On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder, and we will prostrate ourselves and return to you.”
And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, and he placed [it] upon his son Isaac, and he took into his hand the fire and the knife, and they both went together.
And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and he said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
And Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And they both went together.
Bereishit 22:4-8
And it will be, when all these things come upon you the blessing and the curse which I have set before you that you will consider in your heart, among all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you,
and you will return to the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and you will listen to His voice according to all that I am commanding you this day you and your children,
then, the Lord, your God, will bring back your exiles, and He will have mercy upon you. He will once again gather you from all the nations, where the Lord, your God, had dispersed you.
Even if your exiles are at the end of the heavens, the Lord, your God, will gather you from there, and He will take you from there.
And the Lord, your God, will bring you to the land which your forefathers possessed, and you [too] will take possession of it, and He will do good to you, and He will make you more numerous than your forefathers.
And the Lord, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, [so that you may] love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life.
Devarim 30:1-6
The Lord, your God, will bring back your exiles Heb. וְשָׁב, lit., The Lord, your God, will (Himself) return (with) your exiles. [That is, the verb שָׁב is in the simple conjugation. Now, since we understand the verse to mean:“ The Lord your God will bring back your exiles,”] Scripture should have written, אֶת שְׁבוּת ְוְהֵשִׁיב ה [with the verb וְהֵשִׁיב being in the causative conjugation, meaning “to bring back”]. But [although the meaning of the verse is indeed, “The Lord, your God, will bring back your exiles,”] our Rabbis learned from [the simple conjugation of the verb] here [which alludes to God Himself returning], that the Shechinah resides among Israel, as it were, in all the misery of their exile, and when the Jews are redeemed [from their exile], God writes [in Scripture an expression of] redemption for Himself [to allude to the fact that He has also been redeemed, as it were,] so that He Himself returns along with Israel’s exiles (Meg. 29a). A further [lesson] may be learned [from the unusual form of the verb which expresses “to bring back the exiles”]: The day on which Israel’s exiles will be gathered is so monumental and [this ingathering] will be such a difficult [procedure, as it were], that it is as though God Himself must literally take each individual Jew with His very hands, [taking him] out of his place [in exile. We see] the same concept [brought up in Scripture,] when the verse says, “And you will be gathered up, one by one, O children of Israel” (Isa. 27:12). [That verse refers to the ingathering of Israel’s exiles from Babylon. However,] we find this [idea] also regarding the [ingathering of] exiles from the other nations, as the verse says,“And I shall bring back the exiles of Egypt (וְשַׁבְתִּי שְׁבוּת מִצְרַיִם)” (Ezek. 29:14).
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I am intrigued by Rashi’s commentary