Abraham said may require shifting to “Abraham answered,” since he is replying to Isaac’s question.

God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son: will provide himself translates a Hebrew idiom that is literally “will see for himself.” The sense is “God will look after the need for a lamb.” Himself emphasizes that God alone, God with no one helping him, will furnish the animal. In translation it may be more natural to place the address first: “My son, God himself will make ready a lamb.” Provide the lamb is expressed in some translations as “God will give you and me something for the sacrifice” and “God himself will find a lamb.”

For a burnt offering has been repeated in verses 2, 3, 6-8, and Good News Translation does not repeat it here.

So they went both of them together: this statement is repeated from verse 6 and functions to give the story an air of silence as they move closer and closer to an unknown climax.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .