Genesis 22:9-19

New International Reader's Version

⁹ They reached the place God had shown Abraham. There Abraham built an altar. He arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son Isaac. Abraham placed him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand. He picked up the knife to kill his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven. He said, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” Abraham replied.

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not harm him. Now I know that you would do anything for God. You have not held back from me your son, your only son.”

¹³ Abraham looked around. There in a bush he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram. He sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide. To this day people say, “It will be provided on the mountain of the Lord.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called out to Abraham from heaven a second time. ¹⁶ He said, “I am giving you my word that I will bless you. I will bless you because of what you have done,” announces the Lord. “You have not held back your son, your only son. ¹⁷ So I will certainly bless you. I will make the children born into your family as many as the stars in the sky. I will make them as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. They will take over the cities of their enemies. ¹⁸ All nations on earth will be blessed because of your children. All these things will happen because you have obeyed me.”

¹⁹ Then Abraham returned to his servants. They started out together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.