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Abraham showed that he really trusted God
1 A long time later, God tested Abraham. God wanted to see if Abraham trusted him properly, and if Abraham would do anything God told him to do.
God called out, “Abraham.”
And Abraham said, “Yes, God, I am listening to you.”
2 Then God said, “I know that you love your son Isaac, and he is your only son, but I want you to take him to the country called Moriah, to one of the mountains that I will show you. I want you to kill Isaac for me, and burn his body on a table made of stones, to show me that you respect me.”
3 Abraham listened to God, so the next morning, Abraham chopped up some wood for the fire and tied the wood on to his donkey. Then, he got Isaac and 2 of his work-men, and they all started to go to the place God told him about.
4 They walked for nearly 3 days, then Abraham looked up and saw the place God told him about. It was still a long way ahead of them.
5 Abraham said to his work-men, “I want you to stay here with the donkey. And me and Isaac, we will go over there to show respect to God. After we do that, we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham put the wood on to Isaac’s back for him to carry, and Abraham carried some fire and his knife.
As they walked along,
7 Isaac said, “Dad.”
Abraham said, “Yes, son?”
And Isaac said, “We’ve got the wood, and the fire, but where is the sheep that we are going to burn to show respect to God?”
8 Abraham said, “Son, God will give us the sheep, so that we can show him respect.” And they kept on walking together.
9 Then they got to the place that God told Abraham about, and Abraham piled up some stones to make a table with a flat top, and he put the wood on top of it. Then he tied Isaac’s hands and feet together, and he put him on top of the wood.
10 Then Abraham picked up his sharp knife, and he was just about to kill Isaac,
11 but God’s angel messenger called out to him from heaven. He said, “Abraham, Abraham.”
Abraham stopped, and he said, “Yes?”
12 The angel said, “Don’t kill that boy. Don’t hurt him in any way. Now I know that you respect God so much that you will do anything he tells you to do. You will even kill your only son for God.”
13 Then Abraham looked behind him, and he saw a male sheep with its head stuck in a little tree. He quickly took Isaac off the wood and untied the ropes from him. Then Abraham grabbed that sheep, and he killed it instead of his son, and he burned it on that stone table, to show respect to God.
14 And Abraham called that place, God will give you what you need. Even today, people say, “On God’s mountain, he will give you what you need.”
15 Then God’s angel messenger called out again from heaven to Abraham.
16 He said, “This is what God wants to tell you, Abraham. God says, ‘I am making this really strong promise to you. You can know that I will keep this promise, because I am God. My name is Yahweh. You listened to me, and you were ready to give me your only son.
17 So I will do really good things for you. And I will give you a really big family. You see, lots of people will be born into your son’s family later on, and they will become a really big mob of people. There will be lots and lots of them, just like there are lots of stars in the sky, and lots of little bits of sand at the beaches beside the sea. And when other nations get up to fight against them, your family will win, and they will take the towns from those other nations.
18 And I will use your family to do good things for all the nations in the world. I will do all this because you listened to me, and you did what I told you to do.’ ”
19 Then Abraham and Isaac walked back to the place where Abraham’s work-men were waiting with the donkey, then they all went back to their camp at Beersheba.
Abraham and all his people camped there for a long time.
Abraham heard that his brother Nahor had sons
20 Later on, somebody said to Abraham, “Your brother’s wife Milcah, she had kids too. They are sons for your brother Nahor.
21 The oldest son is called Uz. The next son is called Buz. The next son is called Kemuel, and he has a son called Aram.
22 Milcah’s other sons are called Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaf, and Bethuel.”
23 They were the 8 sons of Milcah, and Abraham’s brother Nahor was their father.
After Nahor’s son Bethuel grew up, he had a daughter called Rebekah.
24 And Nahor had another wife, and she had sons too. That other wife’s name was Rumah, and her sons were Tebar, Gaham, Tahash, and Macah.