Thus Abraham was deserted in the cave, without a nurse, and he began to
wail. God sent Gabriel down to give him milk to drink, and the angel
made it to flow from the little finger of the baby's right hand, and he
sucked at it until he was ten days old.[14] Then he arose and walked
about, and he left the cave, and went along the edge of the valley.[15]
When the sun sank, and the stars came forth, he said, "These are the
gods!" But the dawn came, and the stars could be seen no longer, and
then he said, "I will not pay worship to these, for they are no gods."
Thereupon the sun came forth, and he spoke, "This is my god, him will I
extol." But again the sun set, and he said, "He is no god," and
beholding the moon, he called her his god to whom he would pay Divine
homage. Then the moon was obscured, and he cried out: "This, too, is no
god! There is One who sets them all in motion."[16]
He was still communing with himself when the angel Gabriel approached
him and met him with the greeting, "Peace be with thee," and Abraham
returned, "With thee be peace," and asked, "Who art thou?" And Gabriel
answered, and said, "I am the angel Gabriel, the messenger of God," and
he led Abraham to a spring of water near by, and Abraham washed his
face and his hands and feet, and he prayed to God, bowing down and
prostrating himself.
Meantime the mother of Abraham thought of him in sorrow and tears, and
she went forth from the city to seek him in the cave in which she had
abandoned him. Not finding her son, she wept bitterly, and said, "Woe
unto me that I bore thee but to become a prey of wild beasts, the bears
and the lions and the wolves!" She went to the edge of the valley, and
there she found her son. But she did not recognize him, for he had
grown very large. She addressed the lad, "Peace be with thee!" and he
returned, "With thee be peace!" and he continued, "Unto what purpose
didst thou come to the desert?" She replied, "I went forth from the
city to seek my son." Abraham questioned further, "Who brought thy son
hither?" and the mother replied thereto: "I had become pregnant from my
husband Terah, and when the days of my delivery were fulfilled, I was
in anxiety about my son in my womb, lest our king come, the son of
Canaan, and slay him as he had slain the seventy thousand other men
children. Scarcely had I reached the cave in this valley when the
throes of travailing seized me, and I bore a son, whom I left behind in
the cave, and I went home again. Now am I come to seek him, but I find
him not."