God Tests Abraham’s Faith

22:1-19

22 Then it happened after those things that God tested Abraham. And he said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Behold me.” 2 Then he said, “Please take your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go yourself to the land of Moriah, and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell to you.”

3 So Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. Then he took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he cut wood for the burnt offering. Then he got up and left for the place that God had told to him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and he saw the place from a distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here by yourselves with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there and bow down. Then we will come back to you.”

6 Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hands the fire pot and the knife. Then the two of them went on together, 7 and Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father?” And he said, “Behold me, my son.” Then he said, “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “God will see for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them went on together.

9 Then they came to the place that God had told to him, and there Abraham built the altar and arranged the wood. Then he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But an angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” And he said, “Behold me.” 12 Then he said, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy! And do not do anything to him, because now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a ram was behind him, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh-Yireh, as it is said to this day, “On the mountain of Yahweh it will be seen.”

15 Then the angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “I swear by myself, a declaration of Yahweh, that it is because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 that I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the shore of the sea, and your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies. 18 And in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you listened to my voice.”

19 Then Abraham returned to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham stayed at Beersheba.