Genesis 22

The Lord Will Provide

God tests Abraham by asking for Isaac, the son of every promise. Abraham goes without a word, tells his son that God will provide the lamb, and on the mountain the Lord provides a ram in Isaac’s place and swears to bless all nations through Abraham’s seed.

Genesis chaptersChapter 22 of 50

Abraham’s old age, while he lived at Beer-sheba (21:33; 22:19). The text gives no year. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

The offering of Isaac is one of the last trials of Abraham’s life, and perhaps the greatest.

The offering of Isaac is one of the last trials of Abraham’s life, and perhaps the greatest. The Lord promised him a great nation when he was seventy-five (Gen. 12:2–4); Isaac was born when he was a hundred (Gen. 21:5); and when Ishmael was sent away, God told him, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Gen. 21:12). Now God asks for Isaac. The story is known as the “binding of Isaac,” or the Akedah; in verse 9 Abraham “bound Isaac his son” (Hebrew ‘aqad, “bind”).

Later scripture returns to this chapter often. Hebrews counts it as faith (Heb. 11:17–19) and James as faith made perfect by works (James 2:21–23). Latter-day revelation says that it “was accounted unto him for righteousness” (D&C 132:36), and makes Abraham the pattern for the trials of the Saints (D&C 101:4–5). Jacob, in the Book of Mormon, gives the Church’s reading of what it meant: the offering of Isaac is “a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5).

The chapter has five parts: the command (verses 1–2), the journey (3–8), the altar and the ram (9–14), the oath (15–19), and news from Nahor’s family that introduces Rebekah (20–24).

The thread through the chapter

Genesis 22 turns on one Hebrew verb, ra’ah, “see,” which can also mean “see to, provide.”

Genesis 22 turns on one Hebrew verb, ra’ah, “see,” which can also mean “see to, provide.” On the third day Abraham “lifted up his eyes, and saw the place” (verse 4). When Isaac asks where the lamb is, Abraham answers that God “will provide” it, literally that God “will see for himself the lamb” (verse 8). At the altar Abraham again “lifted up his eyes, and looked,” and there was the ram (verse 13). He names the place Jehovah-jireh, “the LORD will see,” and the saying grew up, “In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen” (verse 14). What Abraham could not see when he set out, God saw to.

Abraham’s own word through the chapter is “Here am I” (Hebrew hinneni). He says it to God when the test begins (verse 1), to Isaac when the son asks about the lamb (verse 7), and to the angel who stops his hand (verse 11). He stands between the God who asks for his son and the son who trusts him, and he answers both the same way.

The test ends with the promise renewed and formally confirmed. God confirms it with an oath, swearing by Himself (verse 16) that Abraham’s seed will bless all the nations of the earth (verse 18). And the Book of Mormon says what the story means: a father who did not withhold his only son is “a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–2

The command

In plain words

Some time after these events God tested Abraham. He called, “Abraham!” and Abraham answered, “Here I am.” God said, “Take your son, 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 that I will show you.”

1 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.

Language #

To tempt is to test

God tested Abraham; He did not entice him to do wrong. The Hebrew verb, nissah, means to “test, try, prove,” and where it is translated “tempt,” it is “not in modern sense of the word.”

God tested Abraham; He did not entice him to do wrong. The Hebrew verb, nissah, means to “test, try, prove,” and where it is translated “tempt,” it is “not in modern sense of the word.” The English word once carried that meaning too. Beside “To incite or solicit to an evil act,” tempt in 1828 still had a separate sense: “In Scripture, to try; to prove; to put to trial for proof. God did tempt Abraham.”

A careful reader is right to stop here, because James says that God “cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” (James 1:13). Joseph Smith’s revision of the Bible answers the question the same way the Hebrew does. In his first manuscript of Genesis the verse reads “God did try Abraham,” and the revised manuscript keeps that reading. The rest of scripture uses the same word for this event. Hebrews says Abraham offered Isaac “when he was tried” (Greek peirazomenos, “being tested”), and the Lord told the Saints who had been driven from their homes in Jackson County, Missouri, that they too “must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son” (D&C 101:4).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828. Old Testament Revision 1, The Joseph Smith Papers. Old Testament Revision 2, The Joseph Smith Papers. The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010; read in the interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 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.

Language #

Only son, though Ishmael lived

Isaac was not Abraham’s only child, but he was the only son of the promise.

Isaac was not Abraham’s only child, but he was the only son of the promise. Ishmael was alive (chapter 21), yet God had told Abraham, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Gen. 21:12). Hebrews explains the phrase by that promise: “he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Heb. 11:17–18).

The Hebrew word is yachid, “only one,” used “especially of an only son.” It comes back in verses 12 and 16, and elsewhere it is used of mourning “for an only son” (Amos 8:10; Jer. 6:26; Zech. 12:10). The command builds up word by word: thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest.

Greek writers put the word in two ways. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, reads “thy son, the beloved one, whom thou hast loved.” Hebrews instead calls Isaac Abraham’s monogenēs, his “only begotten.” Monogenēs is the word John uses when God “gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16), and “Only Begotten” is the title Jacob gives the Son when he calls Abraham’s offering “a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010; read in the interlinear on Bible Hub.

Context #

Where was Moriah?

No one knows for certain where Moriah was. The name occurs in only one other place in the Bible: Solomon built the temple “at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared…

No one knows for certain where Moriah was. The name occurs in only one other place in the Bible: Solomon built the temple “at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father” (2 Chr. 3:1). Chronicles does not mention Abraham. Identifying the two places is “a tradition first recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus,” who says of Isaac’s mountain, “It was that mountain upon which King David afterwards built the temple.” The Septuagint does not have a place name at all; it sends Abraham “into the high land.”

The Church’s manuals follow the tradition and draw out its meaning. Moriah “tradition holds was the temple mount in Jerusalem,” so that Abraham performed the similitude “in the same area in which the Father would make the sacrifice of His Son.” Not every Latter-day Saint scholar accepts the location: Jerusalem “was a fortified city in Abraham’s day… and stood at the top of the hill. It is unlikely that Moriah was at Jerusalem.” The text itself says only that the place was a three days’ journey from where Abraham lived at Beer-sheba (Gen. 22:4; Gen. 22:19).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Moriah”, Bible Dictionary. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Trans. William Whiston; online at penelope.uchicago.edu. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Genesis 18–23, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Genesis 18–23: Abraham—A Model of Faith and Righteousness, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003). John Gee, “The Wanderings of Abraham”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 251–78.

Context #

Why would God ask for a human sacrifice?

God asked Abraham for a human sacrifice, which His own law forbids, and scripture states the contradiction without explaining it away.

God asked Abraham for a human sacrifice, which His own law forbids, and scripture states the contradiction without explaining it away. A burnt offering (‘olah, “that which goes up”) was burned whole on the altar. It “got its Hebrew name from the idea of the smoke of the sacrifice ascending to heaven.” God was asking Abraham to give Isaac up entirely.

The Restoration makes the question sharper. Abraham had nearly died on an altar himself. In the land of the Chaldeans his fathers were offering “their children unto these dumb idols,” and the priests “laid violence upon me, that they might slay me,” until the Lord “unloosed my bands” and said, “my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee” (Abr. 1:7–16). Later scripture condemns child sacrifice as something the Lord “commanded them not, neither came it into my heart” (Jer. 7:31). Human sacrifice “was known elsewhere in the ancient world… but was rejected by later biblical authors.” So the test went beyond Abraham’s love for Isaac to “the question of the integrity of God”: Abraham “knew that the law of God forbids human sacrifice or murder of any sort,” and the command seemed to end the very line through which God had promised to keep His covenant.

Latter-day revelation states the contradiction plainly: “Abraham was commanded to offer his son Isaac; nevertheless, it was written: Thou shalt not kill. Abraham, however, did not refuse, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness” (D&C 132:36). The end of the story settles the question for this case: God stopped the knife.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. “Sacrifices”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. John Gee, “The Wanderings of Abraham”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 251–78. Genesis 18–23: Abraham—A Model of Faith and Righteousness, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003).

Verses 3–8

The journey to Moriah

In plain words

Abraham got up early, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split the wood for the offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day he looked up and saw it in the distance. He told the young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship, and we will come back to you.”

Abraham put the wood on Isaac and carried the fire and the knife himself, and the two of them walked on together. Isaac said, “My father!” “Here I am, my son.” “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God will provide the lamb for the offering Himself, my son.” And the two of them walked on together.

3 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.

4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

5 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.

Language #

Both of them will come back

Abraham tells his servants that both of them will return. The Hebrew verbs are plural: “we will worship, and we will come back to you” (venishtachaveh venashuvah).

Abraham tells his servants that both of them will return. The Hebrew verbs are plural: “we will worship, and we will come back to you” (venishtachaveh venashuvah). Genesis does not say what Abraham was thinking, but Hebrews gives an answer. Abraham had received the promise that his seed would come through Isaac, and he offered Isaac anyway, “accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure” (Heb. 11:19).

6 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.

Context #

How old was Isaac?

Genesis does not give Isaac’s age, but he was no small child. He carried the wood for a burnt offering up the mountain, and the Hebrew word translated “the lad” (na‘ar) is the…

Genesis does not give Isaac’s age, but he was no small child. He carried the wood for a burnt offering up the mountain, and the Hebrew word translated “the lad” (na‘ar) is the same word the KJV translates “young men” for Abraham’s servants in verses 3 and 5. Counting from the next chapter, Isaac was 37 when Sarah died at 127 (Gen. 17:17; Gen. 23:1), so “Isaac could have been in his thirties, as was the Savior at the time of His Crucifixion,” though “Isaac’s exact age is not really important.” Josephus says plainly, “Now Isaac was twenty-five years old.” Neither number is in the text.

What matters is what his strength implies. A young man who could carry that load “was likely strong enough to overpower his aged father if he had not wanted to be sacrificed.” Genesis records no protest at all. Events in the account “suggest he was an adult—and a willing participant.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Genesis 18–23: Abraham—A Model of Faith and Righteousness, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003). Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Trans. William Whiston; online at penelope.uchicago.edu. Scripture Central, “How Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac Illuminates the Atonement”, KnoWhy #412. Genesis 18–23, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).

7 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?

8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Witness of Christ #

God will see to the lamb

Abraham’s answer to Isaac says more than it first seems to. In Hebrew it is Elohim yir’eh-lo hasseh, literally “God will see for himself the lamb.”

Abraham’s answer to Isaac says more than it first seems to. In Hebrew it is Elohim yir’eh-lo hasseh, literally “God will see for himself the lamb.” The verb ra’ah, “see,” here means “provide, furnish,” much as English speaks of seeing to something. It is the verb that runs through the whole chapter (see the thread above).

The answer comes true on the mountain, though what Abraham finds there is a ram (ayil, verse 13), not the lamb (seh) he spoke of. The likeness to the Savior is in that promise: as God would provide a lamb, “Jesus was the Lamb offered up for us.” John the Baptist names Him: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Genesis 18–23, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 9–14

The altar and the ram

In plain words

When they reached the place God had named, Abraham built an altar there, arranged the wood, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then he reached out and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am.” “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not held back your son, your only son, from me.”

Abraham looked up and saw a ram behind him, caught by its horns in a thicket. He took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place “The Lord will see” (or “will provide”), and to this day people say, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be seen.”

9 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.

10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

Language #

God, the LORD, and the angel of the LORD

Through verse 10 the one who speaks is called “God” (ha-Elohim). From verse 11 on, it is “the LORD” (YHWH, Jehovah) and “the angel of the LORD.”

Through verse 10 the one who speaks is called “God” (ha-Elohim). From verse 11 on, it is “the LORD” (YHWH, Jehovah) and “the angel of the LORD.” In the KJV the name Jehovah “is generally denoted by Lord or God, printed in small capitals,” and “Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ.”

The angel speaks as the LORD Himself: “thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (verse 12), and “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD” (verse 16). Generally speaking, “the Angel of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible is another name for the Lord himself,” and so it is read here: the voice Abraham hears is God’s, “here referred to as the Angel of the Lord.” The oath that follows is the LORD’s own.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. “Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary. Scripture Central, “Why Might Similarities Between the Expulsion of Hagar and Abraham’s Near-Sacrifice of Isaac Be Meaningful and Significant?”, KnoWhy #839, Feb. 17, 2026. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

12 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.

Latter-day Prophets #

Why test what God already knows?

Latter-day prophets teach that the test was for Abraham’s sake, not God’s.

Latter-day prophets teach that the test was for Abraham’s sake, not God’s. “Now I know” (‘attah yada‘ti) raises a fair question: did God not know Abraham’s heart already? President George Q. Cannon: “God did not do this for His own sake for He knew by His foreknowledge what Abraham would do; but the purpose was to impress upon Abraham a lesson and to enable him to attain unto knowledge that he could not obtain in any other way.” Asked why Abraham was commanded “to go to Mount Moriah and offer his only hope of posterity,” President Hugh B. Brown answered, “Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.”

The verse gives its own evidence: “seeing thou hast not withheld thy son.” The test was whether Abraham would do whatever the Lord commanded. James reads the scene the same way: Abraham was “justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar,” and “by works was faith made perfect,” so that “he was called the Friend of God” (James 2:21–23).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Lesson 30: Genesis 20–22, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Material (2018). Avram R. Shannon, “Abraham: A Man of Relationships”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 279–310. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

13 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.

Witness of Christ #

A ram in Isaac’s place

The ram dies “in the stead of” Isaac (Hebrew tachat, “instead of”). Abraham did not choose it or bring it from his flocks.

The ram dies “in the stead of” Isaac (Hebrew tachat, “instead of”). Abraham did not choose it or bring it from his flocks. “God, in the end, does not require Abraham to offer an animal sacrifice from his own herds at all. In this case, the offering God himself provided was that of a ram in the place of Isaac.” The substitute came from God.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Shon D. Hopkin, “The Covenant among Covenants: The Abrahamic Covenant and Biblical Covenant Making”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 223–50.

14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

Language #

The LORD will see, and be seen

Jehovah-jireh (YHWH yir’eh) means “the LORD will see,” in the sense of verse 8: He will see to it, provide.

Jehovah-jireh (YHWH yir’eh) means “the LORD will see,” in the sense of verse 8: He will see to it, provide. The saying that follows turns the same verb around: be-har YHWH yera’eh, “in the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” That form of the verb means “appear,” and the line can be read “in the mountain where [the LORD] appeareth.” It is the same form used when the temple was built on Mount Moriah, “where the LORD appeared unto David” (2 Chr. 3:1). The name says the LORD sees; the saying says He is seen.

Here the KJV keeps the name Jehovah, where it generally prints “the LORD.” Ex. 6:3 seems to say that God was not known by that name before Moses, but latter-day revelation shows that Abraham knew it (Abr. 1:16; Abr. 2:8), and this verse agrees.

Verses 15–19

The oath

In plain words

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time: “I have sworn by myself, says the Lord: because you have done this and have not held back your son, your only son, I will richly bless you and make your descendants as many as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed my voice.” Then Abraham went back to his young men, and they set out together for Beer-sheba, where Abraham lived.

15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

16 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:

Related Scriptures #

Why God swears an oath

The promise is now confirmed by an oath, and God swears by Himself: “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD” (bi nishba‘ti, ne’um YHWH).

The promise is now confirmed by an oath, and God swears by Himself: “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD” (bi nishba‘ti, ne’um YHWH). Hebrews explains why. God “could swear by no greater,” so “he sware by himself” (Heb. 6:13), and He “confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation” (Heb. 6:17–18).

The oath becomes an anchor for the rest of the story. Later chapters look back to it (Gen. 24:7; Gen. 26:3; Gen. 50:24), and in one reading it stands alone, since God’s swearing by Himself “never occurs again in His intercourse with the patriarchs.” When Israel had sinned with the golden calf, Moses pleaded this oath: “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self” (Ex. 32:13).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Shon D. Hopkin, “The Covenant among Covenants: The Abrahamic Covenant and Biblical Covenant Making”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 223–50.

17 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;

Language #

The gate of his enemies

To possess an enemy’s gate was to hold his city. The gate was a city’s entrance, shut at night and attacked in war, and to possess it meant “control, possession, of city.”

To possess an enemy’s gate was to hold his city. The gate was a city’s entrance, shut at night and attacked in war, and to possess it meant “control, possession, of city.” The Septuagint simply translates the sense: “thy seed shall inherit the cities of their enemies.”

The same blessing is given to Rebekah, whose birth is announced at the end of this chapter (verse 23), when she leaves her family to marry Isaac: “let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them” (Gen. 24:60).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Related Scriptures #

The seed in whom all nations are blessed

The promise first given in chapter 12, “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3), is now tied to Abraham’s seed and sworn by oath.

The promise first given in chapter 12, “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3), is now tied to Abraham’s seed and sworn by oath. The New Testament and the Book of Mormon both read the seed as Christ. Paul writes, “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). Peter quotes this verse in the temple and goes on, “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you” (Acts 3:25–26). The risen Savior quotes it to the Nephites in His own voice: “The Father having raised me up unto you first, and sent me to bless you,” and the covenant is fulfilled “unto the pouring out of the Holy Ghost through me upon the Gentiles” (3 Ne. 20:25–27). Among the promises to Abraham, then, was “that (1) Christ would come through his lineage.”

Latter-day revelation adds that all families are blessed through Abraham’s priesthood and posterity, “even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal” (Abr. 2:11). Those not born of his line “are adopted into the house of Israel and become heirs of the covenant and the seed of Abraham through the ordinances of the gospel.” As Paul puts it, “if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed” (Gal. 3:29).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Abraham, covenant of”, Bible Dictionary.

19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.

Verses 20–24

Nahor’s family

In plain words

Some time afterward Abraham was told that Milcah had borne children to his brother Nahor: Huz the firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel. Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Nahor’s concubine, Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah.

20 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;

21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,

22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.

23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

Context #

Why the list ends with Rebekah

The list of Nahor’s children is here to introduce Rebekah, Isaac’s future wife.

The list of Nahor’s children is here to introduce Rebekah, Isaac’s future wife. Abraham’s brother Nahor had married Milcah long before (Gen. 11:29), and verse 20’s “she hath also born children” picks up that earlier note. In one reading the family record is placed right after the offering of Isaac because “it prepares the way for the history of the marriage of the heir of the promise.” Of all the names, Bethuel’s daughter is the one the story needs next: when Abraham’s servant goes to this family to find a wife for Isaac, Rebekah comes out “with her pitcher upon her shoulder” (Gen. 24:15).

Nahor, like Ishmael and later Jacob, has twelve sons: eight by Milcah and four by his concubine Reumah.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. “Rebekah”, Bible Dictionary.

24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.

Seeing Christ in Genesis 22

Jacob gives the key: Abraham’s obedience “in offering up his son Isaac” was “a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5). The story “is a powerful witness of the Father and Son being willing to sacrifice all for our redemption.” The likenesses run through the chapter: an only and beloved son (verse 2; John 3:16); a son who carries the wood up the hill, as Jesus “bearing his cross went forth” (John 19:17); a son who goes willingly; a father who does not withhold him.

The story also shows the Father’s side, of which the New Testament says very little. Elder Melvin J. Ballard pictured Him “behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles… His great heart almost breaking for the love that He had for His Son,” and said, “I rejoice that He did not interfere.” At Moriah a voice from heaven stopped the knife and a ram was provided. At Calvary there was no such voice: “for Christ, there would be no lamb in the thicket, no last-minute substitute.”

Worth exploring next

Abraham’s first altar. Read Abr. 1:5–20 beside verses 1–14.
Hagar and Ishmael. Read Gen. 16:7–14 and Gen. 21:9–21, and compare them with this chapter. KnoWhy #839 (Scripture Central) sets the two stories side by side.
The New Testament reads Genesis 22. Heb. 11:17–19; Heb. 6:13–20; James 2:21–23; Gal. 3:6–29.
The covenant restated. Abr. 2:6–11; 3 Ne. 20:25–27; D&C 132:29–37.
The similitude. KnoWhy #412, “How Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac Illuminates the Atonement,” follows the likenesses between Isaac and Christ one by one.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010; read in the interlinear on Bible Hub.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
Old Testament Revision 1, The Joseph Smith Papers.
Old Testament Revision 2, The Joseph Smith Papers.
“Moriah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Sacrifices”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Abraham, covenant of”, Bible Dictionary.
“Rebekah”, Bible Dictionary.
Genesis 18–23, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
Genesis 18–23: Abraham—A Model of Faith and Righteousness, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003).
Lesson 30: Genesis 20–22, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Material (2018).
Scripture Central, “How Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac Illuminates the Atonement”, KnoWhy #412.
Scripture Central, “Why Might Similarities Between the Expulsion of Hagar and Abraham’s Near-Sacrifice of Isaac Be Meaningful and Significant?”, KnoWhy #839, Feb. 17, 2026.
Avram R. Shannon, “Abraham: A Man of Relationships”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 279–310.
John Gee, “The Wanderings of Abraham”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 251–78.
Shon D. Hopkin, “The Covenant among Covenants: The Abrahamic Covenant and Biblical Covenant Making”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 223–50.
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Trans. William Whiston; online at penelope.uchicago.edu.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

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