And he continued, “When thou returnest home, how wilt thou console my mother?”
Abraham answered, “Well I know that he who comforted us before thou camest, will comfort us after thou art gone from us.”[335]
Abraham now stood over his son, who was bound with his hands to his feet, upon the wood laid in order; and the eyes of Abraham rested on the eyes of his son. But Isaac looked up into heaven, and saw the Angel hosts crowded about God’s throne. Abraham saw not this, and he lifted the knife; but he trembled and the knife fell from his hand, and he cried aloud, “O my son! Would that another offering were found instead of thee! But my help cometh only from the Lord who hath made heaven and earth?”
Then he gathered up his resolution, and took the knife and held it once more to strike; and Isaac’s spirit left him, and he swooned away.
But the angels of God, who stood round about His throne, announced to the Most High all that took place, and they cried and wept, and even the fiery seraphim exclaimed, “Woe! He slays his son.” And the tears of the angels fell upon the face of Isaac, and made him ever after sad of countenance.
Then God said, “Behold and see how great is the faith of My servant Abraham, how on earth a man can hallow My great name, and devote his best and dearest to My service; see that, ye, who at the creation exclaimed, _What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou so regardest him?_”
Then He ordered Michael to fly swiftly, and stay the hand of Abraham.
And the archangel, when he came near, cried aloud, “Abraham! Abraham! what doest thou?”
Abraham looked in the direction of the voice, in doubt, and said, “_Here am I._”
Then said the angel, “_Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him_.”
Michael told him who he was. Then said Abraham, “The Most High appeared to me in a vision, and bade me take my son as a whole offering to the place which He should say, and I may take no command from a servant of God, against that which God Himself hath laid upon me.”
Then heaven opened, and he saw the glory of God, and God said to him, “_Touch not the lad to do him harm, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me_.”