Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Arrived in the land of the Philistines, he again, as aforetime in
Egypt, came to an understanding with Sarah, that she was to call
herself his sister. When the report of her beauty reached the king, he
ordered her to be brought before him, and he asked her who her
companion was, and she told him that Abraham was her brother. Entranced
by her beauty, Abimelech the king took Sarah to wife, and heaped marks
of honor upon Abraham in accordance with the just claims of a brother
of the queen. Toward evening, before retiring, while he was still
seated upon his throne, Abimelech fell into a sleep, and he slept until
the morning, and in the dream he dreamed he saw an angel of the Lord
raising his sword to deal him a death blow. Sore frightened, he asked
the cause, and the angel replied, and said: "Thou wilt die on account
of the woman thou didst take into thy house this day, for she is the
wife of Abraham, the man whom thou didst cite before thee. Return his
wife unto him! But if thou restore her not, thou shalt surely die, thou
and all that are thine."
In that night the voice of a great crying was heard in the whole land
of the Philistines, for they saw the figure of a man walking about,
with sword in hand, slaying all that came in his way. At the same time
it happened that in men and beasts alike all the apertures of the body
closed up, and the land was seized with indescribable excitement. In
the morning, when the king awoke, in agony and terror, he called all
his servants and told his dream in their ears. One of their number
said: "O lord and king! Restore this woman unto the man, for he is her
husband. It is but his way in a strange land to pretend that she is his
sister. Thus did he with the king of Egypt, too, and God sent heavy
afflictions upon Pharaoh when he took the woman unto himself. Consider,
also, O lord and king, what hath befallen this night in the land; great
pain, wailing, and confusion there was, and we know that it came upon
us only because of this woman."[190]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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