generations; and (3) that He would give them the land in which he had wandered as a foreigner, viz., all Canaan, for an everlasting possession. As a pledge of this promise God changed his name אברם, i.e., high father, into אברהם, i.e., father of the multitude, from אב and רהם, Arab. ruhâm = multitude. In this name God gave him a tangible pledge of the fulfilment of His covenant, inasmuch as a name which God gives cannot be a mere empty sound, but must be the expression of something real, or eventually acquire reality.
verses 9-14
On the part of Abraham (ואתּה thou, the antithesis to אני, as for me, Gen 17:4) God required that he and his descendants in all generations should keep the covenant, and that as a sign he should circumcise himself and every male in his house. המּול Niph. of מוּל, and נמלתּם perf. Niph. for נמלּתם, from מלל = מוּל. As the sign of the covenant, circumcision is called in Gen 17:13, “ the covenant in the flesh,” so far as the nature of the covenant was manifested in the flesh. It was to be extended not only to the seed, the lineal descendants of Abraham, but to all the males in his house, even to every foreign slave not belonging to the seed of Abram, whether born in the house or acquired (i.e., bought) with money, and to the “ son of eight days,” i.e., the male child eight days old; with the threat that the uncircumcised should be exterminated from his people, because by neglecting circumcision he had broken the covenant with God. The form of speech ההיא הנּפשׁ נכרתה, by which many of the laws are enforced (cf. Exo 12:15, Exo 12:19; Lev 7:20-21, Lev 7:25, etc.), denotes not rejection from the nation, or banishment, but death, whether by a direct judgment from God, an untimely death at the hand of God, or by the punishment of death inflicted by the congregation or the magistrates, and that whether יוּמת מות is added, as in Exo 31:14, etc., or not. This is very evident from Lev 17:9-10, where the extermination to be effected by the authorities is distinguished from that to be executed by God Himself (see my biblische Archäologie ii. §153, 1). In this sense we sometimes find, in the place of the earlier expression “ from his people,” i.e., his nation, such expressions as “from among his people” (Lev 17:4, Lev 17:10; Num 15:30), “from Israel” (Exo 12:15; Num 19:13), “from the congregation of Israel” (Exo 12:19); and instead of “that soul,” in Lev 17:4, Lev 17:9 (cf. Exo 30:33, Exo 30:38), we find “that man.”
verses 15-21
The appointment of the sign of the covenant
