Whether they are born in your household or purchased, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh will be an everlasting covenant.
Parallel translations
- WEB He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
- KJV He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
- NKJV He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
- NASB A slave who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall certainly be circumcised; so My covenant shall be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant.
- NLT All must be circumcised. Your bodies will bear the mark of my everlasting covenant.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Both home-born and purchased servants must be circumcised, marking an everlasting covenant in their flesh. The sign was obligatory and enduring.
Overview
God reiterates that all males in the household bear the covenant sign, underscoring its perpetual and inclusive nature. The covenant is described as everlasting, rooted in God's unchanging faithfulness. While the physical sign belonged to the old covenant era, the everlasting covenant of grace it pointed to is fulfilled and sealed in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Exod 12:44But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.
- Gen 37:36Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.
- Neh 5:8and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.
- Gen 37:27Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.
- Matt 18:25Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.
- Gen 39:1Meanwhile, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, where an Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
- Exod 21:4If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
- Gen 15:3Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
- Exod 21:16Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.
- Gen 14:14And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan.
- Neh 5:5We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”
- Exod 21:2If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 17:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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