UST GEN Chapter 22

God Tests Abraham’s Trust in Him

22:1-19

22 Sometime later God decided to test Abraham. So he called to him, “Abraham!” Abraham replied, “Yes, Lord?” 2 Then God commanded him, “Take your son with you, yes, your only son Isaac whom you love, and travel with him to the region of Moriah. There you are to burn him up on an altar as a sacrifice to me, on one of the mountains that I will show to you.”

3 So the next morning Abraham got up early and put a pack saddle on his donkey to get it ready for the trip. Then he got his son Isaac and two of his servants, and they chopped some firewood that they would use to burn the sacrifice and loaded it on the donkey. Then they started traveling to the place that God had told Abraham to go to. 4 Three days later Abraham looked ahead and in the distance he could see the mountain where they were headed. 5 Then he told his servants, “You two stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go to the mountain over there and worship God. Then we will come back to you.”

6 Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering off the donkey and loaded it on his son Isaac’s shoulder to carry. He himself carried a fire pot with hot coals in it and a knife to kill the sacrifice. Then the two of them walked on together. 7 As they walked, Isaac said to Abraham, “Father?” Abraham replied, “Yes, my son?” Then Isaac asked him, “I see that we have the fire coals and the firewood, but where is the lamb that we will burn as a sacrifice to God?” 8 Abraham answered him, “My son, God himself will provide a lamb for us to burn as a sacrifice to him.” Then they continued walking together toward the mountain.

9 When they reached the place that God had told him to go to, Abraham built a stone altar there and put the wood on top of it. Then he tied his son Isaac’s arms and legs with rope and laid him on top of the wood on the altar. 10 Then he picked up the knife in order to kill his son. 11 But one of Yahweh’s angels called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” And he replied, “Yes, Lord?” 12 Then the angel told him, “Do not harm your son or do anything else to him. Now I know that you revere me, since you obeyed me and did not refuse to sacrifice your son to me, even though he is your only son.”

13 Then Abraham looked around and there behind him he saw a ram that had its horns stuck in a bush. So he released Isaac, went over to the ram and untangled it. Then he killed it and burned it on the altar as a sacrifice to God in place of his son. 14 That is why Abraham named that place Yahweh-Yireh, which means “Yahweh will provide”. Even today people still say, “On Yahweh’s mountain he will provide what you need.”

15 Then Yahweh’s angel called to Abraham from heaven again. 16 He said, “This is what Yahweh declares to you: ‘With myself as my own witness, I vow to you that since you have obeyed me and did not hold back your son from me, yes, your only son, 17 I will abundantly bless you. In fact, I will give you so many descendants that they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore. They will defeat their enemies and rule over them. 18 Through your descendants I will bless all the people groups on the earth. I will do that because you obeyed me.’ ”

19 After that, Abraham returned with Isaac to his two servants. Then together they all traveled back home to the city of Beersheba, and Abraham and his family stayed there.

Abraham’s Brother Nahor’s Twelve Sons

22:20-24

20 Sometime later someone told Abraham, “I have news for you: Your brother Nahor and his wife Milcah also have some sons, 21 The oldest son is Uz, the second is Buz, and the third is Kemuel, who is the father of Aram. 22 They also have sons named Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 Bethuel had a daughter named Rebekah. Those are the eight sons that Milcah had for Abraham’s brother Nahor. 24 Besides that, Nahor and his servant-wife Reumah also had some sons, including Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.