Genesis 22:2

22:2 God 1  said, “Take your son – your only son, whom you love, Isaac 2  – and go to the land of Moriah! 3  Offer him up there as a burnt offering 4  on one of the mountains which I will indicate to 5  you.”

Genesis 22:7-8

22:7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, 6  “My father?” “What is it, 7  my son?” he replied. “Here is the fire and the wood,” Isaac said, 8  “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 22:8 “God will provide 9  for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together.

Genesis 22:13

22:13 Abraham looked up 10  and saw 11  behind him 12  a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he 13  went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

2 sn Take your son…Isaac. The instructions are very clear, but the details are deliberate. With every additional description the commandment becomes more challenging.

3 sn There has been much debate over the location of Moriah; 2 Chr 3:1 suggests it may be the site where the temple was later built in Jerusalem.

4 sn A whole burnt offering signified the complete surrender of the worshiper and complete acceptance by God. The demand for a human sacrifice was certainly radical and may have seemed to Abraham out of character for God. Abraham would have to obey without fully understanding what God was about.

5 tn Heb “which I will say to.”

6 tn The Hebrew text adds “and said.” This is redundant and has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

7 tn Heb “Here I am” (cf. Gen 22:1).

8 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Here is the fire and the wood.’” The referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here and in the following verse the order of the introductory clauses and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

9 tn Heb “will see for himself.” The construction means “to look out for; to see to it; to provide.”

sn God will provide is the central theme of the passage and the turning point in the story. Note Paul’s allusion to the story in Rom 8:32 (“how shall he not freely give us all things?”) as well as H. J. Schoeps, “The Sacrifice of Isaac in Paul’s Theology,” JBL 65 (1946): 385-92.

10 tn Heb “lifted his eyes.”

11 tn Heb “and saw, and look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) draws attention to what Abraham saw and invites the audience to view the scene through his eyes.

12 tc The translation follows the reading of the MT; a number of Hebrew mss, the LXX, Syriac, and Samaritan Pentateuch read “one” (אֶחָד, ’ekhad) instead of “behind him” (אַחַר, ’akhar).

13 tn Heb “Abraham”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.