Passage

Genesis 22

Book: Genesis · NASB95

The Akedah - the binding of Isaac. God commands Abraham to offer his "only son, whom you love" as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah; at the last moment a substitute ram is provided. The single most-cited Old Testament narrative for substitutionary atonement, Abraham's faith, and the typology of the Father offering the Son.

Key verses

"He said, 'Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, 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.'" (Genesis 22:2, NASB95)

"Abraham said, 'God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.' So the two of them walked on together." (Genesis 22:8, NASB95)

"Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son." (Genesis 22:13, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"1. And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. 2. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3. And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship, and come again to you. 6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife; and they went both of them together. 7. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold, the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? 8. And Abraham said, God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son: so they went both of them together. 9. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11. And the angel of Jehovah called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here I am. 12. And he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. 14. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of Jehovah it shall be provided. 15. And the angel of Jehovah called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16. and said, By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 17. that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18. and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 19. So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba. 20. And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she also hath borne children unto thy brother Nahor: 21. Uz his first-born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, 22. and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23. And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight did Milcah bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24. And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she also bare Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah." (Genesis 22:1-24, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"1. After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” 2. He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.” 3. Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him. 4. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off. 5. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go yonder. We will worship, and come back to you.” 6. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together. 7. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, “My father?” He said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8. Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together. 9. They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood. 10. Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son. 11. Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” 12. He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13. Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14. Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Will Provide. As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be provided.” 15. Yahweh’s angel called to Abraham a second time out of the sky, 16. and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17. that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies. 18. All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at Beersheba. 20. After these things, Abraham was told, “Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21. Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22. Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23. Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah." (Genesis 22:1-24, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"1. And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. ^{Behold: Heb. Behold me} 2. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 7. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? ^{lamb: or, kid} 8. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 9. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. ^{Jehovahjireh: that is, The Lord will see, or, provide} 15. And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16. And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17. That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; ^{shore: Heb. lip} 18. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 19. So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. 20. And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor; 21. Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, 22. And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23. And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. ^{Rebekah: Gr. Rebecca} 24. And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah." (Genesis 22:1-24, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"1. And it cometh to pass after these things that God hath tried Abraham, and saith unto him, 'Abraham;' and he saith, 'Here [am] I.' 2. And He saith, 'Take, I pray thee, thy son, thine only one, whom thou hast loved, even Isaac, and go for thyself unto the land of Moriah, and cause him to ascend there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains of which I speak unto thee.' 3. And Abraham riseth early in the morning, and saddleth his ass, and taketh two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he cleaveth the wood of the burnt-offering, and riseth and goeth unto the place of which God hath spoken to him. 4. On the third day, Abraham lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the place from afar; 5. and Abraham saith unto his young men, 'Remain by yourselves here with the ass, and I and the youth go yonder and worship, and turn back unto you.' 6. And Abraham taketh the wood of the burnt-offering, and placeth on Isaac his son, and he taketh in his hand the fire, and the knife; and they go on both of them together. 7. And Isaac speaketh unto Abraham his father, and saith, 'My father,' and he saith, 'Here [am] I, my son.' And he saith, 'Lo, the fire and the wood, and where the lamb for a burnt-offering?' 8. and Abraham saith, 'God doth provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son;' and they go on both of them together. 9. And they come in unto the place of which God hath spoken to him, and there Abraham buildeth the altar, and arrangeth the wood, and bindeth Isaac his son, and placeth him upon the altar above the wood; 10. and Abraham putteth forth his hand, and taketh the knife, to slaughter his son. 11. And the messenger of Jehovah calleth unto him from the heavens, and saith, 'Abraham, Abraham;' and he saith, 'Here [am] I;' 12. and He saith, 'Put not forth thine hand unto the youth, nor do anything to him, for now I have known that thou art fearing God, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only one, from Me.' 13. And Abraham lifteth up his eyes, and looketh, and lo, a ram behind, seized in a thicket by its horns; and Abraham goeth, and taketh the ram, and causeth it to ascend for a burnt-offering instead of his son; 14. and Abraham calleth the name of that place 'Jehovah-Jireh,' because it is said this day in the mount, 'Jehovah doth provide.' 15. And the messenger of Jehovah calleth unto Abraham a second time from the heavens, 16. and saith, 'By Myself I have sworn, the affirmation of Jehovah, that because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only one, 17. that blessing I bless thee, and multiplying I multiply thy seed as stars of the heavens, and as sand which [is] on the sea-shore; and thy seed doth possess the gate of his enemies; 18. and blessed themselves in thy seed have all nations of the earth, because that thou hast hearkened to My voice.' 19. And Abraham turneth back unto his young men, and they rise and go together unto Beer-Sheba; and Abraham dwelleth in Beer-Sheba. 20. And it cometh to pass after these things that it is declared to Abraham, saying, 'Lo, Milcah hath borne, even she, sons to Nahor thy brother: 21. Huz his first-born, and Buz his brother; and Kemuel father of Aram, 22. and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel; 23. and Bethuel hath begotten Rebekah;' these eight hath Milcah borne to Nahor, Abraham's brother; 24. and his concubine, whose name [is] Reumah, she also hath borne Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maachah." (Genesis 22:1-24, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: narrator (traditionally Moses) recording God's command, Abraham's responses, and the Angel of the LORD's intervention
Audience: Israel as covenant people, hearing the foundation story of Abrahamic faith
Location: journey from Beersheba to "the land of Moriah" - identified in Jewish and Christian tradition with the temple mount in Jerusalem (compare 2 Chronicles 3.1)
Time period: events c. 1900 BC (traditional) or unspecified patriarchal period (critical); composed in its received form during the Mosaic era

Theological reading

Genesis 22 sits at the climax of the Abraham cycle (chapters 12-25). The first promise (12:1-3) gave Abraham land, descendants, and blessing to the nations; the covenant of chapter 15 ratified it in a smoking-furnace theophany; chapter 17 gave circumcision and the covenant of seed; chapter 21 finally produced Isaac after twenty-five years. Then God commands Abraham to slay him. The chapter functions as the final test of the patriarch, the resolution of which the chapter itself frames as God's discovery: "now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me" (22:12).

The theological move turns on three elements. First, the identity of the victim: Isaac is "your only son, whom you love" - the first occurrence of "love" in Scripture, applied to the father-son bond about to be ruptured. Second, the substitution: the ram caught in the thicket is offered "in place of" Isaac (22:13, tachath), making the chapter the earliest unambiguous statement of substitutionary sacrifice in the canon. Third, the place-name etiology: Abraham names the mountain YHWH yireh - "the LORD will provide" or "the LORD will see" - and the narrator adds that "it shall be provided" on the mount of the LORD "to this day" (22:14), a forward-pointing line the New Testament will pick up.

Christian typological reading (already explicit in Hebrews 11.17-19 and the patristic tradition) takes Genesis 22 as the most concentrated Old Testament prefiguration of the cross: a father offers his only beloved son, who carries the wood up the hill on his own back; the son submits without recorded resistance; a substitute dies in the son's place; and the place is later identified with Jerusalem, where the Father offers the Son. The Jewish reading (the Akedah tradition in Rabbinic literature) emphasizes Isaac as a willing martyr whose merit covers Israel; both traditions converge on the substitutionary structure.

Scholarly debate is most intense on two fronts. (1) Was God commanding human sacrifice? Critical readers point to Canaanite child-sacrifice practice (Carthage, Moloch cult) and argue this is an etiology for its prohibition - God demanded the sacrifice to demonstrate He does not require it. Defenders note that God's prohibition of child sacrifice runs throughout the Pentateuch (Leviticus 18.21, Deuteronomy 12.31), Abraham's response anticipates a substitute ("God will provide for Himself the lamb," 22:8), and the test functions narratively to distinguish YHWH from the surrounding gods, not to align Him with them. See Jesus is Not a Human Sacrifice (Defeater) and Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament for the full treatment. (2) The morality of the test: Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling frames it as the "teleological suspension of the ethical"; defenders argue the suspension is provisional and contained, and that the resolution (substitution) is part of the test's meaning.

Apologetically, Genesis 22 is load-bearing for two distinct projects. It anchors substitutionary atonement as an Old Testament category, not a New Testament invention (see Substitutionary Principle in the OT); and it provides the canonical answer to atheist objections that Christianity glorifies child sacrifice (see Jesus is Not a Human Sacrifice (Defeater)).

Key words

H3173 - yachid, yachid, "only" - the word used three times for Isaac as Abraham's "only son" (22:2, 12, 16); the Septuagint translates it agapetos, "beloved," echoed at Jesus' baptism.
H1254 - bara, bara - not directly used here, but the larger Abrahamic-covenant material draws on creation-language vocabulary.

Theological themes

Substitution. The ram dies "in the place of" (tachath) Isaac; substitutionary structure embedded in patriarchal narrative.
Tested faith. "God tested Abraham" (22:1) - faith as concrete obedience under maximal pressure.
Father-and-son typology. Father loves and offers son; son carries the wood; only the eleventh-hour reprieve breaks the parallel.
Provision and seeing. YHWH yireh doubles "provide" and "see" - God sees the need and provides the substitute.
Promise renewed. The chapter ends with covenant reaffirmation: blessing, multiplication of seed, blessing of all nations - now sworn by God's own name.
Mount Moriah. Tradition identifies the site with the future temple mount; Christian reading extends to Golgotha.

Cross-references

Hebrews 11.17-19 - the New Testament's explicit interpretation: Abraham reasoned God could raise Isaac from the dead.
Genesis 12.1-3 - the founding Abrahamic promise this test ratifies.
Genesis 15.6 - "Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness" - the prior faith now tested in deed.
Romans 4 - Paul's reading of Abraham's faith as the pattern for justification.
John 3.16 - the canonical Father-only-Son pairing; many readers hear Genesis 22:2 behind it.
Isaiah 53 - the suffering servant who is "led like a lamb to the slaughter," substitution made explicit.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.