Genesis 22:9
And they came to the place which God had shewn him, where he built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it: and when he had bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood.
Open Genesis 22:9 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et venerunt ad locum quem ostenderat ei Deus, in quo ædificavit altare, et desuper ligna composuit ; cumque alligasset Isaac filium suum, posuit eum in altare super struem lignorum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἦλθον ἐπὶ τὸν τόπον ὃν εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ θεός. καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν ἐκεῖ Ἀβραὰμ θυσιαστήριον καὶ ἐπέθηκεν τὰ ξύλα· καὶ συμποδίσας Ἰσαὰκ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἐπέθηκεν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον ἐπάνω τῶν ξύλων.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיָּבֹ֗אוּ אֶֽל הַמָּקוֹם֮ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָֽמַר ל֣וֹ הָאֱלֹהִים֒ וַיִּ֨בֶן שָׁ֤ם אַבְרָהָם֙ אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ וַֽיַּעֲרֹ֖ךְ אֶת הָעֵצִ֑ים וַֽיַּעֲקֹד֙ אֶת יִצְחָ֣ק בְּנ֔וֹ וַיָּ֤שֶׂם אֹתוֹ֙ עַל הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ מִמַּ֖עַל לָעֵצִֽים
Haydock's commentary
The place. Mount Moria, on part of which the temple was built afterwards; and on another part, called Calvary, our Saviour was crucified, having carried his cross, as Isaac did the wood for sacrifice.
His son: having first explained to him the will of God, to which Isaac gave his free consent; otherwise, being in the vigour of his youth, he might easily have hindered his aged father, who was 125 years old, from binding him. But in this willingness to die, as in many other particulars, he was a noble figure of Jesus Christ, who was offered because it was His will. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian An Answer to the Jews, Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea
This “wood,” again, Isaac the son of Abraham personally carried for his own sacrifice, when God had enjoined that he should be made a victim to Himself. But, because these had been mysteries which were being kept for perfect fulfilment in the times of Christ, Isaac, on the one hand, with his “wood,” was reserved, the ram being of fered which was caught by the horns in the bramble; Christ, on the other hand, in His times, carried His “wood” on His own shoulders, adhering to the horns of the cross, with a thorny crown encircling His head. …
St Clement of Rome The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Chapter XXXI
Let us cleave then to His blessing, and consider what are the means of possessing it. Let us think over the things which have taken place from the beginning. For what reason was our father Abraham blessed? Was it not because he wrought righteousness and truth through faith? Isaac, with perfect confidence, as if knowing what was to happen, cheerfully yielded himself as a sacrifice. Jacob, through reason of his brother, went forth with humility from his own land, and came to Laban and served him; and there was given to him the sceptre of the twelve tribes of Israel.
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XVII. The duties of youth, and examples suitable to that age, are next put forth
66. Isaac feared the Lord, as was indeed but natural in the son of Abraham; being subject also to his father to such an extent that he would not avoid death in opposition to his father’s will. Joseph also, though he dreamed that sun and moon and stars made obeisance to him, yet was subject to his father’s will with ready obedience. So chaste was he, he would not hear even a word unless it were pure; humble was he even to doing the work of a slave, modest, even to taking flight, enduring, even to bearing imprisonment, so forgiving of wrong as even to repay it with good. Whose modesty was such, that, when seized by a woman, he preferred to leave his garment in her hands in flight, rather than to lay aside his modesty. Moses, also, and Jeremiah, chosen by the Lord to declare the words of God to the people, were for avoiding, through modesty, that which through grace they could do.