Chapter 17

Covenant of Circumcision.^{[a] 1} When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said: I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless.^{(A) 2} Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly.^(B)

³ Abram fell face down and God said to him: ⁴ For my part, here is my covenant with you: you are to become the father of a multitude of nations.^{(C) 5} No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham,^[b] for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations.^{(D) 6} I will make you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings will stem from you. ⁷ I will maintain my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.^{(E) 8} I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now residing as aliens, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God.^{(F) 9} God said to Abraham: For your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages. ¹⁰ This is the covenant between me and you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.^{[c](G) 11} Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. That will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.^{(H) 12} Throughout the ages, every male among you, when he is eight days old, shall be circumcised, including houseborn slaves and those acquired with money from any foreigner who is not of your descendants.^{(I) 13} Yes, both the houseborn slaves and those acquired with money must be circumcised. Thus my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ If a male is uncircumcised, that is, if the flesh of his foreskin has not been cut away, such a one will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.

¹⁵ God further said to Abraham: As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.^{[d] 16} I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Her also will I bless; she will give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples will issue from her.^{(J) 17} Abraham fell face down and laughed^[e] as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at ninety?”^{(K) 18} So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael could live in your favor!” ¹⁹ God replied: Even so, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. It is with him that I will maintain my covenant as an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him.^{(L) 20} Now as for Ishmael, I will heed you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.^{(M) 21} But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year.^{(N) 22} When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God departed from him.

²³ Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all his slaves, whether born in his house or acquired with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that same day, as God had told him to do. ²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised,^{(O) 25} and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised. ²⁶ Thus, on that same day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised; ²⁷ and all the males of his household, including the slaves born in his house or acquired with his money from foreigners, were circumcised with him.

Chapter 34

The Rape of Dinah. ^1 [a]Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit some of the women of the land. ² When Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite,^[b] the leader of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her by force. ³ He was strongly attracted to Dinah, daughter of Jacob, and was in love with the young woman. So he spoke affectionately to her. ⁴ Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this young woman for a wife.”

⁵ Meanwhile, Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah; but since his sons were out in the field with his livestock, Jacob kept quiet until they came home. ⁶ Now Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to discuss the matter with Jacob, ⁷ just as Jacob’s sons were coming in from the field. When they heard the news, the men were indignant and extremely angry. Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter; such a thing is not done.^{(A) 8} Hamor appealed to them, saying: “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. ⁹ Intermarry with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰ Thus you can live among us. The land is open before you. Settle and move about freely in it and acquire holdings here.”^{[c] 11} Then Shechem appealed to Dinah’s father and brothers: “Do me this favor, and whatever you ask from me, I will give. ¹² No matter how high you set the bridal price and gift, I will give you whatever you ask from me; only give me the young woman as a wife.”

Revenge of Jacob’s Sons. ¹³ Jacob’s sons replied to Shechem and his father Hamor with guile, speaking as they did because he had defiled their sister Dinah. ¹⁴ They said to them, “We are not able to do this thing: to give our sister to an uncircumcised man. For that would be a disgrace for us. ¹⁵ Only on this condition will we agree to that: that you become like us by having every male among you circumcised. ¹⁶ Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters in marriage; we will settle among you and become one people. ¹⁷ But if you do not listen to us and be circumcised, we will take our daughter and go.”

¹⁸ Their proposal pleased Hamor and his son Shechem. ¹⁹ The young man lost no time in acting on the proposal, since he wanted Jacob’s daughter. Now he was more highly regarded than anyone else in his father’s house. ²⁰ So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and said to the men of their city: ²¹ “These men are friendly toward us. Let them settle in the land and move about in it freely; there is ample room in the land for them. We can take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them. ²² But only on this condition will the men agree to live with us and form one people with us: that every male among us be circumcised as they themselves are. ²³ Would not their livestock, their property, and all their animals then be ours? Let us just agree with them, so that they will settle among us.”

²⁴ All who went out of the gate of the city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and all the males, all those who went out of the gate of the city,^[d] were circumcised. ²⁵ On the third day, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, brothers of Dinah, each took his sword, advanced against the unsuspecting city and massacred all the males.^{(B) 26} After they had killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, they took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left.^{(C) 27} Then the other sons of Jacob followed up the slaughter and sacked the city because their sister had been defiled. ²⁸ They took their sheep, cattle and donkeys, whatever was in the city and in the surrounding country. ²⁹ They carried off all their wealth, their children, and their women, and looted whatever was in the houses.^(D)

³⁰ Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: “You have brought trouble upon me by making me repugnant to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I have so few men that, if these people unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be wiped out.” ³¹ But they retorted, “Should our sister be treated like a prostitute?”

^24 [a]On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord came upon Moses and sought to put him to death. ^25 (A)But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and, touching his feet,^[b] she said, “Surely you are a spouse of blood to me.” ²⁶ So God let Moses alone. At that time she said, “A spouse of blood,” in regard to the circumcision.