Abram celebrates the feast of first fruits, 1-2: his name changed and circumcision instituted, 3-14.
Sarai's name changed and Isaak promised, 15-21. Abraham, Ishmael, and all his household
circumcised, 22-4. Circumcision an eternal ordination, 25, 26. Israel shares this honour with
the highest angels who were created circumcised, 27-9. Israel subject to God alone: other
nations to angels, 30-2. Future faithlessness of Israel, 33-4. (Cf. Gen. xvii.)
[Chapter 15]
- And in the fifth year of the fourth week of this jubilee, [1979 A.M.] in the third month,
in the middle of the
month, Abram celebrated the feast of the first-fruits of the grain harvest.
- And he offered
new offerings on the altar, the first-fruits of the produce, unto the Lord, an heifer and a goat and a
sheep on the altar as a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord; their fruit offerings and their drink offerings
he
offered upon the altar with frankincense.
- And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said
unto him:
'I am God Almighty; approve thyself before me and be thou perfect.
- And I will make
My covenant between Me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly.'
- And Abram fell on his
face, and God talked with him, and said:
- 'Behold my ordinance is with thee,
And thou shalt be the father of many nations.
- Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram,
But thy name from henceforth, even for ever, shall be Abraham.
For the father of many nations have I made thee.
- And I will make thee very great,
And I will make thee into nations,
And kings shall come forth from thee.
- And I shall establish My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee,
throughout their generations, for an eternal covenant, so that I may be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee.
- <And I will give to thee and to thy seed after thee> the land where thou hast been a
sojourner,
the land of Canaan, that thou mayst possess it for ever, and I will be their God.'
- And
the Lord said unto Abraham: 'And as for thee, do thou keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after
thee: and circumcise ye every male among you, and circumcise your foreskins, and it shall be a
token of
an eternal covenant between Me and you.
- And the child on the eighth day ye shall
circumcise, every male throughout your generations, him that is born in the house, or whom ye
have bought
with money from any stranger, whom ye have acquired who is not of thy seed.
- He that
is born in thy house shall surely be circumcised, and those whom thou hast bought with money
shall be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an eternal ordinance.
- And the
uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul
shall be cut off from
his people, for he has broken My covenant.'
- And God said unto Abraham: 'As for
Sarai thy wife,
her name shall no more be called Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
- And I will bless
her, and give thee a son by her, and I will bless him, and he shall become a nation, and kings of
nations shall
proceed from him.'
- And Abraham fell on his face, and rejoiced, and said in his heart:
'Shall a son be born to him that is a hundred years old, and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old,
bring forth?'
- And Abraham said unto God: 'O that Ishmael might live before thee!'
- And God
said: 'Yea, and Sarah also shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will
establish My
covenant with him, an everlasting covenant, and for his seed after him.
- And as for
Ishmael also have I heard thee, and behold I will bless him, and make him great, and multiply him
exceedingly,
and he shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
- But My covenant
will
I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to thee, in these days, in the next year.'
- And He left
off speaking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
- And Abraham did according
as God had said unto him, and he took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and
whom he had
bought with his money, every male in his house, and circumcised the flesh of their
foreskin.
- And on the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and all the men of his house, <and
those born in the house>, and all those, whom he had bought with money from the children of the
stranger, were
circumcised with him.
- This law is for all the generations for ever, and there is no
circumcision of the days, and no omission of one day out of the eight days; for it is an eternal
ordinance, ordained
and written on the heavenly tablets.
- And every one that is born, the flesh of whose
foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day, belongs not to the children of the covenant which
the Lord made with Abraham, but to the children of destruction; nor is there, moreover, any sign
on him that he is the Lord's, but (he is destined) to be destroyed and slain from the earth, and to
be rooted out of
the earth, for he has broken the covenant of the Lord our God.
- For all the angels of
the presence and all the angels of sanctification have been so created from the day of their
creation, and before the angels of the presence and the angels of sanctification He hath sanctified
Israel, that they should
be with Him and with His holy angels.
- And do thou command the children of Israel
and let them observe the sign of this covenant for their generations as an eternal ordinance, and
they will not be
rooted out of the land.
- For the command is ordained for a covenant, that they should
observe it
for ever among all the children of Israel.
- For Ishmael and his sons and his brothers and
Esau, the Lord did not cause to approach Him, and he chose them not because they are the
children of
Abraham, because He knew them, but He chose Israel to be His people.
- And He
sanctified it, and gathered it from amongst all the children of men; for there are many nations and
many peoples, and all are His, and over all hath He placed spirits in authority to lead them astray
from Him.
- But over Israel He did not appoint any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler, and
He will preserve them and require them at the hand of His angels and His spirits, and at the hand
of all His powers in order that He may preserve them and bless them, and that they may be His
and He
may be theirs from henceforth for ever.
- And now I announce unto thee that the
children of Israel will not keep true to this ordinance, and they will not circumcise their sons
according to all this law; for in the flesh of their circumcision they will omit this circumcision of
their sons, and all of them,
sons of Beliar, will leave their sons uncircumcised as they were born.
- And there will be
great wrath from the Lord against the children of Israel. because they have forsaken His covenant
and turned aside from His word, and provoked and blasphemed, inasmuch as they do not observe
the ordinance of this law; for they have treated their members like the Gentiles, so that they may
be removed and rooted out of the land. And there will no more be pardon or forgiveness unto
them [so that there should be forgiveness and pardon] for all the sin of this eternal error.
Chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 |
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 |
38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 |
44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 |
50
From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
by R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913
Scanned and Edited by Joshua Williams, Northwest Nazarene College