Genesis 17:12

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“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.”

Medical Science, Biology, Health

Circumcision, Sterilization ^{(206) (207) (208)}

Previously to this eight day, they (babies) were considered unclean. It is stated in Leviticus 12:2-3: If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Circumcision was ever understood as a consecration of the person to God. Neither calf, lamb, nor kid, was offered to God till it was eight days old for the same reason. It says in Leviticus 22:27: When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam, before being made an offering. The flesh of very young animals is comparatively innutritive, and that animal food is not sufficiently nourishing and wholesome till the animal has arrived at a certain growth, or acquired the perfection of its nature. There is something brutish in eating the young of beast or fowl before the hair and hoofs are perfect in the one, and the feathers and claws in the other. Before this period their flesh is not good for food. It turns out that eighth day circumcision is medically sound, in that the skin of the child is not mature enough until the eighth day to go under the knife. There is a danger of the child bleeding to death before this waiting period.