58 myths · Page 2 of 2
Deborah was judge and prophetess and battle commander. The victory song she composed still cost her something: the spirit withdrew while she was writing it.
One had a vow he could not undo. The other had the authority to undo it. Neither would take the first step toward the other, and a girl died for their dignity.
Samuel walked into Jesse's house certain he could see the next king. God let him be wrong on purpose, seven times in a row.
After writing the last of one hundred fifty psalms, David asked God if any creature praised him more. A frog hopped up and said yes.
King David stood at heaven's threshold with two coins in his hand and refused to pretend he could sit at Abraham's table or in Moses' chair.
In a dungeon and then before Pharaoh, Joseph says the same thing twice: interpretations belong to God, not to me. The repetition is the whole argument.
Seven men had one job: remind Solomon of Torah's rules for kings before he sat down each day. The wisest man alive still needed people to keep him honest.
Solomon commanded demons, spoke to eagles, and ruled the world. Then one ant told him he was wrong about something, and she was right.
Solomon flew on a carpet 60 miles wide and praised his own power. The wind dropped 40,000 men until the king learned one word again.
Solomon found a silver plate in a statue's throat, but its dead king's warning only made sense after his own crown was taken away.
A late sermon, a furious oath, and a locked door left one wife outside until Elijah taught Rabbi Meir how to turn shame into peace.
Solomon asked if anyone surpassed him in the world. The ant queen would not answer unless he held her first. Then she told him yes.
A stranger suggested four words before a business trip. The merchant laughed him off. He lost his purse twice before the lesson arrived.
Ashmedai measures four cubits on the palace floor and tells Solomon what kings own. Then the Temple gates refuse to open, and only a dead man can move them.
The king who speaks every language hears an ant warn her colony before his army crushes them and learns his glory looks like danger from the ground.
Solomon mapped the sea and spoke with ants, but four roads left no marker he could follow, and he confessed he was once simple.
The four living creatures strain forever under the Throne, crying blessed be the glory, and not one of them knows where that glory is.
God addressed Ezekiel as ben adam, son of man, beside the Chebar River in exile. Vayikra Rabbah says the word was not a warning but an act of affection.
King David had every reason to claim noble blood. Instead he traced his lineage to Ruth the convert and called himself a slave purchased from outside the house.
When David stands over Goliath's body, Midrash Tehillim reveals an angel guided the stone, and every victory after that belonged to God, not the king.
A great rabbi sets out on a path and is corrected, shamed, and outargued four times before he reaches his destination.
Rachel said nothing on her wedding night, Saul said nothing to his uncle, and a thousand years later Esther found the silence she needed.
Haman found Mordecai deep in Torah study and told him to rise. Then he confessed that Mordecai's prayers had defeated his ten thousand talents of silver.
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi asked who would sit beside him in the World to Come, and the answer was a butcher who cared for his aging parents.
Mar Ukva gave charity in secret every day for years, and when the poor man finally chased him to see his face, Mar Ukva ran into a furnace.
Jewish legend makes Alexander bow before Jerusalem, ride hungry eagles toward the sky, then sink in a glass box with no bottom to find.
Roman soldiers eat the wedding birds and a rebellion ignites. Bar Deroa holds the army off until he says God forgot them. Then a snake finishes it.
Ptolemy had gold, guards, and libraries, but the Letter of Aristeas shows him asking seventy-two scholars what a ruler must become before power destroys him.
