180 myths · Page 4 of 6
Jacob sat in the dust with Esau behind him and no prayer left. The presence that had ridden his life went out, and the road became only a road.
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.
Esau sold the birthright for lentils and Methuselah's blade, then deeded the land and Machpelah to Jacob. Heaven repaid him with provinces ending at Rome.
The camps were already across the water. Jacob stayed on the near bank. A man took hold of him in the dark and would not name himself.
Laban's words rekindled Esau's old fury. Four hundred men marched while Rebekah sent seventy-two retainers, and Jacob named the place Mahanaim for God's host.
He had sworn not to use an arrow. He wanted his brother's throat in his mouth. The neck he bit turned hard, and his teeth failed.
Joseph walked as viceroy and son toward Machpelah. At the cave mouth a twin still wanted a plot. A head came to rest on a blind father's knees.
He ferried sheep that would not thin. A finger touched the earth, fire boiled up from the bank, and Jacob told the stranger he was not afraid.
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.
Jacob sent sacred tithes to Esau and named himself servant. Heaven rebuked the profaned gift, then Eliphaz refused to fight his teacher Jacob.
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.
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.
Joseph would not walk into Pharaoh's hall in mourning clothes. He sent the king's household ahead, then Seir rode down three days later.
Isaac could not stand the women his son had married out of Canaan. So Esau rode down to Ishmael's camp and came back with a third one.
Zepho of Kittim won with help from heaven, then kept Esau's idols. When Balaam fled Africa, the king opened his court to dark wisdom.
Every Hebrew had marked his name on the bricks of forced labor. Amalek got hold of those lists. Outside the camp he called out: Reuben. Simeon. Levi.
King Agnias would not accept the first day's loss. He ordered every male in Africa into the ranks, even boys of ten, on pain of death.
Levi worked his father's fields until he was too tired for anything else. He married at thirty. Firstfruits went to the priest, then Jacob, then him.
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.
Families waited outside the house of study until Moses stepped out. They poured Egypt onto him, the life without law.
An overseer caught a smith's wrist before iron touched the Tabernacle. Gold could enter the sockets. Rome's metal stayed in the yard.
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.
Jacob counted the chiefs of Edom and could not see how his household would survive them. Heaven's answer was a blacksmith standing beside a load of flax.
Ishmael was fifteen when he brought the idols home to play with. Abraham was rich in cattle and silver, and sent him out with a loaf and a waterskin.
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."
When Joseph vanished, Jacob would not be comforted. Twelve pillars held heaven and earth, and one missing tribe cracked the order of creation itself.
Twenty years earlier a frightened boy had asked for bread, a coat, and a road home. Now he was back, and four hundred men were riding toward him.
