About Abraham giving Isaac to God

1Some time later God tested Abraham to see if he would really obey him. So he called out to him, “Abraham!” The old man said, “Here I am!”

2God said to Abraham, “Take your only son, the one you love so much, and go to a place called Moriah. When you arrive there I will show you a mountain, and you must kill your son there on the mountain, and sacrifice him. You must give him to me.”

3The next morning Abraham got up and chopped some firewood and put it on a donkey, and he called two of his servants and his son Isaac to come to him. And then they went off together to the place that God had told Abraham about.

4They went on and on walking and then on the third day Abraham saw the mountain a long way off.

5Then Abraham said to his two men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there, so that we can worship God. Then we will come back here to you.”

6Then Abraham took the firewood, and gave it to his son Isaac and he carried it on his back while the old man took a knife and hot coals for the fire and they went on together. As they walked along,

7Isaac said to his father, “Father!” His father said, “What is it?” “Here are the firewood and coals, but where is the lamb for you to burn as a sacrifice?” the boy asked.

8Then Abraham said, “God himself will give us a lamb.” They went on walking

9until they reached the place God had told Abraham about. Abraham took some stones for an altar and built it and then he put the firewood on top. He took his son and tied him up, and put him on top of the firewood.

10Then he took the knife and lifted it up to stab his son Isaac and kill him.

11But Yahweh's angel called out to him from heaven and said, “Abraham!” Abraham answered, “What is it?”

12The angel said, “Don't kill him! Now I know that you obey God, because you haven't kept your only son to yourself.”

13Then Abraham looked around and saw a male sheep, a ram. It was caught in a thorny bush by the horns. So Abraham went and got it and killed it and put it on top of the firewood. Then he burnt it as a sacrifice and gave that to God instead of giving his son.

14Abraham named the mountain “Yahweh Gives Good Things.” And even today the people of that place still say, “On Yahweh's mountain God gives his people good things.”

15Then Yahweh's angel called out to Abraham again from heaven.

16“Listen to these words of Yahweh,” he said. “Yahweh said, ‘I am making a promise, and I am using my own name so that my promise will be strong and I won't change it. I will bless you because you didn't try to keep your only son for yourself. I am making this promise and it won't change.

17Truly I will give you many descendants. They will be so many they will be like the stars you can see in the sky or like the grains of sand on the beach. They will fight with people in other places and rule over them.

18“‘Then all the nations will say to me, Bless us in the same way you have blessed Abraham's descendants. That will happen because you have obeyed my words,’ Yahweh said.”

19Then Abraham and Isaac went back to the two men they had left behind. And from there they went home to Philistia. After a while Abraham and his family went to Beersheba and they stayed there.

About Nahor's descendants

20Some time later Abraham heard about Nahor, his younger brother. Nahor lived in the country where Abraham had lived before he went to Canaan. His wife's name was Milcah. Nahor and Milcah had eight sons. The first was called Uz, and his younger brothers were Buz, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash and Jidlaph and the youngest son was Bethuel. And Bethuel had a daughter called Rebecca.

24One of Nahor's servants was also his wife, and her name was Reumah. Nahor's and Reumah's sons were Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.