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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
17:1 Almighty God. This is the first of some forty-eight occurrences in the Old Testament of this distinctive name of God (Hebrew El Shaddai).
17:2 my covenant. God used the term “covenant” (Hebrew berith) no less than thirteen times in Genesis 17. Although He gives instructions and commandments here to Abram, they are not given as conditions of God’s covenant; His promises again were unconditional. Three times (Genesis 17:7,13,19) God calls it an “everlasting” covenant, and He promised again the land to Abram’s seed as an “everlasting” possession (Genesis 17:8). His name was changed from Abram (“exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”). Not only would he be the father of multitudes of physical descendants (Jews, Arabs, etc.), but the spiritual father of all them that believe in the true God as He is.