Legends of the Jews, Volume 1 — Chapter 5: Abraham, Part 11

THE COVENANT WITH ABIMELECH

After a sojourn of twenty-six years in the land of the Philistines, Abraham departed thence, and he settled in the neighborhood of Hebron.

There he was visited by Abimelech with twenty of his grandees,[219] who requested him to make an alliance with the Philistines.

As long as Abraham was childless, the heathen did not believe in his piety, but when Isaac was born, they said to him, "God is with thee."

But again they entertained doubt of his piety when he cast off Ishmael.

They said, "Were he a righteous man, he would not drive his first-born forth from his house."

But when they observed the impious deeds of Ishmael, they said, "God is with thee in all thou doest."

That Abraham was the favorite of God, they saw in this, too, that although Sodom was destroyed and all traffic had come to a standstill in that region, yet Abraham's treasure chambers were filled.

For these reasons, the Philistines sought to form an alliance with him, to remain in force for three generations to come, for it is to the third generation that the love of a father extends.

Before Abraham concluded the covenant with Abimelech, king of the Philistines, he reproved him on account of a well, for "Correction leads to love," and "There is no peace without correction."

The herdmen of Abraham and those of Abimelech had left their dispute about the well to decision by ordeal: the well was to belong to the party for whose sheep the waters would rise so that they could drink of them.

But the shepherds of Abimelech disregarded the agreement, and they wrested the well for their own use.

[220] As a witness and a perpetual sign that the well belonged to him, Abraham set aside seven sheep, corresponding to the seven Noachian laws binding upon all men alike.

[221] But God said, "Thou didst give him seven sheep.

As thou livest, the Philistines shall one day slay seven righteous men, Samson, Hophni, Phinehas, and Saul with his three sons, and they will destroy seven holy places, and they will keep the holy Ark in their country as booty of war for a period of seven months, and furthermore only the seventh generation of thy descendants will be able to rejoice in the possession of the land promised to them."

[222] After concluding the alliance with Abimelech, who acknowledged Abraham's right upon the well, Abraham called the place Beer-sheba, because there they swore both of them unto a covenant of friendship.

In Beer-sheba Abraham dwelt many years, and thence he endeavored to spread the law of God.

He planted a large grove there, and he made four gates for it, facing the four sides of the earth, east, west, north, and south, and he planted a vineyard therein.

If a traveller came that way, he entered by the gate that faced him, and he sat in the grove, and ate, and drank, until he was satisfied, and then he departed.

For the house of Abraham was always open for all passers-by, and they came daily to eat and drink there.

If one was hungry, and he came to Abraham, he would give him what he needed, so that he might eat and drink and be satisfied; and if one was naked, and he came to Abraham, he would clothe him with the garments of the poor man's choice, and give him silver and gold, and make known to him the Lord, who had created him and set him on earth.

[223] After the wayfarers had eaten, they were in the habit of thanking Abraham for his kind entertainment of them, whereto he would reply: "What, ye give thanks unto me!

Rather return thanks to your host, He who alone provides food and drink for all creatures."

Then the people would ask, "Where is He?"

and Abraham would answer them, and say: "He is the Ruler of heaven and earth.

He woundeth and He healeth, He formeth the embryo in the womb of the mother and bringeth it forth into the world, He causeth the plants and the trees to grow, He killeth and He maketh alive, He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up."

When the people heard such words, they would ask, "How shall we return thanks to God and manifest our gratitude unto Him?"

And Abraham would instruct them in these words: "Say, Blessed be the Lord who is blessed!

Blessed be He that giveth bread and food unto all flesh!"

In this manner did Abraham teach those who had enjoyed his hospitality how to praise and thank God.

[224] Abraham's house thus became not only a lodging-place for the hungry and thirsty, but also a place of instruction where the knowledge of God and His law were taught.

[225] SATAN ACCUSES ABRAHAM

In spite of the lavish hospitality practiced in the house of Abraham, it happened once that a poor man, or rather an alleged poor man, was turned away empty-handed, and this was the immediate reason for the last of Abraham's temptations, the sacrifice of his favorite son Isaac.

It was the day on which Abraham celebrated the birth of Isaac with a great banquet, to which all the magnates of the time were bidden with their wives.

Satan, who always appears at a feast in which no poor people participate, and keeps aloof from those to which poor guests are invited, turned up at Abraham's banquet in the guise of a beggar asking alms at the door.

He had noticed that Abraham had invited no poor man, and he knew that his house was the right place for him.

Abraham was occupied with the entertainment of his distinguished guests, and Sarah was endeavoring to convince their wives, the matrons, that Isaac was her child in very truth, and not a spurious child.

No one concerned himself about the beggar at the door, who thereupon accused Abraham before God.

[226] Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

[227] And the Lord said unto Satan, "From whence comest thou?"

and Satan answered the Lord, and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down in it."

And the Lord said unto Satan, "What hast thou to say concerning all the children of the earth?"

and Satan answered the Lord, and said: "I have seen all the children of the earth serving Thee and remembering Thee, when they require aught from Thee.

And when Thou givest them what they require from Thee, then they forsake Thee, and they remember Thee no more.

Hast Thou seen Abraham, the son of Terah, who at first had no children, and he served Thee and erected altars to Thee wherever he came, and he brought offerings upon them, and he proclaimed Thy name continually to all the children of the earth?

And now his son Isaac is born to him, he has forsaken Thee.

He made a great feast for all the inhabitants of the land, and the Lord he has forgotten.

For amidst all that he has done, he brought Thee no offering, neither burnt offering nor peace offering, neither one lamb nor goat of all that he had killed in the day that his son was weaned.

Even from the time of his son's birth till now, being thirty-seven years, he built no altar before Thee, nor brought up any offering to Thee, for he saw that Thou didst give what he requested before Thee, and he therefore forsook Thee."

And the Lord said to Satan: "Hast thou considered My servant Abraham?

For there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man before Me for a burnt offering, and that feareth God and escheweth evil.

As I live, were I to say unto him, Bring up Isaac thy son before Me, he would not withhold him from Me, much less if I told him to bring up a burnt offering before Me from his flocks or herds."

And Satan answered the Lord, and said, "Speak now unto Abraham as Thou hast said, and Thou wilt see whether he will not transgress and cast aside Thy words this day."

[228] God wished to try Isaac also.

Ishmael once boasted to Isaac, saying, "I was thirteen years old when the Lord spoke to my father to circumcise us, and I did not transgress His word, which He commanded my father."

And Isaac answered Ishmael, saying, "What dost thou boast to me about this, about a little bit of thy flesh which thou didst take from thy body, concerning which the Lord commanded thee?

As the Lord liveth, the God of my father Abraham, if the Lord should say unto my father, Take now thy son Isaac and bring him up as an offering before Me, I would not refrain, but I would joyfully accede to it."

THE JOURNEY TO MORIAH

And the Lord thought to try Abraham and Isaac in this matter.

[229] And He said to Abraham, "Take now thy son."

Abraham: "I have two sons, and I do not know which of them Thou commandest me to take."

God: "Thine only son."

Abraham: "The one is the only son of his mother, and the other is the only son of his mother."

God: "Whom thou lovest."

Abraham: "I love this one and I love that one."

God: "Even Isaac."

[230] Abraham: "And where shall I go?"

God: "To the land I will show thee, and offer Isaac there for a burnt offering."

Abraham: "Am I fit to perform the sacrifice, am I a priest?

Ought not rather the high priest Shem to do it?"

God: "When thou wilt arrive at that place, I will consecrate thee and make thee a priest."

[231] And Abraham said within himself, "How shall I separate my son Isaac from Sarah his mother?"

And he came into the tent, and he sate before Sarah his wife, and he spake these words to her: "My son Isaac is grown up, and he has not yet studied the service of God.

Now, to-morrow I will go and bring him to Shem and Eber his son, and there he will learn the ways of the Lord, for they will teach him to know the Lord, and to know how to pray unto the Lord that He may answer him, and to know the way of serving the Lord his God."

And Sarah said, "Thou hast spoken well.

Go, my lord, and do unto him as thou hast said, but remove him not far from me, neither let him remain there too long, for my soul is bound within his soul."

And Abraham said unto Sarah, "My daughter, let us pray to the Lord our God that He may do good with us."

And Sarah took her son Isaac, and he abode with her all that night, and she kissed and embraced him, and she laid injunctions upon him till morning, and she said to Abraham: "O my lord, I pray thee, take heed of thy son, and place thine eyes over him, for I have no other son nor daughter but him.

O neglect him not.

If he be hungry, give him bread, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink; do not let him go on foot, neither let him sit in the sun, neither let him go by himself on the road, neither turn him from whatever he may desire, but do unto him as he may say to thee."

After spending the whole night in weeping on account of Isaac, she got up in the morning and selected a very fine and beautiful garment from those that Abimelech had given to her.

And she dressed Isaac therewith, and she put a turban upon his head, and she fastened a precious stone in the top of the turban, and she gave them provisions for the road.

And Sarah went out with them, and she accompanied them upon the road to see them off, and they said to her, "Return to the tent."

And when Sarah heard the words of her son Isaac, she wept bitterly, and Abraham wept with her, and their son wept with them, a great weeping, also those of their servants who went with them wept greatly.

And Sarah caught hold of Isaac, and she held him in her arms, and she embraced him, and continued to weep with him, and Sarah said, "Who knoweth if I shall ever see thee again after this day?"

Abraham departed with Isaac amid great weeping, while Sarah and the servants returned to the tent.

[232] He took two of his young men with him, Ishmael and Eliezer, and while they were walking in the road, the young men spoke these words to each other.

Said Ishmael to Eliezer: "Now my father Abraham is going with Isaac to bring him up for a burnt offering to the Lord, and when he returneth, he will give unto me all that he possesses, to inherit after him, for I am his first-born."

Eliezer answered: "Surely, Abraham did cast thee off with thy mother, and swear that thou shouldst not inherit anything of all he possesses.

And to whom will he give all that he has, all his precious things, but unto his servant, who has been faithful in his house, to me, who have served him night and day, and have done all that he desired me?"

The holy spirit answered, "Neither this one nor that one will inherit Abraham."

[233] And while Abraham and Isaac were proceeding along the road, Satan came and appeared to Abraham in the figure of a very aged man, humble and of contrite spirit, and said to him: "Art thou silly or foolish, that thou goest to do this thing to thine only son?

God gave thee a son in thy latter days, in thine old age, and wilt thou go and slaughter him, who did not commit any violence, and wilt thou cause the soul of thine only son to perish from the earth?

Dost thou not know and understand that this thing cannot be from the Lord?

For the Lord would not do unto man such evil, to command him, Go and slaughter thy son."

Abraham, hearing these words, knew that it was Satan, who endeavored to turn him astray from the way of the Lord, and he rebuked him that he went away.

And Satan returned and came to Isaac, and he appeared unto him in the figure of a young man, comely and well-favored, saying unto him: "Dost thou not know that thy silly old father bringeth thee to the slaughter this day for naught?

Now, my son, do not listen to him, for he is a silly old man, and let not thy precious soul and beautiful figure be lost from the earth."

And Isaac told these words to his father, but Abraham said to him, "Take heed of him, and do not listen to his words, for he is Satan endeavoring to lead us astray from the commands of our God."

And Abraham rebuked Satan again, and Satan went from them, and, seeing he could not prevail over them, he transformed himself into a large brook of water in the road, and when Abraham, Isaac, and the two young men reached that place, they saw a brook large and powerful as the mighty waters.

And they entered the brook, trying to pass it, but the further they went, the deeper the brook, so that the water reached up to their necks, and they were all terrified on account of the water.

But Abraham recognized the place, and he knew that there had been no water there before, and he said to his son: "I know this place, on which there was no brook nor water.

Now, surely, it is Satan who doth all this to us, to draw us aside this day from the commands of God."

And Abraham rebuked Satan, saying unto him: "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.

Begone from us, for we go by the command of God."

And Satan was terri fied at the voice of Abraham, and he went away from them, and the place became dry land again as it was at first.

And Abraham went with Isaac toward the place that God had told him.

[234] Satan then appeared unto Sarah in the figure of an old man, and said unto her, "Where did thine husband go?"

She said, "To his work."

"And where did thy son Isaac go?"

he inquired further, and she answered, "He went with his father to a place of study of the Torah."

Satan said: "O thou poor old woman, thy teeth will be set on edge on account of thy son, as thou knowest not that Abraham took his son with him on the road to sacrifice him."

In this hour Sarah's loins trembled, and all her limbs shook.

She was no more of this world.

Nevertheless she aroused herself, and said, "All that God hath told Abraham, may he do it unto life and unto peace."

[235] On the third day of his journey, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place at a distance, which God had told him.

He noticed upon the mountain a pillar of fire reaching from the earth to heaven, and a heavy cloud in which the glory of God was seen.

Abraham said to Isaac, "My son, dost thou see on that mountain which we perceive at a distance that which I see upon it?"

And Isaac answered, and said unto his father, "I see, and, lo, a pillar of fire and a cloud, and the glory of the Lord is seen upon the cloud."

Abraham knew then that Isaac was accepted before the Lord for an offering.

He asked Ishmael and Eliezer, "Do you also see that which we see upon the mountain?"

They answered, "We see nothing more than like the other mountains," and Abraham knew that they were not accepted before the Lord to go with them.

[236] Abraham said to them, "Abide ye here with the ass, you are like the ass—as little as it sees, so little do you see.

[237] I and Isaac my son go to yonder mount, and worship there before the Lord, and this eve we will return to you."

[238] An unconscious prophecy had come to Abraham, for he prophesied that he and Isaac would both return from the mountain.

[239] Eliezer and Ishmael remained in that place, as Abraham had commanded, while he and Isaac went further.