Genesis 17:24

Summary

Genesis 17:24 records Abraham's age—ninety-nine years—at the time of his circumcision, marking the completion of the command given earlier in the chapter. The verse states his age using a construct expression and describes the circumcision through a passive/reflexive verbal form.

Key words

• ben ("son of", H1121L) — construct noun used idiomatically to express age, literally "a son of ninety and nine years."
• tish'im ("ninety", H8673) and tesha' ("nine", H8672) — cardinal numbers joined by the conjunction va- ("and", H9002), forming the compound number ninety-nine.
• himmol ("was circumcised", H4135A) — niphal infinitive construct with the preposition be- ("when", H9003) prefixed, creating a temporal clause: "when he was circumcised" or "in his being circumcised." The niphal stem marks the action as passive or reflexive rather than active.
• besar ("flesh of", H1320) — construct noun beginning the phrase "flesh of his foreskin," the object undergoing the circumcision.
• 'orlato ("his foreskin", H6190H) — feminine singular noun with third-person masculine singular pronominal suffix -o ("his", H9023), specifying the body part.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with ve-'Avraham ("and Abraham", H9002 + H0085), introducing the subject after the preceding narrative. The age is expressed through the construct phrase ben-tish'im va-tesha' shanah — literally "son of ninety and nine years" — a standard Hebrew idiom for stating age using the noun ben ("son of", H1121L) in construct with the numeral phrase, followed by shanah ("year", H8141) in the singular despite the plural number, a common pattern in Biblical Hebrew numeral constructions.

The temporal clause be-himmolo ("when he was circumcised", H9003 + H4135A + H9043) uses the niphal infinitive construct with a pronominal suffix functioning as the subject of the infinitive ("in his being circumcised"). The niphal stem here conveys that Abraham underwent circumcision rather than performed it on himself, distinguishing this grammatical construction from an active verb. The phrase concludes with besar 'orlato ("the flesh of his foreskin", H1320 + H6190H + H9023), a construct chain specifying the precise anatomical object of the action.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the niphal passive construction be-himmolo with an active verb, periétemen ("he circumcised"), shifting the grammatical voice from passive/reflexive in the Hebrew to active in the Greek, with Abraham as the explicit subject performing the action rather than undergoing it. The Vulgate follows this same active rendering with circumcidit ("he circumcised"). Some modern translations, such as the BSB ("he was circumcised"), preserve the passive sense closer to the Hebrew niphal form, while others align with the LXX/Vulgate active construction.