And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass. He did not inform his servants of the object of his journey, as he had not told his wife Sarah: for he must have apprehended that opposition would be made by both. In the case of the latter, although arrived at the appointed scene of the offering, he was probably actuated by the additional motive of preventing his conduct from being appealed to as a precedent for human sacrifices, and hence, he carefully excluded the presence of his attendants, and selected a spot for his worship where, amid a shady thicket, he would be screened from the view of all observers.