Abraham’s Family · c. 2050–2029 BC
Chapter 6
On the Mountain
Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together.
For parents
This chapter tells how God tested Abraham by telling him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham ties Isaac up, lays him on the altar and takes the knife before the angel of the Lord stops him (Genesis 22:1–13). It is told plainly, without detail. Sarah’s death and burial follow (23:1–20).
Some time later, God tested . “Abraham!” he called.
“Here I am,” Abraham answered.
God told him, “Take your son, your only son, , whom you love, and go into the land of . Offer him there as a on one of the mountains. I’ll tell you which one.”
Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants with him, and his son Isaac. He split wood for the burnt offering. Then he set off for the place God had told him about.
On the third day Abraham looked up, and far off he saw the place. He said to the young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there. We will worship, and come back to you.”
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering. He laid it on his son Isaac, and he carried the fire and the knife himself. And the two of them walked on together.
Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?”
“Here I am, my son,” he answered.
“Here is the fire and the wood,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
“God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham said. And the two of them walked on together.
They came to the place God had told him about, and there Abraham built an and laid the wood out on it. He tied up his son Isaac, and he laid him on the altar, on the wood. Then Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.
But from the sky called out, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” Abraham answered.
“Don’t lay a hand on the boy,” the angel said. “Don’t do anything to him. I know now that you , since you have not held back your son, your only son, from me.”
Abraham looked up, and there behind him was a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. He went and got the ram. Instead of his son, he offered the ram as a burnt offering.
Abraham named that place “.” And people still say, “On the ’s mountain it will be provided.”
Then the angel of the Lord called out to Abraham from the sky a second time. “The Lord says, ‘I swear by myself: because you have done this and have not held back your son, your only son, I will bless you richly. I will make your as many as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your offspring will take over the city gates of his enemies. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through your offspring, because you have obeyed me.’”
Abraham went back to his servants, and they went to together. Abraham lived in Beersheba.
Some time later Abraham was told, “ has had children too, with your brother .” She had eight children. The oldest was Uz, and one of the others was . Bethuel became the father of . Nahor’s Reumah also had four children.
lived 127 years. She died at Kiriath Arba, also called , in the land of . Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
Then Abraham got up from beside Sarah’s body and spoke to the . “I am a foreigner living among you,” he said. “Let me have a piece of land here for a grave, so that I can bury my dead.”
“My lord, listen to us,” the Hittites answered Abraham. “You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. Any one of us would give you his own tomb to bury your dead.”
Abraham stood up and bowed low to the Hittites, the people of that land. “If you agree to let me bury my dead here,” he said, “then listen to me. Please speak to son of Zohar for me. Ask him to sell me his cave, the cave of , at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me for the full price, here in front of you, as a place to bury my dead.”
Ephron the Hittite was sitting there among his people. He answered Abraham so that all the Hittites who came to the city gate could hear. “No, my lord, listen. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In front of my people, I give it to you. Bury your dead.”
Once again Abraham bowed low before the people of the land. Then he said to Ephron, in front of them all, “Please, listen to me. I will pay for the field. Take my payment, so that I can bury my dead there.”
Ephron answered Abraham, “My lord, listen to me. This land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. But to you and me, what does that matter? Go ahead and bury your dead.”
Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price. He weighed out the silver for him, the amount Ephron had named in front of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, almost nine pounds, by the weights the merchants used.
So Ephron’s field at Machpelah, near , became Abraham’s: the field, the cave in it, and every tree inside its borders. It was done in front of all the Hittites who came to the city gate.
After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah there, in the cave in the field at Machpelah. It is near Mamre, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. So the Hittites handed the field and its cave over to Abraham, to be his own burial place.