenant^(Z) between me and you. ¹² For the generations to come^(AA) every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised,^(AB) including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. ¹³ Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised.^(AC) My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.^{(AD) 14} Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised^(AE) in the flesh, will be cut off from his people;^(AF) he has broken my covenant.^(AG)”

¹⁵ God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai^(AH) your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.^{(AI) 16} I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her.^(AJ) I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations;^(AK) kings of peoples will come from her.”

¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown;^(AL) he laughed^(AM) and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?^(AN) Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”^{(AO) 18} And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael^(AP) might live under your blessing!”^(AQ)

¹⁹ Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son,^(AR) and you will call him Isaac.^[d](AS) I will establish my covenant with him^(AT) as an everlasting covenant^(AU) for his descendants after him. ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers.^(AV) He will be the father of twelve rulers,^(AW) and I will make him into a great nation.^{(AX) 21} But my covenant^(AY) I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you^(AZ) by this time next year.”^{(BA) 22} When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.^(BB)

²³ On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household^(BC) or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.^{(BD) 24} Abraham was ninety-nine years old^(BE) when he was circumcised,^{(BF) 25} and his son Ishmael^(BG) was thirteen; ²⁶ Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. ²⁷ And every male in Abraham’s household^(BH), including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.

Further Opposition to the Rebuilding

6 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah,^(A) Geshem^(B) the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— ² Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages^[a] on the plain of Ono.^(C)”

But they were scheming to harm me; ³ so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” ⁴ Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

⁵ Then, the fifth time, Sanballat^(D) sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter ⁶ in which was written:

⁸ I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

⁹ They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

¹⁰ One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple^(F), and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”

¹¹ But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” ¹² I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me^(G) because Tobiah and Sanballat^(H) had hired him. ¹³ He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.^(I)

¹⁴ Remember^(J) Tobiah and Sanballat,^(K) my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet^(L) Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets^(M) have been trying to intimidate me. ¹⁵ So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

Opposition to the Completed Wall

¹⁶ When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.

¹⁷ Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. ¹⁸ For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. ¹⁹ Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

Psalm 16

A miktam^[a] of David.