The LORD took him outside and said, "Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that."

Abram put his trust in the LORD, and because of this the LORD was pleased with him and accepted him.

It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished."

Abram's wife Sarai had not borne him any children. But she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar,

So she gave Hagar to him to be his concubine. (This happened after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years.)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.

You and your descendants must all agree to circumcise every male among you.

On that same day Abraham obeyed God and circumcised his son Ishmael and all the other males in his household, including the slaves born in his home and those he had bought.

and his son Ishmael was thirteen.

together with all of Abraham's slaves.

If a circumcised man has accepted God's call, he should not try to remove the marks of circumcision; if an uncircumcised man has accepted God's call, he should not get circumcised.

For whether or not a man is circumcised means nothing; what matters is to obey God's commandments.

For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.

It does not matter at all whether or not one is circumcised; what does matter is being a new creature.