And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Parallel translations
- WEB When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be blameless.
- BSB When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.
- NKJV When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
- NASB 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.
- NLT When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.
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
When Abram was ninety-nine, God appeared as God Almighty and called him to walk blamelessly. God renewed the covenant with a call to wholehearted devotion.
Overview
After years of silence, God reveals Himself as El Shaddai, God Almighty, the title fitting for one about to do the humanly impossible. The call to walk before God and be blameless summons Abram to faithful, undivided living in response to grace. This pattern of grace prompting obedience runs throughout Scripture and finds its fullness in the believer's life in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 36
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
- Eph 3:20Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
- Luke 1:6And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
- Gen 18:14Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
- Gen 6:9These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
- Ps 116:9I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
- Matt 5:48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
- Isa 38:3And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
- Job 1:1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
- Deut 18:13Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
- Matt 19:26But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
- Gen 28:3And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
- 2 Kgs 20:3I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
- Mic 6:8He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
- Jer 32:17Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
- 1 Kgs 3:6And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
- Heb 7:25Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
- Gen 35:11And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
- Heb 12:28Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
- Gen 48:15And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
- Gen 5:24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
- Acts 24:16And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
- Acts 23:1And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
- Gen 18:1And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
- Deut 10:17For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
- Gen 12:7And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
- Exod 6:3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
- Num 11:23And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.
- 1 Kgs 2:4That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.
- Gen 16:16And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
- Dan 4:35And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
- Job 11:7Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
- Gen 12:1Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
- Ps 115:3But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
- Gen 5:22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
- 1 Kgs 8:25Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.
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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 17:1 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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