25 myths
The angel had to be back in heaven before sunrise or the morning song could not start. Jacob had him by the throat and a question about Esau.
At Isaac's weaning feast the giant Og sneers he could crush the laughing heir with one finger, and Heaven dooms him to fall by that child's seed.
The prophetess who drew water from the rock vanished with her well, and the mystics found her again among the pomegranate trees of paradise.
The creatures ring the serpent in the hedges and press it charge by charge, until the last question is one it refuses to answer for itself.
The animals went to drink and found stone. Moses was away from the camp, mourning his sister. He wept six hours before the thirsty crowd came for him.
The well that followed Israel through the wilderness did more than quench thirst. It filled the camp with rivers, orchards, fragrant herbs, and healing water.
A generation raised under divine clouds had never seen direct sunlight. The day Aaron died on Mount Hor, every cloud dissolved at once.
Og measured the camp of Israel with one eye, tore a mountain loose, and balanced it on his head to bury a whole nation under a single stone.
After nineteen years near Kadesh, thirst turned on Aaron, Moses struck the rock for water, and a deeper sin sealed him out of the land.
Moses asked Edom for a highway and paid for water he did not need. Against Sihon the same peace became war, and Moses equaled all Israel.
After the rock and Edoms closed road, Aaron died on a mountain left as a sample of miracles. Israel still chased peace before fighting Sihon.
Moses offered to buy every drop of water his people drank. Sihon refused and formed his line, and his own soldiers died of thirst in the Arnon.
On Mount Hor a cave opened in the rock. Moses eased Aaron inside, then lifted the priestly garments from his brother's living shoulders for Eleazar.
At Meribah an oath of death settled on Moses. He begged for the mercy he had won for sixty myriads and heard that fate was no longer his.
God tells Moses that Aaron will die for Meribah, so Moses leads his brother up the ridge with quiet words and a transfer of garments.
After Aaron died, Amalek dressed as Canaanites to dodge Israel's prayer. Israel named no foe. God still knew. The camp also learned thirst again.
God taught every law with its cleansing until the corpse, where the answer stopped and Moses walked out of the Tent with a gray face.
Moses had faced Pharaoh without flinching. But Sihon the giant made him afraid. The rabbis explain what God had to do before the battle could begin.
Only two men came back down the hill. The camp asked Moses where his brother was, listened to the answer, and then bent down for stones.
God tells Moses he will be gathered as Aaron was gathered. The rabbis heard desire: Moses wanted his brother's peaceful death, not his own.
The Zered was a ditch a child could measure with two fingers. It held the camp thirty-eight years, until the last of the condemned generation was buried.
The buyer had watched the animal work six days without trouble. On the seventh it lay down under the yoke. Its old owner came and whispered in its ear.
Two men shared one road, one leading and one led. Then they ate the herbs of the field, and each was handed the other man's walk.
At Sinai the man spoke first and heaven answered out loud, and the same voice came down from the cloud for Aaron and for Samuel too.
Solomon read the death dates off a work crew Pharaoh sent him. Then he opened the law of the red heifer and could not get anywhere with it.
