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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

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MORIAH

Name used twice in the OT. Abraham was sent to sacrifice his son Isaac in “the land of Moriah” (Gn 22:2). Because in the narrative it is said that the ram was “provided” in the place of Isaac when God “appeared” to Abraham, it has been suggested that the form of the name “Moriah” may be connected with this. (The Hebrew verb ra’ah can have the meanings “see,” “provide,” and “appear,” and the ending -iah is the shortened form of the name of the Lord that is found in many Hebrew names.)

In 2 Chronicles 3:1, Mt Moriah is the place of Solomon’s temple, specifically identified with the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite (cf. 2 Sm 24; 1 Chr 21), but not explicitly with the place of Abraham’s sacrifice. Some, however, see in the description of the Lord’s appearing to David a reminder of his appearing to Abraham there. The Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 1.13.2; 7.13.4) clearly connects the place of the temple with the place where Isaac was offered up, as does the second-century BC book of Jubilees (Jubilees 18:13). Samaritan tradition linked Moriah with Mt Gerizim. Muslim tradition connects the Dome of the Rock that stands today on the site of the Jerusalem temple with Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac on the great rock under the dome of the mosque.