Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 17

Abram was ninety-nine years old. —Thirteen years, therefore, had passed since the birth of Ishmael, who doubtless during this time had grown very dear to the childless old man, as we gather from the wish expressed in Genesis 17:18.

I am the Almighty God. —Hebrew, El shaddai. The word is archaic, but there is no doubt that it means strong so as to overpower. Besides its use in Genesis, we find it used as the name of the Deity by Balaam (Numbers 24:4; Numbers 24:16), by Naomi (Ruth 1:20), and in the Book of Job, where it occurs thirty-one times. We may thus regard it as “one of the more general worldwide titles of the Most High” (Speaker’s Commentary). In Exodus 6:3 it is said, with evident reference to this place, that El shaddai was the name of God revealed to the patriarchs, but that He was not known to them by His name Jehovah. Here, nevertheless, in a passage said by commentators to be Elohistic, we read that “Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am El shaddai.’”

But the very gist of the passage is the identification of Jehovah and El shaddai. The great object of the manifest care with which Moses distinguishes the Divine names seems to be to show that, though Jehovah became the special name of Elohim in His covenant relation to Israel after the Exodus, the name was nevertheless old and primeval (Genesis 4:26). This care also shows that the God of revelation, under various titles, was always one and the same. And so it is now, though we, by following a Jewish superstition, have nearly forfeited the use of the name Jehovah, so greatly prized in ancient times (Genesis 4:1).

Walk before me. —This is the same verb used for Enoch (Genesis 5:22) and Noah (Genesis 6:9), but the preposition before implies less closeness than with. On the other hand, Noah was described as “perfect among his contemporaries” (ibid.), while Abram is still required to strive for this integrity (see Note on Genesis 6:9).

I will make my covenant. —In Genesis 15:18 the Hebrew word for “make” is cut, and refers to the severing of the victims; here it is “give,” “place,” and implies that it was an act of grace on God’s part (compare Note on Genesis 9:9).

Abram had now waited twenty-five years after leaving Ur-Chasdim, and fourteen or fifteen years since the ratification of the solemn covenant between him and Jehovah (Genesis 15:17). But the time had at last arrived for the fulfilment of the promise. As a sign of this, Abram and Sarai were to change their names, and all the males were to be brought near to God by a solemn sacrament.

Of many nations. —This is a feeble rendering of a remarkable phrase. Literally the word signifies a confused noise like the din of a populous city. Abram is to be the father of a thronging crowd of nations. And so in Genesis 17:5.

Abram.—That is, high father.

Abraham means Father of a multitude, as “raham” is an Arabic word, perhaps current in Hebrew in ancient times. Another interpretation of Abram is that it is equivalent to Abi-aram, Father of Aram, or Syria. This too is an Arabic form, like Abimael in Genesis 10:28. Some commentators emphasize the insertion of the letter “h,” as representing the name Yahveh or Yehveh (compare the change of Oshea into Jehoshua, Numbers 13:16).

Shall be circumcised. — It is stated by Herodotus (Book ii. 104) that the Egyptians were circumcised, and that the Syrians in Palestine confessed that they learned this practice from the Egyptians. Origen, however, seems to limit circumcision to the priesthood (Epistle to the Romans, section 2.13); and the statement of Herodotus is not only very loose, but his date is too far after the time of Abram for us to be able to place implicit confidence in it.

If we turn to the evidence of Egyptian monuments and mummies, we find proof that the rite became general in Egypt only in quite recent times. The discussion is, however, merely of archaeological importance, because circumcision was just as appropriate a sign of the covenant if borrowed from institutions already existing as if it were then used for the first time. Moreover, it is an acknowledged fact that the Bible is always true to the local color.

Chaldean influence is predominant in those early portions of Genesis that come to us from Abram, a citizen of Ur of the Chaldees. His life and surroundings subsequently are those of an Arab sheikh, while Egyptian influence is strongly marked in the latter part of Genesis and in the history of the Exodus from that country. In this fact, we have a sufficient answer to the theories that would assign the composition of the Pentateuch to a later period, because the author would certainly have written in accordance with the facts and ideas of his own time.

If, however, Abram had seen circumcision in Egypt when the famine drove him there, and had learned the significance of the rite and that its idea was connected with moral purity, this itself was a reason why God would choose it as the outward sign of the sacrament He was now bestowing on the patriarch.

The fitness of circumcision to be a sign of entering into a covenant, especially one to which children were to be admitted, consisted in its representation of a new birth by the putting off of the old man and the dedication of the new man to holiness.

The flesh was cast away so that the spirit might grow strong. The change of name in Abram and Sarai was typical of this change of condition: they had been born again, and so they had to be named again.

And although women could not, indeed, be admitted directly into the covenant, they nevertheless shared in its privileges by virtue of their kinship with the men, who acted as sponsors for them. Thus, Sarai changed her name just as her husband did.