Chapter Overview
AbramHam gets told by god that he’s gotta sacrifice his new kid. Being the good father that he is, AbramHam goes along with it without trying to haggle at all. Just before killing Isaac, AbramHam is stopped by an Angel who then ends up getting a ram stuck in a bush.
Additional Notes
The conventional notion of this episode is a test of extreme faith in god. A quick look at Leviticus 18:21, 20:2-5, Deuteronomy 18:10, II Kings 16:3, 21:6, and more will show that child sacrifice was common in some neighboring cultures. The real point of the story is to show that this god doesn’t want human sacrifices, in fact, he actively spurns such sacrifices. AbramHam merely gets the Stupid Father of the Millennium award for his behaviour here.
Chapter 22: Child Abuse Excuse
- And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
- 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.
- And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
- Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
- And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
- And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
- 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?
- And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
- And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
- And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
- And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
- And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
- And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
- And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
- And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
- And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
- That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
- And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
- So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
- And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;
- Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
- And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
- And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
- And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.
- It’s god who is tempting people now? This lends credence to Adam and Eve being kicked out the garden being a set up.
- Interestingly, AbramHam, who was willing to talk down a genocidal god from outright destroying a city to only destroying a city if he couldn’t find at least 10 righteous people here, says nothing.
- Gotta get a move on, sacrificing is best if we leave early.
- That’s quite a trip. Hopefully he packed enough food and water.
- I wonder if these young men weren’t part of the faith.
- Why didn’t they just take one of the donkeys? Does god require you carry your wood for a certain distance?
- At least he’s smart enough to ask some questions. I wonder how old he would have been.
- And this is why we get the strong narrative to trust god rather than god abhorring human sacrifices
- Sounds like this is escalating quickly
- Father of the year award right there.
- Who could have seen that coming.
- So… was this thing all set up by an angel and god had nothing to do with it? Is this entire thing just a deception of an angel who tricked AbramHam?
- And the angel provides. Oh wait, that was supposed to be the lord….
Does Isaac need to go through some therapy to recover from this experience? - Presumably this means something. We get nothing in english.
- What if AbramHam doesn’t answer the phone?
- The angel and god are playing a game of telephone here. I can only imagine god saying “And I swear upon myself that….”
- This is the 3rd tale that mentions this. I suspect that there are at least 3 different authors who wrote genesis and each of these are from different authors.
- Obey the voice in the sky because otherwise… you don’t get asked to kill your son?
- I wonder if this author would have a different age for AbramHam
- Bah, genealogies starting up again. Also… who is telling this to AbramHam? I thought it was Sarah at first, but there is no mention of who this is.
- 3 kiddos
- 5 kiddos
- Why is Bethuel mentioned here at all?
- Do these 4 kids count if they’re from a concubine then? Does this mean having a concubine is allowed for Christians?