Genesis 22

1Some time after this, God put Abraham to the test. “Abraham!” he called, and Abraham answered, “Here I am.” 2God said, “Please take your son, your only son, the one you love, Isaac. Go to the land of Moriah, and there, on one of the mountains that I will point out to you, offer him up as a burnt offering.” 3Abraham was up at dawn. He saddled his donkey and took along two of his young men, and his son Isaac. After splitting wood for the burnt offering, he started out for the place God had named to him. 4On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and caught sight of the place far away. 5Then Abraham told his young men, “You wait here with the donkey. The boy and I are going on up there to worship, and afterward we will return to you.” 6Abraham loaded the wood for the burnt offering onto his son Isaac and carried the fire and the knife in his own hand, and the two of them walked on side by side. 7Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father.” “I am here, my son,” he answered. “I see the fire and the wood,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb to be offered?” 8Abraham answered, “God will see to the lamb for his burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them walked on together. 9They arrived at the place God had named to him. There Abraham built the altar and stacked the wood on it; then he tied up Isaac his son and placed him on the altar, above the wood. 10Abraham reached for the knife and took it in his hand, ready to slaughter his son. 11But from heaven the angel of the LORD called to him, “Abraham, Abraham!” And Abraham said, “I am here.” 12He said, “Keep your hand away from the boy, and do him no harm. I now know that you are one who fears God, since you have not refused me your son, your only son.” 13When Abraham raised his eyes, he saw a ram behind him, held fast in the brush by its horns. So he went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering in his son’s place. 14Abraham named that place “The LORD Will See to It.” That is why people still say today, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be seen to.” 15Then the angel of the LORD called out once more to Abraham from heaven, 16saying, “This is the word of the LORD: By myself I swear that since you have done this, and have not kept back your son, your only son, 17I will pour out blessing on you and multiply your descendants until they are like the stars of the sky and the sand along the seashore. Your descendants will take the gates of their enemies, 18and in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing, because you listened to me.” 19Abraham rejoined his young men, and together they got up and traveled to Beersheba, where Abraham made his home.

20Some time later word came to Abraham: “Milcah also has given your brother Nahor sons: 21Uz the firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel.” 23Bethuel was the father of Rebekah. These eight were the sons Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24Nahor also had a secondary wife named Reumah, and she bore him Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.