When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.
Parallel translations
- WEB Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
- KJV And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.
- NKJV Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
- NASB Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
- NLT Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded.
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
Abraham circumcises Isaac on the eighth day, as God commanded. He obeys the covenant sign exactly as instructed.
Overview
Abraham's prompt obedience applies the covenant sign of circumcision to Isaac on the appointed day. This act marks Isaac as an heir of the covenant promises God made to Abraham. The eighth-day circumcision, later enshrined in the law, points beyond the flesh to the circumcision of the heart that God works in His people through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Acts 7:8Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
- Deut 12:32See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
- Gen 17:10–12This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.
- Luke 1:59On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were going to name him after his father Zechariah.
- Luke 1:6Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord.
- Lev 12:3And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy’s foreskin is to be circumcised.
- Exod 12:48If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.
- John 7:22–23But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)
- Luke 2:21When the eight days until His circumcision had passed, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 21:4 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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