Genesis 22-23

Modern English Version

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

² Then He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”

³ So Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place that God had told him. ⁴ Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance. ⁵ Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship and then return to you.”

⁶ So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷ But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!”

And he said, “Here I am, my son.”

Then he said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.

⁹ Then they came to the place that God had told him. So Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

¹² Then He said, “Do not lay your hands on the boy or do anything to him, because now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your only son from Me.”

¹³ Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up as a burnt offering in the place of his son. ¹⁴ Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁵ Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham out of heaven a second time, ¹⁶ and said, “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will indeed bless you and I will indeed multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gate of their enemies. ¹⁸ Through your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

¹⁹ So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. Then Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Sons of Nahor

²⁰ After these things Abraham was told, “Milkah has also borne children to your brother Nahor: ²¹ Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, ²² Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” ²³ Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milkah gave birth to these eight to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. ²⁴ His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maakah.

The Death of Sarah

23 Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. ² Then Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

³ Then Abraham stood up from before his dead and spoke to the Hittites,^[a] saying, ⁴ “I am a stranger and a foreigner among you. Give me property for a burying place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

⁵ So the Hittites answered Abraham, ⁶ “Hear us, my lord. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place that you may bury your dead.”

⁷ Then Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, the Hittites. ⁸ He spoke with them, saying, “If it be your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat Ephron the son of Zohar for me, ⁹ that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns, at the end of his field. Let him give it to me in your presence for the full price for a burial site.”

¹⁰ Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of all the Hittites, all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, ¹¹ “No, my lord. Hear me: I give you the field and the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people. Bury your dead.”

¹² Then Abraham bowed before the people of the land. ¹³ Then he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “Indeed, if you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there.”

¹⁴ Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, ¹⁵ “My lord, listen to me. The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver.^[b] What is that between me and you? So bury your dead.”

¹⁶ Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron four hundred shekels of silver, the price that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, according to the standard commercial measure.

¹⁷ So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field that were within all the surrounding borders were deeded ¹⁸ to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. ¹⁹ After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ So the field and the cave that was in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as property for a burial place.