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 wet and could not make his hand reach Sarah. Rebecca later sent Jacob for two kids, and the blessing came in on goatskin.
Akilas wanted more than food and a coat for crossing over. Rabbi Eliezer threw Jacob's cold night on a stone at him.
Joseph told the dream at the table. Jacob scolded him while the brothers watched. Then he wrote down the hour and the place.
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 had the road ready and the days counted. Jacob would not take a step until Isaac blessed him in the open and named the house he was bound for.
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.
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.
Isaac walked into his mother's tent and found the lamp dead. The cloud at the flap was gone. The dough sat like any other dough.
The well at Rephidim had gone dry. By morning an army stood on the sand, and Moses had only the staff that once 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.
The stranger put a finger on a rock until it burst into flame. Jacob still held him. Dawn was coming, and the choir would not wait.
A rumor named the queen and an officer. The king searched the rooms and found nothing. He sat her at the head of the table anyway.
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.
Abraham stood in the smoke and offered comfort. Jerusalem answered with his own mountain. Isaac, Jacob, and Moses came next, and she sent them all away.
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.
