God Commands Abraham to Offer Isaac

22 ^(A)Some time later God tested Abraham; he called to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham answered, “Yes, here I am!”

^2 (B)“Take your son,” God said, “your only son, Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah. There on a mountain that I will show you, offer him as a sacrifice to me.”

^9 (A)When they came to the place which God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood.

¹⁰ Then he picked up the knife to kill him. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He answered, “Yes, here I am.”

¹² “Don't hurt the boy or do anything to him,” he said. “Now I know that you honor and obey God, because you have not kept back your only son from him.”

¹³ Abraham looked around and saw a ram caught in a bush by its horns. He went and got it and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time, ^16 (A)“I make a vow by my own name—the Lord is speaking—that I will richly bless you. Because you did this and did not keep back your only son from me, ^17 (B)I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore. Your descendants will conquer their enemies. ^18 (C)All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants—all because you obeyed my command.”