486 myths · Page 8 of 17
God abandoned the high slopes and settled in a shrub of thorns because Israel was in grief. Moses asked for an oath before he would go down.
Potiphar's wife faked illness to empty the house. Joseph fled, left his garment, and kept the Name that never left his lips.
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.
The Ishmaelites learned Joseph was Jacob's son and pressed him to confess. He kept the slave story so his brothers would not die for selling him.
When Hebrew men divorced their wives to spare unborn sons from the Nile, Amram remarried Jochebed in public so despair would not erase Israel.
Ten times brothers called Jacob thy servant. Joseph stayed silent and lost ten years, then rode out like a subject to meet his father-king.
Rabbi Yishmael put the mark on the inside of the doorframe. No neighbor could count the painted houses, and no Egyptian ever saw one.
Israel marked doors with lamb blood and circumcision blood. Heaven saw both, said live twice, and tied that mercy to Yom Kippur forever.
Ten years in prison, one for each brother Joseph had once carried reports about to Jacob. In the dark a letter of the divine Name was added to his: Jehoseph.
God told the ground to bury Egypt's drowned. The ground answered that the water had done the killing and could do the burying, and demanded an oath.
Ganoon claimed private revelation and led Ephraim out of Egypt too soon. Two hundred thousand fell. Bows turned back in battle.
An Egyptian priest named Manetho wrote that a king had to drive out 80,000 sick men to see the gods. Josephus read the story and called it a lie.
When Joseph fled, Zuleika clung to the scrap of garment, then took her friends' counsel to reverse the charge and bury him in prison.
Blind with tears for Joseph, Jacob wrote to Egypt's ruler and prayed for two lost sons, never guessing the viceroy was the first.
At Joseph's door the brothers begged like strangers. Benjamin's cup tore their clothes, and Judah heard a rope follow a bucket into the dark.
Simon and Gad raised hands to kill Joseph. Later Zuleika pressed a sword to his throat while God held the stone that holds the earth.
Guards at the grain gates wrote down every buyer's father and grandfather. Joseph read the lists, waiting for ten names from Canaan to show up.
Famine drove them to Egypt. At the river Abraham saw Sarah's face like the sun, locked her in a chest, and bargained tax rates until the lid was forced open.
The cup rose out of Benjamin's sack, planted the night before. Back in the hall, Manasseh stamped his foot once and the whole palace shook.
Asenath nursed the dying man and told Joseph to bring his sons for a blessing. Jacob's answer was that in seventeen years the boys had never come.
Jacob lay dead and Joseph needed Canaan for the burial. Pharaoh stalled until Joseph reminded him of the throne-secret oath sworn in seventy languages.
Joseph threatened anyone who skipped the welcome. Purple ranks and rooftop drums met Jacob while he served proper meat and taught his brothers how to stay free.
Dying, Jacob ordered Joseph to forgive and shield his brothers. Ages later the tribes buried Joseph in Shechem, the ground that first took him.
On the road to Egypt, Jacob counted five terrors for his house. God answered each one, and Joseph sent horses ahead so the old man would not break.
An Egyptian taskmaster forced Shelomith while Dathan was driven to labor, until Moses struck the abuser dead and fled the men he had saved.
Jacob's family boarded a crewless ship in a shared dream, Joseph seized both rudders in jealousy, and only the patriarch's whistle raised the wreck.
Pharaoh sent men to kill Jochebed and her daughter Miriam. God made the women invisible, and the killers found nobody. Jochebed's newborn walked that day.
Moses and Aaron each took a handful of ash from the brick furnace. Moses held both heaps in one hand and threw them at the sky. The dust reached the throne.
Joseph sent clothes up from Egypt, a turban among them for his father. Jacob put it on, then slaughtered sacrifices asking whether he should go at all.
Three days after Jacob was laid to rest, Seir and the East rode against Joseph. Six hundred thousand fell, then Esau's sons and Seir turned on each other.
