Genesis 22:2

thy son Observe the cumulative force of the successive words, "thy son," "only son," "whom thou lovest," "Isaac," indicating the severity of the test about to be applied to Abraham's faith.

only son Ishmael is here disregarded, as in Genesis 22:12; Genesis 22:16. He is no longer considered one of the true family. The LXX τὸν ἀγαπητόν (Lat. unigenitum) is, however, perhaps due to the thought of Ishmael.

into the land of Moriah Moriah is here the name of a country, containing mountains on one of which Abraham is to offer Isaac. The proper name "Moriah" is found elsewhere only in 2 Chronicles 3:1, "in Mount Moriah," i.e. the hill in Jerusalem, on which was the threshing-floor of Ornan, the Jebusite, where the Angel appeared to David. This was the site of the Temple of Solomon. Obviously the expression, "the land of Moriah," and the reference to the mountains in it, cannot here denote Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a town in the days of the patriarchs (see Genesis 14:18). More probably the Chronicler, in 2 Chronicles 3:1, has recorded the popular tradition of his own time, according to which the scene of the appearance to David and the site of the temple at Jerusalem were identified with the place of Isaac's sacrifice; and the name "Moriah," occurring in this passage of Genesis was therefore popularly, although inaccurately, assigned to the Temple hill.

What "the land of Moriah" was, we can no longer determine. Possibly the word "Moriah" is the Heb. adaptation of some earlier name, which was lost in the transmission of the story. The name Moriah probably contains a play upon the words meaning "to see" and "Jehovah," cf. Genesis 22:14. It provided a puzzle to the versions. Lat. terra visionis, Sym. γῆ ὀπτασίας, Aq. τὴν γῆν τὴν καταφανῆ, LXX τὴν γῆν τὴν ὑψηλήν.

The Syriac Peshitto renders, "the land of the Amorites," with which agrees the conjecture of Dillmann and Ball. Tuch and Bleek conjectured "the land of Moreh," cf. Genesis 12:6; but the Hebron district of "the land of Moreh" would be much too close to Beer-sheba to suit the description in Genesis 22:4. Hence Wellhausen's conjecture "the land of the Hamorites" (i.e. Shechem: cf. Genesis 34 and Judges 9:28). Probably the name is irrecoverable by conjecture. Rabbinic interpretations called it "the place of fear," or "of worship." Joseph. Ant. i. § 13, τὸ Μόριον ὅρος.

for a burnt offering A whole burnt-offering, viz. an offering of complete dedication to God. It was wholly consumed in the fire, as distinct from an offering in which the offerers themselves participated: see note on Genesis 8:20. It was a propitiatory offering: cf. Leviticus 1:4.