₁Some time later God tested Abraham; he called to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham answered, “Yes, here I am!”

₂“Take your son,” God said, “your only son, Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah. There on a mountain that I will show you, offer him as a sacrifice to me.”

₃Early the next morning Abraham cut some wood for the sacrifice, loaded his donkey, and took Isaac and two servants with him. They started out for the place that God had told him about. ₄On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance. ₅Then he said to the servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship, and then we will come back to you.”

₆Abraham made Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice, and he himself carried a knife and live coals for starting the fire. As they walked along together, ₇Isaac said, “Father!”

He answered, “Yes, my son?”

Isaac asked, “I see that you have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?”

₈Abraham answered, “God himself will provide one.” And the two of them walked on together.

₉When they came to the place which God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood. ₁₀Then he picked up the knife to kill him. ₁₁But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He answered, “Yes, here I am.”

₁₂“Don't hurt the boy or do anything to him,” he said. “Now I know that you honour and obey God, because you have not kept back your only son from him.”

₁₃Abraham looked round and saw a ram caught in a bush by its horns. He went and got it and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ₁₄Abraham named that place “The LORD Provides”. And even today people say, “On the LORD's mountain he provides.”