486 myths · Page 13 of 17
Toward evening they slaughtered. At sunset they began to eat. At midnight, the hour Israel left Egypt, leftover flesh met fire and not the morning.
Abraham came down from Moriah with the knife still heavy in his hand, and found Sarah already fallen, her years counted only from the son she had finally held.
At twilight they slaughtered the lamb and painted both posts. One command of blood bought mercy while Egypt's idols melted and favor filled Israelite hands.
When the whip fell on Israel's back in Egypt, the Presence did not watch from a cool height. He was afflicted with them, and Job still blessed the Name in ash.
Joseph keeps distance from Jacob's sickbed so no private talk can drag the pit and the sale into a father's curse against the brothers.
At thirty Joseph left prison for a ring, a gold collar, and power so total no Egyptian could arm or ride without his word, then buried grain in caverns.
Jacob asked why his sons feared the road to Egypt. They split across ten gates against the evil eye, then bowed to a bearded stranger who remembered dreams.
The brothers emptied their sacks in Canaan and found every man's money bundled inside. Simeon was still in an Egyptian cell, and the silver looked like a trap.
Jacob refused, then yielded. He packed gum, honey, and double silver, and sent Benjamin south into a house where five portions and first wine waited.
Joseph planted his silver cup in Benjamin's sack, offered the rest peace, and watched Judah refuse a road home that left Rachel's last son in chains.
Pharaoh sent wagons for Jacob's house. God promised His Word would go down to Egypt and bring them up, while Judah went ahead to open study in Goshen.
Jacob's coffin left Egypt with an honor guard of chariots. Joseph wanted something harder, a sentence his great-grandchildren would still know.
A prince walked out of the palace and saw what the brick pits were doing to men. Years later he came back with a Name, and the throne looked it up.
Israel was left in Egypt as a deposit in God's care, and Pharaoh reached for what was not his until Moses struck words against him like iron on iron.
By nightfall Sarah was lying face down on the floor of Pharaoh's house, and an angel stood over the king with a whip, waiting for her to say the word.
Potiphar looked at the traders, then at the boy they were selling, and said out loud that this was no slave. He bought him anyway, and not for the accounts.
He counted them off like a debt paid: Esau, Laban, the Canaanites who chased him. Three rescues he had asked for. The fourth he had stopped asking for.
Pharaoh counted six hundred thousand workers. The midrash answers that only two of that number would finally stand free on the far side of Egypt's night.
Grain jars, door bolts, accounts, the order of the servants: an Egyptian officer's whole house hung on a slave his brothers had sold.
Joseph's brothers invent a grudge from his empty seat. He names their fear, then takes flint himself to circumcise great-grandsons under Egyptian roofs.
Young Moses breaks up a fight between Dathan and Abiram. Years later the same pair stay in Egypt and feed Pharaoh news so he can hunt the freed slaves.
Moses asks Jethro's permission as if only checking on kin. God says the hunters of his life are reckoned dead, and Pharaoh's passion will be made obstinate.
God told them to turn back toward Egypt and camp at the one idol left standing. Under it lay the silver and gold Joseph had stored away.
An Egyptian steals a night from an Israelite house, then raises his whip. Moses turns, judges the man, and buries him in sand before Egypt wakes.
Royal daughters press jewels through wall slits to catch Josephs eye. He keeps his gaze down, and a later Torah law becomes his reward.
At the bush Moses demands a name for Israel. God answers that He is called by what He does, judge or warrior or merciful, and shields the camp from future pain.
Warning after warning strikes Egypt, and Pharaoh hardens himself first. Heaven cooks his heart like twice-boiled liver, while Bitya lives by an old kindness.
Before the first Passover, Israel must circumcise to eat the lamb. Eden winds carry the roast scent, two bloods mingle, and God kisses each doorway.
He came up out of Egypt rich, with a wife a king had taken and given back. He did not build anywhere new. He walked to the old ridge and started again.
He was brought out of the tent and told to count the stars. He got partway and gave up, and the silence was written down as merit.
