Genesis 17:25

Summary

Genesis 17:25 states Ishmael's age at the time of his circumcision: he was a "son of thirteen years" when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised. The verse is structured as two parallel age/time notices, paralleling the surrounding verses about Abraham's own circumcision.

Key words

• ben ("son of", H1121A) — construct form introducing the age-idiom "son of X years," the standard Hebrew way to state a person's age.
• shelosh ("three-", H7969) and 'esreh ("-teen", H6240) — both in construct form, combining to form the number "thirteen" attached to shanah ("year", H8141).
• himmol ("was circumcised", H4135A) — niphal infinitive construct; the niphal stem marks the action as passive/reflexive ("to be circumcised"), and the prefixed preposition be- (H9003) turns it into a temporal clause, "when he was circumcised."
• 'et ("", H0853) — the direct object marker, notable because it appears after a niphal (normally passive) verb, marking besar 'orlato as the object "with respect to which" the circumcision occurred.
• 'orlato ("his foreskin", H6190H) — construct form linked to the suffixed pronoun -o ("his", H9023), specifying the body part affected.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve-Yishma'El beno ("and Ishmael his son"), then gives his age through the construct chain ben-shelosh 'esreh shanah, literally "a son of thirteen years" — the standard Hebrew idiom for stating age, not a different verb like "to be" or "to have." The second half of the verse is a temporal clause built on the niphal infinitive himmol ("in his being circumcised"), governed by the preposition be-. Although niphal marks passive or reflexive voice, the clause still carries the direct object marker 'et before besar 'orlato ("the flesh of his foreskin"), specifying the bodily part undergoing the action — a construction that treats the infinitive almost like an active verb despite its passive form. The two-part sentence thus links an age-statement to a circumstantial clause describing the circumcision event itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the age with a Greek genitive-of-measure, etōn deka triōn ("of thirteen years"), paralleling the Hebrew idiom, but the provided LXX text for the circumcision clause appears truncated, giving only hēnika peri tēn sarka tēs akrobystias autou ("when [circumcision occurred] concerning the flesh of his foreskin") without a clearly visible finite verb. The Vulgate departs further, using tredecim annos impleverat ("he had completed thirteen years") — a completed-action verb rather than the "son of" idiom — and replaces the Hebrew's verbal infinitive clause with a nominal phrase, tempore circumcisionis suae ("at the time of his circumcision"), converting the Hebrew's action-clause into a time-reference noun phrase.