The majority of Jewish Biblical commentators argue that God was testing Abraham to see if he would actually kill his own son, as a test of his loyalty. Stained glass window depicting an angel stopping Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac Genesis 22:14 states that it occurred at "the mount of the LORD": in 2 Chronicles 3:1 Psalm 24:3 Isaiah 2:3 & 30:29 and Zechariah 8:3, the Bible seems to identify the location of this event as the hill on which Solomon later built the Temple, now known as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to the Book of Genesis Isaac was 13 the Talmudic sages teach that Isaac is thirty-seven, likely based on the next Biblical story, which is of Sarah's death at 127 (she was ninety when Isaac was born). While it is often imagined that Isaac was a young little child upon arrival to the setting of the Altar, some traditional sources claim he was an adult (This is because at 13 in Judaism you are considered an adult and Isaac was 13). Abraham then sacrifices the ram in Isaac's stead. After Isaac is bound to an altar, the angel of God stops Abraham at the last minute, at which point Abraham discovers a ram caught in some nearby bushes. The sacrifice itself is called an Olah in Hebrew - for the significance of sacrifices, especially in Biblical times, see korban.Īccording to the narration, Abraham sets out to obey God's command without questioning.
The narration is referred to as the Akedah (עקדה) or Akedat Yitzchak (עקידת יצחק) in Hebrew and as the Dhabih (ذبح) in Arabic. The Binding of Isaac, in Genesis 22:1-24, is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah.
Abraham Sacrificing Isaac by Laurent de La Hyre, 1650