Then Abraham lifted his eyes, and beheld three men, who seemed to approach and then to withdraw. These were the angels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, sent to him with messages, whereof each bore one. They now stood before Abraham’s tent, and they came to satisfy his desire to show hospitality: but when they observed the predicament in which he was, they attempted to withdraw, but Abraham supposed them to be travellers of the three neighboring races of Saracens, Nabathæans, and Arabians; and as two of the angels were smaller of stature than the third, who stood in the middle – this was Michael – Abraham supposed him to be their chief; and he rose and bowed himself before him, and said to the Majesty of God which still shone, “If I have found favor in Thy sight, O Lord, may Thy majesty not depart from me whilst I receive hospitably these wanderers.” And the Lord granted his request.
Then said Abraham to the men, “Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant.”
Now the reason why he said “Let a little water be fetched and wash your feet,” was, that he supposed the men were idolaters, and he would not have the dust from the feet of idolaters to pollute the floor of his tent.
And they said, “Do so.”
Then Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.” And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
Abraham placed butter and milk on the table first, then calves’ tongues, then the other dishes, and lastly Sarah’s cakes; but some commentators doubt whether the men ate the cakes. It is asserted by some that the angels only appeared to eat, but by others we are assured that to reward Abraham’s hospitality they really did eat, and this was the only occasion on which angels tasted the food of earth.
The angels, knowing that Sarah was within the tent, asked after her. And this betokens her great modesty, that she did not thrust herself forward to be seen of strange visitors. Abraham replied that she was within, engaged in women’s household work. Then said Michael, the chief of the angels, “Truly shall such pious and seemly habits not pass unrewarded; but Sarah shall bloom again as fair as in her youth, and shall bear a son in her old age.”
Sarah heard these words at the entrance of the tent; so did Ishmael, who stood near. Sarah stepped behind the angel, but the beauty of her countenance shone before her, and the angel turned to look at her, and then he saw she was laughing to herself, and saying, “I am good-looking, and smart dresses become me; I could perfectly well produce a son, but then my husband is old.”
Then the word of God came to Abraham, and said, “Wherefore did Sarah laugh? Am I, the all-powerful God, too old to create miracles? At the appointed time Sarah shall have a son.” To Sarah, who, out of fear, denied having laughed, the word came, “Fear not, but thou didst laugh.”
Then Michael withdrew, for his mission was accomplished; and left the other two, Gabriel and Raphael, with Abraham. Then God revealed to Abraham, by Gabriel, that He was about to destroy the cities of the plain; and by Raphael, that He would deliver Lot and his family in the overthrow.
These cities were very guilty before God. Eliezer, having been sent by Sarah to her brother Lot with a message, some years before, arrived in Sodom. An acquaintance invited him to a meal. But hospitality was a virtue abhorred in Sodom, and the news of the invitation having got wind, Eliezer’s friend was driven out of the city. Now it was a custom in Sodom to make every stranger arriving within the walls rest in a certain bed; and if the bed proved too long for him, his legs were pulled out to fit it; and if it proved too short, his legs were pared down to its dimensions. Eliezer saw with horror what it was that they purposed to do with him, and he had recourse to a lie of necessity; he declined to sleep in the bed, because he had taken an oath upon the death of his mother never to lie on a bed again; and thus he escaped. Shortly after, having seen a Sodomite rob a poor stranger of his garment, Eliezer attempted to interfere, but the robber struck him over the head and made a gash, from which he lost much blood. Both being brought before the judge, this was the magistrate’s decision: – That Eliezer was indebted to the Sodomite robber for having bled him. The servant of Abraham thereupon took up a large stone, flung it at the judge’s head, which he cut open, and said, “Now, pay me for having bled thee!” and then he fled out of the city.
From these incidents it maybe seen how wicked the city was.
Now Abraham had interceded with God to spare the cities of the plain, for the intercession of His saints is mighty with God. And Abraham had obtained of God that if in Zoar, the smallest of the cities, five righteous could be found, and forty-five in all the rest of the country, God would spare them. Then God ceased talking with Abraham. Next morning early, Abraham arose and took his staff, and went to the place where God had met him, to make further intercession for the cities of the plain, but the smoke of them rose as from a furnace, for brimstone and fire had been rained upon them out of heaven, and they had been consumed along with their inhabitants. Only Zoar was spared, as a place of refuge for Lot, and Lot was kept alive and his daughters; for God remembered how he had been true to Abraham in Egypt, and had not betrayed the truth about Sarah when questioned by Pharaoh.
The Mussulman tradition is as follows: —
Lot, whom the Arabs called Loth, was sent by God as a prophet to convince the inhabitants of the cities of the plain of their ungodly deeds. But, though he preached for twenty years, he could not convince them. And whenever he visited Abraham he complained to him of the iniquity of the people. But Abraham urged him to patience.
At length the long-suffering of God was exhausted, and He sent the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Azrael, armed with the sword of destruction, against these cities.
They came to Abraham, who received them, and slaughtered a calf, and prepared meat and set it before them. But they would not eat. And he pressed them, and ate himself; but they would not eat, being angels. Then Abraham’s color went and he was afraid, for to refuse to eat with a man is a token that you seek his life.
Seeing him discouraged, the angels announced their mission. But Sarah, observing her husband’s loss of color, laughed and said in her heart, “Why is he fearful, being surrounded with many servants and faithful friends?”
Now the angels promised to Abraham a son in his old age, and that they would rescue Lot in the overthrow of Sodom. Then they rose up and went on their way, and entered into Sodom; and they met a young maiden in the street, and asked her the way to Lot’s house.
She answered, “He is my father, and I dwell with him; but know you not, O strangers, that it is against the laws of this city to show hospitality?”
But they answered her, “Fear not; lead us to thy father.”
So she led them, and ran before and told Lot, “Behold three men come seeking thee and asking shelter, and they are beautiful as the angels of God.”
Then Lot went out to them, and told them the city was full of wickedness, and that hospitality was not permitted.
But they answered, “We must tarry this night in thy house.” Then he admitted them, and he hid them. But Lot’s wife was an infidel, a native of Sodom; and finding that he lodged these strangers, she hastened to the chief men of the city and said, “My husband has violated your laws, and the customs of this people; he has housed travellers, and will feed them and show them all courtesy.”
Therefore the men of the city came tumultuously to the door of Lot’s house, to bring forth the men that were come to him, and to cast them out of the city, having shamefully entreated them. They would not listen to the remonstrances of Lot, but went near to break in his door.
Then the three angels stepped forth and passed their hands over the faces of all who drew near, and they were struck blind, and fled from their presence.
Now, long before the day began to break, the angels rose up and called Lot, his wife and daughters, and bade them take their clothes and all that they had that was most precious, and escape out of the city. Therefore Lot and his family went forth.
And when they were escaped, the angel Gabriel went through the cities, and passed his wing over the soil on which they were built, and the cities were carried up into heaven; and they came so near thereto that those on the confines of heaven could hear the crowing of the cocks in Sodom, and the barking of the dogs in Gomorrah. And then they were overthrown, so that their foundations were towards the sky and their roofs towards the earth. And God rained on them stones heated in the fire of hell; and on each stone was written the name of him whom it was destined to slay. Now there were many natives of these accursed cities in other parts of the land, and where they were, there they were sought out by the red-hot stones, and were struck down. But some were within the sacred enclosure of the temple at Mecca, and the stones waited for them in the air; and at the expiration of forty days they came forth, and as they came forth the stones whistled through the air, and smote them, and they were slain.
Now Lot’s wife turned, as she went forth, to look back upon the city, and a stone fell on her, and she died.314
It is related further of Lot that, after he had escaped, he committed in ignorance a very great sin; and Abraham sent him to expiate his crime to the sources of the Nile, to fetch thence three sorts of wood, which he named to him. Abraham thought, “He will be slain by ravenous beasts, and so will he atone for the sin that he has committed.”
But Lot after a while returned, bringing with him the woods which Abraham had demanded – a cypress plant, a young cedar, and a young pine.
Abraham planted the three trees in the shape of a triangle, on a mountain, and charged Lot with watering them every day from Jordan. Now the mountain was twenty-four thousand paces from Jordan, and this penance was laid on Lot to expiate his sin.
At the end of three months the trees blossomed; Lot announced this to Abraham, who visited the spot, and saw to his surprise that the three trees had grown together to form one trunk, but with three distinct roots of different natures.
At the sight of this miracle he bowed his face to the ground and said, “This tree will abolish sin.”
And by that he knew that God had pardoned Lot.
The tree grew and subsisted till the reign of Solomon, when it was cut down, and this was the tree which the Jews employed to form the Cross of Christ.315
This tradition is, of course, Christian; though Jewish in origin, it has been adapted to the Gospel story.
6. THE BIRTH OF ISAAC
The country was wasted; travellers were few; those who passed by, and accepted Abraham’s hospitality, spoke with scorn of the sin of Lot, his nephew; and the neighborhood became intolerable to the patriarch, who resolved to change his place of residence for a while.
He therefore went south, between Kadesh and Sur, and dwelt in Gerar.
Now Sarah had bloomed again as fair as in her youth, as the angel Michael had foretold; and Abraham persuaded her to pretend again to be his sister, though Sarah, remembering the ill-success of this deceit before, hesitated to comply.
Abimelech, king of Gerar, hearing of Sarah’s beauty, sent for her to his palace. He asked Abraham, “Who is this woman?” and he answered, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelech inquired of the camels and of the asses, and they answered the same, “She is his sister.” But that same evening, as it grew towards dusk, as he sat on his throne, he fell asleep; and in dream saw an angel of God approach him with a drawn sword in his hand to slay him. The king in his dream cried out to know why he was doomed to death; and the angel answered, “Because thou hast received into thy house the wife of another man, the mistress of a house.”
Abimelech excused himself, saying that Abraham had concealed the truth from him, and had said Sarah was his sister.
“The All-Holy knows that thou hast sinned in ignorance,” said the angel; “but is it seemly, when strangers enter thy land, to be questioning closely into their connections? Know that Abraham is a prophet, and foreseeing that thy people would entreat his wife ill, he resolved to call her his sister, and he knew, being a prophet, that thou couldst not harm her.”316
That night – it was the Paschal eve – the angel with the drawn sword traversed all the streets of the city, and closed the wombs of those about to bear.
Next morning early, while it was yet dark, Abimelech sent for Abraham and Sarah, and gave Sarah back to her husband, and paid him a thousand ounces of silver, and to Sarah he gave a costly robe, which might conceal her from her eyes to her feet, that none might henceforth be bewitched by her beauty. “But,” said Abimelech to Abraham, “because thou didst deceive me and blind my eyes with a lie, therefore thou shalt bear a son, whose eyes shall be dim so that he shall be deceived.” And Abraham prayed to the Lord, and all the woman that were with child in Gerar were delivered of men-children, without the pangs of maternity, and those who were barren felt themselves with child. The angel hosts besought the Lord to look upon Sarah, and to remember His covenant. “O Lord of the whole world! Thou didst hear the cry of Abraham, and grant his petitions when he prayed for the barren women of Gerar; and his own wife, from whom Thou didst promise him a son, is unfruitful and despised. Does it beseem a Lord, when he prepares a fleet, to free his subjects from pirates, but to leave the vessel of his best friend in bondage?”
Now it was the first day of the seventh month, Tischri, the day on which, at the close of the world’s history, the Lord will come to judge the quick and the dead, that the Lord God remembered Sarah, and the promise He had made, and looked upon her, and she conceived a son in her old age, one year and four months after her sojourn in Gerar; and nine months after, say some, but, say others, six months and two days after; at mid-day say some, others say in the evening of the fifteenth of Nisan; or, as others affirm, on the first of Nisan she was delivered of a son, without suffering any pains in the bringing forth. And the same time that Sarah’s womb was blessed, God looked upon many other barren women and blessed them also; and on the day that the child was born they were delivered likewise; and the blind saw, the dumb spake, the deaf heard, and the lame walked, and the crazed recovered their senses. Also, the sun shone forty-eight times brighter than he shines at Midsummer, even with the splendor that he had on the day of his creation.
And when eight days were accomplished, Abraham circumcised his son, and called him Isaac.
But many thought it was an incredible thing that Abraham and Sarah should have a son in their old age, and they said, “This is a foundling, or it is the child of one of the slaves, which they pass off as their own.” Now Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned, and he invited thereto all the princes and great men of the country. And there came Abimelech, king of Gerar, and Og, king of Basan, and all the princes of Canaan, sixty-two princes in all. Such an assembly was not seen before, yet all these princes fell in after-years by the hands of Joshua.317
Of this feast it is related that Og’s companions said to him, “Do you believe that that old mule, Abraham, can be the father of this child?”
Og replied with scorn, “I could crack this imp with the nail of my little finger.”
Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, “Thou despisest this little child, but know thou that tens of thousands shall spring from his loins, and that before them thy pride shall be humbled.”
Also, Abraham’s ancestors, Shem and Eber, and his father, Terah – though some say he was dead – and Nahor, Abraham’s brother, attended the feast, and the Shekinah, the glory of the Lord, appeared to grace it.
But Satan also appeared in the form of a poor beggar-man, and he stood at the door and asked an alms. Now Abraham and Sarah were busy attending to their guests, so they perceived him not, but the servants thrust him away, and Satan received nothing; therefore he presented himself before the Most High, and laid an accusation of inhospitality and churlishness against the Friend of God.
In the mean time Sarah had assembled, and was entertaining all the wives of the guests of Abraham. And it happened that the women found that they had no milk in their bosoms to give their infants, and the babes screamed that no one could hear the voice of another. The mothers were in despair, for the children were hungry, and they were all dry. Then Sarah uncovered her breasts, and there spirted from them jets of milk, and all the babes were nourished at her bosom, and yet there was more.
Now when they saw this, the women, who had doubted that the child was really the offspring of Sarah, doubted no more, and cried, “We are not worthy that our little ones should be nourished at thy bosom!” And the story goes that all those who afterwards joined themselves to the people of Israel, and all those in every nation who in after-times became proselytes, were descended from those who sucked the breasts of Sarah. In allusion to this incident it is said in the Book of Psalms: “Thou makest the barren woman to keep house, and to be the joyful mother of (i. e., giving suck to) children.”318
The child Isaac was shown to every visitor, and all were astonished at his resemblance to Abraham. Both the babe and his father were so much alike that it was impossible to distinguish one from the other, and all doubt as to whose it was vanished before such evidence of likeness to the father, and before the fulness of Sarah’s breasts. But as confusion was likely to arise through the striking similarity between father and son, Abraham besought God to give him wrinkles and white hair, that he might not be mistaken for the babe Isaac, or the babe Isaac be mistaken for him.319
7. THE EXPULSION OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL
Ishmael grew up, and became skilful with his bow; he was rough and undisciplined, and he occasionally lapsed into idolatry, but without his father knowing it. But Sarah was aware of his sin, and was grieved thereat.
Ishmael often boasted, “I am the eldest son, and I shall have a double portion of my father’s inheritance.” These words were reported to Sarah, and she hated Ishmael for them in her heart.
One day when Isaac was five years old, but others say fifteen, Ishmael said to him, “Come forth into the field and let us shoot.” Isaac was well pleased. And when they were in the field, Ishmael turned his bow against his brother, but he did it in jest. Sarah saw him from the tent door, and she ran out, and caught away her son Isaac, and she went to Abraham and told him all the evil she knew of Ishmael; how he had gone after idols and had learnt the ways of the Canaanites that were in the land, how he had boasted of his majority, and how he had sought Isaac’s life. And she said, “Give the maid-servant a writing of divorcement, and send her away. Cast out this bond-woman and her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. Then she will no more vex Isaac. Do thou leave to Isaac all thy possessions. Never shall Ishmael inherit any thing from thee, for he is not my son.”
Abraham was grieved at heart, for he loved Ishmael his son, but nothing that he said could alter Sarah’s determination. She insisted on the expulsion of Hagar and her son, and she stirred up the wrath of Abraham against Ishmael, because he had fallen into idolatry.
Sarah, say the Mussulmans, was so fierce in her jealousy, that she would not be satisfied till she had washed her hands in the blood of Hagar. Then Abraham quickly pierced Hagar’s ears, and drew a ring through them, so that Sarah could fulfil her oath, without endangering the life of Hagar.320
It was long before Abraham could be brought to consent to Sarah’s desire, but God appeared to him in a dream and said, “Fear not to obey the voice of Sarah, for she is the wife of thy youth, and was chosen for thee from her mother’s womb. But Hagar is not thy wife; she is but a bond-woman. Sarah also is a prophetess, and sees into things that shall be in the latter days, further than thou. Unto Isaac and those of his seed who believe in the Two Worlds are the promises made; and they alone shall be accounted as thy seed.”321
Abraham now did what he was commanded. Next morning he gave Hagar a writing of dismissal, and took twelve loaves of bread and a pitcher of water, and laid them upon Hagar, for Sarah had cast an evil eye upon Ishmael, so that he was ill, and unable to carry any burden. And Abraham attached the pitcher by a cord to the hips of Hagar, that all might know she was a slave, and the pitcher hung down and trailed on the sand. Ishmael was sent away without garments; he went forth naked as he came into the world: thus it may be seen how implacable was the anger of Sarah, because he had boasted of his birthright, and the wrath of Abraham, because he had fallen into idolatry.
But when they went along their way, Abraham looked after them for long, standing in the door of his tent, for his bowels yearned after his son, and he saw the trail in the sand of the water pitcher which Hagar had dragged sadly along, and thereby Abraham knew the direction which they had taken.
Now God forsook not the outcast in her affliction, but filled the pitcher with water as fast as she and her son drank out of it, and the water was always sweet and cold. Thus they penetrated the wilderness, and there they lost their way, and Hagar forgot the God of Abraham, and in her distress turned to the false gods of her father Pharaoh, and besought their protection, for she said, “Where are the promises of the God of Abraham, that of Ishmael would He make a great nation?”
Now Ishmael was sick of a burning fever, and the water in the pitcher failed when Hagar forsook the God of Abraham. So she cast him under a thorn bush, and went from him the space of two thousand ells, that she might not hear his cries. But Ishmael prayed to the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, and said, “O Lord God of my father Abraham! thou canst send death in so many forms; take my life speedily or give me a drop of water, that I suffer this agony no longer.”
And the Lord in His compassion heard the prayer of the weeping child, and He sent His angel and showed Hagar that fountain which He had created on the sixth day at dusk, and of which the children of Israel were destined to drink when they came forth out of Egypt.
But the accusing angel murmured against this judgment of God, and said, “O Lord of the whole earth! shall this one, of whom a nation of robbers shall arise, who will war upon thine elect people, and be a scourge upon the face of the earth, shall he be delivered now, and given to drink of a fountain destined for thine elect?”
The Lord answered, “Is the youth guilty, or is he not guilty?”
The angel answered, “He is not himself guilty, but his posterity will sin.”
Then God said, “I punish men for what they have done, and not for what their children will do. Ishmael hath not merited a death of suffering, therefore shall he not die.” And God opened the eyes of Hagar, and she saw the spring of water, and filled her pitcher, and took it to Ishmael to drink. She filled the pitcher before she gave her son a draught of water, for she had little faith, and thought that the fountain would be withdrawn before she could return to it again.
Then Ishmael was strengthened and could go, and he and his mother went further, and were fed by the shepherds; and they reached Paran, and there they found springs of water, and they settled there. Ishmael took a wife, a daughter of Moab, named Aischa, or Aifa, or Asiah; but others say she was an Egyptian woman, and was named Meriba (the quarrelsome), and by her he had four sons and one daughter.
Ishmael lived a wandering life in tents with his wife and cattle; and the Lord blessed his flocks, and he had great possessions. But his heart remained the same; and he was a master of archery, and instructed his neighbors in making bows.
After three years, Abraham, whose heart longed after his son, said to Sarah, “I must see how my son Ishmael fares.” And she answered, “Thou shalt go if thou wilt swear to me not to alight from off thy camel,” for she hated Hagar, and feared to suffer her husband to meet her once more. So Abraham swore. Then he went to Paran, over the desert, seeking Ishmael’s tent; and he reached it at noon, but neither Hagar nor her son were at home. Only Ishmael’s wife was within, and she was scolding and beating the children.
So Abraham halted on his camel before the tent door, and the sun was hot in the blue sky above, and the sand was white and glaring beneath. And he called to her, “Is thy husband within?”
She answered, without rising from her seat, “He is hunting.” Or, say others, she said without looking at him or rising, “He is gathering dates.”
Then Abraham said, “I am faint and hungry; bring me a little bread and a drop of water.”
But the woman answered, “I have none for such as thee.”
So Abraham said to her, “Say to thy husband, even to Ishmael, these words: ‘An old man hath come to see thee out of the land of the Philistines, and he says, The nail that fastens thy tent is bad; cast it away or thy tent will fall, and get thee a better nail.’” Then he departed, and went home.
Now when Ishmael returned, his wife told him all these words, and he knew that his father had been there, and he understood the tenor of his words, so he sent away his wife, and he took another, with his mother’s advice, out of Egypt, and her name was Fatima.
And after three years, Abraham’s bowels yearned once more after his son, and he said to Sarah, “I must see how Ishmael fares.” And she answered, “Thou shalt go, if thou wilt swear to me not to alight from off thy camel.” So Abraham swore.
Then he went to Paran, over the desert, seeking Ishmael’s tent, and he reached it at noon; but neither Hagar nor her son was at home. Only Ishmael’s wife, Fatima, was within, and she was singing to the children.
So Abraham halted on his camel before the tent door, and the sun was hot in the blue sky above, and the sand was white and glaring beneath. And when Fatima saw a stranger at the door, she rose from her seat, and veiled her face, and came out and greeted him.
Then said Abraham, “Is thy husband within?”
She answered, “My lord, he is pasturing the camels in the desert;” and she added, “Enter, my lord, into the cool of the tent and rest, and suffer me to bring thee a little meat.”
But Abraham said, “I may not alight from off my camel, for my journey is hasty; but bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread and a drop of water, for I am hungry and faint.”
Then she ran and brought him of the best of all that she had in the tent, and he ate and drank, and was glad.
So he said to her, “Say to thy husband, even to Ishmael, that an old man out of the land of the Philistines hath been here, and he says, The nail that fastens thy tent is very good; let it not be stirred out of its place, and thy tent will stand.”
And he returned. And when Ishmael came home, Fatima related to him all the words that the old man had spoken, and he understood the tenor of the words.
Ishmael was glad that his father had visited him, for he knew thereby that his love to him was not extinguished.322
Shortly after, he left his wife and children, and went across the desert to see his father in the land of the Philistines. And Abraham related to him all that had taken place with the first wife, and why he had exhorted him to put her away.
8. THE STRIFE BETWEEN THE SHEPHERDS
Abraham lived twenty-six years in the land of the Philistines; then he went to Hebron, and there his servants dug wells, and there they encamped.
When Abimelech’s servants heard of these wells that they had dug, they came with their flocks, and desired to use them also, and the largest of the wells they claimed as their own. But Abraham’s shepherds said, “Let the well belong to those to whom it gives water. The Lord shall decide between us!”
To this the servants of Abimelech agreed. And when the flocks of Abraham came to drink, the well sprang up and overflowed; but when the flocks of Abimelech drew near, the water sank and disappeared.
Now when Abimelech heard of the strife, he came with Phicol, his chief captain, to seek Abraham, and to be reconciled with him. “God is with all that thou doest,” said Abimelech; “He protected thee when Sodom was destroyed. He has given thee a son in thine old age. He rescued thy first-born when perishing in the desert. Swear to me, as I have offered thee my whole land, my own palace not excepted, in which to dwell, that thou wilt show equal love and liberality to my descendants to the third generation.”
Abraham swore to him, and they made a covenant together.323
And Abraham set apart seven lambs as a witness and token, that just as the well had sprung up when his flocks had come to water at it, so, in after days should it spring up to water the descendants of Abraham; as it is said, “From thence they went to Beer, that is, the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it.”324
But such condescension and courtesy ill became Abraham in his dealings with a rude and savage people, and therefore there came to him a voice from heaven which said: “Because thou hast given these seven innocent lambs into the hands of a barbarous nation, therefore seven of thy descendants shall be slain by their hands (Samson, Hophni and Phinehas, Saul and his three sons); also seven dwellings that thy people shall raise to my Name shall they destroy (the Tabernacle, Gilgal, Nob, Gibeon, Shiloh, and twice the Temple at Jerusalem), and seven months shall the ark of my covenant remain in the land of the Philistines.”