Genesis 22:5

22:5 So he ¹  said to his servants, “You two stay ²  here with the donkey while ³  the boy and I go up there. We will worship ⁴  and then return to you.” ⁵ 

Genesis 22:12

22:12 “Do not harm the boy!” ⁶  the angel said. ⁷  “Do not do anything to him, for now I know ⁸  that you fear ⁹  God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.”

[22:5]  ¹ tn Heb “And Abraham.” The proper name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.

[22:5]  ² tn The Hebrew verb is masculine plural, referring to the two young servants who accompanied Abraham and Isaac on the journey.

[22:5]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause (with the compound subject preceding the verb) may be circumstantial and temporal.

[22:5]  ⁴ tn This Hebrew word literally means “to bow oneself close to the ground.” It often means “to worship.”

[22:5]  ⁵ sn It is impossible to know what Abraham was thinking when he said, “we will…return to you.” When he went he knew (1) that he was to sacrifice Isaac, and (2) that God intended to fulfill his earlier promises through Isaac. How he reconciled those facts is not clear in the text. Heb 11:17-19 suggests that Abraham believed God could restore Isaac to him through resurrection.

[22:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Do not extend your hand toward the boy.”

[22:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Do not extend…’”; the referent (the angel) has been specified in the context for clarity. The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[22:12]  ⁸ sn For now I know. The test was designed to see if Abraham would be obedient (see v. 1).

[22:12]  ⁹ sn In this context fear refers by metonymy to obedience that grows from faith.