121 myths · Page 3 of 5
After two brothers razed Shechem, an army from Nineveh cut off Jacob's road, and the old patriarch and his twelve sons fought it like a nation.
An old priest strikes the king's officer at Modin and hands his sons a war no army can win, and one son frees Judea only to fall on a deserted field.
Lysias packed Bethsura with sixty thousand foot. On the far bank they waited to see if Judas would get wet first.
Lot came out of the wagons unchained. The kings' silver followed him like a second army. Abraham would not keep the glory.
He could not curse them. So he told Midian to paint the daughters' eyes and set booths outside the camp. Twenty-four thousand fell.
The army wanted to go home. Joab told them to sling him over the wall and watch the gates for forty days. Blood would mean he still lived.
One man against royal armies. Abraham cried that without God's glory he was nothing, and the night itself split so he could slaughter enemies until morning.
Joseph would not walk into Pharaoh's hall in mourning clothes. He sent the king's household ahead, then Seir rode down three days later.
Every Hebrew had marked his name on the bricks of forced labor. Amalek got hold of those lists. Outside the camp he called out: Reuben. Simeon. Levi.
God named two clocks in one breath. Avenge Midian. Then Moses would be gathered. He heard both clauses and still called for the spears.
The Moabite line broke first. Midian stayed and died under Hadad's host. A year later the same king crushed their revenge.
Enemy camps lit fires and fled before dawn. Jonathan struck the Zabadeans instead, and elsewhere his men stormed a city with massive slaughter.
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.
Moses could not hold his own arms in the air. They put a rock under him, and what took his weight was the deeds of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the mothers.
Manasseh fell in the barley heat near Bethulia. Judith kept a tent on the roof until the city needed her down in the street.
At Refidim, Amalek struck and Moses promised the hill. One sage heard tactics; another heard Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob fighting in the staff.
Dust rose on a horizon that should have been empty. The riders had skipped five nations and four hundred parasangs to reach one camp.
Israel had bowed to Baal Peor, and a plague killed the guilty. When the war with Midian came, soldiers blackened women's faces and took their jewelry.
Twelve thousand came home from Midian with no man dead and no man accused. Then they set gold in front of Moses, and he asked what it was for.
He called himself a god who never had to squat. Moses was already on the bank. Later a frog asked the palace marble for room.
Do not put your eyes on the money, he told three hundred and eighteen men. If it is silver and gold you want, it is already on your backs.
After the quarrel over pasture, Abraham still names Lot brother, thins his army to Eliezer alone, and chases kings past Dan into Hobah.
Judas's friends stood in a circle and named the gap. We have no man like him, they said. Bacchides was already hunting the next name.
Moses rushes Midian's war knowing death waits after, while Joshua drags thirty-one kings across many years and loses a decade of life.
The king of Israel wanted them dead and asked the prophet for permission. Elisha said no and set out bread and water for the men sent to bind him.
His arms were heavy and the camp had pillows to spare. Amalek was still attacking, so Moses sat on a rock instead and kept his hands up.
Joshua cuts Amalek's ranks below while Moses' arms fail on the hill, and Aaron and Hur hold them skyward until the enemy breaks at dusk.
Young men oiled spearheads and waited for a war they could see. Moses wanted them angry at the trap that had already entered the camp.
The five kings were still running when the light began to go. Joshua raised the scroll of Deuteronomy toward the sun and told it to be quiet.
Outside Jerusalem the enemy roasted goats west of the wall so the starving inside died from the scent of meat they could not reach.
