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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.
Genesis 17:1 · New King James Version · underlined terms are tappable
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.
  • KJV 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.
  • 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.
  • 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, who strengthens me.
  • Eph 3:20Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
  • Luke 1:6They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
  • Gen 18:14Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
  • Gen 6:9This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
  • Ps 116:9I will walk before Yahweh in the land of the living.
  • Matt 5:48Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
  • Isa 38:3and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.
  • Job 1:1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.
  • Deut 18:13You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God.
  • Matt 19:26Looking at them, Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
  • Gen 28:3May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples,
  • 2 Kgs 20:3“Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
  • Mic 6:8He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
  • Jer 32:17“Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,
  • 1 Kgs 3:6Solomon said, “You have shown to your servant David my father great loving kindness, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have kept for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today.
  • Heb 7:25Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
  • Gen 35:11God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body.
  • Heb 12:28Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,
  • Gen 48:15He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,
  • Gen 5:24Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.
  • Acts 24:16Herein I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men.
  • Acts 23:1Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until today.”
  • Gen 18:1Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
  • Deut 10:17For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons, nor takes reward.
  • Gen 12:7Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him.
  • Exod 6:3and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.
  • Num 11:23Yahweh said to Moses, “Has Yahweh’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”
  • 1 Kgs 2:4Then Yahweh may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your children are careful of their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you,’ he said, ‘a man on the throne of Israel.’
  • Gen 16:16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
  • Dan 4:35All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stop his hand, or ask him, What are you doing?
  • Job 11:7“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
  • Gen 12:1Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.
  • Ps 115:3But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.
  • Gen 5:22After Methuselah’s birth, Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
  • 1 Kgs 8:25Now therefore, may Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Genesis videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Genesis 17:1YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on GenesisMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.