Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources

by S. Baring-Gould

Abraham looked in the direction of the voice, in doubt, and said, “Here am I.”

Then said the angel, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him.”

And Abraham said, “Who art thou?”

Michael told him who he was. Then said Abraham, “The Most High appeared to me in a vision, and bade me take my son as a whole offering to the place which He should say, and I may take no command from a servant of God, against that which God Himself hath laid upon me.”

Then heaven opened, and he saw the glory of God, and God said to him, “Touch not the lad to do him harm, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.”

And Abraham said, “How is this, O Lord! that Thou changest Thy purpose, and sayest one day, Do this, and the next, Do it not?”

And the Lord answered, and said, “I said not unto thee, Slay the lad as a burnt offering, but I said, Take thy son to the place that I shall tell thee, as a whole burnt offering. This hast thou done; thou hast fulfilled My command, I exact no more of thee. I change not My purpose, but I did suffer thee to misunderstand the purport of My command, and to think that I exacted more of thee; and this I did to prove thee. And now, by Myself have I sworn; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.”

Then Isaac revived, and Abraham cut his cords, and he stood up and said, “Praised be the Eternal One, who quickeneth those that be dead.”

And Abraham turned to the Shekinah and said, “Lord! how shall I depart hence without having offered to Thee a sacrifice?” The Lord answered, “Lift thine eyes, and thou shalt see a beast for sacrifice behind thee.”

In the thicket of the wood was that ram which God created at dusk on the sixth day, that it might serve this purpose. An angel had brought it out of Paradise, where it had lived since its creation, and had fed under the shadow of the Tree of Life, and had drunk of the River that there flows. And when the ram was brought into this earth, all the earth was filled with the fragrance from its fleece, on which hung the odours of the flowers on which it had lain in Paradise.