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Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision
Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.
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“No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
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God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
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Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
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Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
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And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!”
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When He finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
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Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all the servants who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the very same day, as God had said to him.
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Now Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
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In the very same day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
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So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes.”
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Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it.
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Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing.
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And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’
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Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.
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The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
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since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?
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For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”
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Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord.
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Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
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And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.
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As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.
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Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord;
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Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
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Abraham’s Treachery
Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar.