Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/167

 "If thou art a God," said Abraham again, "command the sun to rise to-morrow in the west and set in the east."

But this he could not do.

Nimrod was highly incensed, and ordered that Abraham should be at once precipitated into the fire. When he was brought before the king, say the Rabbis, the soothsayers recognized him as the boy at whose birth they had warned the king that one was come into the world who would be the father of a great nation which would subdue that of Nimrod, and would possess the whole earth and heaven.

"This is the man against whom we cautioned you," they said; "his father Terah must have deceived you, O king, and not have given you up the right child."

Terah, on being questioned, owned the truth.

"Who gave you this advice?" asked the king; "confess it, and your life shall be spared."

Out of fear Terah told a lie, and said that Haran, his other son, had suggested the deception.

"For having given this advice," said Nimrod, "Haran shall perish along with Abraham. Cast them both into the flames." Abraham and Haran were now to be stripped and their hands and feet bound by ropes, and then they were to be thrown into the fire. But the servants of Nimrod who approached the brothers were caught by the flames which, like the tongues of serpents, shot out, curled round them, drew them into the fire, and consumed them.

Then Satan appeared to Nimrod, and instructed him how to make a catapult which would throw stones to a distance, and by means of which Abraham and Haran could be projected into the midst of the fire.

Haran was undecided in his mind whether to worship Gcd or idols; sometimes he sided with Abraham, and sometimes with Terah. Now, the moment Haran was shot into the flames, his heart failed him, and he cried out that he would worship idols if his life were spared. But it was too late, he was burnt to ashes. But Abraham was unharmed. The cords which bound him were consumed, but for three days and nights he walked about in the flames, and felt no inconvenience.