feet,” was, that he supposed the men were idolaters, and he would not
have the dust from the feet of idolaters to pollute the floor of his
tent.
And they said, “Do so.”
Then Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “_Make ready
quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the
hearth._” And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf which he
had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the
tree, and they did eat.
Abraham placed butter and milk on the table first, then calves’
tongues, then the other dishes, and lastly Sarah’s cakes; but some
commentators doubt whether the men ate the cakes. It is asserted by
some that the angels only appeared to eat, but by others we are assured
that to reward Abraham’s hospitality they really did eat, and this was
the only occasion on which angels tasted the food of earth.
The angels, knowing that Sarah was within the tent, asked after her.
And this betokens her great modesty, that she did not thrust herself
forward to be seen of strange visitors. Abraham replied that she was
within, engaged in women’s household work. Then said Michael, the chief
of the angels, “Truly shall such pious and seemly habits not pass
unrewarded; but Sarah shall bloom again as fair as in her youth, and
shall bear a son in her old age.”
Sarah heard these words at the entrance of the tent; so did Ishmael,
who stood near. Sarah stepped behind the angel, but the beauty of
her countenance shone before her, and the angel turned to look at
her, and then he saw she was laughing to herself, and saying, “I am
good-looking, and smart dresses become me; I could perfectly well
produce a son, but then my husband is old.”
Then the word of God came to Abraham, and said, “_Wherefore did Sarah
laugh?_ Am I, the all-powerful God, too old to create miracles? _At
the appointed time Sarah shall have a son._” To Sarah, who, out of
fear, denied having laughed, the word came, “Fear not, _but thou didst
laugh_.”
Then Michael withdrew, for his mission was accomplished; and left the
other two, Gabriel and Raphael, with Abraham. Then God revealed to
Abraham, by Gabriel, that He was about to destroy the cities of the
plain; and by Raphael, that He would deliver Lot and his family in the
overthrow.
These cities were very guilty before God. Eliezer, having been sent by
Sarah to her brother Lot with a message, some years before, arrived
in Sodom. An acquaintance invited him to a meal. But hospitality was
a virtue abhorred in Sodom, and the news of the invitation having got
wind, Eliezer’s friend was driven out of the city. Now it was a custom
in Sodom to make every stranger arriving within the walls rest in a
certain bed; and if the bed proved too long for him, his legs were
pulled out to fit it; and if it proved too short, his legs were pared
down to its dimensions. Eliezer saw with horror what it was that they
purposed to do with him, and he had recourse to a lie of necessity; he
declined to sleep in the bed, because he had taken an oath upon the
death of his mother never to lie on a bed again; and thus he escaped.
Shortly after, having seen a Sodomite rob a poor stranger of his
garment, Eliezer attempted to interfere, but the robber struck him over
the head and made a gash, from which he lost much blood. Both being
brought before the judge, this was the magistrate’s decision:--That
Eliezer was indebted to the Sodomite robber for having bled him. The
servant of Abraham thereupon took up a large stone, flung it at the
judge’s head, which he cut open, and said, “Now, pay me for having bled
thee!” and then he fled out of the city.
From these incidents it maybe seen how wicked the city was.
Now Abraham had interceded with God to spare the cities of the plain,
for the intercession of His saints is mighty with God. And Abraham
had obtained of God that if in Zoar, the smallest of the cities,
five righteous could be found, and forty-five in all the rest of the
country, God would spare them. Then God ceased talking with Abraham.
Next morning early, Abraham arose and took his staff, and went to the
place where God had met him, to make further intercession for the
cities of the plain, but the smoke of them rose as from a furnace, for
brimstone and fire had been rained upon them out of heaven, and they
had been consumed along with their inhabitants. Only Zoar was spared,
as a place of refuge for Lot, and Lot was kept alive and his daughters;
for God remembered how he had been true to Abraham in Egypt, and had
not betrayed the truth about Sarah when questioned by Pharaoh.
The Mussulman tradition is as follows:--
Lot, whom the Arabs called Loth, was sent by God as a prophet to
convince the inhabitants of the cities of the plain of their ungodly
deeds. But, though he preached for twenty years, he could not convince
them. And whenever he visited Abraham he complained to him of the
iniquity of the people. But Abraham urged him to patience.
At length the long-suffering of God was exhausted, and He sent
the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Azrael, armed with the sword of
destruction, against these cities.
They came to Abraham, who received them, and slaughtered a calf, and
prepared meat and set it before them. But they would not eat. And he
pressed them, and ate himself; but they would not eat, being angels.
Then Abraham’s color went and he was afraid, for to refuse to eat with
a man is a token that you seek his life.
Seeing him discouraged, the angels announced their mission. But Sarah,
observing her husband’s loss of color, laughed and said in her heart,
“Why is he fearful, being surrounded with many servants and faithful
friends?”
Now the angels promised to Abraham a son in his old age, and that they
would rescue Lot in the overthrow of Sodom. Then they rose up and went
on their way, and entered into Sodom; and they met a young maiden in
the street, and asked her the way to Lot’s house.
She answered, “He is my father, and I dwell with him; but know you
not, O strangers, that it is against the laws of this city to show
hospitality?”
But they answered her, “Fear not; lead us to thy father.”
So she led them, and ran before and told Lot, “Behold three men come
seeking thee and asking shelter, and they are beautiful as the angels
of God.”
Then Lot went out to them, and told them the city was full of
wickedness, and that hospitality was not permitted.
But they answered, “We must tarry this night in thy house.” Then he
admitted them, and he hid them. But Lot’s wife was an infidel, a native
of Sodom; and finding that he lodged these strangers, she hastened to
the chief men of the city and said, “My husband has violated your laws,
and the customs of this people; he has housed travellers, and will feed
them and show them all courtesy.”
Therefore the men of the city came tumultuously to the door of Lot’s
house, to bring forth the men that were come to him, and to cast them
out of the city, having shamefully entreated them. They would not
listen to the remonstrances of Lot, but went near to break in his door.
Then the three angels stepped forth and passed their hands over the
faces of all who drew near, and they were struck blind, and fled from
their presence.
Now, long before the day began to break, the angels rose up and called
Lot, his wife and daughters, and bade them take their clothes and all
that they had that was most precious, and escape out of the city.
Therefore Lot and his family went forth.
And when they were escaped, the angel Gabriel went through the cities,
and passed his wing over the soil on which they were built, and the
cities were carried up into heaven; and they came so near thereto that
those on the confines of heaven could hear the crowing of the cocks
in Sodom, and the barking of the dogs in Gomorrah. And then they were
overthrown, so that their foundations were towards the sky and their
roofs towards the earth. And God rained on them stones heated in the
fire of hell; and on each stone was written the name of him whom it was
destined to slay. Now there were many natives of these accursed cities
in other parts of the land, and where they were, there they were sought
out by the red-hot stones, and were struck down. But some were within
the sacred enclosure of the temple at Mecca, and the stones waited for
them in the air; and at the expiration of forty days they came forth,
and as they came forth the stones whistled through the air, and smote
them, and they were slain.
Now Lot’s wife turned, as she went forth, to look back upon the city,
and a stone fell on her, and she died.[314]
It is related further of Lot that, after he had escaped, he committed
in ignorance a very great sin; and Abraham sent him to expiate his
crime to the sources of the Nile, to fetch thence three sorts of wood,
which he named to him. Abraham thought, “He will be slain by ravenous
beasts, and so will he atone for the sin that he has committed.”
But Lot after a while returned, bringing with him the woods which
Abraham had demanded--a cypress plant, a young cedar, and a young pine.
Abraham planted the three trees in the shape of a triangle, on a
mountain, and charged Lot with watering them every day from Jordan.
Now the mountain was twenty-four thousand paces from Jordan, and this
penance was laid on Lot to expiate his sin.
At the end of three months the trees blossomed; Lot announced this to
Abraham, who visited the spot, and saw to his surprise that the three
trees had grown together to form one trunk, but with three distinct
roots of different natures.
At the sight of this miracle he bowed his face to the ground and said,
“This tree will abolish sin.”
And by that he knew that God had pardoned Lot.
The tree grew and subsisted till the reign of Solomon, when it was cut
down, and this was the tree which the Jews employed to form the Cross
of Christ.[315]
This tradition is, of course, Christian; though Jewish in origin, it
has been adapted to the Gospel story.
6. THE BIRTH OF ISAAC.
The country was wasted; travellers were few; those who passed by, and
accepted Abraham’s hospitality, spoke with scorn of the sin of Lot, his
nephew; and the neighborhood became intolerable to the patriarch, who
resolved to change his place of residence for a while.
He therefore went south, between Kadesh and Sur, and dwelt in Gerar.
Now Sarah had bloomed again as fair as in her youth, as the angel
Michael had foretold; and Abraham persuaded her to pretend again to be
his sister, though Sarah, remembering the ill-success of this deceit
before, hesitated to comply.
Abimelech, king of Gerar, hearing of Sarah’s beauty, sent for her to
his palace. He asked Abraham, “Who is this woman?” and he answered,
“She is my sister.” Then Abimelech inquired of the camels and of the
asses, and they answered the same, “She is his sister.” But that same
evening, as it grew towards dusk, as he sat on his throne, he fell
asleep; and in dream saw an angel of God approach him with a drawn
sword in his hand to slay him. The king in his dream cried out to know
why he was doomed to death; and the angel answered, “Because thou hast
received into thy house the wife of another man, the mistress of a
house.”
Abimelech excused himself, saying that Abraham had concealed the truth
from him, and had said Sarah was his sister.
“The All-Holy knows that thou hast sinned in ignorance,” said the
angel; “but is it seemly, when strangers enter thy land, to be
questioning closely into their connections? Know that Abraham is a
prophet, and foreseeing that thy people would entreat his wife ill, he
resolved to call her his sister, and he knew, being a prophet, that
thou couldst not harm her.”[316]
That night--it was the Paschal eve--the angel with the drawn sword
traversed all the streets of the city, and closed the wombs of those
about to bear.
Next morning early, while it was yet dark, Abimelech sent for Abraham
and Sarah, and gave Sarah back to her husband, and paid him a thousand
ounces of silver, and to Sarah he gave a costly robe, which might
conceal her from her eyes to her feet, that none might henceforth be
bewitched by her beauty. “But,” said Abimelech to Abraham, “because
thou didst deceive me and blind my eyes with a lie, therefore thou
shalt bear a son, whose eyes shall be dim so that he shall be
deceived.” And Abraham prayed to the Lord, and all the woman that were
with child in Gerar were delivered of men-children, without the pangs
of maternity, and those who were barren felt themselves with child.
The angel hosts besought the Lord to look upon Sarah, and to remember
His covenant. “O Lord of the whole world! Thou didst hear the cry of
Abraham, and grant his petitions when he prayed for the barren women
of Gerar; and his own wife, from whom Thou didst promise him a son,
is unfruitful and despised. Does it beseem a Lord, when he prepares a
fleet, to free his subjects from pirates, but to leave the vessel of
his best friend in bondage?”
Now it was the first day of the seventh month, Tischri, the day on
which, at the close of the world’s history, the Lord will come to judge
the quick and the dead, that the Lord God remembered Sarah, and the
promise He had made, and looked upon her, and she conceived a son in
her old age, one year and four months after her sojourn in Gerar; and
nine months after, say some, but, say others, six months and two days
after; at mid-day say some, others say in the evening of the fifteenth
of Nisan; or, as others affirm, on the first of Nisan she was delivered
of a son, without suffering any pains in the bringing forth. And the
same time that Sarah’s womb was blessed, God looked upon many other
barren women and blessed them also; and on the day that the child was
born they were delivered likewise; and the blind saw, the dumb spake,
the deaf heard, and the lame walked, and the crazed recovered their
senses. Also, the sun shone forty-eight times brighter than he shines
at Midsummer, even with the splendor that he had on the day of his
creation.
And when eight days were accomplished, Abraham circumcised his son, and
called him Isaac.
But many thought it was an incredible thing that Abraham and Sarah
should have a son in their old age, and they said, “This is a
foundling, or it is the child of one of the slaves, which they pass off
as their own.” Now Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac
was weaned, and he invited thereto all the princes and great men of
the country. And there came Abimelech, king of Gerar, and Og, king of
Basan, and all the princes of Canaan, sixty-two princes in all. Such an
assembly was not seen before, yet all these princes fell in after-years
by the hands of Joshua.[317]
Of this feast it is related that Og’s companions said to him, “Do you
believe that that old mule, Abraham, can be the father of this child?”
Og replied with scorn, “I could crack this imp with the nail of my
little finger.”
Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, “Thou despisest this
little child, but know thou that tens of thousands shall spring from
his loins, and that before them thy pride shall be humbled.”
Also, Abraham’s ancestors, Shem and Eber, and his father,
Terah--though some say he was dead--and Nahor, Abraham’s brother,
attended the feast, and the Shekinah, the glory of the Lord, appeared
to grace it.
But Satan also appeared in the form of a poor beggar-man, and he
stood at the door and asked an alms. Now Abraham and Sarah were busy
attending to their guests, so they perceived him not, but the servants
thrust him away, and Satan received nothing; therefore he presented
himself before the Most High, and laid an accusation of inhospitality
and churlishness against the Friend of God.
In the mean time Sarah had assembled, and was entertaining all the
wives of the guests of Abraham. And it happened that the women found
that they had no milk in their bosoms to give their infants, and the
babes screamed that no one could hear the voice of another. The mothers
were in despair, for the children were hungry, and they were all dry.
Then Sarah uncovered her breasts, and there spirted from them jets of
milk, and all the babes were nourished at her bosom, and yet there was
more.
Now when they saw this, the women, who had doubted that the child was
really the offspring of Sarah, doubted no more, and cried, “We are not
worthy that our little ones should be nourished at thy bosom!” And
the story goes that all those who afterwards joined themselves to the
people of Israel, and all those in every nation who in after-times
became proselytes, were descended from those who sucked the breasts of
Sarah. In allusion to this incident it is said in the Book of Psalms:
“_Thou makest the barren woman to keep house, and to be the joyful
mother of_ (i. e., giving suck to) _children._”[318]
The child Isaac was shown to every visitor, and all were astonished at
his resemblance to Abraham. Both the babe and his father were so much
alike that it was impossible to distinguish one from the other, and all
doubt as to whose it was vanished before such evidence of likeness to
the father, and before the fulness of Sarah’s breasts. But as confusion
was likely to arise through the striking similarity between father and
son, Abraham besought God to give him wrinkles and white hair, that he
might not be mistaken for the babe Isaac, or the babe Isaac be mistaken
for him.[319]
7. THE EXPULSION OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL.
Ishmael grew up, and became skilful with his bow; he was rough and
undisciplined, and he occasionally lapsed into idolatry, but without
his father knowing it. But Sarah was aware of his sin, and was grieved
thereat.
Ishmael often boasted, “I am the eldest son, and I shall have a double
portion of my father’s inheritance.” These words were reported to
Sarah, and she hated Ishmael for them in her heart.
One day when Isaac was five years old, but others say fifteen, Ishmael
said to him, “Come forth into the field and let us shoot.” Isaac was
well pleased. And when they were in the field, Ishmael turned his bow
against his brother, but he did it in jest. Sarah saw him from the
tent door, and she ran out, and caught away her son Isaac, and she
went to Abraham and told him all the evil she knew of Ishmael; how he
had gone after idols and had learnt the ways of the Canaanites that
were in the land, how he had boasted of his majority, and how he had
sought Isaac’s life. And she said, “Give the maid-servant a writing of
divorcement, and send her away. _Cast out this bond-woman and her son;
for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with
Isaac._ Then she will no more vex Isaac. Do thou leave to Isaac all thy
possessions. Never shall Ishmael inherit any thing from thee, for he is
not my son.”
Abraham was grieved at heart, for he loved Ishmael his son, but nothing
that he said could alter Sarah’s determination. She insisted on the
expulsion of Hagar and her son, and she stirred up the wrath of Abraham
against Ishmael, because he had fallen into idolatry.
Sarah, say the Mussulmans, was so fierce in her jealousy, that she
would not be satisfied till she had washed her hands in the blood of
Hagar. Then Abraham quickly pierced Hagar’s ears, and drew a ring
through them, so that Sarah could fulfil her oath, without endangering
the life of Hagar.[320]
It was long before Abraham could be brought to consent to Sarah’s
desire, but God appeared to him in a dream and said, “Fear not to obey
the voice of Sarah, for she is the wife of thy youth, and was chosen
for thee from her mother’s womb. But Hagar is not thy wife; she is but
a bond-woman. Sarah also is a prophetess, and sees into things that
shall be in the latter days, further than thou. Unto Isaac and those of
his seed who believe in the Two Worlds are the promises made; and they
alone shall be accounted as thy seed.”[321]
Abraham now did what he was commanded. Next morning he gave Hagar a
writing of dismissal, and took twelve loaves of bread and a pitcher
of water, and laid them upon Hagar, for Sarah had cast an evil eye
upon Ishmael, so that he was ill, and unable to carry any burden. And
Abraham attached the pitcher by a cord to the hips of Hagar, that all
might know she was a slave, and the pitcher hung down and trailed on
the sand. Ishmael was sent away without garments; he went forth naked
as he came into the world: thus it may be seen how implacable was the
anger of Sarah, because he had boasted of his birthright, and the wrath
of Abraham, because he had fallen into idolatry.
But when they went along their way, Abraham looked after them for long,
standing in the door of his tent, for his bowels yearned after his son,
and he saw the trail in the sand of the water pitcher which Hagar had
dragged sadly along, and thereby Abraham knew the direction which they
had taken.
Now God forsook not the outcast in her affliction, but filled the
pitcher with water as fast as she and her son drank out of it, and the
water was always sweet and cold. Thus they penetrated the wilderness,
and there they lost their way, and Hagar forgot the God of Abraham, and
in her distress turned to the false gods of her father Pharaoh, and
besought their protection, for she said, “Where are the promises of the
God of Abraham, that of Ishmael would He make a great nation?”
Now Ishmael was sick of a burning fever, and the water in the pitcher
failed when Hagar forsook the God of Abraham. So she cast him under a
thorn bush, and went from him the space of two thousand ells, that she
might not hear his cries. But Ishmael prayed to the Lord God of Heaven
and Earth, and said, “O Lord God of my father Abraham! thou canst send
death in so many forms; take my life speedily or give me a drop of
water, that I suffer this agony no longer.”
And the Lord in His compassion heard the prayer of the weeping child,
and He sent His angel and showed Hagar that fountain which He had
created on the sixth day at dusk, and of which the children of Israel
were destined to drink when they came forth out of Egypt.
But the accusing angel murmured against this judgment of God, and said,
“O Lord of the whole earth! shall this one, of whom a nation of robbers
shall arise, who will war upon thine elect people, and be a scourge
upon the face of the earth, shall he be delivered now, and given to
drink of a fountain destined for thine elect?”
The Lord answered, “Is the youth guilty, or is he not guilty?”
The angel answered, “He is not himself guilty, but his posterity will
sin.”
Then God said, “I punish men for what they have done, and not for what
their children will do. Ishmael hath not merited a death of suffering,
therefore shall he not die.” And God opened the eyes of Hagar, and she
saw the spring of water, and filled her pitcher, and took it to Ishmael
to drink. She filled the pitcher before she gave her son a draught of
water, for she had little faith, and thought that the fountain would be
withdrawn before she could return to it again.
Then Ishmael was strengthened and could go, and he and his mother went
further, and were fed by the shepherds; and they reached Paran, and
there they found springs of water, and they settled there. Ishmael took
a wife, a daughter of Moab, named Aischa, or Aifa, or Asiah; but others
say she was an Egyptian woman, and was named Meriba (the quarrelsome),
and by her he had four sons and one daughter.
Ishmael lived a wandering life in tents with his wife and cattle; and
the Lord blessed his flocks, and he had great possessions. But his
heart remained the same; and he was a master of archery, and instructed
his neighbors in making bows.
After three years, Abraham, whose heart longed after his son, said to
Sarah, “I must see how my son Ishmael fares.” And she answered, “Thou
shalt go if thou wilt swear to me not to alight from off thy camel,”
for she hated Hagar, and feared to suffer her husband to meet her once
more. So Abraham swore. Then he went to Paran, over the desert, seeking
Ishmael’s tent; and he reached it at noon, but neither Hagar nor her
son were at home. Only Ishmael’s wife was within, and she was scolding
and beating the children.
So Abraham halted on his camel before the tent door, and the sun was
hot in the blue sky above, and the sand was white and glaring beneath.
And he called to her, “Is thy husband within?”
She answered, without rising from her seat, “He is hunting.” Or, say
others, she said without looking at him or rising, “He is gathering
dates.”
Then Abraham said, “I am faint and hungry; bring me a little bread and
a drop of water.”
But the woman answered, “I have none for such as thee.”