Genesis 22:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 22:7
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?
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Abraham
אַבְרָהָ֤ם'av.ra.Ham
H85
Abraham · proper noun, a man's name
father
אָבִיו֙'a.Viv
H1
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
said
וַיֹּ֣אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
father
אָבִ֔י'a.Vi
H1
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
said
וַיֹּ֖אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
son
בְנִ֑יve.Ni
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
said
וַיֹּ֗אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fire
הָאֵשׁ֙ha.'Esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
wood
וְהָ֣עֵצִ֔יםve.Ha.'e.Tzim
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
lamb
הַשֶּׂ֖הha.Seh
H7716
a member of a flock · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
offering
לְעֹלָֽהle.'o.Lah
H5930
a step or (collectively · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Genesis 4:2-4 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Genesis 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Exodus 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to…
Matthew 26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: neverthel…
Matthew 26:42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be d…
John 18:11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
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…
on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, &c.--Leaving the servants at the foot [Gen 22:5], the father and son ascended the hill, the one bearing the knife, and the other the wood for consuming the sacrifice [Gen 22:6]. But there was no victim; and to the question so naturally put by Isaac [Gen 22:7], Abraham contented himself by replying, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." It has been supposed that the design of this extraordinary transaction was to show him, by action instead of words, the way in which all the families of the earth should be blessed; and that in his answer to Isaac, he anticipated some substitution. It is more likely that his words were spok…
Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb - Nothing can be conceived more tender, affectionate, and affecting, than the question of the son and the reply of the father on this occasion. A paraphrase would spoil it; nothing can be added without injuring those expressions of affectionate submission on the one hand, and dignified tenderness and simplicity on the other.
John Gill on Genesis 22:7
The Church Fathers
In two things then was Abraham victorious: that he killed his son although he did not kill him and that he believed that after Isaac died he would be raised up again and would go back down with him. For Abraham was firmly convinced that he who said to him, "through Isaac shall your descendants be named," was not lying.
What after these things? "Isaac said," it says, "to Abraham his father: Father." And this too, uttered by the son at that moment, is a voice of temptation. For how do you think the son, about to be immolated, shook the father's heart by this voice? And although Abraham was rather rigid for faith's sake, yet he too returns the voice of affection and answered: "what is it, son?" And the other: "behold," he says, "the fire and the wood, where is the sheep for the burnt offering?"
Therefore he brings his well-beloved son to be sacrificed, and offered promptly him whom he had received late; nor is he restrained by being called by the name of father, when his son called him "Father," and he replied, "My son." Dear pledges of love are these names, but the commands of God are loved still more. And so although their hearts felt for each other, their purpose remained firm. 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. Let us then set God before all those whom we love, father, brother, mother, that He may preserve for us those whom we love, as in the case of Abraham we behold rather the liberal Rewarder than the servant.
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
Burnt offering — Hebrew olah; i.e., “ascending,” the whole being consumed by fire, and regarded as ascending to God while being consumed. Part of every offering was burnt in the sacred fire, but this was wholly…
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…
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
Courage · .In offering — .In offering
Isaac · .Offered in sacrifice by his father — .Offered in sacrifice by his father
Lamb, The · Offered in sacrifice: From the earliest times
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father,.... As they were walking together:
and said, my father; a cutting word to Abraham, who knew what he was going to do with him, so contrary to the relation and affection of a parent:
and he said, here am I, my son; what hast thou to say to me? I am ready to answer thee; he owns the relation he stood in unto him, a sense of which he had not put off, and curbs his affections, which must be inwardly moving towards him, and showed great strength of faith to grapple with such a trying exercise:
and he said, behold the fire and the wood; the fire which his father had his hand, and the wood which was upon his own, shoulders:
but where is the lamb for a bur…
My father. God produces here a new instrument of torture, by which he may, more and more, torment the breast of Abraham, already pierced with so many wounds. And it is not to be doubted, that God designedly both framed the tongue of Isaac to this tender appellation, and directed it to this question, in order that nothing might be wanting to the extreme severity of Abraham's grief. Yet the holy man sustains even this attack with invincible courage; and is so far from being disturbed in his proposed course, that he shows himself to be entirely devoted to God, hearkening to nothing which should either shake his confidence, or hinder his obedience. But it is important to notice the manner in whi…
When in sight of the distant mountain, Abraham left the servants behind with the ass, that he might perform the last and hardest part of the journey alone with Isaac, and, as he said to the servants, "worship yonder and then return." The servants were not to see what would take place there; for they could not understand this "worship," and the issue even to him, notwithstanding his saying "we will come again to you," was still involved in the deepest obscurity. This last part of the journey is circumstantially described in Gen 22:6-8, to show how strong a conflict every step produced in the paternal heart of the patriarch. They go both together, he with the fire and the knife in his hand, an…
In response to Isaac’s question, Abraham again showed his faith in the Lord, saying God will provide, although he was not sure how. This theme is central to the entire narrative.
Rashi on Genesis 22:6
המאכלת — means a knife. It is called מאכלת from אכל to eat, because it devours the meat, — just as you say, (Deuteronomy 32:42 “And my sword shall devour (תאכל) flesh”— or because it makes animal flesh fit for eating (מאכלת) (by killing the animal; because while the animal is living its flesh is unfit for eating). Another explanation: זאת נקראת This knife is called מאכלת (and the term is never used of an ordinary knife) because Israel still eats of the reward given for it (Genesis Rabbah 56:3).
וילכו שניהם יחדיו AND THEY WENT BOTH OF THEM TOGETHER — Abraham who was aware that he was going to slay his son walked along with the same willingness and joy as Isaac who had no idea of the matter.
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).
