86 myths · Page 2 of 3
Judah told the men to burn Tamar. She sent him the seal he had left on the road. He said she was more righteous than he was.
Before the stone left David's sling, something older and stranger had already struck Goliath. The giant felt it the moment David walked toward him.
Ahimelech handed David the showbread and Goliath's sword. Doeg stood detained in the sanctuary, counting every letter of what he saw.
Rabbi Simon taught that singing after a miracle forgives the singer, and Deborah proved it when her voice rose over the battlefield.
David hid at Adullam and decided the anointing had been a cheat. Samuel had poured oil on his head for nothing, and Saul was still coming.
Psalm 19 says day pours speech to day, and the rabbis turned that into a chain: Joshua's miracles handed forward to Deborah, and Deborah's to Barak.
Ahaz meant to give his son to Moloch. The boy's mother rubbed him with the blood of a salamander first, and the fire could not have him.
Korah recruited followers with a story about a widow and her one field. Moses took the first fruits, then the tithe, then the wool off her two sheep.
Her skin was the color of myrtle. She ate vegetables in the palace and told her heart to seek God's face. A second body went in at night.
The earth opened under Korah. His three sons sat on a pillar in the fire and sang. A noblewoman in Rome would not let three men die.
The earth opened beneath their father and they were left suspended on a ledge inside Gehinnom (afterlife of judgment), and from there they composed the psalms.
The earth opened under Korah while the censer was still in his hand. His three sons could not speak. A pillar rose under them in the fire.
The Egyptian governor made small talk with the youngest brother. How many sons do you have? Ten. And what are they called?
He had killed eight hundred men in one engagement. The Torah promised a thousand to a man who kept it. David wanted to know about the gap.
Ahaz had shut the study houses. The rooms went dark. Hezekiah ordered oil for every lamp and said the night would not stay empty.
Psalm 106 holds a petition small enough to miss: remember me, O Lord. Midrash Tehillim gives God one answer. Your words are living with me, my child.
He threw dust at Amraphel's line and it came down as swords. Nations slept under those wings. Abraham was the one who woke them.
Saul's soldiers were outside. Inside, David had rock, breath, and a voice. He cried out twice, once for rescue and once against killing his own people.
David's prayers were not petitions. The ancient rabbis said they physically altered the heavenly court and pulled angels into the world when he needed them.
An angel killed four of David's sons and the prophet Gad, then wiped the sword clean on David's clothes. His limbs shook for the rest of his life.
The stone Jacob used as a pillow at Bethel was the stone from which God had spread all creation outward. Jacob's dream showed him what would be built there.
An old man pushed a carob seed into dirt he would never taste. Honi sat under a rock to think. He woke to a study house that used his name like a proverb.
The hill had no flowers and no rocks. The tree at the top was horn. David sat at its foot to see what would happen if he stayed.
Moses recited Psalm 91 on Sinai to ward off demons, and when the Mishkan rose, the noon demon Ketev Meriri lost dominion over the world.
While digging the Temple foundations, David struck a shard that sealed the abyss, and when he lifted it, the waters of the deep began to rise toward the world.
David wanted his own name in the blessing beside Abraham's. God told him what Abraham had gone through to get it there. David said, test me too.
Solomon warned that a bird of heaven carries the voice. The midrash says that bird is an angel, and Saul's curse reached heaven as soon as he said it.
Saul's men watched the house all night and waited for morning. By then David was over the sill and gone, and there was goat's hair on the pillow.
Goliath fell on his face. A blow to the forehead should send a man backward. The boy who threw never claimed the arm.
To pray the Amidah is to bow all eighteen vertebrae into eighteen blessings, as weak prayers are lifted by strong ones and rivers raise their force.
