Genesis 17 · Verse 10

Genesis 17:10

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

Genesis 17:10, King James Version

Genesis 17:10 in other translations

BSB	This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.
WEB	This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.
ASV	This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee: every male among you shall be circumcised.
YLT	this is My covenant which ye keep between Me and you, and thy seed after thee: Every male of you is to be circumcised;
DARBY	This is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee — that every male among you be circumcised.
BBE	And this is the agreement which you are to keep with me, you and your seed after you: every male among you is to undergo circumcision.
Webster	This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; Every male-child among you shall be circumcised.

What does Genesis 17:10 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

10. Every man child among you shall be circumcised--This was the sign in the Old Testament Church as baptism is in the New, and hence the covenant is called "covenant of circumcision" (Ac 7:8; Ro 4:11). The terms of the covenant were these: on the one hand Abraham and his seed were to observe the right of circumcision; and on the other, God promised, in the event of such observance, to give them Canaan for a perpetual possession, to be a God to him and his posterity, and that in him and his seed all nations should be blessed.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 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 inhabit Palestine acknowledge they received this from the Egyptians." Herodotus cannot mean Jews by Phoenicians and Syrians; if he does he is incorrect, for no Jew ever did or ever could acknowledge this, with the history of Abraham in his hand. If Herodotus had written before the days of Abraham, or at least before the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt, and informed us that circumcision had been practiced among them απ' αρχης, from the beginning, there would then exist a possibility that the Israelites while sojourning among them had learned and adopted this rite. But when we know that Herodotus flourished only 484 years before the Christian era, and that Jacob and his family sojourned in Egypt more than 1800 years before Christ, and that all the descendants of Abraham most conscientiously observed circumcision, and do so to this day, then the presumption is that the Egyptians received it from the Israelites, but that it was impossible the latter could have received it from the former, as they had practiced it so long before their ancestors had sojourned in Egypt.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Genesis 17:7-14

The covenant of grace is from everlasting in the counsels of it, and to everlasting in the consequences of it. The token of the covenant was circumcision. It is here said to be the covenant which Abraham and his seed must keep. Those who will have the Lord to be to them a God, must resolve to be to him a people. Not only Abraham and Isaac, and his posterity by Isaac, were to be circumcised, but also Ishmael and the…

Read the full comment on Genesis 17:7-14 →

Genesis 17:10 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

זֹ֣אתzotthisH2063

בְּרִיתִ֞יbe.ri.Ti[is] covenant myH1285

אֲשֶׁ֣ר'a.SherwhichH834

תִּשְׁמְר֗וּtish.me.Ruyou will keepH8104

בֵּינִי֙bei.Nibetween meH996

וּבֵ֣ינֵיכֶ֔םu.Vei.nei.Khemand between youH996

וּבֵ֥יןu.Veinand betweenH996

זַרְעֲךָ֖zar.'a.Khaoffspring yourH2233

אַחֲרֶ֑יךָ'a.cha.Rei.khaafter youH310

הִמּ֥וֹלhi.Molthey will be circumcisedH4135

לָכֶ֖םla.Khemof you

כָּל\־kol-everyH3605

זָכָֽר\׃za.KharmaleH2145

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Genesis 17:10

Acts 7:8
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Colossians 2:11-12
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Galatians 5:3-6
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Romans 4:9-11
Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
Joshua 5:2
At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
Philippians 3:3
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
1 Corinthians 7:18-19
Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
Romans 3:30
Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Genesis 17:11
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
Deuteronomy 30:6
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Ephesians 2:11
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Galatians 6:12
As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Every.
11; 34:15; Ex 4:25; 12:48; De 10:16; 30:6; Jos 5:2,4; Jer 4:4; 9:25,26
Ac 7:8; Ro 2:28,29; 3:1,25,28,30; 4:9-11; 1Co 7:18,19; Ga 3:28
Ga 5:3-6; 6:12; Eph 2:11; Php 3:3; Col 2:11,12

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Genesis 17:9
And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
Genesis 17:10
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
Genesis 17:11
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

Read all of Genesis 17

Genesis 17:10 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Este será mi pacto, que guardaréis entre mí y vosotros y tu simiente después de ti: Será circuncidado todo varón de entre vosotros.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	C’est ici mon alliance, que vous garderez entre moi et vous et ta semence après toi: que tout mâle d’entre vous soit circoncis.
German Elberfelder 1871	Dies ist mein Bund, den ihr halten sollt zwischen mir und euch und deinem Samen nach dir: alles Männliche werde bei euch beschnitten;
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Hoc est pactum meum quod observabitis inter me et vos, et semen tuum post te: circumcidetur ex vobis omne masculinum: