What Does Genesis 22:2 Mean?
And he said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go yourself to the land of Moriah, and raise him there as a rising offering upon one of the mountains I will tell you of."
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
Hebrew repeats the root for ascending in both “bring him up” and “burnt offering,” making the command and the offering one movement.
THE MEANING
The verse places the beloved, singular son inside the language of ascent: its command to bring him up and its name for the burnt offering share the root “to ascend.” It keeps love and violence in the same line, naming the one called loved and only as the one demanded for offering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that the cost in the verse is abstract or replaceable: it names the beloved, only son himself.
THE ROOT
עֹלָה
ʿolah
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h (עלה): to ascend, go up.
“rising offering” in this verse is ʿolah. The same root appears in הַעֲלֵהוּ (haʿalehu, bring him up) and עֹלָה (ʿolah, burnt offering). English gives them separate words, while Hebrew makes the act and the offering one ascent.
ALSO GROWS
haʿalehu: The causative command to bring someone up or offer him up.
הַעֲלֵהוּ
It appears immediately before עֹלָה, repeating the root in both the action and the offering.
maʿalah: An ascent or upward step.
מַעֲלָה
This noun keeps the root’s ordinary sense of rising audible in the name of the offering.
יִצְחָק
Yitzḥaq
GROWS FROM
צחק
ṣ-ḥ-q (צחק): to laugh.
Isaac’s name carries laughter into the line of command. The name’s joy does not soften what the verse says; it keeps the beloved son’s identity in view as the demand names him for offering.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāḥaq: To laugh.
צָחַק
The verb shares Isaac’s root and shows that his name carries an action, not merely a label.
ṣəḥoq: Laughter.
צְחוֹק
This noun from the same root makes the laughter contained in Isaac’s name explicit.
יְחִידְךָ
yeḥîdekhā
GROWS FROM
יחד
y-ḥ-d (יחד): to be one, unite.
יְחִידְךָ belongs to a word family that includes both יָחִיד, “only one,” and יַחַד, “together, as one.” Here “only” marks Isaac as singular and beloved, not interchangeable.
ALSO GROWS
yaḥad: Together, as one.
יַחַד
This related form shows the root family’s language of oneness beside the word for the only one.
yāḥîd: Only, unique, solitary.
יָחִיד
This form shares the verse’s sense of Isaac as singular and irreplaceable.
THE PATTERN
What approaches God is repeatedly pictured as rising and being presented before God.
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place?And when he stretched his gaze upon him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your acts of compassion have come up as a memorial before God.THE THREAD
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and look, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and raised him up as a rising offering in place of his son.The Hebrew עֹלָה (ʿolah, burnt offering/ascending offering) returns, but now the ram bears the offering in place of the son. The same root carries the demand from command to substitution while leaving its violence visible.
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