Elsewhere Though Thy Beginning Was Small, Yet Thy End Shall Greatly

"And Abraham again." This is what Scripture says: "Though your beginning was small, your end will greatly increase" (Job 8:7); it speaks of Moses. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said: for seven days the Holy One, blessed be He, was persuading Moses at the bush, and he kept fleeing, as it is said: "Send, I pray, by the hand of him whom You will send" (Exodus 4:13). And it is written: "I am not a man of words" (Exodus 4:10). And it says: "And Moses hid his face" (Exodus 3:6). "And your end will greatly increase," as it is written: "And he beholds the form of the LORD" (Numbers 12:8). Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: he would see the likeness at once. Another interpretation: "Though your beginning was small": this is Abraham, who was a hundred years old and had no son, and afterward the Holy One, blessed be He, appeased him. Rabbi Yehudah bar Simon and Rabbi Chanan in the name of Rabbi Yochanan say: He raised him above the dome of the firmament, as it is said: "And He brought him outside and said: Look now toward the heavens" (Genesis 15:5). One says "look" only from above to below. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: One who is beneath the constellation fears it; you, who are above it, lift your head over it. Even so, at a hundred years he begot a son. This is the meaning of "Though your beginning was small": this is Abraham. "And your end will greatly increase": that he married a wife and begot still more children at the end, as it is said: "And Abraham again." "And Abraham again." This is what Scripture says: "In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not let your hand rest" (Ecclesiastes 11:6). Rabbi Eliezer says: Scripture speaks of crops. Solomon said: if you sowed at the early rain, do not stand idle at the late rain, as it is said: "and in the evening do not let your hand rest." Why? "For you do not know..." Rabbi Yehoshua says: if seed of a commandment comes before you in the morning, sow it; and if a matter of a commandment comes before you in the evening, do not let your hand rest. Why? "For you do not know which of them will succeed for you, whether that of the morning or that of the evening, or whether both alike will be good." Rabbi Akiva says: "In the morning sow your seed": if you raised up disciples in your youth, do not cease from raising them up in your old age. There was an incident with Rabbi Akiva, who had three hundred disciples in his youth, and they all died; and had he not raised up seven disciples in his old age, there would have been no disciple to recite teachings in his name. Another interpretation: "In the morning sow your seed." Rabbi Yose said: if you took a wife in your youth and she bore children and died, take another wife in your old age, "for you do not know..." And from whom do you learn this? From Abraham, who in his youth begot only two, and in his old age begot twelve. Rabbi Levi said: this is what the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: "And in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," for the sea went forth in the generation of the Dispersion and scattered thirty families of the sons of Ham, as it is said: "And the LORD scattered them" (Genesis 11:8). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: From you I will raise them up, as it is said: "And in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 18:18). He raised up families, and these are: the twelve princes that he raised up from Ishmael, and sixteen from here, and the "two nations in your womb." This is the meaning of "And in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."