On the day when I planed the gods of my father3 Terah and the gods of Nahor his brother,4 when I was searching as to who the Mighty God in truth is—I, Abraham, at the time when it fell to my lot, when I fulfilled the services (the sacrifices5) of my father Terah to his gods of wood and stone, gold and silver, brass and iron;6 having entered into their temple for service, I found the god whose name was Merumath 7 (which was) hewn out of stone, fallen forward at the feet of the iron god Nahon. 8 And it came to pass, when I saw it, my heart was perplexed, and9 I considered in my mind that I should not be able to bring him back to his place, I, Abraham, alone,10 because he was heavy, being of a large stone,11 and I went forth and made it known to my father. And he entered with me, and when both of us moved him (the god) forward, so that we might bring him back12 to his place, his head fell from

The whole of th e title occurs only in S. Some links in th e genealogical ch ain are om itted: Reu son of P eleg, son of Eber, son of Shelah, son of Arphaxad (Gen. xi. 10-16); Abraham was thus “the tenth from Noah” (Josephus, Ant., i. 6, 5). Abraham is represented as having followed t h e o ccupation of his father, that of an idol-maker; cf. Bereshith rabba on Gen. xi. 28 (see Appendix, p. 58). his (i. e. Abraham’s) brother; prob abl y a g loss (the structure of the narrative demands “my”); A omits. Probably a gloss (so Tikh onravov); or read of the altar for sacrifices (Bonwetsch). Cf. Dan. v. 4. The stone idol Merumath (= H eb. ’eben mrûm ~, “stone of deceit”) was the chief object of Abraham’s worship at this period. So A; S has Naritson; K, by name Nahin. and omitted by S. I Abraham alone: K omits; S. + and lo! being of a large stone: R omits. so that we might bring him back: R omits.

him1 while I was still holding him by the head. And it came to pass,2 when my father saw that the head of Merumath3 had fallen from him, he said to me: “Abraham!” And I said: “Here am I.” And he said to me: “Bring me an axe, of the small ones,4 from the house.” And I brought it to h im. 5 And he hewed aright another Merumath out of another stone, without head, and the head which had been thrown down from Merumath he placed upon it, and the rest of Merumath he shattered.5