After waiting twenty-five years for the promised son, Abraham received the most terrible test: 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains.' Abraham rose early, took two servants, his son, the wood, and a knife, and travelled three days to the mountain.
On the summit, Abraham bound Isaac, laid him on the wood, and raised the knife. At that moment the angel of the Lord called from heaven: 'Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay your hand on the boy.' Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket — and offered it instead. The site is identified by ancient Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Islamic tradition with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The episode (Hebrew Akedah, 'binding') is the foundational typology of Christ's own sacrifice on Golgotha — the only Son carrying the wood up the same mountain.