Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/172

150 Choose now, whether thou wilt have for their punishment, Bondage or Hell." And Abraham after long hesitation answered, "I choose Hell;" for he thought, "It is better to fall into the hands of God, than into the hands of men." But the Lord answered and said, "Not so; thou hast chosen wrongly, for from Bondage there will come deliverance, but from Gehinom, never." After that, Abraham returned to the land of Charan, and dwelt there many years; and he instructed the men, and Sarah the women, in the true religion. And when his father Terah was dead, God called him again, and bade him go forth to the land which God had promised him; and he went obediently, and Lot his brother's son accompanied him. And he reached the land of Canaan, and pitched first his wife's tent, and then his own, on the plain between Gerizim and Ebal; and he erected three altars in thanks to God for His call, for His having brought him into the promised land, and for having cast down his enemies before him. Then he went south, and pitched on the spot where stands Jerusalem.

And now a famine came upon the land; this was the third famine since the world was formed, and it was sent to prove Abraham. He murmured not, but went down with Sarah his wife, and his servants.

When he reached the River of Egypt (Wadi el Arisen), Abraham rested some days. As Abraham and Sarah walked together by the water-side, Abraham saw for the first time, reflected in the water, the beauty of Sarah; for he was so modest that he had never lifted his eyes to her face, and knew not what she was like, till he saw her in the water. Then, when he saw how beautiful she was, he persuaded her to pass as his sister in Egypt, for he feared lest he should be slain for her sake; but as a further precaution he shut her up in a chest. On the frontier, the Custom-house officers insisted on his paying the customs due for the box, and required that it should be opened. Abraham offered to pay for the box as if it contained gold dust or gems, if only they would not enforce their right of search. "Does it contain silk?" asked the officers. "I will pay the tenth, as of silk," he answered. "Does it contain silver?" they further asked.