He said: He now refers to God and may need to be translated as “God.”
Take your son: Take is used here in the sense of “Take your son with you,” “Have your son accompany you,” “Go with your son.”
Your only son Isaac, whom you love emphasizes the special relationship between Abraham and Isaac and underlines the harshness of the demand to sacrifice Isaac. The expression your only son is emphatic and means the only son you have, which Revised English Bible translates “your one and only son.” Ishmael, of course, is also Abraham’s son, but Isaac is the heir to the promise made to Abraham. Now that Ishmael has been sent away, Isaac is the only son. Whom you love is a second expression added to son. This is the first occurrence of the word love in Genesis. The term or expression used to translate love in this context must be appropriate for love of children. In some languages the word for love toward a person’s relatives or children is different than love in a general sense or love for objects. It may be that a figurative expression is most appropriate; for example, “your only son for whom your heart is warm,” or “your son who makes your innermost to be at ease.”
In some languages the whole expression your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, in which four different items of information are linked with the simple term son, is altogether too heavy to be included in a longer sentence. It may therefore need to be made a separate sentence leading up to the main command; for example, “You have only one son, Isaac, and you love him very much. Take this boy….”
Go to the land of Moriah: the location of this place is unknown. The Septuagint gives it the meaning of “lofty,” the same as for “Moreh” in 12.6. Instead of “Moriah” Syriac has “of the Amorites.” The only other reference to Moriah is in 2 Chr 3.1, where it refers to the Temple hill in Jerusalem. Translators normally transliterate the word.
Offer him there as a burnt offering: for offer and offering see discussion of 8.20. It may be helpful to remind ourselves that, where the practice of burned sacrifices is unknown, it may be necessary to indicate that Isaac, like a sacrificial animal, is to be killed before being burned. Therefore offer him … as a burnt offering may need to be expressed as “kill him and burn his body as a gift to me” or “kill him and burn his body to honor me.” In languages in which such sacrifices are known, it is possible to use something more like Good News Translation.
Upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you: tell here may be expressed better in translation as “show” (Good News Translation). Some translators will find it stylistically more natural to make this clause a separate sentence. For example, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy says “When you get there offer him as a sacrifice on the mountain I will show you.” See also Good News Translation. In some languages it will also be more natural to move this clause to before the command to offer … a burnt offering, so that the story follows the sequence of events; for example, “… go to the region of Moriah and I will show you a hill there. On that hill you must offer Isaac….”
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 .