Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
So Michael turned the chariot, and brought Abraham to the place of
judgment of all souls. Here he saw two gates, the one broad and the
other narrow, the narrow gate that of the just, which leads to life,
they that enter through it go into Paradise. The broad gate is that of
sinners, which leads to destruction and eternal punishment. Then
Abraham wept, saying, "Woe is me, what shall I do? for I am a man big
of body, and how shall I be able to enter by the narrow gate?" Michael
answered, and said to Abraham, "Fear not, nor grieve, for thou shalt
enter by it unhindered, and all they who are like thee." Abraham,
perceiving that a soul was adjudged to be set in the midst, asked
Michael the reason for it, and Michael answered, "Because the judge
found its sins and its righteousness equal, he neither committed it to
judgment nor to be saved." Abraham said to Michael, "Let us pray for
this soul, and see whether God will hear us," and when they rose up
from their prayer, Michael informed Abraham that the soul was saved by
the prayer, and was taken by an angel and carried up to Paradise.
Abraham said to Michael, "Let us yet call upon the Lord and supplicate
His compassion and entreat His mercy for the souls of the sinners whom
I formerly, in my anger, cursed and destroyed, whom the earth devoured,
and the wild beasts tore in pieces, and the fire consumed, through my
words. Now I know that I have sinned before the Lord our God."
After the joint prayer of the archangel and Abraham, there came a voice
from heaven, saying, "Abraham, Abraham, I have hearkened to thy voice
and thy prayer, and I forgive thee thy sin, and those whom thou
thinkest that I destroyed, I have called up and brought them into life
by My exceeding kindness, because for a season I have requited them in
judgment, and those whom I destroy living upon earth, I will not
requite in death."
When Michael brought Abraham back to his house, they found Sarah dead.
Not seeing what had become of Abraham, she was consumed with grief and
gave up her soul. Though Michael had fulfilled Abraham's wish, and had
shown him all the earth and the judgment and recompense, he still
refused to surrender his soul to Michael, and the archangel again
ascended to heaven, and said unto the Lord: "Thus speaks Abraham, I
will not go with thee, and I refrain from laying my hands on him,
because from the beginning he was Thy friend, and he has done all
things pleasing in Thy sight. There is no man like him on earth, not
even Job, the wondrous man." But when the day of the death of Abraham
drew nigh, God commanded Michael to adorn Death with great beauty and
send him thus to Abraham, that he might see him with his eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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