What Does Genesis 17:23 Mean in the King James?
And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word for “male” shares its root with “remember,” so the covenant mark carries remembrance into the flesh.
THE MEANING
Covenant belonging takes bodily form and reaches beyond blood descent: those born in the house and those acquired into it receive the same mark. A spoken word becomes visible in the body on that very day.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Belonging to the covenant is not limited to descendants: the verse places household-born and purchased males under the same bodily sign.
THE ROOT
זָכָר
zākār
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, call to mind, keep present.
The word translated “male” shares the זכר root with “remember” and “memorial.” The marked body becomes a bearer of remembrance within the household.
ALSO GROWS
zākar: Remember, call to mind.
זָכַר
The same root names remembering the covenant, linking the marked males to the act of keeping a promise present.
zikkārôn: Remembrance, memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
This branch makes the connection between a covenant mark and something carried as a reminder visible.
מִקְנַת
miqnat
GROWS FROM
קנה
q-n-h
Acquire, get, possess.
“bought” in this verse is miqnat. The purchased members are named through the language of acquisition. The verse places those acquired into the house alongside those born there under one shared covenant mark.
ALSO GROWS
qānâ: Acquire, buy, possess.
קָנָה
This verb names the acquisition behind the verse’s phrase “bought with his money.”
miqneh: Possession, property; often livestock.
מִקְנֶה
This related noun shows how acquisition can name what belongs within a household’s holdings.
בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה
beʿetsem hayyom hazzeh
GROWS FROM
עצם
ʿ-ṣ-m
Bone, substance, strength; in this phrase, the very or actual thing.
The Hebrew idiom behind “selfsame day” says, literally, “in the bone of this day.” The wording gives the timing a concrete edge: the embodied mark happens on the very day named.
ALSO GROWS
ʿetsem: Bone; substance; self or very thing.
עֶצֶם
This noun supplies the image behind “the very day”: the day’s own substance or core.
ʿāṣûm: Mighty, strong.
עָצוּם
This related form carries the root’s sense of strength, showing another dimension of the same consonants.
THE PATTERN
Covenant remembrance takes visible form in a sign and extends across household origins.
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:THE THREAD
And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.The root זכר names both the males marked here and God’s act of remembering the covenant in this verse. The shared root links remembrance carried in the household’s flesh with the covenant God keeps with every living creature.
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