Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
The people who heard Abraham were amazed exceedingly at his words. As
he went through the streets, he met an old woman who approached him
with the purpose of buying an idol, good and big, to be worshipped and
loved. "Old woman, old woman," said Abraham, "I know no profit therein,
either in the big ones or in the little ones, either unto themselves or
unto others. And," he continued to speak to her, "what has become of
the big image thou didst buy from my brother Haran, to worship it?"
"Thieves," she replied, "came in the night and stole it, while I was
still at the bath." "If it be thus," Abraham went on questioning her,
"how canst thou pay homage to an idol that cannot save itself from
thieves, let alone save others, like thyself, thou silly old woman, out
of misfortune? How is it possible for thee to say that the image thou
worshippest is a god? If it be a god, why did it not save itself out of
the hands of those thieves? Nay, in the idol there is no profit, either
unto itself or unto him that adores it."[26]
The old woman rejoined, "If what thou sayest be true, whom shall I
serve?" "Serve the God of all gods," returned Abraham, "the Lord of
lords, who hath created heaven and earth, the sea and all therein—the
God of Nimrod and the God of Terah, the God of the east, the west, the
south, and the north. Who is Nimrod, the dog, who calleth himself a
god, that worship be offered unto him?"
Abraham succeeded in opening the eyes of the old woman, and she became
a zealous missionary for the true God. When she discovered the thieves
who had carried off her idol, and they restored it to her, she broke it
in pieces with a stone, and as she wended her way through the streets,
she cried aloud, "Who would save his soul from destruction, and be
prosperous in all his doings, let him serve the God of Abraham." Thus
she converted many men and women to the true belief.
Rumors of the words and deeds of the old woman reached the king, and he
sent for her. When she appeared before him, he rebuked her harshly,
asking her how she dared serve any god but himself. The old woman
replied: "Thou art a liar, thou deniest the essence of faith, the One
Only God, beside whom there is no other god. Thou livest upon His
bounty, but thou payest worship to another, and thou dost repudiate
Him, and His teachings, and Abraham His servant."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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