Bible Strands
Genesis 22:2
“Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks directly to Abraham in the moment immediately after the call-and-response of verse 1. The command is issued before any explanation, before any negotiation.
The words — יְחִידְךָ (yechidkha), "your only [son]," from the root meaning "unique, singular one," is the word that does the emotional and theological work of the verse. Paired with the bare imperative קַח (qach), "take," the command is stripped of every softening.
The thread — The "only Son" language recurs in John 3:16 and Romans 8:32, where the Father's giving of His unique Son becomes the interpretive key to the cross. Hebrews 11:17 returns to the scene itself, calling it a test (pecurah) in which Abraham was "ready to offer" the promised heir.
Why it lands — The verse asks the reader to hold the tension between "whom you love" and "offer him" without resolving it into a neat moral lesson. It is a command to surrender the one thing that is irreplaceable, and the text does not soften that demand.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Cross-references
- John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
- Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son,
- 1 John 4:9 This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
- Genesis 17:19 But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
- Genesis 22:12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”
- Genesis 22:16 saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,
- Judges 11:39 After two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she had never had relations with a man. So it has become a custom in Israel
- 2 Kings 3:27 So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall. And there was great fury against the Israelites, so they withdrew and returned to their own land.
- Genesis 21:12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.