Genesis 17:10-11 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 17:7-14

Here is, I. The continuance of the covenant, intimated in three things:?1. It is established; not to be altered nor revoked. It is fixed, it is ratified, it is made as firm as the divine power and truth can make it. 2. It is entailed; it is a covenant, not with Abraham only (then it would die with him), but with his seed after him, not only his seed after the flesh, but his spiritual seed. 3. It is everlasting in the evangelical sense and meaning of it. The covenant of grace is everlasting. It... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 17:10

This is my covenant ,.... The token of it, for the promise itself was given before, which is more properly the covenant; circumcision is so called in an improper sense, being only the sign of it: which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee ; which was to be observed by Abraham, and the males in his house then with him, as Ishmael, and those that were born in his house, or bought with his money, and by his posterity in succeeding ages, and it is what follows: ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 17:11

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin ,.... Or "the foreskin of your flesh" F21 את בשר ערלתכם "praeputium carnis vestrae", Drusius, Piscator. ; by an hypallage F22 According to E. W. Bullinger, "hypallage" "relates to an interchange of construction whereby an adjective or other word, which `logically' belongs to one connection, is grammatically united with another, so that what is said or attributed to one things ought to be said or attributed to another". ,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 17:10

Every man - child - shall be circumcised - Those who wish to invalidate the evidence of the Divine origin of the Mosaic law, roundly assert that the Israelites received the rite of circumcision from the Egyptians. Their apostle in this business is Herodotus, who, lib. ii., p. 116, Edit. Steph. 1592, says: "The Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians, are the only nations in the world who have used circumcision απ ' αρχης , from the remotest period; and the Phoenicians and Syrians who... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 17:11

And it shall be a token - לאות leoth , for a sign of spiritual things; for the circumcision made in the flesh was designed to signify the purification of the heart from all unrighteousness, as God particularly showed in the law itself. See Deuteronomy 10:16 ; see also Romans 2:25-29 ; Colossians 2:11 . And it was a seal of that righteousness or justification that comes by faith, Romans 4:11 . That some of the Jews had a just notion of its spiritual intention, is plain from many... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 17:10

Verse 10 10.Every man-child among you shall be circumcised Although God promised alike to males and females, what he afterwards sanctioned by circumcision, he nevertheless consecrated, in one sex, the whole people to himself. For whereas, by this symbol, the promise which was given, indiscriminately, to males and females, is confirmed, and it is certain that females as well as males had need of confirmation, it is hence evident, that the symbol was ordained for the sake of both sexes. Nor is it... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 17:11

Verse 11 11.Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin Very strange and unaccountable would this command at first sight appear. The subject treated of, is the sacred covenant, in which righteousness, salvation, and happiness are promised; whereby the seed of Abraham is distinguished from other nations, in order that it may be holy and blessed; and who can say that it is reasonable for the sign of so great a mystery to consist in circumcision? (408) But as it was necessary for Abraham to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 17:10

This is my covenant ( i.e. the sign of it, as in Genesis 9:12 ), which ye shall keep ( i.e. observe to. do), between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised . Literally, circumcise among . (or of ) you every male , the inf. abs. הִמּוֹל , when it stands abruptly at the commencement of a sentence, having the force of a command. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 17:11

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. עָרְלָה , ἀκροβυστία , membrum prveputiatum, from עָרַל , to be naked, bare, hence to be odious, unclean, impure, was regarded afterwards as unclean ( Deuteronomy 10:16 ; Isaiah 52:3 ; Jeremiah 4:4 ), and is here directed to be deprived of the skin covering its extremity, not because through it sin first discovered its effects (Poole), and original corruption is still transmitted, or to promote cleanliness (Philo), or to... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Genesis 17:1-27

- The Sealing of the Covenant1. שׁדי shaday, Shaddai, “Irresistible, able to destroy, and by inference to make, Almighty.” שׁדד shādad “be strong, destroy.” This name is found six times in Genesis, and thirty-one times in Job.5. אברהם 'abrâhām, Abraham, from אברם 'abrām “high-father,” and הם hām the radical part of המין hāmôn a “multitude,” is obtained by a euphonic abbreviation אברהם 'abrâhām, “father of a multitude.” The root רהם rhm is a variation of רום rvm; affording, however, a... read more