22 Several years later, God decided to test Avraham,[ref] calling him, “Avraham.”

“Here I am,” he replied.

2 “Take your son Yitshak (Isaac) who you love, your only son,” God commanded him, “and go to the Moriyah region[ref] and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I’ll point out to you.”

3 So Avraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. Then he took two of his young men with him and his son Yitshak, and he cut some firewood for the burnt offering. Then they left to go to the place that God had told him. 4 On the third day Avraham looked up ahead and he could see the place from a distance, 5 so he said to his young men, “Stay here by yourselves with the donkey while the boy and I go over there to worship God, then we’ll come back to you here.”

6 So Avraham took the firewood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Yitshak, and he carried the fire pot and the knife. Then the two of them went on together, 7 and Yitshak asked his father Avraham his father, “My father?”

“Yes, son?”, he replied.

“We’ve got the fire and the wood,”, he continued, “but where’s the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 “God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering himself, my son,” Avraham answered, and then the two of them continued on together.

9 Then they came to the place that God had told him, and Avraham built an altar there and arranged the firewood on it. Then he tied up his son Yitshak and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.[ref] 10 Then Avraham took the knife and raised his arm to kill his son, 11 but one of Yahweh’s messengers called to him from the sky and said, “Avraham! Avraham!”

“Here I am.” he answered.

12 “Don’t lift up your hand against the boy,” the messenger continued. “And don’t do anything to him, because now I know that you respect and obey God, since you haven’t withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

13 Then Avraham raised his head and looked around, and wow, there was a ram was behind him, caught by its horns in the thicket. So Avraham went and grabbed the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Avraham named that place ‘Yahweh will provide’, and to this day it’s still said, “Yahweh will provide on his mountain.”

15 Then the Yahweh’s messenger called Avraham from the sky a second time 16 saying, “I, Yahweh, make this declaration by my authority and truth[ref] that because you did that and didn’t withhold your only son, 17 I’ll bless you tremendously and I’ll cause your descendants to be as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the beach,[ref] and your descendants will be victorious over their enemies. 18 Because you obeyed what I said, all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your descendants.”[ref] 19 Then Avraham returned to his young men and they all continued on home together to Be’er-Sheva (Beersheba), and Avraham continued living there.