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 never have been raised but for a disinclination to admit anything of the nature of a stipulation into P's idea of the covenant.—10. This is my covenant] Circumcision is both the covenant and the sign of the covenant: the writer's ideas are sufficiently vague and elastic to include both representations. It is therefore unnecessary (with Ols. and Ball) to read (see v.$13$).—11. for a covenant-sign] i.e., after the analogy of 9$12f.$, a token by which God is reminded of the existence of the covenant. The conception rises out of the extraordinary importance of the rite when the visible fabric of Hebrew nationality was dissolved, and nothing remained but this corporal badge as a mark of the religious standing of the Jew before Yahwe.—12a. at the age of eight days] connected with the period of the mother's uncleanness: Lv. 12$1. 3$; cf. Gn. 21$4$, Lk. 1$59$ 2$21$, Phil. 3$5$; Jos. Ant. i. 214.—12b, 13 go together (De.), extending the obligation to slaves, who as members of the household follow the religion of their master.—The penalty of disobedience is death or excommunication, according as one or the other is meant by the obscure formula: be cut off from its kindred (v.i.).

1O. ] G +. The whole is possibly a gloss (KS. Ba. Gu.), due to confusion between the legislative standpoint of $10ff.$ with its plural address, and the special communication to Abraham; see, however, vv.$12f.$—] inf. abs. used as juss.; G-K. § 113 cc, gg: cf. Ex. 12$48$, Lev. 6$7$, Nu. 6$5$.—11. ] treated by T$OJ$ as active, from [root], but really abbreviated Niph. of [root] (cf. G-K. § 67 dd), a rare by-form (Jos. 5$2$) of —] [E], adopted by Ba.—12. ] see 14$14$.—] only vv.$13. 23. 27$ and Ex. 12$44$.— is the individualising use of 2nd p. sing., frequently alternating with 2nd pl. in legal enactments. So v.$13$.—14. ] [E]G + (Ba.).——] So Ex. 30$33. 38$ 31$14$, Lv. 7$20f. 25. 27$ 17$9$ 19$8$ 23$29$, Nu. 9$13$,—all in P, who employs a number of similar phrases—'his people,' 'Israel,' 'the congregation of Israel,' 'the assembly,' etc.—to express the same idea (see Dri. 187$2$). is here used in the sense of 'kin,' as occasionally in OT (see 19$38$ 25$8$). It is the Ar. 'amm, which combines the two senses of 'people,' and 'relative on the father's side': see We. GGN, 1893, 480, and cf. Dri. on Dt. 32$50$ (p. 384); Krenkel, ZATW, viii. 280 ff.; Nestle, ib. xvi. 322 f.; KAT$3$, 480 f. With regard to the sense of the formula there are two questions: (a) whether it embraces the death-penalty, or merely exclusion from the sacra of the clan and from burial in the family grave; and (b) whether the punishment is to be inflicted by the com