Study Desk

She went on to say, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!"

Sarah's demand displeased Abraham greatly because Ishmael was his son.

He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do.

So they made a treaty at Beer Sheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, returned to the land of the Philistines.

Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants with him, along with his son Isaac. When he had cut the wood for the burnt offering, he started out for the place God had spoken to him about.

So he said to his servants, "You two stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go up there. We will worship and then return to you."

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. Then he took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them walked on together.

Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father?" "What is it, my son?" he replied. "Here is the fire and the wood," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

Then Abraham reached out his hand, took the knife, and prepared to slaughter his son.

Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set out together for Beer Sheba where Abraham stayed.

Uz the firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father of Aram),

His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore him children—Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Then Abraham got up from mourning his dead wife and said to the sons of Heth,

"Listen, sir, you are a mighty prince among us! You may bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb to prevent you from burying your dead."

if he will sell me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me publicly for the full price, so that I may own it as a burial site."

(Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth.) Ephron the Hethite replied to Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth—before all who entered the gate of his city—

as his property in the presence of the sons of Heth before all who entered the gate of Ephron's city.