Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 9. And bound Isaac his son] If the patriarch had not been upheld by the conviction that he was doing the will of God, and had he not felt the most perfect confidence that his son should be restored even from the dead, what agony must his heart have felt at every step of the journey, and through all the circumstances of this extraordinary business? What must his affectionate heart have felt at the questions asked by his innocent and amiable son? What must he have suffered while building the altar, laying on the wood, binding his lovely son, placing him on the wood, taking the knife, and stretching out his hand to slay the child of his hopes? Every view we take of the subject interests the heart, and exalts the character of this father of the faithful. But has the character of Isaac been duly considered? Is not the consideration of his excellence lost in the supposition that he was too young to enter particularly into a sense of his danger, and too feeble to have made any resistance, had he been unwilling to submit? Josephus supposes that Isaac was now twenty-five, (see the chronology on ver. 1;) some rabbins that he was thirty-six; but it is more probable that he was now about thirty-three, the age at which his great Antitype was offered up; and on this medium I have ventured to construct the chronology, of which I think it necessary to give this notice to the reader. Allowing him to be only twenty-five, he might have easily resisted; for can it be supposed that an old man of at least one hundred and twenty- five years of age could have bound, without his consent, a young man in the very prime and vigour of life? In this case we cannot say that the superior strength of the father prevailed, but the piety, filial affection, and obedience of the son yielded. All this was most illustriously typical of Christ. In both cases the father himself offers up his only- begotten son, and the father himself binds him on the wood or to the cross; in neither case is the son forced to yield, but yields of his own accord; in neither case is the life taken away by the hand of violence; Isaac yields himself to the knife, Jesus lays down his life for the sheep.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 3-10 - Never was any gold tried in so hot a fire. Who but Abraham would no have argued with God? Such would have been the thought of a weak heart but Abraham knew that he had to do with a God, even Jehovah. Faith ha taught him not to argue, but to obey. He is sure that what God command is good; that what he promises cannot be broken. In matters of God whoever consults with flesh and blood, will never offer up his Isaac to God. The good patriarch rises early, and begins his sad journey. An now he travels three days, and Isaac still is in his sight! Misery is made worse when long continued. The expression, We will come again to you, shows that Abraham expected that Isaac, being raised from the dead, would return with him. It was a very affecting question tha Isaac asked him, as they were going together: "My father," said Isaac it was a melting word, which, one would think, should strike deeper in the heart of Abraham, than his knife could in the heart of Isaac. Ye he waits for his son's question. Then Abraham, where he meant not prophesies: "My son, God will provide a lamb for a burnt-offering." The Holy Spirit, by his mouth, seems to predict the Lamb of God, which he has provided, and which taketh away the sin of the world. Abraham lay the wood in order for his Isaac's funeral pile, and now tells him the amazing news: Isaac, thou art the lamb which God has provided! Abraham no doubt, comforting him with the same hopes with which he himself by faith was comforted. Yet it is necessary that the sacrifice be bound The great Sacrifice, which, in the fulness of time, was to be offere up, must be bound, and so must Isaac. This being done, Abraham take the knife, and stretches out his hand to give the fatal blow. Here in an act of faith and obedience, which deserves to be a spectacle to God angels, and men. God, by his providence, calls us to part with an Isaa sometimes, and we must do it with cheerful submission to his holy will 1Sa 3:18.
Original Hebrew ויבאו935 אל413 המקום4725 אשׁר834 אמר559 לו האלהים430 ויבן1129 שׁם8033 אברהם85 את853 המזבח4196 ויערך6186 את853 העצים6086 ויעקד6123 את853 יצחק3327 בנו1121 וישׂם7760 אתו853 על5921 המזבח4196 ממעל4605 לעצים׃6086
