We will give you our consent on this one condition: You must become ¹  like us by circumcising ²  all your males.

At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites once again.” ¹ 

Now ¹  all the men ²  who left were circumcised, but all the sons ³  born on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt were uncircumcised.

The Lord says, “Watch out! ¹  The time is soon coming when I will punish all those who are circumcised only in the flesh. ² 

I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee. ¹ 

In three days, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword ¹  and went to the unsuspecting city ²  and slaughtered every male.

“When a foreigner lives ¹  with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, all his males must be circumcised, ²  and then he may approach and observe it, and he will be like one who is born in the land ³  – but no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment, you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ¹  people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. If you do not, ²  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you that no one will be able to extinguish. That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

and when James, Cephas, ¹  and John, who had a reputation as ²  pillars, ³  recognized ⁴  the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me ⁵  the right hand of fellowship, agreeing ⁶  that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ⁷ 

Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old ¹  must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants.

They must indeed be circumcised, ¹  whether born in your house or bought with money. The sign of my covenant ²  will be visible in your flesh as a permanent ³  reminder.

Any uncircumcised male ¹  who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off ²  from his people – he has failed to carry out my requirement.” ³ 

They said to them, “We cannot give ¹  our sister to a man who is not circumcised, for it would be a disgrace ²  to us.

Only on this one condition will these men consent to live with us and become one people: They demand ¹  that every male among us be circumcised just as they are circumcised.

All the men who assembled at the city gate ¹  agreed with ²  Hamor and his son Shechem. Every male who assembled at the city gate ³  was circumcised.

“‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, ¹  you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. ²  Three years it will be forbidden to you; ³  it must not be eaten.

The Lord your God will also cleanse ¹  your heart and the hearts of your descendants ²  so that you may love him ³  with all your mind and being and so that you may live.

This is why Joshua had to circumcise them: All the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt died on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt. ¹ 

He was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given your servant ¹  this great victory. But now must I die of thirst and fall into hands of the Philistines?” ² 

David asked the men who were standing near him, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and frees Israel from this humiliation? ¹  For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he defies the armies of the living God?”