Ibn Caspi writes 'How could God command such a revolting thing?' But according to Rabbi Joseph H. Rabbi Yosef Ibn Caspi (Spain, early 14th century) wrote that Abraham's 'imagination' led him astray, making him believe that he had been commanded to sacrifice his son. Rabbi Yona Ibn Janach ( Spain, 11th century) wrote that God demanded only a symbolic sacrifice. The early rabbinic midrash Genesis Rabbah imagines God as saying 'I never considered telling Abraham to slaughter Isaac (using the Hebrew root letters for 'slaughter', not 'sacrifice')'. However, a number of Jewish Biblical commentators from the medieval era, and many in the modern era, read the text in another way. The majority of Jewish Biblical commentators argue that God was testing Abraham to see if he would actually kill his own son, as a test of his loyalty. Genesis 22:14 states that it occurred at 'the mount of the LORD': in 2 Chronicles 3:1 Psalm 24:3 Isaiah 2:3 & 30:29 and Zechariah 8:3, the Bible seems to identify the location of this event as the hill on which Solomon was said to later build the Temple, now known as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Bishop Ussher's chronology would place Isaac at about 20 years of age. The Talmudic sages teach that Isaac was thirty-seven, likely based on the next biblical story, which is of Sarah's death at 127 (she was ninety when Isaac was born). The Book of Genesis does not tell the age of Isaac at the time however, verse 6 of Chapter 22 indicates that Isaac was at least grown enough to walk alongside Abraham up the mountain carrying the load of wood that his father had gathered ( 22:6).

While it is often imagined that Isaac was a small child, some sources claim he was an adult (noting that Jews are considered adults at age 13). An angel prevents the sacrifice of Isaac.

What is the voice in binding of isaav