Abraham laughed in his mind and sighed in the grief and anger of his soul. "How can something manufactured by my father be his helper? Should the body be subject to its soul, and the soul to the spirit, and the spirit to folly and ignorance?"
He decided to lay his thoughts open before Terah, no matter the cost.
"Father, whichever of these idols you praise as a god, you are foolish. Look at the gods of your brother Haran, standing in the holy temple. They are more worthy of honor than yours. His god Zucheus is made of gold, which people value highly. When Zucheus grows old, he can be melted down and recast. But your god Merumath? He is stone. If he breaks, he cannot be renewed."
Abraham was building a ladder of absurdity, climbing rung by rung.
"And the god Joavon, forged of silver, who stands with Zucheus over the other gods, how much more worthy is he than your Barisat? Barisat was made of wood. Before you carved him, he was a living tree, rooted in the earth, great and wonderful with branches and blossoms. You cut him down with an axe. You shaped him into a god with your craft. And now? His glory has withered. He fell from height to ground, from greatness to nothing. The appearance of his face has vanished."
Abraham drove the final point home: "Barisat himself is burnt up by fire, reduced to ashes, and is no more. And yet you say, 'Today I will make another, and tomorrow he will prepare my food.' He has perished to utter destruction, father."
Gold gods. Silver gods. Stone gods. Wooden gods. Abraham had ranked them all and found every one of them wanting. Even the best of them was nothing more than raw material shaped by human hands.
When I, Abraham, however, heard such words from my father, I laughed in my mind
and sighed in the grief and in the anger of my soul, and said:11 “How then can that which is
made by him—manufactured statues—be a helper of my father? Or shall the body then be
subject to its soul, and the soul to the spirit, and the spirit to folly and ignorance!”12 And I
said:11 “It is fitting once to endure evil. So I will direct my mind to what is pure and lay my
thoughts open before him.” [And]13 I answered and said: “O father Terah, whichever of these
thou praisest as a god, thou art foolish in thy mind. Behold the gods of thy brother Ora,14 which
stand in the holy temple, are more worthy of honour than [these of]15 thine. For behold
Zucheus, the god of thy brother Oron,16 is more worthy of honour than thy god
Lit. kindling of the fire.
S omits.
Lit. did my counsel: a Hebrew phrase, ‘~s ~ ‘s ~, “execute a plan” (Is. xxx. 1).
S, + before.
A; + And it came to pass when I saw it.
A, mind; K, in my mind and laughed.
Lit. became.
Wine was sometimes mixed not only with water , b ut with milk, in Palestine; cf. Cant. V. 1 (I have
drunk my wine with my milk): cf. also Is. lv. 1.
S A omit.
Lit. make.
i.e. thought (“said in my heart”). The sentence that follows (“It is fitting once to endure evil”)
means: “It is well to suffer in this way for a good cause.”
In th is sentence the text o f S i s n ot in order, and has been corrected by Tikhonravov in accordance
with A and K.
Omitted by S.
i.e. Haran (so S); A has thy father Nahor, K my brother Nahor.
Omitted by S.
Another form of Haran (so S); A and K read as indicated in the previous note.
Merumath, because he is made of gold which is highly valued by people, and when he groweth
old in years he will be re-modelled; but if your god Merumath is changed or broken, he will not
be renewed, because he is a stone; the which is also the case with the god Joavon 1 2 [ who
standeth with Zucheus over the other gods—how 3 much more worthy of honour is he than t he god
Barisat, who is made of wood, while he is forged of silver! How3 is he made, by adaptatio n o f man,
v a lu ab l e t o o utward appearance! But thy god Barisat, while he was sti ll, before h e had been prepared,
rooted up (?) 4 upon the earth and was great and wonderful with the glory of branches and blossom,5 thou
didst hew out with the axe, and by m ean s of th y art he hath been made into a god. And lo! his fatness
is already withered and perished, he is fallen from th e h ei ght to the ground, he hath come from great
estate to littleness, and the appearance of his countenance hath vanished, and h e ] Barisat himself is
burnt up by fire and reduced to ashes and is n o more; and thou sayest: “To-day I will make
another which6 to-morrow shall make ready my food!”7 “He hath perished to utter
destruction!”7
