The Covenant of Circumcision

1 And in the fifth year of the fourth week of this jubilee, [1986] in the third month, in the middle of the month, Abram celebrated the feast of the first-fruits of the grain harvest. 2 And he offered new offerings on the altar, the first-fruits of the produce, to the Lord, a heifer and a goat and a sheep on the altar as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord; their fruit offerings and their drink offerings he offered upon the altar with frankincense. 3 And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: 'I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be perfect. 4 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you greatly.' 5 And Abram bowed facedown, and God talked with him, and said: 6 'Look, My ordinance is with you, And you shall be the father of many nations. 7 You shall no longer be called Abram, But your name from now on, forever, shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of many nations. 8 And I will make you very great, And I will make you into nations, And kings shall come from you. 9 And I shall establish My covenant between Me and you, and your descendants after you, throughout their generations, for an eternal covenant, so that I may be a God to you, and to your descendants after you. 10 And I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land where you have been a temporary resident, the land of Canaan, that you may possess it forever, and I will be their God.' 11 And the Lord said to Abraham: 'And as for you, keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you: and circumcise every male among you, and circumcise your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of an eternal covenant between Me and you. 12 And you shall circumcise the child on the eighth day, every male throughout your generations, him that is born in the house, or whom you have bought with money from any foreigner, whom you have acquired who is not of your descendants. 13 He that is born in your house shall surely be circumcised, and those whom you have bought with money shall be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an eternal ordinance. 14 And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that person shall be cut off from his people, for he has broken My covenant.' 15 And God said to Abraham: 'As for Sarai your wife, she shall no longer be called Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her, and give you a son by her, and I will bless him, and he shall become a nation, and kings of nations shall descend from him.' 17 And Abraham bowed facedown, 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, give birth?' 18 And Abraham said to God: 'If only Ishmael might live before you!' 19 And God said: 'Yes, and Sarah also shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him, an everlasting covenant, and for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael also I have heard you, and look, I will bless him, and make him great, and multiply him greatly, and he shall father twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you, in these days, in the next year.' 22 And He finished speaking with him, and God went up from Abraham. 23 And Abraham did according as God had said to 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. 24 And on the very same day Abraham was 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.

Circumcision and Israel’s Election

25 This commandment is for all the generations forever, and there is no cutting short 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. 26 And everyone that is born, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day, does not belong 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 killed from the earth, and to be rooted out of the earth, for he has broken the covenant of the Lord our God. 27 For all the angels of the presence and all the angels of sanctification have been so created from the day of their creation,⁠a and before the angels of the presence and the angels of sanctification He has sanctified Israel, that they should be with Him and with His holy angels. 28 And 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. 29 For the command is ordained for a covenant, that they should observe it forever among all the children of Israel. 30 For Ishmael and his sons and his brothers and Esau, the Lord did not bring near to Him, and he did not choose them because they are the children of Abraham, because He knew them, but He chose Israel to be His people. 31 And He sanctified it, and gathered it from among all the human beings; for there are many nations and many peoples, and all are His, and over all He has placed spirits in authority to lead them astray from Him.⁠b 32 But over Israel He did not appoint any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler, and He will preserve them and protect them from His angels and His spirits, and from 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 now on forever. 33 And now I announce to you that the children of Israel will not keep true to this ordinance, and they will not circumcise their sons according to all this commandment; 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. 34 And there will be great anger from the Lord against the children of Israel, because they have abandoned His covenant and turned aside from His word, and provoked and blasphemed, since they do not observe the ordinance of this commandment; for they have treated their members like the nations, so that they may be removed and rooted out of the land. And there will no more be pardon or forgiveness for them [so that there should be forgiveness and pardon] for all the sin of this eternal error.