Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends
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 splendour 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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