Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
There were some among his servants who spake: "Be not afraid of dreams!
What dreams make known to man is but falsehood." Then God appeared unto
Abimelech again and commanded him to let Sarah go free, otherwise he
would be a dead man.[191] Abimelech replied: "Is this Thy way? Then, I
ween, the generation of the flood and the generation of the confusion
of tongues were innocent, too! The man himself did say unto me, She is
my sister, and she, even she herself said, He is my brother, and all
the people of their household said the same words." And God said unto
him: "Yea, I know that thou hast not yet committed a trespass, for I
withheld thee from sinning. Thou didst not know that Sarah was a man's
wife.[192] But is it becoming to question a stranger, no sooner does he
set foot upon thy territory, about the woman accompanying him, whether
she be his wife or his sister? Abraham, who is a prophet, knew
beforehand the danger to himself if he revealed the whole truth.[193]
But, being a prophet, he also knows that thou didst not touch his wife,
and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live."
The smoke was still rising from the ruins of Sodom, and Abimelech and
his people, seeing it, feared that a like fate might overtake
them.[194] The king called Abraham and reproached him for having caused
such great misfortune through his false statements concerning Sarah.
Abraham excused his conduct by his apprehension that, the fear of God
not being in the place, the inhabitants of the land slay him for his
wife.[195] Abraham went on and told the history of his whole life, and
he said: "When I dwelt in the house of my father, the nations of the
world sought to do me harm, but God proved Himself my Redeemer. When
the nations of the world tried to lead me astray to idolatry, God
revealed Himself to me, and He said, 'Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house.' And when the nations of
the world were about to go astray, God sent two prophets, my kinsmen
Shem and Eber, to admonish them."[196]
Abimelech gave rich gifts to Abraham, wherein he acted otherwise than
Pharaoh in similar circumstances. The Egyptian king gave gifts to
Sarah, but Abimelech was God fearing, and desired that Abraham pray for
him.[197] To Sarah he gave a costly robe that covered her whole person,
hiding her seductive charms from the view of beholders. At the same
time it was a reproach to Abraham, that he had not fitted Sarah out
with the splendor due to his wife.[198]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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