What Secret Did He Reveal to Those Who Feared Him

"And I will set my covenant between me and you" (Genesis 17:2). This is what Scripture says: "The secret of the LORD is for those who fear him, and his covenant is to make them know it" (Psalms 25:14). Which is the secret that he revealed to those who fear him? This is circumcision, for the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed the mysteries of circumcision only to Abraham. "The secret of the LORD is for those who fear him," this is Abraham, for it was said to him, "For now I know that you fear God" (Genesis 22:12). What is "sod" (secret)? Samekh is sixty, vav is six, dalet is four; this makes seventy. [The letters of the word for "secret" are read as numerals summing to seventy.] The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: I will raise up from you seventy, as it is said, "With seventy persons your fathers went down to Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:22); and I will raise up from them seventy elders, as it is said, "Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel" (Numbers 11:16). And I will raise up from you Moses, who will expound the Torah in seventy tongues. Therefore it is written: "The secret of the LORD is for those who fear him, and his covenant is to make them know it." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham: When I created my world, I kept it turning for twenty generations for your sake, until you would come and take upon yourself circumcision. Now, if you do not take upon yourself circumcision, I am El Shaddai: I will say to the world "Enough" (dai) up to here, and I will return it to chaos and void.