Genesis 22 - Easy To Read Version

¹ After those things, God decided to test Abraham’s faith. God said to him, “Abraham!”

² Then God said, “Take your son to the land of Moriah. At Moriah kill your son as a sacrifice [118] for me. This must be Isaac, your only son—the son you love. Use him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which mountain.”

³ In the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. Abraham took Isaac and two servants with him. Abraham cut the wood for the sacrifice. [119] Then they went to the place God told them to go.

⁴ After they traveled three days, Abraham looked up and in the distance, he saw the place they were going to.

⁵ Then Abraham said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey. I will take my son and go to that place and worship. Then we will come back to you later.”

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the sacrifice [120] and put it on his son’s {shoulder}. Abraham took the special knife and fire. Then both Abraham and his son went together to the place for worship.

⁷ Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself is providing the lamb for the sacrifice, [122] my son.”

⁹ They came to the place where God told them to go. There, Abraham built an altar. [123] Abraham laid the wood on the altar. Then Abraham tied his son Isaac. Abraham laid Isaac on the altar on the wood.

¹⁰ Then Abraham took his knife and prepared to kill his son.

¹¹ But then the Angel of the Lord stopped Abraham. The angel called from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

¹² The angel said, “Don’t kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you do respect and obey God. I see that you are ready to kill your son, your only son, for me.”

¹³ Then Abraham saw a ram. The ram’s horns were caught in a bush. So Abraham went and got the ram and killed it. Abraham used the ram as a sacrifice [124] to God. Abraham’s son was saved.

¹⁴ So Abraham gave that place a name, “YAHWEH YIREH.” [125] Even today people say, “On this mountain, the Lord can be seen.”

¹⁵ The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time.

¹⁶ The angel said, “You were ready to kill your son for me. This was your only son. Because you did this for me, I make you this promise: I, the Lord, promise that

¹⁷ I will truly bless you. I will give you many, many descendants, [126] as many as the stars in the sky. There will be as many people as sand on the seashore. And your people will live in cities that they take from their enemies.

¹⁸ Every nation on the earth will be blessed through your descendants. [127] I will do this because you obeyed me.”

¹⁹ Then Abraham went back to his servants. They all traveled back to Beersheba and Abraham stayed there.

²⁰ After all these things happened, a message was sent to Abraham. The message said, “Your brother Nahor and his wife Milcah have children now.

²¹ The first son is Uz. The second son is Buz. The third son is Kemuel, the father of Aram.

²² Then there are Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.”

²³ Bethuel was the father of Rebekah. Milcah was the mother of these eight sons, and Nahor was the father. Nahor was Abraham’s brother.

²⁴ Also Nahor had four other sons from his woman servant [128] Reumah. The sons were Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.