518 myths · Page 2 of 18
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.
Ezekiel saw four creatures whose wings sounded like rushing water. Then the wings went slack. They were not resting: their legs are straight and do not bend.
God said he would rain down on Sodom. The rabbis found a hidden offer in that word: rain can be water or fire. Sodom chose fire.
On the way to heaven, Azazel appeared and tried to turn Abraham back. The angel Iaoel gave Abraham the only words that would work.
Esau came up the road with four hundred armed men. Something met them on that road in the night, and Jacob went to his grave not knowing.
They swore they would sanctify the earth in bodies. God named the pull that would take them. Shemhazai wept for his sons' meals, not the rain.
Pharaoh reached for Sarah's shoe in the palace dark. The angel raised the rod and waited for her to say whether it should fall.
Abraham told his servants that he and the boy would both come back down. Mastema watched to see if the father would break. The ram was already in the thicket.
Gabriel made milk flow from his finger for the abandoned infant Abraham. Decades later he carried the same man on his shoulder into Nimrod's capital.
Michael rose from the meal and stepped outside. Before the next breath he stood in heaven, asking God to send someone else.
Every nation has its angelic prince standing watch. Israel has no such guardian, and the keeper who keeps it will not slumber or sleep.
The Torah gives Enoch one sentence. 2 Enoch gives him seven heavens, two thousand witnesses, and a departure that left his sons weeping in the snow.
Abraham was ninety-nine and three days past his own circumcision, sitting in the midday heat. He got up and ran to fetch butter, milk, and a tender calf.
Eve stands outside the gate of paradise begging heaven for relief while Adam lies dying inside and two angels keep watch at the door.
Seven Amorite kings march on Jacob's tents after Shechem burns, and only Judah's words about Noah stand between the family and the swords.
Fire moved through the thornbush and the leaves stayed green. A voice said his name twice. He answered, then he started to argue.
Chariots shook the reeds. In heaven Samael opened a true ledger against Israel. God did not argue. He threw the accuser a ram named Job.
Enoch's angelic guides abandon him at the threshold of the tenth heaven. He falls to the ground in terror. Then God calls him to come closer.
Two men sat inside a teaching so hard that a chariot of fire in the doorway meant nothing. The angel went back with the errand undone.
A trumpet splits the sky over Eden. A chariot of cherubim descends. Adam crouches in the leaves while the dead trees burst alive around the Tree of Life.
Eve begged to lie beside Adam, but only Seth had seen the grave. So an archangel came down to teach the first burial.
A sword sharp beyond compare came down on Moses's neck ten times and could not cut it. Then an angel climbed the scaffold dressed as the executioner.
Haman was already on his knees. Gabriel shoved him onto Esther's couch in the same breath the king came back from the wrecked garden.
Two demons offered to scout Jericho for Joshua. He would not trust a word they said, so he twisted their faces and sent them ahead to scare the city.
The angel gave him three jobs instead of an answer. Weigh the weight of fire. Measure out a measure of wind. Call back the day that is past.
When Benjamin went to Egypt, Joseph pulled him aside and asked what their brothers had told Jacob. The answer revealed a mercy his brothers never knew about.
The crown slid down over the boy's ears. Cold air hit Pharaoh's scalp. Along the banquet table, nobody in the hall chewed.
The empire's angel unrolled a long scroll toward the throne. The charges were true. Then Michael left the Temple that does not burn.
When God formed Adam and commanded the angels to honor him, Ha-Satan, the Accuser, refused. Formed from fire, he would not bow before dust.
An overseer and four seraphim walked the Sabbath tables. Joy bought shelter from the River of Fire. A still face bought the river itself.
