Genesis 17:14 - Exposition

And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Ἐξολοθρευθήσεται ἐκ τοῦ γένους αὐτῆς ( LXX .), i.e. shall be destroyed from amongst his nation, from among his people (Le Genesis 17:4 , Genesis 17:10 ; Numbers 15:30 ), from Israel ( Exodus 12:15 ; Numbers 19:13 ), from the congregation of Israel ( Exodus 12:19 ), by the infliction of death at the hands of the congregation, the civil magistrate, or of God (Abarbanel, Gesenius, Clericus, Michaelis, Rosenmüller, Keil, Wordsworth, Alford); or shall be excommunicated from the Church, and no longer reckoned among the people of God. That excision from one's people was in certain cases followed by the death penalty ( Exodus 31:14 ; Le 18:29; Numbers 15:30 ) does not prove that the capital infliction was an invariable accompaniment of such sentence ( vide Exodus 12:19 ; Le Exodus 7:20 , Exodus 7:21 ; Numbers 19:13 ). Besides, to suppose that such was its meaning here necessitates the restriction of the punishment to adults, whereas with the alternative signification no such restriction requires to be imposed on the statute. The uncircumcised Hebrew, whether child or adult, forfeited his standing in the congregation, i.e. ceased to be a member of the Hebrew Church. He hath broken my covenant.