Genesis 22:9

Summary

The verse narrates the sequence of actions Abraham performs upon arriving at the place designated by God: he builds the altar, arranges the wood, binds his son Isaac, and places him on the altar on top of the wood. The Hebrew presents five consecutive actions joined by narrative vav, giving the scene a rapid, unbroken rhythm.

Key words

• va-yya'aqod ("he bound", H6123) — qal narrative form; the specific act of tying up Isaac, distinct from a general seizing or holding.
• mizbeach (H4196) — masculine singular noun, "altar", preceded by the definite article ha (H9009), marking it as a specific, already-known structure ("the altar").
• 'etzim ("wood/woods", H6086G) — masculine plural noun, referring to the pieces of wood earlier carried by Isaac; appears twice, framing the action of arranging (v.9a) and placing (v.9b).
• beno ("his son", H1121A + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, tying Isaac's identity to Abraham as his son, repeating the father-son bond emphasized throughout the chapter.
• mima'al ("from above", H4605 + H9006) — preposition compound indicating spatial position: Isaac is placed above the wood, not merely near it.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of five narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs, each introduced by va- (H9001): yavo'u ("they came", H0935G), yiven ("he built", H1129), ya'arokh ("he arranged", H6186A), ya'aqod ("he bound", H6123), and yasem ("he put", H7760H). This chain structure is typical of Hebrew narrative prose: each verb moves the action forward in strict temporal sequence, without subordinating clauses, producing an effect of accumulating, almost mechanical steps. The subject Avraham (H0085) is stated once, after the first two verbs, and the following actions are understood to continue with him as agent.

The object marker 'et (H0853) appears four times (before ha-mizbeach, ha-'etzim, Yitzchak, and the pronominal oto), marking each direct object explicitly without itself carrying meaning. The phrase asher amar-lo ha-Elohim ("which He had said to him, God", H0834A + H0559) uses a qal perfect verb, indicating an action completed prior to the arrival — the place had already been specified earlier in the narrative, not spoken at this moment. The final spatial notation, mima'al la-'etzim ("from above, to the wood"), specifies the exact positioning: Isaac on top of the wood, not simply on the altar generally.

Differences between versions

The LXX omits the opening clause about arriving at the place God had said, beginning directly with "he built there Abraham an altar" (καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν ἐκεῖ Ἀβραὰμ θυσιαστήριον). The Vulgate, by contrast, preserves this clause (venerunt ad locum quem ostenderat ei Deus) and additionally renders the divine communication with ostenderat ("had shown"), diverging from the Hebrew amar ("said", H0559), which denotes speech rather than visual display.