Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac (Hebrew: עֲקֵידַת יִצְחַק), also known as The Binding (הָעֲקֵידָה) and the Akedah or Aqedah, is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Moriah. The account states that Abraham “bound Isaac, his son” before placing him on the altar.

According to the Hebrew Bible, God commands Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice (Genesis 22:2-8). After Isaac is bound to an altar, the angel of God stops Abraham at the last minute, saying “now I know you fear God.” At this point, Abraham sees a ram caught in some nearby bushes and sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac.

The Book of Genesis does not tell the age of Isaac at the time. The Talmudic sages teach that Isaac was thirty-seven, likely based on the next biblical story, which is of Sarah’s death at 127 (Genesis 23:1), being 90 when Isaac was born (Genesis 17:17, 21).

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Author: Wikipedia

Keywords: Binding of Isaac, Isaac, Abraham Isaac, Abraham sacrifices Isaac, Abraham sacrifices his son, Abraham told to kill Isaac, Slay Isaac, Akedah, Aqedah, Child sacrifice, Infanticide, human sacrifice

Bible reference(s): Genesis 22:2-8

Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Binding of Isaac,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.