14 August 2022 draft-bible
2. whom you love, Isaac. The text builds slowly toward naming Isaac, in a progression which adds to the sense of drama in the story. The text lingers on the identity of the son to be sacrificed, naming him first as ‘your son’, then ‘your only son’, then ‘whom you love’, and only finally by giving the boy’s name. The WEB disrupts the sequence by putting ‘Isaac’ before ‘whom you love’, in contrast to the ASV, which follows the order given in the Hebrew.
5. I and the lad. For some reason, WEB reverses the order and reads “The boy and I”.
10. slaughter. Hebrew šaḥaṭ, a word typically used of slaughtering animals for food or sacrificial purposes.
11. an angel of Yahweh. For the reason to read ‘an angel’ here instead of ‘the angel’, see S. A. Meier, “Angel of Yahweh”, in DDD__2..
14. Yahweh Yireh. Meaning ‘Yahweh Sees’, or ‘Yahweh Provides’. See Driver, Genesis (10th ed., 1916 [1904]).
18. bless themselves. The verb is a hitpaʿel (reflexive) verb, and therefore the meaning of the verse is this: Abraham’s descendants will become such a well-known example of a blessed people that their name will be invoked in blessing formulae. An example of similar language about blessing examplars is in Genesis 48:20 – “And he [Jacob] blessed them [Ephraim and Manasseh] on that day, saying, By you Israel will bless, saying, May God make you like Ephraim and like Mannaseh.”
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