[YHWH’s covenant with Abraham—let us not miss the point that this covenant is intended to be a blessing to ALL of humankind except that the process will take centuries, if not millennia for its final fulfillment. But it starts with this covenant that creates an exclusive lineage that will lead to the establishment of a people specifically chosen to represent the One True God and His prescribed way of living which is given as THE Revelation on Sinai.
The son promised to Abraham and Sarah is Yitzchak and not Yshmael; yet, the gracious and merciful Divine Father YHWH accedes to father Abraham’s plea that his firstborn through Hagar will also receive a blessing. Strangely the son through the slave woman will also have 12 offsprings or ‘princes’ and will also become a ‘great nation’ (check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael), talk about equality and equal opportunity except for the factor of ‘chosenness’.
More strangely, in the New Testament book of Galatians 4:24, the ‘Hebrew of Hebrews’ Pharisaic Paul transforms the story of Abraham’s two firstborn sons from wife and servant-girl into an allegory of two covenants. Read through these commentaries from Christian translations (sorry, lost the website source, will fill in later):
New International Version
These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
New Living Translation
These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them.
English Standard Version
Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.
New American Standard Bible
This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.
King James Bible
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Holman Christian Standard Bible
These things are illustrations, for the women represent the two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery–this is Hagar.
International Standard Version
This is being said as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. The one woman, Hagar, is from Mount Sinai, and her children are born into slavery.
NET Bible
These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.
Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But these are illustrations of the two Covenants, the one that is from Mount Sinai begets to bondage, which is Hagar.
GOD’S WORD® Translation
I’m going to use these historical events as an illustration. The women illustrate two arrangements. The one woman, Hagar, is the arrangement made on Mount Sinai. Her children are born into slavery.
Jubilee Bible 2000
Which things are an allegory; for these women are the two covenants: the one from the Mount Sinai, which begat unto slavery, which is Hagar.
King James 2000 Bible
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from mount Sinai, which brings forth to bondage, which is Hagar.
American King James Version
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which engenders to bondage, which is Agar.
American Standard Version
Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Which things are said by an allegory. For these are the two testaments. The one from mount Sina, engendering unto bondage; which is Agar:
Darby Bible Translation
Which things have an allegorical sense; for these are two covenants: one from mount Sinai, gendering to bondage, which is Hagar.
English Revised Version
Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar.
Webster’s Bible Translation
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Weymouth New Testament
All this is allegorical; for the women represent two Covenants. One has its origin on Mount Sinai, and bears children destined for slavery.
World English Bible
These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar.
Young’s Literal Translation
which things are allegorized, for these are the two covenants: one, indeed, from mount Sinai, to servitude bringing forth, which is Hagar;
🙄 WHAT???!!!!! The covenant that God makes with His chosen people which He starts forming through Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob, the Patriarchs of Israel is referred to derisively as ‘slavery’ and ‘bondage’ to LAW? In contrast to the non-existent ‘new covenant’ with the ‘New Israel-Christian church/religion’ which is a ‘covenant of GRACE’? As we keep reiterating, Law IS Grace and further, there was never a ‘new covenant’ with a ‘new Israel’ if the basis is Jeremiah 31:31-34 which simply renews the same covenant on Sinai,
- made between the same parties (YHWH and Israel/Judah),
- regarding the same ‘Law” –the Torah,
- which will thenceforth be written not on tablets of stone but on the hearts of all humankind.
This strange supersessionist doctrine coming from a diaspora Jew who claims to be a Pharisee dares to discount and discredit the very revelation of YHWH on Sinai and in fact considers it passé and obsolete, not to be obeyed anymore except by Jews who are supposedly deliberately kept ‘in the dark’ by the very God of Israel! Paul teaches in the book of Romans 11:25 – “that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (RED for caution!) ‘Oy vey’ as the Jews would say or in Paul’s known expression, ‘heaven forbid!’ or “may it not be so!’ and indeed, IT IS NOT SO!
How dare a Jew and a Pharisee at that do such a disservice to his own people and insult the God of Israel, the God of the Nations, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Such teaching led to a major world religion based on a ‘new’ testament that has distorted if not displaced not only all the teachings of YHWH, but replaced YHWH HIMSELF with a ‘trinitarian godhead’ with one person out of three receiving all the glory and honor and power and being proclaimed no less as Creator himself as well as the Revelator on Sinai!
Is this not what the Torah would consider ‘blasphemy’?
Seriously, dear reader, think about it and make your stand. As for us, Sinaites, we declare with Yahushuwah:
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Commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorah’s, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; translation by Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses with commentary indicated by “EF”; additional commentary by Robert Alter “RA” whose translation is similarly titled The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1.]
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Genesis/Bereshith 17
THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM
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I am God Almighty. Heb. El Shaddai; Exod. VI,3, ‘and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as God Almighty.’ The derivation of the Divine Name, Shaddai, is uncertain. The usual translation, ‘Almighty,’ is due to the Vulgate (the Latin version of the Bible). The realization of Abram’s hopes must often have appeared dim and distant to him. Here he is reassured: nothing is impossible to God Almighty. Shaddai has also been derived from a root meaning ‘to heap benefits’, the Friend who shepherds the Patriarchs and preserves them from all harm; see Numbers I,5.
whole-hearted. i.e. place implicit and undivided confidence in God alone. the Rabbis connect this exhortation with the Covenant of Circumcision, which was about to be instituted, and thus indicate the moral ideal which underlies the ritual act.
make My covenant. lit. ‘I will give (i.e. grant) My covenant.’ What follows is not a compact between God and the Patriarch, but a statement of the plans which He had designed for Abram and his descendants.
[EF] Ninety years and nine years: Thirteen years have elapsed since the events of the previous chapter. Now that Yishmael is entering puberty, God can no longer conceal that he is not the promised heir. See vv: 16,18. Shaddai: Hebrew obscure. Traditionally translated “Almighty”; others use “of the mountains.” In Genesis the name is most often tied to promises of human fertility, as in v. 2. Walk . . . be wholehearted: Contrasted to Noah (6:9), Avram is a genuine religious man who lives his faith actively.
[RA] El Shaddai. The first term, as in El Elyon (chapter 14), means God. Scholarship has been unable to determine the origins or precise meaning of the second term—tenuous associations have been proposed with a Semitic word meaning “mountain” and with fertility. What is clear (compare Exodus 6:3) is that the biblical writers considered it an archaic name of God.
Walk in My presence. Or “before me.” In verse 18, the same preposition manifestly has the idiomatic sense of “in Your favor.” The verb is the same used for Enoch’s walking with God, but there the Hebrew preposition is actually “with.” The meaning of this idiom is “to be devoted to the service of.”
2 I set my covenant between me and you, I will make you exceedingly, exceedingly many.[EF] Set: Heb. va-ettena. The root n-t-n is repeated throughout the chapter (as “make” in vv.5 and 6, and as “give” in vv8 and 16).
[RA] My covenant. The articulation of the covenant in this chapter is organized in three distinct units—first the promise of progeny and land, then the commandment of circumcision as sign of the covenant, then the promise of Sarah’s maternity. The politics of the promise is now brought to the foreground as for the first time it is stipulated that both Abraham and Sarah will be progenitors of kings. Source critics have observed that this second covenantal episode, attributed to Priestly circles, abandons the sense of an almost equal pact between two parties of chapter 15 and gives us an Abraham who is merely a silent listener, flinging himself to the ground in fear and trembling as God makes His rather lengthy pronouncements. But Abraham’s emphatic skepticism in verses 17-18 suggests that there is more complexity in his characterization here than such readings allow.
3. Avram fell upon his face. God spoke with him, saying:and Abram fell on his face. The Oriental mode of expressing gratitude.
4 As for me, here, my covenant is with you, so that you will become the father of a throng of nations.as for Me. Introducing God’s part of the covenant, as contrasted with ‘And as for thee’ in v. 9.
a multitude of nations. The Israelites; the Arabs, descended from Ishmael; and the tribes enumerated in XXV,1.
[EF} throng: The word suggests the sound of a crowd, rather than merely a large number.
5 No longer shall your name be called Avram, rather shall your name be Avraham, for I will make you av Hamon Goyyim/Father of a Throng of Nations!Abraham . . . multitude of nations. Ab means ‘father’ and raham, the second half of the new name, is an Arabic word for ‘multitude’. The change of name emphasizes the mission of Abraham, which is ‘To bring all the peoples under the wings of the Shechinah’.
[EF] Avraham: Trad. English “Abraham.”
[RA] Abram . . . Abraham. The meaning of both versions of the name is something like “exalted father.” The longer form is evidently no more than a dialectical variant of the shorter one. The real point is that Abraham should undergo a name change—like a king assuming the throne, it has been proposed—as he undertakes the full burden of the covenant. Similarly in verse 15, the only difference between Sarai and Sarah is that the former reflects an archaic feminine suffix, the latter, the normative feminine suffix: both versions of the name mean “princess.”
6 I will cause you to bear fruit exceedingly, exceedingly, I will make nations of you, (yes,) kings will go out from you! 7 I establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you, throughout their generations as a covenant for the ages, to be God to you and to your seed after you. 8 I will give to you and to your seed after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, as a holding for the ages, and I will be God to them.the land of thy sojournings. The land in which Abraham dwelt only as ‘a sojourner’.
[EF] I will be God to them: Often reiterated as part of the biblical account (e.g., 28:21).
9. God said to Avraham: As for you, you are to keep my covenant, you and your seed after you, throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant which you are to keep, between me and you and your seed after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.this is My covenant which ye shall keep. The meaning is not that the Covenant is to consist in the rite of circumcision, but that circumcision is to be the external sign of the Covenant. As the following verse declares, ‘it shall be a token of a covenant,’ just as the rainbow was the token of the covenant with Noah. And even as the rainbow had existed before Noah, this rite had been practised among other peoples before Israel. To whatever origin and purpose it might be traced—whether as a measure safeguarding cleanliness and health (Philo), or to counteract excessive lust (Maimonides), or as a sacrificial symbol—for Abraham and his descendants all these conceptions are supplanted, and the rite is the abiding symbol of the consecration of the Children of Abraham to the God of Abraham. It is the rite of the covenant; and unbounded has been the loyalty and devotion with which this vital and fundamental institution of the Jewish Faith has been and is being observed. Jewish men and women have in all ages been ready to lay down their lives in its defence. The Maccabean martyrs died for it. The officers of King Antiochus put to death the mothers who initiated their children into the Covenant—‘and they hanged their babes about their necks’ (I Maccabees I,61). The same readiness for self-immolation in defence of this sacred rite we find in the times of the Hadrianic persecution, in the dread days of the Inquisition, yea, whenever and wherever tyrants undertook to uproot the Jewish Faith. Even an excommunicated semi-apostate like Benedict Spinoza declares: ‘Such great importance do I attach to the sign of the Covenant, that I am persuaded that it is sufficient by itself to maintain the separate existence of the nation for ever.’
[RA] every male among you must be circumcised. Circumcision was practiced among several of the West Semitic peoples and at least in the priestly class in Egypt, as a bas-relief at Karnach makes clear in surgical detail. To Abraham the immigrant from Mesopotamia, E.A. Speiser notes, it would have been a new procedure to adopt, as this episode indicates. The stipulation of circumcision on the eighth day after birth dissociates it from its common function elsewhere as a puberty rite, and the notion of its use as an apotropaic measure (compare Exodus 4) is not intimated here. A covenant sealed on the organ of generation may connect circumcision with fertility—and the threat against fertility—which is repeatedly stressed in the immediately preceding and following passages. The contractual cutting up of animals in chapter 15 is now followed by a cutting of human flesh.
11 You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, so that it may serve as a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 At eight days old, every male among you shall be circumcised, throughout your generations, whether house-born or bought with money from any foreigner, who is not your seed.he that is born in the house. i.e. the child of a slave; see on XIV,14. Salves were regarded as part of the household.
[EF] house-born or bought with money: I.e. slaves. The entire household, as an extension of the man’s personality is to be brought into the covenant.
13 Circumcised, yes, circumcised shall be your house-born and your money-bought (slaves), so that my covenant may be in your flesh as a covenant for the ages.[RA] silver. If the language of the text reflects the realia of the Patriarchal period, the term would refer to silver weights. If it reflects the writer’s period, it would refer to money, since by then coins had been introduced. The weighing-out of silver by Abraham ion chapter 23 argues for the likelihood of the former possibility.
14 But a foreskinned male, who does not have the foreskin of his flesh circumcised, that person shall be cut off from his kinspeople— he has violated my covenant!cut off from his people. Either through punishment at the hands of God; or through expulsion from the community.
15 God said to Avraham: As for Sarai your wife—you shall not call her name Sarai, for Sara/Princess is her name!Sarah. Brings out more forcibly the meaning ‘Princess’ than the archaic form Sarai.
[EF] you shall not call her name Sarai: Significantly, Sara is the only woman in the Bible to have her name changed by God.
16 I will bless her, and I will give you a son from her, I will bless her, so that she becomes nations, kings of all peoples shall come from her![EF] so that she becomes nations: Sara in essence shares the blessing of God. She is not merely the biological means for its fulfillment.
[RA] and I will bless him. The Masoretic Text has “bless her,” evidently to make the verb agree with the following clause, but this looks like a redundance in light of the beginning of the verse, and several ancient versions plausibly read here “bless him.”
17 But Avraham fell on his face and laughed, he said in his heart: To a hundred-year-old man shall there be (children) born? Or shall ninety-year-old Sara give birth?and laughed. The Targum renders ‘and rejoiced’, to imply that he laughed for joy, not from incredulity. What follows would accordingly not be a question, but an exclamation of surprise.
[EF] laughed: Laughter becomes the key word of most of the stories about Yitzhak.
[RA] and he laughed. The verb yitsaq is identical with the Hebrew form of the name Isaac that will be introduced in verse 19. The laughter here—hardly the expected response of a man flinging himself on his face—is in disbelief, perhaps edged with bitterness. In the subsequent chapters, the narrative will ring the changes on this Hebrew verb, the meanings of which include joyous laughter, bitter laughter, mockery, and sexual dalliance.
to a hundred-year-old. Abraham’s interior monologue is represented as a line of verse that neatly illustrates the pattern of heightening or intensification from first to second verset characteristic of biblical poetry: here, unusually (but in accord with the narrative data), the numbers go down from first to second verset, but the point is that, as incredible as it would be for a hundred-year-old to father a child, it would be for a hundred-year-old to father a child, it would be even more incredible for a ninety-year-old woman, decades past menopause, to become a mother. The Abraham who has been overpowered by two successive epiphanies in this chapter is now seen as someone living within a human horizon of expectations. In the very moment of prostration, he laughs, wondering whether God is not playing a cruel joke on him in these repeated promises of fertility as time passes and he and his wife approach fabulous old age. He would be content, he goes on to say, to have Ishmael carry on his line with God’s blessing.
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Ishmael might live. Abraham, despairing of the possibility of having issue by Sarah, expresses the hope that Ishmael ‘might live before Thee’, in order that the promises made to Abraham might be fulfilled through him. It is also possible to understand it as a prayer that, though Ishmael is excluded from the spiritual heritage, he may yet live under the Divine care and blessing.
19 God said: Nevertheless, Sara your wife is to bear you a son, you shall call his name: Yitzhak/He Laughs. I will establish my covenant with him as a covenant for the ages, for his seed after him.[EF] Yitzhak: Traditional English “Isaac.”
20 And as for Yishmael, I hearken to you: Here, I will make him blessed, I will make him bear fruit, I will make him many, exceedingly, exceedingly— he will beget twelve (tribal) leaders, and I will make a great nation out of him.twelve princes. They are enumerated in XXV,13-16.
[EF] make him blessed . . . make him bear fuit. . . make him many: Heb. berakhti oto ve-hifretti oto vehirbeiti oto. twelve princes: Thus equaling the twelve sons/tribes of Israel?
[RA] As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Once again, the etymology of the name is highlighted. These seven English words reflect just two Hebrew words in immediate sequence, uleyishma’el shema’tikha, with the root shm-‘ evident in both.
21 But my covenant I will establish with Yitzhak, whom Sara will bear to you at this set-time, another year hence.
[EF] another year: Not nine months (Sara does not immediately become pregnant). Again the events seem to take place in a realistic framework, rather than in a strictly supernatural one.
22 When he had finished speaking with Avraham, God went up, from beside Avraham.[EF] God went up, from beside Avraham: Perhaps a formula used to signify the end of the conversation.
23 Avraham took Yishmael his son and all those born in his house and all those bought with his money, all the males among Avraham’s household people, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that same day, as God had spoken to him.[EF] on that same day: Underlining Avraham’s customary obedience. as God had spoken to him: Like Noah in 6:22,7:5 and 7:9, Avraham scrupulously follows God’s commands without question (so too in 21:4 and 22:3).
24 Avraham has ninety-nine years old when he had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised,
25 and Yishmael his son was thirteen years old when he had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised.
26 On that same day were circumcised Avraham and Yishmael his son,27 and all his household people, whether house-born or money-bought from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.