Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/204

182 aloud, "O my son! Would that another offering were found instead of thee! But my help cometh only from the Lord who hath made heaven and earth!" Then he gathered up his resolution, and took the knife and held it once more to strike; and Isaac's spirit left him, and he swooned away. But the angels of God, who stood round about His throne, announced to the Most High all that took place, and they cried and wept, and even the fiery seraphim exclaimed, "Woe! He slays his son." And the tears of the angels fell upon the face of Isaac, and made him ever after sad of countenance.

Then God said, "Behold, and see how great is the faith of My servant Abraham, how on earth a man can hallow My great name, and devote his best and dearest to My service; see that, ye, who at the creation exclaimed, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou so regardest him?" Then He ordered Michael to fly swiftly, and stay the hand of Abraham. And the archangel, when he came near, cried aloud, "Abraham! Abraham! what doest thou?" 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