“Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the young men. “Isaac and I will go up and worship; then we will return to you.” So Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on Isaac’s back. Abraham carried the knife and the fire, and the two of them walked up the mountain together.
“Father?” Isaac broke the silence.
“Yes, my son,” Abraham replied.
“We have the wood and the fire,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “My son, God himself will provide the lamb for an offering.” So they went on together.
When they arrived at the place on Mount Moriah that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar and stacked the wood on it. He tied up his son Isaac and laid him on top of the wood on the altar. Then Abraham took the knife in his hand to plunge it into his son, but the angel of YAHWEH called to him from heaven, saying, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes, I’m here,” he answered.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy or harm him,” he said, “for now, I know you are fully dedicated to me, since you did not withhold your son, your beloved son, from me.”
As Abraham looked up, his eyes fell upon a ram caught by its horns in a nearby thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it on the altar as a burnt offering in Isaac’s place. So Abraham named that place YAHWEH Appears. Even to this day, it is said, “On YAHWEH’s Mountain there is vision.”
YAHWEH’s angel spoke a second time from heaven:
“ ‘I solemnly promise you,
by the glory of my own name,’ decrees YAHWEH,
‘because you have obeyed my voice
and did not withhold from me your son—your beloved son —
I will greatly bless you!
I will make sure your seed becomes as numerous
as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the seashore.
Your offspring will take possession of the city gates of their enemies.
Because you have obeyed me,
the entire world will be blessed through your seed.’ ”
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