< Genesis 22 >
1 Several years later, God tested Abraham [to find out] whether Abraham [really trusted in him and would obey him]. He called out to Abraham, and Abraham replied, “I’m here.”
2 God said, “Your son, Isaac, whom you love very much, is the only son [who is still here with you]. But take him and go together to the Moriah region. Offer him as a sacrifice like a burnt offering, on a hill that I will show you.”
3 So Abraham got up early the next morning, put a saddle on his donkey, and took with him two of his servants along with his son, Isaac. He also chopped some wood to kindle a fire for a burnt offering. Then they started traveling to the place God told him about.
4 On the third day of their travels, Abraham looked up and saw in the distance the place where God wanted him to go.
5 Abraham said to his servants, “You two stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go over there. We will worship God there, and then we will come back to you.”
6 Then Abraham took the wood to kindle a fire for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, for him to carry. Abraham carried in his hand a [pan containing burning coals to start a] fire, and a knife, and the two of them walked along together.
7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham, saying, “My father!” Abraham replied, “Yes, my son, I’m here!” Isaac said, “Look, we have wood and [coals to light] a fire, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham replied, “My son, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” So the two of them continued walking along together.
9 They arrived at the place God had told him about. There, Abraham built a stone altar and arranged the wood on top of it. Then he tied his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
10 Then Abraham took the knife and reached out to kill his son.
11 But an angel [who was really Yahweh] called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” Abraham replied, “I’m here!”
12 The angel said, “Do not harm the boy or do anything to injure him, because now I know that you respect and obey God. I know that because you have not refused to sacrifice your son, the only son [who is still with you].”
13 Then Abraham looked up and saw that a ram was nearby, whose horns had been caught in a (thicket/clump of bushes). So Abraham went over and grabbed the ram [and killed it], and sacrificed it on the altar as a burnt offering, instead of his son.
14 Abraham named that place ‘Yahweh will provide’. And to the present day, people say, “On Yahweh’s mountain, he will provide.”
15 The angel [who was really Yahweh] called out to Abraham from heaven a second time.
16 He said, “I, Yahweh your Lord, am telling you that you did what I told you, and you have not refused to sacrifice your only son [that is with you]. So I say, ‘I solemnly swear, with myself as my witness,
17 that some day your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. And your descendants will defeat their enemies and capture their cities [SYN].’
18 You obeyed me, so by means of your descendants the people of all the nations on the earth will be blessed.”
19 Then Abraham and Isaac returned to where his servants were waiting, and they went back home together to Beersheba, and Abraham stayed there.
20 After these things happened, someone told Abraham, “Your brother Nahor’s wife, Milcah, has also given birth to children. She has eight sons.”
21 The oldest son was Uz. The next was Buz. After him was Kemuel, the father of Aram.
22 After Kemuel was Kesad, then Hazo, then Pildash, then Jidlaph, then Bethuel,
23 who was the father of Rebekah, [who later became Isaac’s wife]. Those were the eight sons of Milcah, wife of Abraham’s brother, Nahor.
24 Nahor also had a (concubine/female slave whom he took as a wife), whose name was Beumah. She gave birth to four sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
