God: "To the land I will show thee, and offer Isaac there for a burnt
offering."
Abraham: "Am I fit to perform the sacrifice, am I a priest? Ought not
rather the high priest Shem to do it?"
God: "When thou wilt arrive at that place, I will consecrate thee and
make thee a priest."[231]
And Abraham said within himself, "How shall I separate my son Isaac
from Sarah his mother?" And he came into the tent, and he sate before
Sarah his wife, and he spake these words to her: "My son Isaac is grown
up, and he has not yet studied the service of God. Now, to-morrow I
will go and bring him to Shem and Eber his son, and there he will learn
the ways of the Lord, for they will teach him to know the Lord, and to
know how to pray unto the Lord that He may answer him, and to know the
way of serving the Lord his God." And Sarah said, "Thou hast spoken
well. Go, my lord, and do unto him as thou hast said, but remove him
not far from me, neither let him remain there too long, for my soul is
bound within his soul." And Abraham said unto Sarah, "My daughter, let
us pray to the Lord our God that He may do good with us." And Sarah
took her son Isaac, and he abode with her all that night, and she
kissed and embraced him, and she laid injunctions upon him till
morning, and she said to Abraham: "O my lord, I pray thee, take heed of
thy son, and place thine eyes over him, for I have no other son nor
daughter but him. O neglect him not. If he be hungry, give him bread,
and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink; do not let him go on
foot, neither let him sit in the sun, neither let him go by himself on
the road, neither turn him from whatever he may desire, but do unto him
as he may say to thee."
After spending the whole night in weeping on account of Isaac, she got
up in the morning and selected a very fine and beautiful garment from
those that Abimelech had given to her. And she dressed Isaac therewith,
and she put a turban upon his head, and she fastened a precious stone
in the top of the turban, and she gave them provisions for the road.
And Sarah went out with them, and she accompanied them upon the road to
see them off, and they said to her, "Return to the tent." And when
Sarah heard the words of her son Isaac, she wept bitterly, and Abraham
wept with her, and their son wept with them, a great weeping, also
those of their servants who went with them wept greatly. And Sarah
caught hold of Isaac, and she held him in her arms, and she embraced
him, and continued to weep with him, and Sarah said, "Who knoweth if I
shall ever see thee again after this day?"
Abraham departed with Isaac amid great weeping, while Sarah and the
servants returned to the tent.[232] He took two of his young men with
him, Ishmael and Eliezer, and while they were walking in the road, the
young men spoke these words to each other. Said Ishmael to Eliezer:
"Now my father Abraham is going with Isaac to bring him up for a burnt
offering to the Lord, and when he returneth, he will give unto me all
that he possesses, to inherit after him, for I am his first-born."
Eliezer answered: "Surely, Abraham did cast thee off with thy mother,
and swear that thou shouldst not inherit anything of all he possesses.
And to whom will he give all that he has, all his precious things, but
unto his servant, who has been faithful in his house, to me, who have
served him night and day, and have done all that he desired me?" The
holy spirit answered, "Neither this one nor that one will inherit
Abraham."[233]
And while Abraham and Isaac were proceeding along the road, Satan came
and appeared to Abraham in the figure of a very aged man, humble and of
contrite spirit, and said to him: "Art thou silly or foolish, that thou
goest to do this thing to thine only son? God gave thee a son in thy
latter days, in thine old age, and wilt thou go and slaughter him, who
did not commit any violence, and wilt thou cause the soul of thine only
son to perish from the earth? Dost thou not know and understand that
this thing cannot be from the Lord? For the Lord would not do unto man
such evil, to command him, Go and slaughter thy son." Abraham, hearing
these words, knew that it was Satan, who endeavored to turn him astray
from the way of the Lord, and he rebuked him that he went away. And
Satan returned and came to Isaac, and he appeared unto him in the
figure of a young man, comely and well-favored, saying unto him: "Dost
thou not know that thy silly old father bringeth thee to the slaughter
this day for naught? Now, my son, do not listen to him, for he is a
silly old man, and let not thy precious soul and beautiful figure be
lost from the earth." And Isaac told these words to his father, but
Abraham said to him, "Take heed of him, and do not listen to his words,
for he is Satan endeavoring to lead us astray from the commands of our
God." And Abraham rebuked Satan again, and Satan went from them, and,
seeing he could not prevail over them, he transformed himself into a
large brook of water in the road, and when Abraham, Isaac, and the two
young men reached that place, they saw a brook large and powerful as
the mighty waters. And they entered the brook, trying to pass it, but
the further they went, the deeper the brook, so that the water reached
up to their necks, and they were all terrified on account of the water.
But Abraham recognized the place, and he knew that there had been no
water there before, and he said to his son: "I know this place, on
which there was no brook nor water. Now, surely, it is Satan who doth
all this to us, to draw us aside this day from the commands of God."
And Abraham rebuked Satan, saying unto him: "The Lord rebuke thee, O
Satan. Begone from us, for we go by the command of God." And Satan was
terri fied at the voice of Abraham, and he went away from them, and the
place became dry land again as it was at first. And Abraham went with
Isaac toward the place that God had told him.[234]
Satan then appeared unto Sarah in the figure of an old man, and said
unto her, "Where did thine husband go?" She said, "To his work." "And
where did thy son Isaac go?" he inquired further, and she answered, "He
went with his father to a place of study of the Torah." Satan said: "O
thou poor old woman, thy teeth will be set on edge on account of thy
son, as thou knowest not that Abraham took his son with him on the road
to sacrifice him." In this hour Sarah's loins trembled, and all her
limbs shook. She was no more of this world. Nevertheless she aroused
herself, and said, "All that God hath told Abraham, may he do it unto
life and unto peace."[235]
On the third day of his journey, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the
place at a distance, which God had told him. He noticed upon the
mountain a pillar of fire reaching from the earth to heaven, and a
heavy cloud in which the glory of God was seen. Abraham said to Isaac,
"My son, dost thou see on that mountain which we perceive at a distance
that which I see upon it?" And Isaac answered, and said unto his
father, "I see, and, lo, a pillar of fire and a cloud, and the glory of
the Lord is seen upon the cloud." Abraham knew then that Isaac was
accepted before the Lord for an offering. He asked Ishmael and Eliezer,
"Do you also see that which we see upon the mountain?" They answered,
"We see nothing more than like the other mountains," and Abraham knew
that they were not accepted before the Lord to go with them.[236]
Abraham said to them, "Abide ye here with the ass, you are like the
ass—as little as it sees, so little do you see.[237] I and Isaac my son
go to yonder mount, and worship there before the Lord, and this eve we
will return to you."[238] An unconscious prophecy had come to Abraham,
for he prophesied that he and Isaac would both return from the
mountain.[239] Eliezer and Ishmael remained in that place, as Abraham
had commanded, while he and Isaac went further.