Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, 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.
- BSB When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, 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 7:8He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
- Deut 12:32Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
- Gen 17:10–12This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.
- Luke 1:59On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
- Luke 1:6They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
- Lev 12:3In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
- Exod 12:48When a stranger shall live as a foreigner with you, and will keep the Passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one who is born in the land: but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
- John 7:22–23Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.
- Luke 2:21When eight days were fulfilled for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
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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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