Tanakh & Talmud. Various Authors

men: 'Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship, and come back to you.' ⁶And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife; and they went both of them together. ⁷And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father, and said: 'My father.' And he said: 'Here am I, my son.' And he said: 'Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?' ⁸And Abraham said: 'God will ²¹provide Himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.' So they went both of them together. ⁹And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. ¹⁰And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said: 'Abraham, Abraham.' And he said: 'Here am I.' ¹²And he said: 'Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou art a God-fearing man, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.' ¹³And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. ¹⁴And Abraham called the name of that place ²²Adonaijireh; as it is said to this day: 'In the mount where the Lord is seen.' ¹⁵And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, ¹⁶and said: 'By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, ¹⁷that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; ¹⁸and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast hearkened to My voice.' ¹⁹So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.

      ²⁰And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying: 'Behold, Milcah, she also hath borne children unto thy brother Nahor: ²¹Uz his first-born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram; ²²and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.' ²³And Bethuel begot Rebekah; these eight did Milcah bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. ²⁴And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she also bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah.

      חיי שרה

      23And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. ²And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba—the same is Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. ³And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke unto the children of Heth, saying: ⁴'I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.' ⁵And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him: ⁶'Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us; in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.' ⁷And Abraham rose up, and bowed down to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. ⁸And he spoke with them, saying: 'If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, ⁹that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying-place.' ¹⁰Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying: ¹¹'Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee; bury thy dead.' ¹²And Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. ¹³And he spoke unto Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying: 'But if thou wilt, I pray thee, hear me: I will give the price of the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.' ¹⁴And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him: ¹⁵'My lord, hearken unto me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.' ¹⁶And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. ¹⁷So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round about, were made sure¹⁸unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. ¹⁹And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre—the same is Hebron—in the land of Canaan. ²⁰And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place by the children of Heth.

24And Abraham was old, well stricken in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. ²And Abraham said unto his servant, the elder of his house, that ruled over all that he had: 'Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh. ³And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. ⁴But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son, even for Isaac.' ⁵And the servant said unto him: 'Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land; must I needs bring thy son back unto the land from whence thou camest?' ⁶And Abraham said unto him: 'Beware thou that thou bring not my son back thither. ⁷The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house, and from the land of my nativity, and who spoke unto me, and who swore unto me, saying: Unto thy seed will I give this land; He will send His angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my son from thence. ⁸And if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath; only thou shalt not bring my son back thither.' ⁹And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. ¹⁰And the servant took ten camels, of the camels of his master, and departed; having all goodly things of his master's in his hand; and he arose, and went to ²³Aram-naharaim, unto the city of Nahor. ¹¹And he made the camels to kneel down without the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water. ¹²And he said: 'O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, send me, I pray Thee, good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham. ¹³Behold, I stand by the fountain of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water. ¹⁴So let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say: Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say: Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also; let the same be she that Thou hast appointed for Thy servant, even for Isaac; and thereby shall I know that Thou hast shown kindness unto my master.' ¹⁵And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. ¹⁶And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her; and she went down to the fountain, and filled her pitcher, and came up. ¹⁷And the servant ran to meet her, and said: 'Give me to drink, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher.' ¹⁸And she said: 'Drink, my lord'; and she hastened, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink. ¹⁹And when she had done giving him drink, she said: 'I will draw for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.' ²⁰And she hastened, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. ²¹And the man looked stedfastly on her; holding his peace, to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. ²²And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; ²³and said: 'Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?' ²⁴And she said unto him: 'I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore unto Nahor.' ²⁵She said moreover unto him: 'We have both straw and provender