Genesis 17:13

Summary

Genesis 17:13 mandates circumcision for both those born into the household and those acquired by purchase, using an emphatic construction to stress the necessity of this act. The verse then states that this practice will constitute God's covenant marked in the flesh, described as a berit ("covenant", H1285) of olam ("perpetuity", H5769G).

Key words

• hi.Mol ("definitely ", H4135A) — niphal infinitive, paired with the following finite verb to create emphatic repetition, a common Hebrew construction for stressing certainty or obligation.
• yi.Mol ("he will be circumcised", H4135A) — niphal imperfect, passive/reflexive voice indicating the subject undergoes the action rather than performing it; combined with the infinitive above, intensifies the command.
• ye.Lid ("[the] one born of", H3211) — construct form linking to bei.te.kha ("your household"), identifying one category of person subject to the command.
• mik.Nat ("[the] purchase of", H4736) — construct form linking to kas.Pe.kha ("your silver"), identifying the second category: those acquired through payment.
• o.Lam ("perpetuity", H5769G) — absolute noun modifying berit ("covenant"), describing the covenant's temporal quality as unending.

What the text says

The verse opens with a doubled verbal construction: hi.Mol (infinitive) followed by yi.Mol (imperfect), both from the same niphal root (H4135A). This infinitive-plus-finite-verb pattern in Biblical Hebrew grammar functions to emphasize certainty or obligation—the passive/reflexive niphal stem indicates the subject receives the action of circumcision rather than performing it on another. The two categories of persons affected are marked by parallel construct chains: ye.Lid bei.te.kha ("one born of your household") and mik.Nat kas.Pe.kha ("purchase of your silver"), both governed grammatically by the same verb.

The second half of the verse shifts to a sequential perfect verb, ha.ye.Tah ("it will be", H1961), which continues the narrative sequence begun by the preceding verses. The subject is ve.ri.T-i ("my covenant", H1285 with 1st-person suffix), located bi-v.sar-khem ("in your flesh", H1320)—a prepositional phrase placing the covenant's location literally in the physical body. The final phrase li-v.Rit o.Lam ("for a covenant of perpetuity") uses the preposition li ("to/for") to indicate purpose or result, with berit appearing twice in the verse (once with 1st-person suffix, once in construct with "perpetuity") linking the physical mark to the enduring nature of the arrangement.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the doubled Hebrew verb construction as a single verb with dative noun (περιτομῇ περιτμηθήσεται, "with circumcision he shall be circumcised"), preserving the emphatic sense differently. The LXX also adds ὁ ἀργυρώνητος ("the one bought") as an explicit subject, while the Hebrew construct chain mik.Nat kas.Pe.kha is more compact. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) provided only contains the second half of the verse, omitting any rendering of the circumcision command found in the Hebrew's first clause.