discourse on the vanity of idol-worship and the evil of serving the
godless tyrant Nimrod. And Noah and Shem supported him.
Then Terah, who grieved over the death of his son Haran, consented to
all that Abraham had said, and he went forth with Abraham and his wife
Sarah, and Lot his grandson, the son of Haran, and all his household,
and they settled at Charan, where the land was fruitful and well
watered. The dwellers in Charan associated themselves with Abraham, who
instructed them in the knowledge and fear of the Lord.
2. THE CALL OF ABRAHAM, AND THE VISIT TO EGYPT.
For three years Abraham dwelt in Charan, till God called him to go
further with his wife Sarah, and to take up his abode in Canaan; but
Terah and Lot remained at Charan. Abraham reached Canaan and pitched
his tent among the inhabitants of that land; and on the spot where
God promised that He would give him all that pleasant country for his
inheritance, he erected an altar to the Eternal One.
For fifteen years he had dwelt in Canaan, and Abraham was now aged 70,
when, on the 15th day of the first month (Nisan), on the self-same day
on which, in after years, the children of Israel went out of Egypt,
the voice of God came to him saying, “I am the Lord that brought
thee out of the furnace of Chaldæa; to thee will I give this land to
inherit it.” And he said, “Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall
inherit it? Shall my descendants be faithful and true, and serve Thee
the living God, or will they rebel against God, against Thee, as did
the men before the Flood, and as did the men of Shinar who builded the
tower?”
Then God bade him take an heifer of three years old, or a she-goat of
three years old, and a ram, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. And
he took all these and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece
one against another; but the birds divided he not.[304] And God said to
him, “When, in after days, thy descendants shall build me a temple, in
it shall these five kinds of victims be offered to me.”
“But,” said Abraham, “should the temple be destroyed, what then shall
they do?”
“Then,” answered the Most Holy, “They shall offer to me in spirit, and
I will pardon their sins.” The beasts and birds also signified the
races over which his seed was to reign; the beasts he divided, and they
betokened the Gentile races, from which they were to purge away their
idolatry; but _the birds divided he not_; for the birds signified the
elect nation.
Then came ravens and vultures down upon the carcases, but Abraham drove
them away (ver. 11); a symbol of the protection which God would accord
to the people, for His promise sake, and the sake of their father
Abraham, when the powers of evil, or mighty princes, menaced them.
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham (ver.
12), and he saw the four realms,--the horror-awakening Babylonian,
Medo-Persian, Syro-Grecian, and Roman empires. And God said to Abraham
(ver. 13), “_Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a
land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict
them four hundred years._ But in the fourth generation thy seed shall
come hither again, after I have plagued the nation that has held them
in bondage with 250 plagues.”
“Is this decree spoken to punish me for my crimes?” asked Abraham.
“No,” answered the Almighty: “_Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace;
thou shalt be buried in a good old age_ (ver. 15); and Terah, who now
bewails his former idolatry, has a share in the eternal happiness; also
Ishmael, thy son, who shall be born to thee, will, in thy lifetime,
repent and return to good, and the profanity of thy grandson Esau shalt
thou not see.”
And when the sun was set, it was dark, and the various periods of
futurity passed before the eyes of the seer. He beheld _a smoking
furnace_ (ver. 17); this was the flaming Gehinom, Hell, where sinners
shall expiate their iniquities. Then he saw _a burning lamp_: that was
the Law given on Sinai, and it _passed between those pieces_; that is,
he saw Israel go through the Red Sea.
Then said the voice of God to the patriarch, “I have showed thee the
Temple-worship, Law, Bondage, and Hell. I must tell thee that in the
times to come, through the sins of thy children, the Temple will be
destroyed, and the Law will be disregarded.
“Choose now, whether thou wilt have for their punishment, Bondage or
Hell.”
And Abraham after long hesitation answered, “I choose Hell;” for he
thought, “It is better to fall into the hands of God, than into the
hands of men.”
But the Lord answered and said, “Not so; thou hast chosen wrongly, for
from Bondage there will come deliverance, but from Gehinom, never.”
After that, Abraham returned to the land of Charan, and dwelt there
many years; and he instructed the men, and Sarah the women, in the true
religion. And when his father Terah was dead, God called him again, and
bade him go forth to the land which God had promised him; and he went
obediently, and Lot his brother’s son accompanied him. And he reached
the land of Canaan, and pitched first his wife’s tent, and then his
own, on the plain between Gerizim and Ebal; and he erected three altars
in thanks to God for His call, for His having brought him into the
promised land, and for having cast down his enemies before him. Then he
went south, and pitched on the spot where stands Jerusalem.
And now a famine came upon the land; this was the third famine since
the world was formed, and it was sent to prove Abraham. He murmured
not, but went down with Sarah his wife, and his servants.
When he reached the River of Egypt (Wadi el Arisch), Abraham rested
some days. As Abraham and Sarah walked together by the water-side,
Abraham saw for the first time, reflected in the water, the beauty of
Sarah; for he was so modest that he had never lifted his eyes to her
face, and knew not what she was like, till he saw her in the water.
Then, when he saw how beautiful she was, he persuaded her to pass as
his sister in Egypt, for he feared lest he should be slain for her
sake; but as a further precaution he shut her up in a chest.
On the frontier, the Custom-house officers insisted on his paying
the customs, due for the box, and required that it should be opened.
Abraham offered to pay for the box as if it contained gold dust or
gems, if only they would not enforce their right of search.
“Does it contain silk?” asked the officers.
“I will pay the tenth, as of silk,” he answered.
“Does it contain silver?” they further asked.
“I will pay for it as silver.”
“Nay, then it must contain gold.”
“I will pay for it as gold.”
“Maybe it contains the most rare and costly gems.”
“I will pay for it as for gems.”
In the altercation the chest was violently broken open, and lo! in
it was seated a beautiful woman, so beautiful that her countenance
illumined all Egypt; and the news reached the ears of Pharaoh. All this
occurred in the night of the 15th of the month Nisan.
Abraham and Sarah were sorely troubled, and prayed to God to protect
them. Then the angel of the Lord was sent to watch over Sarah, and the
angel comforted her with these words, “Fear not; God has heard thy
petitions!”
Pharaoh asked Sarah who that man was who accompanied her, and when she
answered “My brother,” Pharaoh bade him to be brought before him, and
he gave him rich gifts.
And Pharaoh asked Abraham, “Who is this woman?” He answered “She is my
sister.” This say the Mussulmans, is the _third_ lie that Abraham told;
but it was not a lie, but a justifiable falsehood.
Pharaoh was filled with love for Sarah, and he offered her as his
present for her hand, all his possessions of gold and silver and
slaves, and the land of Goshen. And when he pressed his suit upon her
with great vehemence, she cried to God and told him she was already
married; then he was smitten with paralysis, and great plagues
afflicted all his servants. But Pharaoh sent for Abraham, and returned
him Sarah, his wife, and dismissed him with costly presents, and he
gave to Sarah also his daughter, Hagar, to be her servant.
“Truly, my daughter, it is better,” said Pharaoh, “to be servant in
a house which God has taken under His protection, than to command
elsewhere.”
After a three months’ sojourn in Egypt, Abraham returned to Canaan.
According to Tabari, Hagar loved Sarah greatly. On their way back to
Canaan the provisions failed, and Abraham went out one day to get food,
with a sack on his back; but the day was hot, so that he laid down and
went to sleep. He did not awake till evening, and then he returned, but
was ashamed to appear with the sack empty before his wife, so he filled
it with sand. On reaching the tent he put the sack under his head and
went to sleep again. Very early in the morning Sarah said to Hagar,
“What has Abraham in his sack? open it and look.” So Hagar untied it,
put in her hand and drew out flour. She and Sarah baked cakes of the
flour, and woke Abraham and bade him eat. Then, full of wonder, he
asked where they had obtained meal. They told him, and he understood
that God had wrought a miracle.[305]
Now Abraham’s flocks and herds, and those of Lot, pastured together.
Abraham’s cattle were muzzled that they should not feed in the lands of
the neighbouring people; but Lot’s cattle were not muzzled. And when
Abraham’s shepherds complained of this to those of Lot, the latter
answered, “Your master is old, and has no children; soon he will die,
and then all will belong to our master Lot.”
But Abraham spake to Lot and said, “Thy ways and my ways do not agree:
we must part; do thou go to the left, and I will go to the right.” So
they separated; and Lot departed from Abraham, and from the way of
righteousness, and from the living God; but Abraham camped in Mamre.
3. THE WAR WITH THE KINGS.
After the failure of the Tower of Babel, and the people had been
scattered over the whole earth, Chedorlaomer, one of Nimrod’s chief
captains, had left his service, and had established a kingdom of his
own in Elam. He speedily brought into subjection all the Canaanitish
peoples that dwelt in the fertile valley of Jordan,--Sodom, Gomorrah,
Admah, Zebojim, and Zoar, and made them tributary to himself. These
cities bore his yoke for twelve years, and then they rebelled. Five
years after did Nimrod, who is also called Amraphel in the sacred
text,[306] march against Chedorlaomer, but Nimrod was defeated, along
with his allies, Arioch, king of Ellasar, and Tidal, king of many
confederate nations; and obliged to enter into alliance with his former
general, Chedorlaomer, and agree to assist him in bringing back the
revolted cities--Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zebojim, and Zoar--to their
allegiance.
Consequently a huge army of confederates, under Chedorlaomer, Nimrod or
Amraphel, Arioch, and Tidal, overran the plain and valley of Jordan,
and slew all the giants that were there. The country before them was a
garden, and behind them it was a desert.
They resolved also to defeat, and utterly to destroy Abraham, the
servant of the Most High; for Nimrod (Amraphel) remembered the perils
to which his soothsayers had assured him he was exposed so long as
Abraham lived.
The rulers of the five cities--Bera (Ruffian), king of Sodom; Birsha
(Evil-doer), king of Gomorrah; Shirrab (Covetous one), king of Admah;
Shemeber (the Strong one), king of Zebojim; and the king (a nameless
one) of Bela (the engulfing city)--went forth in battle array, and
met the host of Chedorlaomer in the great plain of Siddim, from whose
canals and fountains the Salt Sea, or Dead Sea, was afterwards formed;
and there they were utterly routed, and fled in precipitate haste to
the mountains and to the desert.
The king of Sodom alone escaped unharmed of all the five kings, by a
miracle which God wrought, to exhibit His power to the dwellers in the
plain, who had begun to doubt the truth of Abraham’s deliverance out of
the burning, fiery furnace.
The conquerors took the spoils of Sodom, and carried away Lot, who was
like Abraham in face, thinking that they had taken Abraham captive; and
they placed him in chains.
Abraham was, in prophetic spirit, performing all the sacred rites, and
preparing the unleavened cakes for the Paschal feast, for it was the
Eve of the Passover, when the only giant who escaped the overthrow of
the Rephaim by Chedorlaomer and his confederate kings,--Og, who was
afterwards king of Basan, and who had been saved alive in the Flood of
Noah,--came in haste to announce to the Patriarch the captivity of Lot.
Now Og had long cast his lustful eyes on Sarah, and he thought in his
heart, “This Abraham is full of fire and zeal, like a sportsman; that
I know well. He will rush into battle to deliver his kinsman Lot, and
will perish; and then Sarah, his beautiful wife, will be mine.”
But, according to another version, it was the angel Michael who brought
the news to Abraham; and to another, it was Oni, one of the slaves
Nimrod had given him, and who had been sent to observe the progress of
the war.
No sooner had Abraham heard the tidings than, filled with anxiety on
Lot’s behalf, and with sympathy for the Sodomites, his neighbors, he
called all his neighbors together, and all those who had followed him,
and in earnest words exhorted them to prepare to fight and rescue Lot.
But they, knowing the disparity of numbers, would make no promise;
then he threatened them, but could not persuade them to join in what
they regarded as an infatuated course certain to lead to destruction.
Consequently Abraham was obliged to go against the enemy with only his
own servants. But as they neared the plain, and saw the devastations
wrought by the host of Chedorlaomer, they also slipped away in the
night, and Abraham was left alone with Eliezer, his trusty slave, and
his three friends Aner, Eshcol, Mamre. And he followed after the foe,
as they retired with their spoil, till he reached one of the fountains
of Jordan, which is named Paneas, or Dan.
Here his three friends forsook him, along with their wives, who had
accompanied them thus far.
It was the night of the 15th Nisan, the self-same night in which in
after-years the first-born of Egypt would be slain; and Abraham’s
heart fainted as he overtook the mighty host, and saw that they were
countless as the sands of the sea-shore, and as grasshoppers for number.
But lo! God fought for Abraham. The grass-blades changed into swords,
and the stubble into spears, and battled all that night; and in the
morning, when he looked upon the host, they were all dead corpses. Thus
he delivered Lot and all the captives, men, women, and children, and
the spoil that had been carried away; and none stayed them, for all
their foes lay dead upon the ground.
The King of Sodom came forth to meet Abraham, full of pride of heart
because he had been miraculously delivered, and attributing all the
glory of the victory to Divine interposition on his own behalf. But
all the people knew that Abraham was the favored of God, and their
deliverer, and they built a throne of the trees that covered the
plain, and which had been burnt in the war, and set Abraham as their
prince and king thereon; therefore is that place called to this day,
“The king’s dale.”[307]
But Abraham was little pleased with this exhibition of honor, and
he thought upon what he had learnt of old from that aged man, Shem,
consecrated by God to be His priest, when he fled to him in his cave
from the tyranny of Nimrod.
Shem reigned now in the city of Salem, which was in later years called
Jerusalem, and from his righteous government he was named Melchizedek
(king of righteousness). And Abraham thought, “Will Shem ever forgive
me for having drawn the sword against his grandsons, the sons of Elam?”
But Shem was of no less noble and considerate temper than Abraham; and
he mused within himself, and said, “What sort of opinion can Abraham
have formed of me, that such godless and violent hosts should have
sprung from my loins, and have devastated the fair plain of Jordan, and
carried away captive even his near kinsman!”
Then Shem full of noble resolution to reconcile himself with Abraham,
rose up and went forth, bearing bread and wine as tokens of friendship.
The words of God flowed from his mouth; he instructed Abraham in all
that appertained to the high priest’s office, which was in future
times to belong to his family; and before he left, he blessed Abraham
with these words, “_Blessed be Abraham of the most high God, possessor
of heaven and earth; and blessed be the most high God, which hath
delivered thine enemies into thy hand._”[308]
But in so saying, Melchizedek erred grievously, for he blessed Abraham
before he blessed God, and the Creator should be blessed first, and the
creature blessed afterwards; therefore the high priesthood was taken
from him, and given to Aaron in after-times.
Of all the spoil which Abraham had taken, he separated a tenth part,
and he gave it to Melchizedek, as the offering due to the priest, and
this was the first tithe paid in the history of the world. All the
booty of Sodom Abraham returned to the king thereof, and he took an
oath, “_I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and I
will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou should say, I have
made Abraham rich, save only that which the young men have eaten, and
the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let
them take their portion._”[309]
On account of this unselfishness, the remembrance of which was to be
continued through all generations, God gave the descendants of Abraham
maxims to be written on their phylacteries and shoe-latchets; and the
promise was made, “_Over Edom will I cast out my shoe_;”[310] that is,
Edom, the most cruel oppressor of the chosen people, should fall under
the condemnation of the Most High.
The end of Nimrod and his confederate kings is related with greater
fulness by the Mussulman historians.
According to Tabari, God sent an army of flies against the host of
Chedorlaomer and Nimrod, and these flies attacked the soldiers in their
faces; and the flies were so numerous that the soldiers could not
see one another; and the horses stung by them went mad, and leaped,
and fell; so that, what with the horses and the flies, the army was
entirely dispersed. Nimrod escaped to Babylon, but he was pursued by
the meanest of the gnats of that host; it was blind of one eye and lame
of one leg. When Nimrod sat down on his throne, the gnat settled upon
his knee. Then the tyrant smote at it; and it rose, flew up one of his
nostrils and entered his brain, which it began to devour.
Nimrod beat his face and his head, and when he did so the fly ceased
gnawing at his brain, but he had no repose from his agonies save when
struck upon the head. Consequently there was, after that, always
some one stationed by him to strike his head. The king had a large
blacksmith’s hammer brought into his throne-room, and with that his
princes and nobles smote him on the head; and the more violent the
blow, the greater was the relief afforded. Nimrod reigned a thousand
years before he felt the torment of the gnat; up to that moment he had
suffered no pains. He lived for five hundred years with the fly eating
at his brain; and all that while, night and day, there were relays of
men to strike his head with the hammer.[311]
Precisely the same story is told by the Jewish Rabbis of Titus.[312]
There is, however, another version of the tradition; which is, that
the gnat fattening on the brain grew in size till it swelled to the
dimensions of a pigeon, and then the skull of Nimrod burst, and the
gnat flew away; and this was fifteen days after it had entered by his
nose.[313]
More shall be told of Melchizedek in a separate article.
4. THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL.
Ten years passed, and yet Sarah was barren. Abraham, in sore distress,
prayed to God, and reminded Him of His promises. Sarah then said to
Abraham, “God has refused me children, therefore take Hagar to wife,
the daughter of Pharaoh, who was given to be my servant; I give her
thee in all good-will, that my reproach may be taken away, and to her I
give her freedom.”
Abraham consented; but Hagar, who had been virtuously brought up by
Sarah, objected modestly, till Sarah pointed out to her how great an
honor it would be to be the concubine of such a holy man.
But no sooner was Hagar installed as second wife, and felt in herself
that she was about to become a mother, than her character changed; she
assumed the pre-eminence, and cast bitter words in the teeth of her
mistress. “What,” said she, “can Sarah be so holy and beloved of God,
and He has never given her her heart’s desire?”
Sarah was stung to the quick by these words of her former slave. She
turned to her husband and said, “I demand of thee my rights. For thee
I forsook my father’s house, and followed thee into a strange land;
for thee I passed myself off in Egypt as thy sister. And now what hast
thou done? Thou hast suffered my slave to assume the chief place in
the house, and to take upon herself airs, and thou holdest thy peace.
Depend upon it, if she bear thee a son there will be no peace in the
house, for she is a daughter of Pharaoh, who is of the race of Nimrod,
who cast thee into the furnace of fire.”
“Hagar is in thy power,” answered Abraham; “but do her no harm. After
thou gavest her her freedom, she may not again be brought into bondage.”
But Sarah paid no attention to these words of gentleness, and treated
Hagar with such cruelty, beat her, and cast an evil eye on her, so that
she was delivered before her time of a dead child, and she fled for her
life from the house.
The All-Righteous, for this offence, shortened Sarah’s life, and made
her die thirty-eight years before her husband.
Angels appeared to Hagar in the desert by the well of water whither she
had fled, and bade her return to Abraham. So she went back, and was
again pregnant, and bore a son, and called his name Ishmael.
5. THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH.
At noon on the 15th Nisan, the third day after the circumcision of
Abraham, as recorded in the Book of Genesis, the heat of the sun was
so great that Gehinom (Hell) was penetrated by it. And Abraham had not
recovered the administration of the rite, which had been performed by
the hands of Shem, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God.
Abraham was wont every day to go forth and invite any travellers he
might see to feast with him. But this day, owing to the heat and to
his being in pain, he sent Eliezer, his servant, forth, who looked and
returned and said that there was no one to be seen.
But Abraham thought, “Can I trust the words of this slave, and neglect
for one day the performance of my accustomed hospitality?”
Then, notwithstanding the heat and his suffering, he went and sat in
the shade of the door, and he beheld in the plain of Mamre the glory
of the Lord that appeared. Abraham would have risen, but the voice
of God called to him, saying, “Remain where thou art, and let thy
pious, sitting posture teach future generations in their prayer and
instruction to be seated; and let judges, in delivering judgment,
occupy the same position.”
Then Abraham lifted his eyes, and beheld three men, who seemed to
approach and then to withdraw. These were the angels Michael, Raphael,
and Gabriel, sent to him with messages, whereof each bore one. They
now stood before Abraham’s tent, and they came to satisfy his desire
to show hospitality: but when they observed the predicament in which
he was, they attempted to withdraw, but Abraham supposed them to be
travellers of the three neighboring races of Saracens, Nabathæans,
and Arabians; and as two of the angels were smaller of stature than
the third, who stood in the middle--this was Michael--Abraham supposed
him to be their chief; and he rose and bowed himself before him, and
said to the Majesty of God which still shone, “If I have found favor in
Thy sight, O Lord, may Thy majesty not depart from me whilst I receive
hospitably these wanderers.” And the Lord granted his request.
Then said Abraham to the men, “_Let a little water, I pray you, be
fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I
will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye
shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant._”