Abraham, how on earth a man can hallow My great name, and devote his
best and dearest to My service; see that, ye, who at the creation
exclaimed, _What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of
man that thou so regardest him?_”
Then He ordered Michael to fly swiftly, and stay the hand of Abraham.
And the archangel, when he came near, cried aloud, “Abraham! Abraham!
what doest thou?”
Abraham looked in the direction of the voice, in doubt, and said,
“_Here am I._”
Then said the angel, “_Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou
any thing unto him_.”
And Abraham said, “Who art thou?”
Michael told him who he was. Then said Abraham, “The Most High appeared
to me in a vision, and bade me take my son as a whole offering to the
place which He should say, and I may take no command from a servant of
God, against that which God Himself hath laid upon me.”
Then heaven opened, and he saw the glory of God, and God said to him,
“_Touch not the lad to do him harm, for now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me_.”
And Abraham said, “How is this, O Lord! that Thou changest Thy purpose,
and sayest one day, Do this, and the next, Do it not?”
And the Lord answered, and said, “I said not unto thee, Slay the lad as
a burnt offering, but I said, Take thy son to the place that I shall
tell thee, as a whole burnt offering. This hast thou done; thou hast
fulfilled My command, I exact no more of thee. I change not my purpose,
but I did suffer thee to misunderstand the purport of My command, and
to think that I exacted more of thee; and this I did to prove thee. And
now, _by Myself have I sworn; for because thou hast done this thing,
and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will
bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of
the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed
shall possess the gate of his enemies._”
Then Isaac revived, and Abraham cut his cords, and he stood up and
said, “Praised be the eternal One, who quickeneth those that be dead.”
And Abraham turned to the Shekinah and said, “Lord! how shall I depart
hence without having offered to Thee a sacrifice?” The Lord answered,
“Lift thine eyes, and thou shalt see a beast for sacrifice behind thee.”
In the thicket of the wood was that ram which God created at dusk on
the sixth day, that it might serve this purpose. An angel had brought
it out of Paradise, where it had lived since its creation, and had fed
under the shadow of the Tree of Life, and had drunk of the River that
there flows. And when the ram was brought into this earth, all the
earth was filled with the fragrance from its fleece, on which hung the
odors of the flowers on which it had lain in Paradise.
But by Satan’s fraud, the animal was frightened and strayed away, and
Abraham tracked it by its foot-prints. Then Satan decoyed the beast
behind some bushes and entangled its horns in the thicket; and Abraham
would have passed by, and not seen it, but the ram caught him by his
cloak. So Abraham slew it, and offered it in sacrifice, and sprinkled
with its blood the altar he had made.
Now the Last Trumpets that shall sound, the one to call the just, the
other the unjust, are made of the horns of this wondrous ram.
11. THE DEATH OF SARAH.
Sarah,--who, as we have seen, accompanied Abraham and Isaac part of the
way to Moriah,--on her return to the tent, found an old man awaiting
her. It was Satan.
He greeted her with profound respect, and asked after her husband and
son.
She answered that they had gone forth on a journey.
“Whither have they gone?” asked Satan.
“My lord has gone to visit the school of Shem and Eber, our grandsires,
there to leave my son Isaac to be instructed in the law of God.”
“Alas! alas!” exclaimed the Apostate Angel; “thou art greatly deceived.”
Sarah was alarmed; and she asked wherefore he spake thus.
“Know then,” said Satan, “that Abraham has gone forth with Isaac to
sacrifice him, upon a mountain, to the Most High.”
When she heard this, Sarah laid her head on the bosom of a slave and
fainted. When she came to herself she hurried with her maidens to
the school of Shem and Eber, and inquired after her husband and son,
but they had neither seen nor heard any thing of them. So Sarah was
convinced that what had been told her was true, and there was no spirit
left in her.
Now when Satan knew that Abraham was bringing back his son, and that
God had accepted the will for the deed, he was moved with envy and
spite, and he could not rest to think of the joy that this would cause;
so he went hastily to Sarah, and she was weeping in her tent, and
sorely cast down and broken in spirit. Then he said suddenly to her,
“Thy son liveth and is returning. God hath spared him!”
And she rose up and uttered a cry, and fell, and was dead; for the joy
had killed her.
Abraham and Isaac, in the mean time had returned from Moriah, and they
sought Sarah at Beer-sheba, but she was not there; therefore they went
to Hebron, and there they found her corpse. Isaac fell weeping upon
the face of his mother, and he cried, “Mother, mother! why hast thou
forsaken me? why hast thou gone away?”
Abraham wept aloud, and all the dwellers in Hebron wept and lamented
over Sarah, and ceased from their labors, that they might mourn with
Abraham and Isaac. Sarah’s age was one hundred and seven-and-twenty
years, and she was as fair to look upon when she died as in the bloom
of her youth.
And as Abraham was bowed over the body of his wife, he heard the laugh
of the Angel of Death, and his words, “Wherefore weepest thou? Thou
bearest the blame of her death. Hadst thou not taken her son from her,
she would have been alive now.”
Abraham sought a place where to bury her; and he went to the Hittites
and asked them to suffer him to buy for his possession a parcel of
land, where he might bury one dead body. But they said, “Nay, we will
give thee land;” but he would not. So they said, “Choose now a place
where thou wouldst have thy sepulchre, and we will entreat the owner
for thee.”
Then Abraham said, “I desire the double cave of Ephron the son of
Zohar. _If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight,
hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may
give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath; for as much money as is
worth he shall give it me, for a possession of a burying-place amongst
you._”
And this was the reason why Abraham desired that cave. When he had
gone after the calf, to slay it for the three angels that came to him
before the destruction of Sodom, the calf had fled from him, and he
had pursued it into this cave; and on entering it, he found that it
was roomy, and in the inner recesses he saw the bodies of Adam and Eve
laid out with burning tapers around them, and the air was fragrant with
incense.
The Hittites elected Emor their chief that he might deal with Abraham,
for it did not become a chief and prince, like Abraham, to deal with an
inferior; and Emor said in the audience of the people of the land, “_My
Lord, hear me; the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I
give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee;
bury thy dead._”
But this he said with craft, for he sought to take an advantage of
Abraham.[336]
Then Ephron said, “Put thine own price upon the land;” but this Abraham
would not do.
Then Ephron said to Abraham, “_My lord, Hearken unto me; the land is
worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee?
bury therefore thy dead._”
Now the land was not worth half that sum, but Emor said in his heart,
“Abraham can afford to pay it, and he is in haste to bury his dead out
of his sight.”
Nevertheless, Abraham paid him in the sight of all his people. And the
transfer of the land and cave was signed by Amigal, son of Abischna the
Hittite; Elichoran, son of Essunass, the Hivite; Abdon, son of Ahirah,
the Gomorrhite; and Akdil, son of Abdis, the Sidonian.
Machpelah (double cave) was so called, because, say some, it contained
two chambers; or, say others, because Abraham paid double its value;
or, say others, because it became doubly holy; but others again
observe, with the highest probability, because Adam’s body had to be
doubled up to get it into the cave.
Because the Hittites dealt honorably, and sought to procure a place for
Abraham, where he might lay Sarah, their name is written ten times in
the Holy Scriptures.
They took also an oath of Abraham, that he and his seed should never
attack their city Jebus with violence; and they wrote his promise
on brazen pillars, and set them up in the market-place of Jebus.
Therefore, when the Israelites conquered Canaan, they left the
Jebusites unmolested.[337] But when David sought to take the stronghold
of Jebus,[338] its inhabitants said to him, “Thou canst not storm our
city, because of the covenant of Abraham, which is engraven on these
pillars of brass.”
David removed these brazen pillars, for they were in time honored
as idols; therefore the inhabitants of Jebus were _hated of David’s
soul_;[339] but he did not break the covenant of Abraham, for he
obtained the city of Jebus, not by force of arms, but by purchase.[340]
Sarah was buried with the utmost honor; Shem (Melchizedek), his
grandson Eber, Abimelech, Aner, Eschol and Mamre, together with all
the great men of the land, followed the bier. Abraham caused a great
mourning throughout the country to be made for seven days. After that,
Abraham returned to Beer-Sheba, and Isaac went to be instructed in the
law by Melchizedek. A year after, died Abimelech, king of Gerar, and
Abraham attended his funeral. Soon after, also, died Nahor, Abraham’s
brother.
12. THE MARRIAGE OF ISAAC.
After the death of Sarah, say some, Abraham had a daughter named
Bakila, by Hagar, who returned to him now that her enemy was dead; but,
according to others, the great blessing of Abraham consisted in this,
that he had no daughters. Ishmael abandoned his disorderly ways, and
loved and respected his brother.
Isaac mourned his mother three years. When this time was elapsed,
Abraham called to him his faithful servant Eliezer, and said to him, “I
am old, and I know not the day of my death; therefore must I no longer
delay the marriage of my son Isaac. Lay thine hand upon my thigh, and
swear to me by God Almighty to fulfil my commission. Do not take for my
son a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites, but go to Haran, to the
place whence I came, and bring thence a wife for my son Isaac.” And he
added the proverb, “When you have wheat of your own, do not sow your
field with your neighbor’s corn.”
Eliezer asked, “But how, if a woman of that place will not accompany me
hither?”
But Abraham said, “Fear not; go, and the Lord be with thee.”
So the servant of Abraham went with ten camels, and he reached Haran
in three hours, for the earth fled under the feet of his camels, and
Michael, the angel, protected him on his way.
When he reached Haran, he besought the Lord to give him a sign, by
which he might know the maiden who was to be the wife of Isaac. “_Let
it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy
pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and
I will give thy camels drink also; let the same be she that Thou hast
appointed for Thy servant Isaac._”
And there were many damsels by the fountain. And the servant said to
them, “Let down the pitcher that I may drink.” But they all said, “We
may not tarry, for we must take the water home.”
Then came Rebekah the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of
Nahor, Abraham’s brother, out of the well, and she chid the maidens for
their churlishness; and lo! the water in the well leaped to the margin,
and she let down her pitcher and offered it to the man, and said,
“_Drink; and I will give thy camels drink also._” Then Eliezer leaped
from his camel, and he brought forth his gifts, and he gave her a nose
ring with a jewel of half a shekel weight, and bracelets of ten shekels
weight. And he asked if he might lodge in her house one night.
She answered, “Not one night only, but many.”
Now Rebekah’s brother, Laban, so called from the paleness of his
face, or, say some, from the cowardice of his breast, which made him
pale,--coveted the man’s gold, and resolved to kill him. Therefore he
put poison in the bowl of meat which was offered him. But the bowl was
changed by accident, and it fell to the portion of Bethuel, and he ate,
and died that same night.
And Laban would have fallen upon Eliezer with his own hand, but that he
saw him lead the two camels at once over the brook, and he knew thereby
that he was stronger than he.
After the engagement had been drawn up, as it is written in the first
book of Moses,[341] Eliezer urged for a speedy departure. Mother and
brother consented, but on the following day they asked that, besides
the seven days of mourning for Bethuel, they should tarry a year, or at
least ten months, according to the usual custom. But Rebekah opposed
them, and said that she would go at once.
It was noon when Eliezer and his retinue, together with Rebekah and her
nurse Deborah, left Haran, and in three hours they were at Hebron.
At the self-same time Isaac was abroad in the fields, returning from
the school of Seth, lamenting over his mother, and saying his evening
prayer. Rebekah saw him with his hands outspread, and his angel walking
behind him, and she said, “Who is that with a shining countenance, with
another walking behind him?”
At the same moment she knew who it was, and with prophetic vision she
saw that she would become the mother of Esau, and she trembled and fell
from the camel.
Isaac took Rebekah to wife and led her into the tent of Sarah, and the
door was once more open, and the perpetual lamp was again kindled, and
it seemed to Isaac as if all the happiness that had gone with Sarah,
had returned with Rebekah, so he was comforted for his mother.
Eliezer was rewarded for his faithful service, for Abraham gave him his
freedom, and he was taken into Paradise without having tasted of death.
13. THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM.
Abraham, after the death of Sarah, had brought back Hagar, and she
was called Keturah, which signifies “the Bond-woman,” and this she
was called because she had ever regarded herself as bound to Abraham,
though he had cast her away. But others say that Keturah was not
Hagar, but was a daughter of one of Abraham’s slaves. She bare him six
sons,[342] all strong, and men of clear understandings.
According to Mussulman traditions, she was the daughter of Jokdan, and
was a Canaanitish woman.
Abraham said to the Most High, in gratitude of heart, “Thou didst
promise me one son, Isaac, and thou hast given me many!”
All his substance he gave to Isaac; but some say he gave him a double
portion only, and the rest he made over to his other sons. And to Isaac
only he gave the right to be buried in the cave of Machpelah, and
along with that, his blessing. But others say that he did not give his
blessing to Isaac, lest it should cause jealousy to spring up between
him and his brothers. He said, “I am a mortal man; to-day here and
to-morrow in the grave; I have done all I can do for my children, and
now I will depart when it pleases my heavenly Father.”
He sent the sons of Keturah away, that they might not dwell near Isaac,
lest his greatness should swallow them up; and he built them a city of
iron, with walls of iron. But the walls were so high that the light
of the sun could not penetrate the streets, therefore he set in them
diamonds and pearls to illumine the iron city.
Epher, a grandson of Abraham and Keturah,[343] went with an army into
Libya and conquered it, and founded there a kingdom, and the land he
called after his own name, Africa.
Abraham was alive when Rebekah, after twenty years of barrenness, bare
to Isaac his sons, Esau and Jacob; and he saw them grow up before him
till their fifteenth year, and he died on the day that Esau sold his
birthright.
The days of his life had been 175 years; he reached not the age of 180,
to which Isaac attained, because God shortened his life by five years,
lest he should know the evil deeds of Esau.
The Angel of Death did not smite him, but God kissed him, and he died
by that kiss; and because the sword of the angel touched him not, but
his soul parted to the kiss of God, his body saw no corruption.
This is the Mussulman story of his death. The Angel of Death, when
bidden to take the soul of the prophet, hesitated about doing so
without his consent. So he took upon him the form of a very old man,
and came to Abraham’s door. The patriarch invited him in and gave him
to eat, but he noted with surprise the great infirmity of the old man,
how his limbs tottered, how dull was his sight, and how incapable he
was of feeding himself, for his hands shook, and how little he could
eat, for his teeth were gone. And he asked him how old he was. Then the
angel answered, “I am 202.” Now Abraham was then 200 years old. So he
said, “What! in two years shall I be as feeble and helpless as this? O
Lord, suffer me to depart; now send the Angel of Death to me, to remove
my soul.” Then the angel took him,[344] having first watched till he
was on his knees in prayer.[345]
Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the double cave by the side of Sarah;
and he was followed to his grave by all the inhabitants of Canaan, and
Shem and Eber went before the bier. And all the people wailed and said,
“Woe to the vessel when the pilot is gone! woe to the pilgrims when
their guide is lost!”
A whole year was Abraham lamented by the inhabitants of the land; men,
and women, and young children joined in bewailing him.
Never was there a man like Abraham in perfect righteousness, serving
God, and walking in His way from the earliest youth to the day of his
death.
Abraham was the first, say the Mussulmans, whose beard became white. He
asked God when it became so, “What is this?” The Lord replied, “It is a
token of gentleness, my son.”
XXV.
MELCHIZEDEK.
We have seen that, according to Jewish traditions, Melchizedek is Shem,
the son of Noah, whom God consecrated to be a priest forever, and who
set up a kingdom on Salem.[346]
It is also said that, before he died, Lamech ordered his son, Noah, to
transport the body of Adam to the centre of the earth. Now the centre
or navel of the earth is Salem, afterwards called Jerusalem.
Lamech also bade Noah confide to one of his children the custody of the
body of Adam, obliging him to remain all his life in the service of
God, and in the practice of celibacy, never to shed blood, and to offer
to God only the sacrifice of bread and wine.
Noah chose, according to some, Shem; according to others, Melchizedek,
the son of Shem. He did not suffer him to wear other garments than the
skins of beasts; nor to shave his head nor cut his nails, nor to build
a house.
A Christian tradition is that Adam was buried on Golgotha, and that
when Christ died, His blood flowed down upon the head of Adam, and
cleansed him of his sin.
Dom Calmet, in one of his dissertations, gives various curious opinions
which have been entertained on the subject of Melchizedek: some
affirmed that he was identical with the patriarch Enoch, who came from
the Terrestrial Paradise to confer with Abraham; and others, that the
Magi who adored the infant Christ were Enoch, Melchizedek, and Elias.
And some have supposed that Melchizedek was created before Adam, and
was of celestial race. Others again have supposed that he was our Lord
Jesus Christ who appeared to Abraham.
S. Athanasius gives a curious tradition of Melchizedek.
A queen, named Salem, had a grandson named Melchi. He was an idolater.
Where he reigned is unknown; but it is supposed that it was where now
stands the city Jerusalem. Melchi married a princess named Salem, like
his grandmother. By her he had two sons, of whom the younger was
called Melchizedek.
One day that Melchi was about to sacrifice to idols, he said to his son
Melchizedek, “Bring me here seven calves to sacrifice to the gods.”
Whilst going to execute his father’s order, Melchizedek raised his eyes
to heaven and said, “He who made heaven and earth, the sea and the
stars, is the only God to whom sacrifice should be offered.”
Then he returned to his father, who asked him, “Where are the calves?”
“My father,” he replied, “hearken to me, and be not angry. Instead of
offering thy victims to those gods which are no gods, offer them to Him
who is above the heavens, and who rules all things.”
King Melchi replied, “Go and do what I have commanded thee, as thou
valuest thy life.”
After that he turned to his wife Salem, and he told her that he
purposed sacrificing one of his sons. The queen wept bitterly, because
she knew that the king designed the immolation of Melchizedek, and she
said, “Alas! I have suffered and labored in vain.”
“Do not weep,” said Melchi, somewhat touched. “We will draw the lot: if
it is mine, I will choose which of the sons is to die; if it be thine,
thou shalt keep the one dearest to thee.”
Now the lot fell to the queen, so she chose Melchizedek, whom she
loved: and the king adorned his eldest son for sacrifice.
There were in the temple troops of oxen and flocks of sheep and five
hundred and three children, destined by their parents to be sacrificed.
The queen was at home weeping, and she said to Melchizedek, “Dost thou
not weep for thy brother, whom we have brought up with so much care,
and who is led to the slaughter?”
Melchizedek wept, and he said to his mother, “I will go and invoke the
Lord, the only true God Most High.”
He ascended Tabor, and kneeling down, he prayed, saying, “My God, Lord
of all, Creator of heaven and earth, I adore Thee as the only true God;
hearken now unto my prayer. May the earth open her mouth and swallow up
all those who assist at the sacrifice of my brother!”
God heard the cry of Melchizedek, and the earth parted asunder, and
swallowed up the temple and all who were therein; and the city of
Salem also, and not a stone was left standing where it had been.
When Melchizedek came down from Tabor, and saw what God had done, he
was filled with dismay, and retired into a forest, where he spent seven
years, feeding on herbs and drinking the dew.
At the end of that time, a voice from heaven called Abraham, and said,
“Take thine ass, lade it with rich garments, go to Tabor and cry
thrice, O man of God! Then a man of a savage appearance will come forth
to thee out of the forest. And after thou hast cut his hair and pared
his nails, clothe him with the garments thou hast taken with thee, and
ask him to bless thee.”
Abraham did as he was bidden. He went to Tabor and called thrice, “O
man of God!” and there came out to him Melchizedek. Then a voice was
heard from heaven, which said, “As there remains no one on earth of
the family of Melchizedek, it shall be said of him that he is without
father and without mother, without beginning of days or end of life.”
Therefore it is said of him, as of Enoch and Elias, that having been
created a priest forever, he is not dead.
Afterwards he is said to have founded Jerusalem.[347]
Suidas the Grammarian gives the following account of this mysterious
personage.
“Melchizedek, priest of God, king of Canaan, built a city on a mountain
called Sion, and named it Salem; which is the same as Εἰρηόπολις, the
City of Peace. In which, when he had reigned a hundred and thirteen
years, he died, righteous and single. For this reason he is said
to have been without generation, because he was not of the seed of
Abraham, but of the race of Canaan, and of abhorred seed. Therefore he
was without honorable generation. Nor did it beseem him, the essence
of all righteousness, to unite with the race of all unrighteousness.
Therefore he is said to have been without father or mother. But that he
was a Caananite, both as to country, of which he was lord; and as to
nation, of which he was king: and as to neighborhood, joining that of
the iniquitous Sodomites,--that is evident enough. Nevertheless Salem,
of which he was king, is that celebrated Jerusalem, which, however, did
not bear then the complete name of Hierusalem, but the adjective ἱεροῦ
was added to Σαλήμ afterwards, and compounded into Hierusalem. And
because no genealogy is given to him, he is said to be without father
and mother. Therefore, when you hear him spoken of as God, by the sect
of the Melchizedekites, remember the saying of the Apostle, that he was
of another race, to wit, that of Canaan.”[348]
Another apocryphal account of Melchizedek is in the “Chronicon
Paschale:”--