June 28, 2013, Reading

Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to him and said, ‘I am El Shaddai. Live in my presence, be perfect,

9 God further said to Abraham, ‘You for your part must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation.

10 This is my covenant which you must keep between myself and you, and your descendants after you: every one of your males must be circumcised.

15 Furthermore God said to Abraham, ‘As regards your wife Sarai, you must not call her Sarai, but Sarah.

16 I shall bless her and moreover give you a son by her. I shall bless her and she willbecome nations: kings of peoples will issue from her.’

17 Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, ‘Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?’

18 Abraham said to God, ‘May Ishmael live in your presence! That will be enough!’

19 But God replied, ‘Yes, your wife Sarah will bear you a son whom you must name Isaac. And I shall maintain my covenant with him, a covenant in perpetuity, to be his God and theGod of his descendants after him.

20 For Ishmael too I grant you your request. I hereby bless him and will make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I shall make him into a great nation.

21 But my covenant I shall maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.’

22 When he had finished speaking to Abraham, God went up from him.