The stone god fell on its face. That was the beginning of everything.
Abraham worked in his father's idol shop. Every day he carved gods out of stone and wood and metal for Terah, his father, who sold them to the people of Ur. Gods of gold. Gods of silver. Gods of brass and iron. Abraham shaped them all with his own hands, and every day the absurdity cut a little deeper.
One morning he entered the temple to perform the daily service and found Merumath, the great stone idol, face-down on the floor at the feet of the iron god Nahon. The stone god had toppled. Abraham tried to lift it back into position, but the thing was massive, hewn from a single boulder. He could not move it alone.
So he went and told his father. Terah came, and together they hauled the idol upright. But as they strained to set Merumath back in his place, the god's head snapped clean off while Abraham was still gripping it. It fell and shattered on the temple floor.
Terah did not miss a beat. "Abraham! Bring me a small axe from the house." Abraham obeyed. His father took the axe, carved a new Merumath from a different stone, and stuck the old head onto the new body. Then he smashed what remained of the original idol to pieces.
A god whose head falls off. A god who needs two men to stand him upright. A god who can be replaced with an axe and a spare stone.
Abraham said nothing. But something shifted inside him that day. If a god cannot even hold its own head on its shoulders, what kind of god is that?
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 mrûm ~, “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
