Terah married Emtelai, the daughter of Karnabo,[6] and the offspring of
their union was Abraham. His birth had been read in the stars by
Nimrod,[7] for this impious king was a cunning astrologer, and it was
manifest to him that a man would be born in his day who would rise up
against him and triumphantly give the lie to his religion. In his
terror at the fate foretold him in the stars, he sent for his princes
and governors, and asked them to advise him in the matter. They
answered, and said: "Our unanimous advice is that thou shouldst build a
great house, station a guard at the entrance thereof, and make known in
the whole of thy realm that all pregnant women shall repair thither
together with their midwives, who are to remain with them when they are
delivered. When the days of a woman to be delivered are fulfilled, and
the child is born, it shall be the duty of the midwife to kill it, if
it be a boy. But if the child be a girl, it shall be kept alive, and
the mother shall receive gifts and costly garments, and a herald shall
proclaim, 'Thus is done unto the woman who bears a daughter!'"
The king was pleased with this counsel, and he had a proclamation
published throughout his whole kingdom, summoning all the architects to
build a great house for him, sixty ells high and eighty wide. After it
was completed, he issued a second proclamation, summoning all pregnant
women thither, and there they were to remain until their confinement.
Officers were appointed to take the women to the house, and guards were
stationed in it and about it, to prevent the women from escaping
thence. He furthermore sent midwives to the house, and commanded them
to slay the men children at their mothers' breasts. But if a woman bore
a girl, she was to be arrayed in byssus, silk, and embroidered
garments, and led forth from the house of detention amid great honors.
No less than seventy thousand children were slaughtered thus. Then the
angels appeared before God, and spoke, "Seest Thou not what he doth,
yon sinner and blasphemer, Nimrod son of Canaarl, who slays so many
innocent babes that have done no harm?" God answered, and said: "Ye
holy angels, I know it and I see it, for I neither slumber nor sleep. I
behold and I know the secret things and the things that are revealed,
and ye shall witness what I will do unto this sinner and blasphemer,
for I will turn My hand against him to chastise him."[8]
It was about this time that Terah espoused the mother of Abraham, and
she was with child. When her body grew large at the end of three months
of pregnancy,[9] and her countenance became pale, Terah said unto her,
"What ails thee, my wife, that thy countenance is so pale and thy body
so swollen?" She answered, and said, "Every year I suffer with this
malady."[10] But Terah would not be put off thus. He insisted: "Show me
thy body. It seems to me thou art big with child. If that be so, it
behooves us not to violate the command of our god Nimrod."[11] When he
passed his hand over her body, there happened a miracle. The child rose
until it lay beneath her breasts, and Terah could feel nothing with his
hands. He said to his wife, "Thou didst speak truly," and naught became
visible until the day of her delivery.
When her time approached, she left the city in great terror and
wandered toward the desert, walking along the edge of a valley,[12]
until she happened across a cave. She entered this refuge, and on the
next day she was seized with throes, and she gave birth to a son. The
whole cave was filled with the light of the child's countenance as with
the splendor of the sun, and the mother rejoiced exceedingly. The babe
she bore was our father Abraham.
His mother lamented, and said to her son: "Alas that I bore thee at a
time when Nimrod is king. For thy sake seventy thousand men children
were slaughtered, and I am seized with terror on account of thee, that
he hear of thy existence, and slay thee. Better thou shouldst perish
here in this cave than my eye should behold thee dead at my breast."
She took the garment in which she was clothed, and wrapped it about the
boy. Then she abandoned him in the cave, saying, "May the Lord be with
thee, may He not fail thee nor forsake thee."[13]