We should otherwise have had all parts of these geese, but
that their sufferings are owing to us. It is our iniquities that have
delayed the coming of the Messiah, and these geese suffer greatly by
reason of their excessive fat, which daily increases, and will increase
till the Messiah comes.”
Rabba bar Chama says that he once saw “a bird so tall, that its head
reached to the sky and its legs to the bottom of the ocean.” The water in
which it stood was so deep that a carpenter’s axe which had fallen in
seven years before had not then reached the bottom. He also saw “a frog as
large as a village containing sixty houses.” This frog was swallowed up by
a serpent, and this serpent in turn by a crow; this crow flew, and perched
upon a cedar, and this cedar was as broad as sixteen wagons abreast. There
is also an account of a fish which was killed by a worm. This fish, when
driven ashore, destroyed sixty cities, and sixty cities ate of it, and
sixty cities salted it, and with its bones the ruined cities were rebuilt.
Stories are also told of fishes with eyes like the moon, and of horned
fishes three hundred miles in length. These stories are intended to
confirm the text, “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business
in great waters; these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the
deep” (Ps. cvii. 23, 24). To illustrate the statement of Amos (iii. 8), a
story is told of a lion which one of the Cæsars wished to see. At 400
miles distance he roared, and the walls of Rome fell. At 300 miles he
again roared, and all the people fell on their backs, and their teeth fell
out, and Cæsar fell off his throne. Cæsar then prayed for his removal to a
safer distance.
The Talmud informs us that “a young unicorn, one day old, is as large as
Mount Tabor.” Consequently Noah had great difficulty in saving an old one
alive. He could not get it into the ark, so he bound it by its horn to the
side of the ark. At the same time Og, King of Bashan (being one of the
antediluvians), was saved by riding on its back. We are further informed
that he was one of the giants who came from the intermarriage of angels
with the daughters of men. His footsteps were forty miles long, and one of
his teeth served to make a couch for Abraham. When the Israelites came
against him under the command of Moses, he inquired the size of their
camp, and hearing that it was three miles in extent he tore up a mountain
of that size, to hurl it upon them. Grasshoppers were, however, sent to
bore holes in it, so that it fell over his head on to his neck. His teeth
also grew and were entangled in the rocks, as the Psalmist says, “Thou
hast broken the teeth of the ungodly” (Ps. iii. 7). He is also said to be
identical with Eliezer the servant of Abraham, and to have been, like
Enoch, translated to Paradise. This account, however, differs widely from
the statements of the Jerusalem Targum on the Book of Numbers (xxi. 34).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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