142 myths · Page 3 of 5
In the early generations a sneeze emptied a man of his soul on the spot, until Jacob begged Heaven for sickness so he could bless his sons.
Jacob came in goat skins. Isaac's eyes were dim. The smell that rose off the clothes was not goat. It was a garden he had never walked.
Moses climbed Abarim at a hundred and twenty and looked out at the country he would not enter. He was still speaking to Joshua when the cloud came down.
A traveler rose to thank Abraham for the bread. Abraham stopped him. The blessing belonged to the Host who feeds all flesh.
For seventeen years Joseph kept runners on the road so that he would never be alone in a room with his father. His father knew the whole time.
Jacob feared a father's curse more than a brother's rage. Rebecca claimed the curse for herself, dressed her smooth son, and sent him in for the blessing.
The sons standing in the tent still smelled of flocks. Their father named animals, and the animals were kingdoms that had not been built yet.
Seven grooms had married Sarah and died before morning. On the eighth night her father sent a maid to look. She found them asleep.
Goat hide is the foulest thing a nose can meet. Isaac pressed his face into it and said his son smelled like a field the Lord had blessed.
Isaac sat in the dark with a bowl of meat. The voice was the younger son's. The hands, wrapped in goat, belonged to the hunt.
Dying Rebecca demanded burial beside Sarah and peace between Jacob and Esau. She blessed holy seed, then Jacob swore her bones would rest near Sarah's.
Jacob called his sons, gave Judah a lion and Joseph an ox, then blessed them together so no tribe owned the ending. Moses later took up the same word.
Laban named speckled, then streaked. The lambs came the other color anyway. Jacob still had only a staff when he first crossed the Jordan.
Elijah begged as a poor man. The kind brother's coins never ended until he cried enough. The rich couple's first act never ended until they died.
Heaven waits for the grave before attaching the divine name to anyone. Isaac was lying in a tent, alive and waiting for venison, when it happened.
Before the Tabernacle, sacrifice wandered any high place. Once the Tent stood, God demanded one door, then came loaded with blessings like Jacob to Pharaoh.
Abraham asked who pours blessing back on Levi. God said He blesses the blessers. The priestly lines open wealth, Torah, priests, prophets, and favor.
Jacob froze outside Isaac's tent, sure a deceiver earns a curse. Rebekah claimed it as earth once did for Adam, and heaven crowned him with dew.
She put the dish in his hands and stepped back. Goat skins were tied to his arms. Then the old man said, "Come near, that I may feel you."
Judah got the lion's strength, Dan the serpent's bite. Judah's soil grows barley and Benjamin's grows wheat, and each tribe eats from the other's field.
Jacob still calls Reuben firstborn despite the bed. He, not Esau, summons sons to bless. He bars his name from Simeon and Levi's future sins.
Moses put the vestments on his brother. Aaron had not asked for them. The lamps stood on the wrong side of the table.
Jacob divided wives, children, and flocks into two camps. God's promise still rang in his ears, and fear still moved his hands.
The wrong sister woke in the tent. Jacob recoiled. Heaven had already counted her tears against a match to Esau, and would not waste them.
Balak sent a bird toward the springs of impurity to fetch older powers. It came back with its wings charred, and the altars kept smoking anyway.
Levi's jaw tightened and Simeon's eyes found the floor. Their father opened his mouth to give them the date of the end, and the words left his head.
The room smelled of age and oil. Joseph steered his two boys under a dying man's hands, the same hands that once gripped a brother's heel.
Jacob blesses Joseph's firm bow after Potiphar's house, and Egypt stays soft only while Joseph lives, then hardens into slavery.
The king who once sneered at the Lord hands over flocks and gold, then asks the people he whipped to bless him before they go.
The donkey turned her head and spoke. On the heights Balaam pushed a curse and felt metal stop it. Balak's silver sat unused.
