339 myths · Page 8 of 12
She set the last jar down and checked herself again. This time the blood was there. Rabban Gamliel went white in the doorway.
He routed an army of eight hundred thousand, then begged three travelers to stop for bread. The same man did both, and that is the whole point.
The same God who pulled stars from the sky to drown the world later swore an oath beside a well, and both acts bound heaven to earth.
Amalek cut the sign of the covenant from the dead and flung it at the sky. The wars over that covenant began long before, with Jacob's sons.
An old man dreams the centuries draining out of human bodies until a life of seventy years is called long, and a drowned world answers back.
Three times the Judge descended to argue His own case, and three times the watching nations leaned in certain this stubborn people was finished.
No messenger told Rebecca. Her prophecy cut a furrow inside a furrow and read the murder Esau had sworn only in his own silent heart.
The sons of Esau asked what was written in it. God named one command. They remembered Isaac's blessing and would not take the rest.
An old priest strikes the king's officer at Modin and hands his sons a war no army can win, and one son frees Judea only to fall on a deserted field.
Babylon burned the Temple and left one prince of David in a jail cell. Seventy years later Ezra led a company of exiles home to rebuild the walls.
David marshaled his army against Edom and Philistia, but a covenant Jacob swore to Laban at a heap of stones held the warrior-king's hands.
Heifer, goat, and ram lay cut in halves, and the birds of prey came down for them. Abraham drove the birds off and sat with the meat until sundown.
Between the pieces Abraham saw Babylon, Greece, and other powers march through sacrifice. He also learned how study would stand in for a fallen Temple.
Hands shook over the lintel in Goshen. Lamb blood was not enough. They added the blood of the covenant, and God said live twice.
Before Esau's four hundred, Jacob prayed, sent gifts, and readied for war. He cited a future Torah law so God would not kill mothers with sons.
The boy was named before he existed. Ishmael mocked the cut done on an infant. On Moriah, Isaac at thirty-seven laid his own life down.
The Jebusites sold Abraham the cave only after he swore his seed would not seize their city. Generations later Esau sold his share for gold.
To seal a peace with a Philistine king, Abraham handed over seven ewes. God had not asked for them, and Samson, Saul, and Eli's sons paid the bill.
Aner said the cut would leave Abraham too slow to run from kings. Eshkol feared the blood. Mamre sent him to the knife anyway.
Joseph sent his oldest son first, then the next, each on a horse. From far off Jacob kept mistaking every rider for the son he had lost.
Before circumcision Abraham fell on his face at every word from heaven. After the covenant he stood, and the gate of Gehinnom (afterlife of judgment) closed.
Sarah was dead. The land had been promised in stars and animal blood. Abraham asked the men of Hebron for a cave, and he would not take it as a gift.
Abraham wondered where to cut the covenant. He fell on his face, a scorpion bit the place, and he rose already marked as God's partner.
Moses served Jethro at a desert feast, then sent him home before Sinai, while Jethro's line later earned Jericho and Sanhedrin seats.
God put a new name on Abram while kings were still unborn. Isaac stayed with the wells. His brothers left with packs and no claim on the land.
A prophet stood in the Temple court wearing a wooden yoke on his neck. Another prophet walked up, tore it off him, and smashed it in front of the crowd.
Before Sinai, the nations demanded to know why Israel was chosen. God asked for family records. Only Israel could open pure books of descent.
Each man went and got his son. They pressed the children into the springs as stoppers. The water came around them and kept coming.
God had waited twenty generations. At ninety He said the world would fold into empty waste if Abraham refused the cut. Abraham took the knife.
A runner reached the oaks of Mamre with the news that Lot was gone. Abraham armed three hundred and eighteen house servants and went after four kings.
