494 myths · Page 11 of 17
The night before the Babylonians breached Jerusalem, four angels descended to the Temple courts and started the burning themselves.
Sennacherib's 185,000 soldiers surrounded Jerusalem. Hezekiah spread the enemy's letter on the Temple floor, prayed once, and waited for morning.
When Ahab mocked the prophets and the decree against Israel was sealed, Elijah did not pray alone. He ran to the fathers of the world for help.
An angel arrives to take Elijah from earth, finds him teaching Elisha, and returns empty-handed. Even death cannot interrupt a Torah lesson in the middle.
Babylonian envoys came to honor the king's God. So Hezekiah opened the Ark, pointed at the tablets, and boasted that they won his wars.
A boy of eight inherits a kingdom his father nearly destroyed, reunites Israel for the first time in centuries, and dies in a battle he had no reason to fight.
The fiery chariot took Elijah to heaven and that was not the end. He became Sandalphon, the angel who weaves Israel's prayers into garlands for God.
The word of God would not come to an angry prophet. Elisha called for a harpist, and when the strings played, heaven found a way in.
The altar was ready, the false prophets were exhausted, and Elijah still waited. Fire came only at the beloved hour of Mincha.
The rabbis argued over Jonah's tribe for three Sabbaths until one answer let him belong to the harbor and the prophet's house.
The rabbis placed Elijah at both ends of history, present before creation and appointed to announce the end. On Mount Horeb, God showed him all of time at once.
Most prophets die. Elijah did not, and the tradition finds him everywhere: in heaven courts, at a scholar door, on a street pointing out the righteous.
One man against four hundred prophets. Josephus wrote it for a Roman audience and made sure they understood exactly what was at stake for Israel.
Before Elijah ever walked into Ahab's court, he stood in heaven and volunteered for the hardest assignment God had on offer.
Elisha carried divine fire so concentrated his face burned lethal to look at. He traveled mountain to mountain, and one woman saw him coming.
After his fiery ascent, Elijah took on two tasks at once: recording every human deed until the end of days, and guiding souls through the gates of paradise.
Jezebel filled Jezreel with fear, but her hands clapped for the dead and her feet followed them. The dogs stopped at those limbs.
Elisha received twice Elijah's spirit, but Gehazi turned the prophet's house into a hiding place for silver, garments, and leprosy.
Inside besieged Jerusalem, Shebnah tied surrender to an arrow and fired it toward Sennacherib while Isaiah held Hezekiah firm.
Jerusalem survived Sennacherib in one night, but Hezekiah lost the messianic crown when victory rose without a song at dawn.
Ahaziah sent soldiers to drag Elijah down from a hill. Fire took the first two companies, and the prophet left the world without a grave.
Elijah held back rain until Ahab repented, but God answered with a dry patch of creation that had waited since the first mist.
Jezebel's threat drove Elijah into the wilderness, where an angel fed him and God answered his zeal by sending him back.
Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit. Elijah called it a hard thing. Elisha watched and received it, and the count came out exactly right.
A stranger offered a destitute laborer the timing of seven good years. The wife said spend them on charity. Elijah came back to see what they had done.
Elisha's most gifted disciple inscribed the Divine Name on golden calves and made them utter the words of Sinai. Nothing after that could be undone.
Jonah had already been called a false prophet once when Jerusalem repented and survived. He could not face being called a liar again.
When Jonah came to anoint Jehu as king, he used a pitcher of oil instead of a horn. The choice was a prophecy. Jehu never understood what it foretold.
Isaiah expected the sick king to come to him. Hezekiah expected the prophet to come to the palace. Neither moved, and God had to force the standoff to end.
He had his two young sons on his shoulders, walking to the house of study. Riding over his head, they were already debating which idol his bald head resembled.
