ABSTRACT
Surprise joins that burden. "God, indeed tested Abraham." Though such a procedure is implicit throughout the preceding only here does the verb test (nissah) appear? The explicit use startles the reader. It portends a crisis beyond the usual tumult. How many times does Abraham have to be tested? Enough is enough is enough. After delays and obstacles Isaac, the child of promise, has come. Let the story now end happily, providing readers and characters respite from struggle and suspense. But vocabulary and syntax prevent such a respite. The divine generic Elohim occurs with the definite article hay suggesting "the the very God." Reversing the usual order of a Hebrew sentence, this subject precedes its verb. The narrator makes clear that an extraordinary divine act is taking indeed tested Abraham."
