2God said to him, Take thine one begotten son, whom thou lovest, Isaac; and go into the land of vision, and offer thou him there into burnt sacrifice on one of the hills which I shall show to thee.

3Therefore Abraham rose by night, and saddled his ass, and led with him two young men, and Isaac his son; and when he had hewn trees into burnt sacrifice, he went to the place which God had commanded to him.

4Forsooth in the third day, he raised [up] his eyes, and saw a place afar;

5and he said to his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, I and the child#22:5 According to Jewish tradition, Isaac was probably 25 years old at this time (Gehman/Josephus). shall go thither; and after that we have worshipped, we shall turn again to you.

6And he took the wood of burnt sacrifice, and laid it on Isaac his son; forsooth he bare fire, and a sword in his hands. And when they twain [or two] went together,

7Isaac said to his father, My father! And he answered, What wilt thou, son? He said, Lo! fire and wood, where is the beast of burnt sacrifice?

8Abraham said, My son, God shall purvey to him the beast of burnt sacrifice. Therefore they went together,

9and came to the place which God had showed to him; in which place Abraham builded an altar, and dressed [the] wood above; and when he had bound altogether Isaac, his son, he laid Isaac on the altar, upon the heap of wood.

10And he held forth his hand, and took the sword to sacrifice his son.

11And lo! the angel of the Lord cried from heaven, and said, Abraham! Abraham! Which answered, I am present.

12And the angel said to him, Hold thou not forth thine hand on the child, neither do thou anything of harm to him; now I know that thou dreadest God, and sparedest not thine one begotten son for me.

13Abraham raised [up] his eyes, and he saw behind him a ram cleaving by the horns among briars, which he took, and offered as burnt sacrifice for the son.

14And he called the name of that place The Lord seeth; wherefore it is said, till to this day, The Lord shall see in the hill.

15Forsooth the angel of the Lord called to Abraham the second time from heaven,

16and said, The Lord saith, I have sworn by myself, for thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thine one begotten son for me,

17I shall bless thee, and I shall multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the gravel, either sand, which is in the brink of the sea; thy seed shall wield the gates of his enemies;

18and all the folks of [the] earth shall be blessed in thy seed, for thou obeyedest to my voice.

19Abraham turned again to his young men, and they went to Beersheba together, and he dwelled there.

20And so when these things were done, it was told to Abraham that also Milcah had borne sons to Nahor his brother;

21Huz the first begotten, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,

22and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel,

23of whom Rebecca was born; Milcah childed these eight to Nahor, the brother of Abraham.

24Forsooth his concubine, or secon-dary wife, Reumah by name, childed Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.

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Genesis 22

Abraham’s Faith Tested

1Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.

“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”

2“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

3The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. 4On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5“Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”

6So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, 7Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”

8“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

9When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”

12“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”

13Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

15Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. 16“This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that 17I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants#22:17 Hebrew seed; also in 22:17b, 18. beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. 18And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

19Then they returned to the servants and traveled back to Beersheba, where Abraham continued to live.

20Soon after this, Abraham heard that Milcah, his brother Nahor’s wife, had borne Nahor eight sons. 21The oldest was named Uz, the next oldest was Buz, followed by Kemuel (the ancestor of the Arameans), 22Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23(Bethuel became the father of Rebekah.) In addition to these eight sons from Milcah, 24Nahor had four other children from his concubine Reumah. Their names were Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

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Genesis 22

Genesis 22