to send away · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
hand
יָד֔וֹya.Do
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
took
וַיִּקַּ֖חvai.yi.Kach
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
knife
הַֽמַּאֲכֶ֑לֶתha.ma.'a.Khe.let
H3979
something to eat with · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
slay
לִשְׁחֹ֖טlish.Chot
H7819
to slaughter (in sacrifice or massacre) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
son
בְּנֽוֹbe.No
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
James 2:21-23 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Isaiah 53:6-12 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 22:3-10
We have here Abraham's obedience to this severe command. Being tried, he offered up Isaac, Heb 11:17. Observe,
I. The difficulties which he broke through in this act of obedience. Much might have been objected against it; as, 1. It seemed directly against an antecedent law of God, which forbids murder, under a severe penalty, Gen 9:5, Gen 9:6. Now can the unchangeable God contradict himself? He that hates robbery for burnt-offering (Isa 61:8) cannot delight in murder for it. 2. How would it consist with natural affection to his own son? It would be not only murder, but the worst of murders. Cannot Abraham be obedient but he must be unnatural? If God insist upon a human sacrifice, is there no…
Abraham built an altar, &c.--Had not the patriarch been sustained by the full consciousness of acting in obedience to God's will, the effort would have been too great for human endurance; and had not Isaac, then upwards of twenty years of age displayed equal faith in submitting, this great trial could not have gone through.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 22:9
And bound Isaac his son - If the patriarch had not been upheld by the conviction that he was doing the will of God, and had he not felt the most perfect confidence that his son should be restored even from the dead, what agony must his heart have felt at every step of the journey, and through all the circumstances of this extraordinary business? What must his affectionate heart have felt at the questions asked by his innocent and amiable son? What must he have suffered while building the altar, laying on the wood, binding his lovely son, placing him on the wood, taking the knife, and stretching out his hand to slay the child of his hopes? Every view we take of the subject interests the heart…
And Abraham stretched forth his hand,.... All things being ready for execution, the altar built, the wood laid on it, the sacrifice bound and laid on that, nothing remained but to cut the throat of the sacrifice; and in order to that, the instrument for it laying by him, he put forth his hand, one would think in a trembling manner, for it is enough to make one tremble to think of it:
and took the knife to slay his son; with a full intention to do it, which was carrying his obedience to the divine will to the last extremity, and shows he was sincere in it, and really designed to complete it; and this was taken by the Lord as if it was actually done. He had his knife in his hand, and was near…
The Church Fathers
The father's hand stretched out the knife over his son, and the father's heart struck the blow that the sentence might not fail of being carried out; he feared lest the stroke should miss, lest his right hand should fail. He felt the movings of fatherly affection, but did not shrink from the work of submission, and hastened his obedience, even when he heard the voice from heaven.
If someone of us desired to see the story of Abraham portrayed in a picture, how would the painter represent him? Would he do it in a single painting showing him doing all the things mentioned, or in successive pictures and distinctively, or in different images, but most often Abraham himself, for example, in one picture sitting on his donkey taking his son along and followed by his servants? In another one, again, with the donkey staying behind down below along with the servants, and Isaac being burdened with the wood while Abraham holds in his hands the knife and the fire? And, indeed, in a different painting, Abraham again in a different pose after he has bound the youth upon the wood and his right hand is armed with a sword in order that he might start the sacrifice? But this would not be a different Abraham each time, although he is seen most of the time in a different pose. It would be the same man in every instance with the skill of the artist continually disposing him according to the needs of the subject matter. For it would not be likely or at any rate probable that one would see him doing all the actions mentioned in a single painting.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Gerizim — A mountain of Samaria, about 3,000 feet above the Mediterranean. It was on the left of the valley containing the ancient town of Shechem (q.v.), on the way to Jerusalem. It stood over against Mount…
Isaac — Laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes (Amos 7:9, 16). (2.) The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest lived of the three patriarchs (Gen. 21:1-3). He was circumcised when…
Knife — (1.) Heb. hereb, “the waster,” a sharp instrument for circumcision (Josh. 5:2, 3, lit. “knives of flint;” comp. Ex. 4:25); a razor (Ezek. 5:1); a graving tool (Ex. 20:25); an axe (Ezek. 26:9). (2.)…
Sacrifice — The offering up of sacrifices is to be regarded as a divine institution. It did not originate with man. God himself appointed it as the mode in which acceptable worship was to be offered to him by…
Temple, Solomon’s — Before his death David had “with all his might” provided materials in great abundance for the building of the temple on the summit of Mount Moriah (1 Chr. 22:14; 29:4; 2 Chr. 3:1), on the east of the…
Temptation — (1.) Trial; a being put to the test. Thus God “tempted [Gen. 22: 1; R.V., ‘did prove’] Abraham;” and afflictions are said to tempt, i.e., to try, men (James 1:2, 12; comp. Deut. 8:2), putting their…
Burnt Offering, The · Abraham tried by the command to offer Isaac as — Abraham tried by the command to offer Isaac as
Children, Good · Exemplified: Isaac — Exemplified: Isaac
And they came to the place. Moses purposely passes over many things, which, nevertheless, the reader ought to consider. When he has mentioned the building of the altar, he immediately afterwards adds, that Isaac was bound. But we know that he was then of middle age, so that he might either be more powerful than his father, or, at least, equal to resist him, if they had to contend by force; wherefore, I do not think that force was employed against the youth, as against one struggling and unwilling to die: but rather, that he voluntarily surrendered himself. It was, however, scarcely possible that he would offer himself to death, unless he had been already made acquainted with the divine oracl…
Having arrived at the appointed place, Abraham built an altar, arranged the wood upon it, bound his son and laid him upon the wood of the altar, and then stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 22:9-19
God’s intervention was dramatic and instructive, confirming that he never intended for Isaac to be sacrificed. God later made it clear that child sacrifice was an abomination to him (see Lev 18:21; 20:1-5; Deut 18:10; 2 Kgs 16:2-3; Isa 57:5; Jer 32:35). God wanted Abraham to sacrifice his own will and surrender it to God, and when he did, God intervened. This passage sets a pattern for all sacrificial worshipers. Like Abraham, true worshipers of God know that everything belongs to God—it all came from God and must therefore be acknowledged as God’s possession. A true worshiper holds nothing back but obediently gives God what he asks, trusting that God will provide for all needs, and then dis…
ויעקד AND HE BOUND his hands and feet behind him. Hands and feet tied together is what is meant by עקידה “binding”. It is associated in meaning with עקודים in (Genesis 30:35) “[she-goats] that were streaked” — whose ankles were streaked white so that the place where they are bound could be plainly seen.
Self-Denial · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Temptation · A TEST — A TEST
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
