¹ It happened some time later that God put Abraham to the test. 'Abraham, Abraham!' he called. 'Here I am,' he replied.

² God said, 'Take your son, your only son, your beloved Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, where you are to offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall point out to you.'

³ Early next morning Abraham saddled his donkey and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. He chopped wood for the burnt offering and started on his journey to the place which God had indicated to him.

⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

⁵ Then Abraham said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there; we shall worship and then come back to you.'

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, loaded it on Isaac, and carried in his own hands the fire and the knife. Then the two of them set out together.

⁷ Isaac spoke to his father Abraham. 'Father?' he said. 'Yes, my son,' he replied. 'Look,' he said, 'here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?'

⁸ Abraham replied, 'My son, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.' And the two of them went on together.

⁹ When they arrived at the place which God had indicated to him, Abraham built an altar there, and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son and put him on the altar on top of the wood.

¹⁰ Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

¹¹ But the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven. 'Abraham, Abraham!' he said. 'Here I am,' he replied.

¹² 'Do not raise your hand against the boy,' the angel said. 'Do not harm him, for now I know you fear God. You have not refused me your own beloved son.'

¹³ Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

¹⁴ Abraham called this place 'Yahweh provides', and hence the saying today: 'On the mountain Yahweh provides.'

¹⁵ The angel of Yahweh called Abraham a second time from heaven.

¹⁶ 'I swear by my own self, Yahweh declares, that because you have done this, because you have not refused me your own beloved son,

¹⁷ I will shower blessings on you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will gain possession of the gates of their enemies.

¹⁸ All nations on earth will bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed my command.'

¹⁹ Abraham went back to his servants, and together they set out for Beersheba, and Abraham settled in Beersheba.

²⁰ It happened some time later that Abraham received word that Milcah, too, had now borne sons to his brother Nahor:

²¹ Uz his first-born, Buz his brother, Kemuel father of Aram,

²² Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, Bethuel

²³ (and Bethuel was the father of Rebekah). These were the eight children Milcah gave Nahor, Abraham's brother.

²⁴ He had a concubine named Reumah, and she too had children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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