Genesis chapter .xvij.
¶ When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to him saying: I am the almighty God: walk before me and be uncorrupt.
And I will make my bond between thee and me, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
And Abram fell on his face. And God talked moreover with him saying:
¶ I am, behold my testament is with thee, that thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Therefore shalt thou no more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham: for a father of many nations have I made thee,
and I will multiply thee exceedingly, and will make nations of thee: yea and kings shall spring out of thee.
¶ Moreover I will make my bond between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their times to be an everlasting testament, so that I will be God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.
And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger: even all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and will be their God.
And God said unto Abraham: See thou keep my testament, both thou and thy seed after thee in their times:
This is my testament which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee, that ye circumcise all your men children.
Ye shall circumcise the foreskin of your flesh, and it shall be a token of the bond betwixt me and you.
And every manchild when it is eight days old, shall be circumcised among you in your generations, and all servants also born at home or bought with money though they be strangers and not of thy seed.
The servant born in thy house, and he also that is bought with money, must needs be circumcised, that my testament may be in your flesh, for an everlasting bond.
If there be any uncircumcised manchild, that hath not the foreskin of his flesh cut off, his soul shall perish from his people: because he hath broken my testament.
¶ And God said unto Abraham. Sarai thy wife shall no more be called Sarai: but Sara shall her name be.
For I will bless her and give thee a son of her and will bless her: so that people, yea and kings of people shall spring of her.
And Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart: shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred year old, and shall Sara that is ninety years old, bear:
And Abraham said unto God. O that Ismael might live in thy sight.
Then said God: nay, Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will make my bond with him, that it shall be an everlasting bond unto his seed after him.
And as concerning Ismael also, I have heard thy request: lo, I will bless him and increase him, and multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make a great nation of him.
But my bond will I make with Isaac, which Sara shall bear unto thee: even this time twelve month.
And God left off talking with him, and departed up from Abraham.
¶ And Abraham took Ismael his son and all the servants born in his house and all that was bought with money as many as were men children among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the foreskin of their flesh, even the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.
Abraham was ninety years old and nine when he cut off the foreskin of his flesh.
And Ismael his son was thirteen year old, when the foreskin of his flesh was circumcised.
The self same day was Abraham circumcised and Ismael his son.
And all the men in his house, whether they were born in his house or bought with money (though they were strangers) were circumcised with him.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.