The Sacrifice of Isaac

22 After these things God tested Abraham^(A) and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

² “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love,^(B) go to the land of Moriah,^(C) and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

³ So Abraham got up early in the morning,^(D) saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day^(E) Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” ⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac.^(F) In his hand he took the fire and the knife,^(G) and the two of them walked on together.

⁷ Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.”

And he replied, “Here I am, my son.”

Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself will provide^[a](H) the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.

⁹ When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac^[b] and placed him on the altar^(I) on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.

¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He replied, “Here I am.”

¹² Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”^{(J) 13} Abraham looked up and saw a ram^[c] caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide,^[d] so today it is said, “It will be provided^[e] on the Lord’s mountain.”

¹⁵ Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶ and said, “By myself I have sworn,”^(K) this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, ¹⁷ I will indeed bless you^(L) and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky^(M) and the sand on the seashore.^(N) Your offspring will possess the city gates of their^[f] enemies.^{(O) 18} And all the nations of the earth will be blessed^[g] by your offspring^(P) because you have obeyed my command.”

A Wife for Isaac

24 Abraham was now old, getting on in years,^[a](A) and the Lord had blessed him in everything. ² Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his household who managed all he owned, “Place your hand under my thigh,^{(B) 3} and I will have you swear by the Lord, God of heaven and God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live,^{(C) 4} but will go to my land and my family to take a wife for my son Isaac.”

¹⁰ The servant took ten of his master’s camels, and with all kinds of his master’s goods in hand, he went to Aram-naharaim, to Nahor’s town. ¹¹ At evening, the time when women went out to draw water, he made the camels kneel beside a well outside the town.

¹² “Lord, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “make this happen for me today,^(A) and show kindness to my master Abraham. ¹³ I am standing here^(B) at the spring where the daughters of the men of the town are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴ Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your water jug so that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also’—let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”

¹⁵ Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah—daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah,^(C) the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor—coming with a jug on her shoulder. ¹⁶ Now the girl was very beautiful,^(D) a virgin—no man had been intimate with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up. ¹⁷ Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me have a little water from your jug.”

¹⁸ She replied, “Drink, my lord.” She quickly lowered her jug to her hand and gave him a drink. ¹⁹ When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I’ll also draw water for your camels until they have had enough to drink.”^{[a] 20} She quickly emptied her jug into the trough and hurried to the well again to draw water. She drew water for all his camels ²¹ while the man silently watched her to see whether or not the Lord had made his journey a success.

²² As the camels finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing half a shekel, and for her wrists two bracelets weighing ten shekels of gold. ²³ “Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

²⁴ She answered him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” ²⁵ She also said to him, “We have plenty of straw and feed and a place to spend the night.”

²⁶ Then the man knelt low, worshiped the Lord,^{(E) 27} and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld his kindness and faithfulness from my master.^(F) As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

²⁸ The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things. ²⁹ Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban,^(G) and Laban ran out to the man at the spring. ³⁰ As soon as he had seen the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he had heard his sister Rebekah’s words—“The man said this to me!”—he went to the man. He was standing there by the camels at the spring.

⁵⁸ They called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”

She replied, “I will go.” ⁵⁹ So they sent away their sister Rebekah with the one who had nursed and raised her,^[a](A) and Abraham’s servant and his men.

⁶⁰ They blessed Rebekah, saying to her:

⁶¹ Then Rebekah and her female servants got up, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.

⁶² Now Isaac was returning from Beer-lahai-roi,^[c](D) for he was living in the Negev region. ⁶³ In the early evening Isaac went out to walk^[d] in the field, and looking up he saw camels coming. ⁶⁴ Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she got down from her camel ⁶⁵ and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

The servant answered, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. ⁶⁶ Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.

⁶⁷ And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah to be his wife. Isaac loved her, and he was comforted after his mother’s death.^(E)

The Promise Reaffirmed to Isaac

26 There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time.^(A) And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.^{(B) 2} The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about; ³ stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you.^(C) For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring,^(D) and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.^{(E) 4} I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed^[a] by your offspring,^{(F) 5} because Abraham listened to me and kept my mandate, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.”^(G)

The Lord Appears to Isaac

²³ From there he went up to Beer-sheba, ²⁴ and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham.^(A) Do not be afraid, for I am with you.^(B) I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of my servant Abraham.”

²⁵ So he built an altar there,^(C) called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s servants also dug a well there.^(D)