But the angel of the LORD: But in English serves to contrast Abraham’s action with God’s desire to spare Isaac. In other languages it may be more appropriate to introduce verse 11 by something that marks God’s intervention, such as “Suddenly,” “Before Abraham could move.” Speiser comments “The blade is in midair when his hand is stayed by a voice from heaven.” One example of how this split-second intervention may be expressed is “When he [Abraham] did that, straight away the angel….” For angel of the LORD see discussion of 16.7

Called … from heaven: called can often be translated “spoke in a loud voice.” Heaven is understood here to refer to the place or abode of God. Since calling from heaven may be difficult to understand, some translations say “the angel of the LORD who was in heaven called out.”

The purpose of the angel in calling to Abraham was to prevent him from carrying out the killing. This is included in the text in some translations; one example is “But the angel of the LORD stopped him. He was in heaven and he called out to him.”

Abraham, Abraham: the Hebrew text has the repeated name. In some languages the repeating of the name has special significance that should be taken into account in translation, and the name should be used only once, if using it twice will give a wrong meaning to the narrative. And if it is stylistically more natural, the single name should be used.

Here am I: see Gen 22.1.

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 .