308 myths · Page 10 of 11
It could have carried a merchant's goods across the desert and found its own way home. It asked the woman one question and never walked again.
Avimelech woke sweating from a dream and discovered his own desire was on God's leash. Rebecca sent Jacob for two kids and seeded Yom Kippur.
A convert argues that a coat and a meal are poor rewards for crossing into the covenant. A rabbi fires back with Jacob's own bargain on a stone.
Isaac stood at the edge of Egypt and refused to step off the land. Jacob heard Joseph's dream and immediately wrote it down as evidence.
Eleazar sends his finest sages to Alexandria but fears no king will release men whose wisdom makes them too valuable to return.
Michael and Gabriel served as witnesses when Esau sold the birthright, then Michael carried Levi to the Throne before Jacob sent him as tribute to his brother.
Jacob's skin and Esau's arms were more than a disguise. Two words sorted two brothers into two eternities before either one knew it.
Ishmael had been telling his brother for years that he was the braver son. Isaac was thirty-seven when he finally answered him out loud.
An angel wrestles Jacob all night, then pleads to be released at dawn. He has been waiting since creation for his single turn to sing before God.
One sentence gave him away. Isaac reached out to check by touch, and the young man in the goatskins felt his own heart turn to wax.
Gabriel offered to pull Abraham from the furnace and God refused. Some rescues cannot be handed to a deputy, and the sea split because of what came before it.
Rebekah begged Jacob to flee for his life, and he refused to take one step until his father blessed him out loud and aimed him at the road.
Seven Amorite kings crouch in the woods of Canaan plotting slaughter, until Judah leaps the battle line and the war the Torah left silent begins.
Israel danced around the calf, and heaven sent five named angels to wipe out the nation. One man ran ahead of the executioners.
On Moriah the ministering angels broke into weeping above the bound boy, and their tears dropped into Isaac's eyes and stayed there for life.
A princess of royal blood begged to join the covenant of Abraham, was turned from the door, and from that wound she bore Amalek.
The angels crowded the ladder all night like flies on a sleeping child. Then a light bent over the stone where Jacob lay, and every one of them scattered.
The brothers sold Joseph, bloodied his coat, and dragged home a live wolf as proof of the beast that ate him. Then God loosened its tongue.
Esau lunged to bite his brother to death, but Jacob's neck hardened like ivory, and the hunter howled while his own teeth cracked.
Sarah's tent held open doors, blessed dough, a lamp, and the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, at the door. When she died the signs went dark until Rebecca came.
Amalek reached Rephidim with no herald and no demand. Moses climbed the hill and argued the case to God with the staff that had split the sea.
Pharaoh answered the first demand by making the brick quotas crueler. Abraham had paid four hundred shekels to bury Sarah and never said a word.
Abimelech bowed to Isaac's blessing, then the light left his eyes. Abraham's name poured like oil while patriarchal song was only fragrance on the wind.
Jacob pinned Esau's guardian until the choir hour. The wicked obey their hearts. Jacob ordered his own heart to hold.
Nations pointed at the golden calf. Heaven investigated, cleared Israel, and set the bull first among every offering on the altar.
In a dream the dead Baal Shem Tov tells his son that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob walk the roads to learn Israel's troubles before libels strike.
God sent Abraham to comfort the burned city. She threw his own life back at him and refused. So did Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.
Esau sent Elifaz to kill his brother. The boy had been raised in Isaac's house and could not do it, so Jacob told him to take the money and the clothes.
Moses lists Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob one by one because the land was not a blanket gift. Each patriarch worked the field until the promise stuck.
At dawn it was Lord. An hour later, Emperor. An hour after that, Peace to you, O King. The servants exchanged glances. Antoninus bristled.
