Genesis Chapter 17

El Shaddai renews His covenant, renames Abram and Sarai, gives circumcision as its sign, promises Isaac, and Abraham obeys that same day.

Genesis 17:1-2

El Shaddai Appears and Calls

Genesis 17:3-8

A New Name and an Everlasting Covenant

Genesis 17:9-14

The Sign of the Covenant

Genesis 17:15-22

Sarah and the Son of Promise

Genesis 17:23-27

Obedience on the Selfsame Day

Genesis 17:1

Thirteen years have passed since Ishmael’s birth (16:16), and Scripture records no word from God across them. The silence is itself part of the story. Abram had tried to secure the promise through Hagar, and the household had paid for it in rivalry and grief. Now, when Abram is “ninety years old and nine,” and Sarai is long past childbearing, the LORD appears. The timing removes every natural explanation for what will follow. Whatever God does next will have to be His own work.

God introduces Himself as “the Almighty God,” El Shaddai. The name appears first here and returns at key moments in the patriarchal story, usually where God promises fruitfulness and descendants (28:3; 35:11; 48:3-4). Its precise derivation is uncertain, but its use is clear: this is the God who is sufficient for what human strength cannot achieve. Exodus 6:3 later recalls that the patriarchs knew God especially by this name. For an old man whose wife is barren, no title could be more fitting. The promise is about to become more specific, and its fulfilment will rest entirely on divine power.

The self-revelation is followed by two commands: “walk before me, and be thou perfect.” To walk before someone was the language of a servant living in the presence of his master, attentive to his will and open to his inspection. Enoch and Noah walked with God (5:24; 6:9); Abram is to order every step as one who lives under God’s eye. The years of managing the promise by his own devices must give way to a life lived consciously in God’s presence.

“Perfect” does not demand flawless performance before the covenant can stand. The covenant had already been ratified by God alone (15:17-18), and Abram had already been counted righteous by faith (15:6). What God now asks is wholeness: an undivided heart, integrity without reservation, a life that matches the faith already credited to him. Faith had brought Abram into the covenant; integrity of life would show that he remained in it. Jesus would later echo the same call to His disciples (Matthew 5:48), and the same grace that issues the command supplies the strength to obey it.

Study Links

Cross References

Genesis 16:16Genesis 35:11Genesis 5:24

Word / Phrase Notes

אֵל שַׁדַּי (El Shaddai) — the Almighty God

This is the first occurrence of the title in Scripture. Its etymology remains debated, but the ancient Greek rendering in Job, pantokratōr, and the context of Genesis both point toward God’s overwhelming sufficiency and power. In Genesis the name regularly accompanies promises of offspring and blessing, presenting God as able to make the barren fruitful and to keep His word when every human means has failed.

Genesis 28:3Genesis 48:3-4

הִתְהַלֵּךְ לְפָנַי וֶהְיֵה תָמִים (hithallekh lefanay wehyeh tamim) — walk before me, and be thou perfect

The reflexive form of the verb pictures a continuing walk, a whole manner of life. “Before me” places that life in God’s presence, like a servant serving before his king. Tamim describes what is whole, complete, or without blemish; applied to people it speaks of integrity and an undivided heart, not a claim of sinlessness. The Greek Old Testament renders it here with a word meaning blameless.

Genesis 6:9