Mount Moriah

Mount Moriah is the mountain region named directly in Scripture as the setting for one of the most pivotal tests of faith in the entire Old Testament, and later understood as the very site upon which Solomon would build the Temple in Jerusalem generations afterward.

Genesis 22:2 records God's instruction to Abraham with striking specificity: "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest... and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." That land is named directly as "the land of Moriah," setting the location of this severe test at the very outset of the account.

The chapter closes with Abraham naming the site himself in light of what happened there. Genesis 22:14 records, "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen," a name commemorating God's provision of a ram in place of Isaac at the critical moment.

Scripture draws a direct line from this mountain to the later Temple. 2 Chronicles 3:1 records, "Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite." This identifies Moriah as the genuine geographic link between Abraham's test of faith and the site of Israel's central place of worship centuries later.

Though Mount Moriah is named directly only a small number of times in Scripture, each mention carries substantial theological weight -- tying together the account of Abraham's costly obedience, God's provision, and the eventual location of the Temple itself into a single, continuous thread running through the Old Testament. The identification of Moriah with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has been affirmed by Jewish tradition for millennia.