 INTRODUCTION and DEDICATION of Hurlbut's story of the Bible. Hurlbut's story of the Bible, told for young and old, given in simple language of today, in a continuous form, the great truths and important facts of the English Bible. CHAPTER ONE STORIES FROM THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS IN THE BIBLE. GENESIS, EXIDUS, LAVITICUS, NUMBERS, AND DUTORONOMY. By Jesse Lyman Hurlbut. To the young people of America, this book is dedicated in the hope that it may interest them in the reading of the best of all books. INTRODUCTION. THE PURPOSE AND PLAN OF THIS BOOK. Some years ago the editor of an English magazine sent a communication to the hundred greatest men in Great Britain, asking them this question, if for any reason you were to spend a year absolutely alone, in a prison for instance, and could select from your library three volumes to be taken with you as companions in your period of retirement, pleased to inform us what those three books would be. The inquiry was sent to peers of the realm—prominent leaders in politics, judges, authors, manufacturers, merchants, gentlemen of leisure, men who would represent every aspect of successful life. In the answers it was found that ninety-eight of the hundred men named the Bible, first on the list of the three books to be chosen. If from the middle class of society, instead of the highest, another hundred names were taken at random, requiring only character and not greatness, the proportion of those who would name the Bible as the most desirable book in all literature would be almost perhaps quite as large. And if one should ask the same question of a hundred moral, honest people in the lower walks of life, working men and housewives in humble homes, the answer from the largest number would still be the Bible. There is no other book in all the world which commands annually a circulation of ten million copies in order to supply the demand for it in every land and in every language. Choose if you please the new novel that last year sold the largest number of copies and you will find during the same year more than ten times the number of Bibles were sold. And three years from now, when the new novel will be old, forgotten, and no longer in demand, there will again be ten million Bibles in three hundred and twenty-five languages printed and bound and sold in a year. A book which stands in such honor as the Bible no one can afford to neglect. It is everywhere quoted, referred to, written about, preached from, and every one who would be considered as intelligent must have some acquaintance with it, and the time when one can most readily obtain a familiarity with the Bible is in early life. Those who in childhood learn the story of the Bible are fortunate, for they will never forget it. Wise parents tell the stories of the Bible to their children, and both parents and children find them the most fascinating of all stories. David and Goliath is more interesting than Jack the giant killer. Joseph and his brothers will compare favorably with Whittington, Lord Mayor of London. The battles of Joshua and David are as wonderful as those of King Arthur in the round table. The Bible is a veritable, Arabian nights of entertainment when parents are themselves familiar with the stories, and know how to tell them. No book is so delightful to children as the Bible. But the parents who are not thoroughly informed, or who do not possess the great gift of storytelling, find difficulties in the path of teaching the contents of the Bible to their children. Here is a great book, with masses of matter, interesting only to students, as history, genealogy, details of law, and customs of worship, psalms, prophecies, proverbs, epistles. How shall a selection be made appropriate to childhood? There are oriental forms of speech, antiquated, unfamiliar, sometimes unacceptable to the taste of the age. The stories of the Bible must be chosen with care. Some statements must be explained, and some allusions must be omitted. There is a need of a children's Bible, if children are to be interested in the book of books. The writer of this work has been for many years a Bible student, a Bible teacher, and a helper through the press, of many who are instructing the young in the Bible. He has long felt the need of a book of Bible stories, different in some respects from any work that has yet appeared. With this conviction he has undertaken the preparation of this work, which after patient, labour, and many revisions, is now submitted to the public. In its purpose and plan, its distinguishing features are the following. The aim has not been merely to make a selection of the most striking and interesting among the stories contained in the Bible, but to tell all the principal stories in their connected order, and in such relation with each other as to form a continuous history. Whoever reads this book will find in it not only stories from the Bible, but also the story of the Bible in one narration. He will follow the current of scripture history and biography. This Bible story, though continuous and connected, is arranged in the form of a series of stories, each independent of all the others, and treated separately. Each story has its title, and an effort has been made to give to each a striking title, one that it will arrest the young reader's attention. A child or parent who might hesitate in undertaking to read through the history in the Bible, may open almost at random and find a story. Here are one hundred and sixty-eight stories, each one complete in itself, while together combining to form one narrative. And with each story is named the place where it might be found in the Bible. Three. Special care has been given to the language of this book. I have endeavored to make it childlike without making it childish. Every word has been carefully chosen, and there are few words in these stories which a child of ten years old will not readily understand. Whenever it has been found necessary to introduce any word outside the realm of childhood, as altar, offering, tabernacle, synagogue, centurion, etc., it is carefully explained, not only once but a number of times, until it becomes familiar. Doctrinal and technical terms have been everywhere excluded, and in place of them plain familiar words have been given. Four. In as much as the book is designed to lead the young reader to the Bible itself, and not away from it, the language of the Bible, or a language somewhat like that of the Bible has been employed. For the same reason I have refrained from adding to the Bible record any imaginary scenes or incidents or conversations. I wish every child who hears this book read to feel instinctively that it is the Bible, and not a fairytale, to which he is listening. When he grows older and reads these stories himself for the first time in the Bible itself, I would not have him feel that he has been misled, or taught that which is not contained in the Word of God. The Bible stories are made plain, but they are not rewritten or changed. Five. In my opinion many books for children containing stories from the Bible are greatly marred by the evident attempt to interject a body of divinity into them, to make them teach doctrines which may be right or may be wrong, but are not stated nor hinted in the Scripture stories. Some excellent works have occupied much space here and there in trying to put into childlike language and to connect with Bible stories the deepest and most mysterious doctrines which theologians find hard to understand. Books contain many moral reflections and applications which may be useful, but are not contained in the text of the story. I have sought to explain what needs explanation, but to avoid all doctrinal bias and not to be wise above what is written. Only in a few instances where the New Testament warrants a spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament story has an application been given, and then in the simplest and fewest words. It is my confident hope that all denominations of Christians may feel at home in the pages of this book. Six. The management of the material, the paragraphs are short, and according to the modern manner the conversations are generally printed in separate paragraphs. The results of recent knowledge in Bible lands and Bible history are used as far as is suitable in a book for children. Where the revised version is a manifest improvement upon the old version it has been followed, as bringing the reader a step nearer to the thought of the biblical writers. Seven. Many of the engravings have been designed expressly for this book, and both the subjects for illustrations and the pictures themselves have been prepared with great care. The publishers have not allowed in the book scenes of blood or such as would be repulsive to people of taste. There is a realism in some modern views of Oriental manners and customs which may be accurate, but is not pleasing and does not promote reverence. We have sought for pictures representing action and life rather than those of ruined cities and squalid modern villages which may represent the Holy Land of today, but give no conception of the country and its people in Bible times. The pictures and the stories with them are designed to make the Word of God real to the young people who read these pages. In the hope that this book may be an aid to parents and teachers in imparting Bible truth and to children in learning it with an earnest desire to increase the interest in the sacred narrative these pages have been prepared and are sent forth into the world. Jesse Lyman Hurlbut August 1st, 1904. End of introduction. Story number one of Hurlbut's story of the Bible. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sam Stinson. Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, part one. The Story of a Beautiful Garden. This great round world on which we live is very old, so old that no one knows when it was made. But long before there was any earth or sun or stars, God was living, for God never began to be. He always was. And long, long ago, God spoke and the earth and the heavens came, but the earth was not beautiful as it is now, with mountains and valleys, rivers and seas, with trees and flowers. It was a great smoking ball with land and water mingled in one mass, and all the earth was blacker than midnight, for there was no light upon it. No man could have breathed its air, no animals could walk upon it, and no fish could swim in its black oceans. There was no life upon the earth. While all was dark upon the earth, God said, let there be light. And then the light began to come upon the world. Part of the time it was light, and part of the time it was dark, just as it is now. And God called the dark time night and the light time day. And that was the first day upon the earth after a long night. Then at God's word, the dark clouds all around the earth began to break, and the sky came in sight. And the water that was in the clouds began to separate from the water that was on the earth. And the arch of the sky, which was over the earth, God called heaven. Thus the night in the morning made a second day. Then God said, let the water on the earth come together in one place, and let the dry land rise up. And so it was. The water that had been all over the world came together and formed a great ocean, and the dry land rose up from it. In the great water, God called sea. In the dry land, he named earth. And God saw that the earth and the sea were both good. Then God said, let grass and trees and flowers and fruits grow on the earth. And at once the earth began to be green and bright with grass and flowers and trees bearing fruit. This made the third day upon the earth. Then God said, let the sun and moon and stars come into sight from the earth. So the sun began to shine by day, and the moon and the stars began to shine in the night. And this was done on the fourth day. And God said, let there be fishes in the sea, and let there be birds to fly in the air. So the fishes, great ones and small, began to swim in the sea. And the birds began to fly in the air over the earth, just as they do now. And this was the fifth day. Then God said, let the animals come upon the earth. Great animals and small ones, those that walk and those that creep and crawl on the earth. And the woods in the fields began to be alive with animals of all kinds. And now the earth began to be more beautiful with its green fields and bright flowers and singing birds in the trees and animals of every kind walking in the forests. But there were no people in the world, no cities nor houses and no children playing under the trees. The world was all ready for men and women to enjoy it. And so God said, I will make man to be different from all other animals. He shall stand up and shall have a soul. And shall be like God. And he shall be the master of the earth and all that is upon it. So God took some of the dust that was on the ground and out of it, he made man. And God breathed into him the breath of life. And man became alive and stood up on the earth. And so that the man whom God had made might have a home. God planted a beautiful garden on the earth at a place where four rivers met. Perhaps we might rather call it a park for it was much larger than any garden that you have ever seen. For it was miles and miles in every direction. In this garden or park, God planted trees and caused grass to grow and made flowers to bloom. This was called the Garden of Eden. And as in one of the languages of the Bible, the word that means garden or park is a word quite like the word paradise. This Garden of Eden has often been called paradise. This garden, God gave to the man that he had made and told him to care for it and to gather the fruits upon the trees and the plants and to live upon them. And God gave to the first man the name Adam. And God brought to Adam the animals that he had made and let Adam give to each one its name. But Adam was all alone in this beautiful garden and God said, it is not good for man to be alone. I will make someone to be with Adam and to help him. So when Adam was asleep, God took a rib from Adam's side and from it God made a woman. And he brought her to Adam and Adam called her Eve. And Adam and Eve loved one another and they were happy in the beautiful garden which God had given them for a home. Thus in six days, the Lord God made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. And on the seventh day, God rested from his work. For a time we do not know how long Adam and Eve were at peace in their beautiful garden. They did just as God told them to do and talked with God as a man would talk with his friend. And they did not know of anything evil or wicked. It was needful for Adam and Eve to understand that they must always obey God's commandments. So God said to Adam and Eve, you may eat the fruit of all the trees in the garden except one. And the middle of the garden grows a tree with fruit upon it that you must not eat and you must not touch. If you eat of the fruit upon that tree, you shall die. Now among the animals in the garden there was a snake and this snake said to Eve, has God told you that there is any kind of fruit in the garden of which you are forbidden to eat? And Eve answered the snake, we can eat the fruit of all the trees except the one that stands in the middle of the garden if we eat the fruit of that tree, God says that we must die. Then the snake said, no, you will not surely die. God knows that if you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will become as wise as God himself for you will know what is good and what is evil. Eve listened to the snake and then she looked at the tree and its fruit and she saw it. She thought that it would taste good and if it would really make one wise, she would like to eat it even though God had told her not to do so. She took the fruit and ate it and then she gave some to Adam and he too ate it. Adam and Eve knew that they had done wrong in not obeying God's words and now for the first time they were afraid to meet God. They tried to hide themselves from God's sight among the trees of the garden but the Lord God called and said, Adam, where are you? And Adam said, Lord, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid and I hid myself. And God said, why were you afraid to meet me? Have you eaten the fruit of the tree of which I told you that you must not touch it? And Adam said, the woman whom thou gave us to be with me, she gave me some of the fruit and I ate it. Then God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And Eve said, the snake told me that it would do me no harm if I should eat the fruit and so I took some of it and ate it. And the Lord God said to the snake, because you have led Adam and Eve to do wrong, you shall no more walk as do other animals. You shall crawl in the dust and the dirt forever. You shall hate the woman and the woman shall hate you. You shall try to kill her and her children and her children's children forever and they shall try to kill you. And the Lord God said to the woman, because you led your husband to disobey me, you shall suffer and have pain and trouble all the days of your life. And God said to Adam, because you listened to your wife when she told you to do what was wrong, you too must suffer. You must work for everything that you get from the ground. You will find thorns and thistles and weeds growing on the earth. If you want food, you must dig and plant and reap and work as long as you live. You came out from the ground for you were made of dust and back again into the dust shall your body go when you die. And because Adam and Eve had disobeyed the word of the Lord, they were driven out of the beautiful garden of Eden which God had made to be their home. They were sent out into the world and to keep them from going back into the garden. God placed his angels before its gate with swords which flashed like fire. So Adam and his wife lost their garden and no man has ever been able to go into it from that day. End of story number one. Story number two of Hurlbut's story of the Bible. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by Sam Stinson, Hurlbut's story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, part one. The first baby in the world and his brother. So Adam and his wife went out into the world to live and to work. For a time they were all alone but after a while, God gave them a little child of their own, the first baby that ever came into the world. Eve named him Cain and after a time, another baby came whom she named Abel. When the two boys grew up, they worked as their father worked before them. Cain chose to work in the fields and to raise grain and fruits. Abel had a flock of sheep and became a shepherd. While Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden, they could talk with God and hear God's voice speaking to them. But now that they were out in the world, they could no longer talk with God freely as before. So when they came to God, they built an altar of stones, heaped up and upon it, they laid something as a gift to God and burned it to show that it was not their own but was given to God whom they could not see. Then before they altered, they made their prayer to God and asked God to forgive their sins, all that they had done that was wrong and prayed God to bless them and do good to them. Each of these brothers, Cain and Abel, offered upon the altar to God, his own gift. Cain brought the fruits and the grain which he had grown and Abel brought a sheep from his flock and killed it and burned it upon the altar. For some reason, God was pleased with Abel and his offering, but was not pleased with Cain and his offering. Perhaps God wished Cain to offer something that had life as Abel offered. Perhaps Cain's heart was not right when he came before God. And God showed that he was not pleased with Cain and Cain, instead of being sorry for his sin and asking God to forgive him, was very angry with God and angry also toward his brother, Abel. When they were out in the field together, Cain struck his brother Abel and killed him. So the first baby in the world grew up to be the first murderer of his own brother. And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? And Cain answered, I do not know. Why should I take care of my brother? Then the Lord said to Cain, what is this that you have done? Your brother's blood is like a voice crying to me from the ground. Do you see how the ground has opened like a mouth to drink your brother's blood? As long as you live, you shall be under God's curse for the murder of your brother. You shall wander over the earth and shall never find a home because you have done this wicked deed. And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Thou hast driven me out from among men and thou hast hid thy face from me. If any man finds me, he will kill me because I shall be alone and no one will be my friend. And God said to Cain, if anyone harms Cain, he shall be punished for it. And the Lord God placed a mark on Cain so that whoever met him should know him and should know also that God had forbidden any man to harm him. Then Cain and his wife went away from Adam's home to live in a place by themselves and there they had children. And Cain's family built a city in that land and Cain named the city after his first child whom he had called Enoch. End of story number two. Story number three of Hurlbutt's story of the Bible. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Sam Stinson. Hurlbutt's story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbutt, part one. The great ship that saved eight people. After Abel was slain and his brother Cain had gone into another land. Again, God gave a child to Adam and Eve. This child they named Seth and other sons and daughters were given to them. For Adam and Eve lived many years but at last they died. As God had said that they must die because they had eaten of the tree that God had forbidden them to eat. By the time that Adam died, there were many people on the earth. For the children of Adam and Eve had many other children and when these grew up, they also had children and these two had children. And in those early times, people lived much longer than they do now. Very few people now live to be 100 years old but in those days when the earth was new, men often lived to be 800 or even 900 years old. So after a time that part of the earth where Adam's sons lived began to be full of people. It is sad to tell that as time went on, more and more of these people became wicked and fewer and fewer of them grew up to become good men and women. All the people lived near together and few went away to other lands. So it came to pass that even the children of good men and women learned to be bad, like the people around them. And as God looked down on the world that he had made, he saw how wicked the men in it had become and that every thought and every act of man was evil and only evil continually. But while most of the people in the world were very wicked, there were some good people also, though they were very few. The best of all the men who lived at that time was a man whose name was Enoch. He was not the son of Cain, but another Enoch who came from the family of Seth, the son of Adam who was born after the death of Abel. While so many around Enoch were doing evil, this man did only what was right. He walked with God and God walked with him and talked with him. And at last when Enoch was 365 years old, God took him away from earth to heaven. He did not die as all the people have died since Adam disobeyed God, but he was not for God took him. This means that Enoch was taken up from earth without dying. Enoch left a son whose name was Methuselah. We do not know anything about Methuselah except that he lived to be 969 years old, which was longer than the life of any other man who ever lived. But at last Methuselah died like all his people, except his father, Enoch. By the time that Methuselah died, the world was very wicked and God looked down on the earth and said, I will take away all men from the earth that I have made because the men of the world are evil and evil continually. But even in those bad times, God saw one good man. His name was Noah. Noah tried to do right in the sight of God. As Enoch had walked with God, so Noah walked with God and talked with him. And Noah had three sons. Their names were Shem and Ham and Japheth. God said to Noah, the time has come when all the men and women on the earth are to be destroyed. Everyone must die because they are all wicked. But you and your family shall be saved because you alone are trying to do right. Then God told Noah how he might save his life and the lives of his sons. He was to build a very large boat, as large as the largest ships that are made in our time, very long and very wide and very deep, with a roof over it and made like a long, wide house in three stories, but so built that it would float on the water. Such a ship as this was called an ark. God told Noah to build this ark and to have it ready for the time when he would need it. For, said God to Noah, I am going to bring a great flood of water on the earth to cover all the land and to drown all the people on the earth. And as the animals on the earth will be drowned with the people, you must make the ark large enough to hold a pair of each kind of animals and several pairs of some animals that are needed by men like sheep and goats and oxen, so that there will be animals as well as men to live upon the earth after the flood has passed away. And you must take in the ark food for yourself and your family and for all the animals with you, enough food to last for a year while the flood shall stay on the earth. And Noah did what God told him to do, although it must have seemed very strange to all the people around to build this great ark where there was no water for it to sail upon. And it was a long time, even 120 years, that Noah and his sons were at work building the ark while the wicked people around wondered and no doubt laughed at Noah for building a great ship where there was no sea. At last the ark was finished and stood like a great house on the land. There was a door on one side and a window on the roof to let in the light. Then God said to Noah, come into the ark you and your wife and your three sons and their wives with them for the flood of waters will come very soon and take with you animals of all kinds and birds and things that creep, seven pairs of those that will be needed by men and one pair of all the rest so that all kinds of animals may be kept alive upon the earth. So Noah and his wife and his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth with their wives went into the ark and God brought to the door of the ark the animals and the birds and the creeping things of all kinds and they went into the ark and Noah and his sons put them in their places and brought in food for them all and then the door of the ark was shut so that no more people and no more animals could come in. In a few days the rain began to fall as it had never rained before. It seemed as though the heavens were open to pour great floods upon the earth. The streams filled in the rivers rose higher and higher and the ark began to float on the water. The people left their houses and ran up to the hills but soon the hills were covered and all the people on them were drowned. Some had climbed up to tops of higher mountains but the water rose higher and higher until even the mountains were covered and all the people wicked as they had been were drowned in the great sea that now rolled over all the earth where men had lived and all the animals, the tame animals, cattle and sheep and oxen were drowned and the wild animals, lions and tigers and all the rest were drowned also even the birds were drowned for their nests in the trees were swept away and there was no place where they could fly from the terrible storm. For 40 days and nights the rain kept on until there was no breath of life remaining outside of the ark. After 40 days the rain stopped but the water stayed upon the earth for more than six months and the ark with all that were in it floated over the great sea that covered the land. Then God sent a wind to blow over the waters and to dry them up. So by degrees the water grew less and less. First the mountains rose above the waters then the hills rose up and finally the ark ceased to float and lay a ground on a mountain which is called Mount Ararat but Noah could not see what had happened on the earth because the door was shut and the window may have been in the roof but he felt that the ark was no longer moving and he knew that the water must have gone down. So after waiting for a time Noah opened a window and let loose a bird called a raven. Now the raven has strong wings and this raven flew round and round until the waters had gone down and it could find a place to rest and it did not come back to the ark. After Noah had waited for it a while he sent out a dove but the dove could not find any place to rest so it flew back to the ark and Noah took it into the ark again. Then Noah waited a week longer and afterward he sent out the dove again and at the evening the dove came back to the ark which was its home and in its bill was a fresh leaf which it had picked off from an olive tree. So Noah knew that the water had gone down enough to let the trees grow once more. He waited another week and sent out the dove again but this time the dove flew away and never came back and Noah knew that the earth was becoming dry again so he took off a part of the roof and looked out and saw that there was dry land all around the ark. Noah had now lived in the ark a little more than a year and he was glad to see the green land and the trees once more and God said to Noah, come out of the ark with your wife and your sons and their wives and all the living things that are with you in the ark. So Noah opened the door of the ark and with his family came out and stood once more on the ground. All the animals and birds and creeping things in the ark came out also and began again to bring life to the earth. The first that Noah did when he came out of the ark was to give thanks to God for saving all his family when the rest of the people on the earth were destroyed. He built an altar and laid upon it and offering to the Lord and gave himself and his family to God and promised to do God's will. And God was pleased with Noah's offering and God said, I will not again destroy the earth on account of men, no matter how bad they may be. From this time, no flood shall again cover the earth, but the seasons of spring and summer and fall and winter shall remain without change. I give to you the earth. You shall be the rulers of the ground and of every living thing upon it. Then God caused a rainbow to appear in the sky and he told Noah and his sons that whenever they or the people after them could see the rainbow, they should remember that God had placed it in the sky and over the clouds as a sign of his promise that he would always remember the earth and the people upon it and would never again send a flood to destroy men from the earth. So as often as we see the beautiful rainbow, we are to remember that it is the sign of God's promise to the world. End of story number three. Story number four of Hurlbut's story of the Bible. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Hurlbut's story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, part one. The tower that was never finished. Genesis chapter 10 verse one to chapter 11 verse nine. After the great flood, the family of Noah and those who came after him grew in number until as the years went on, the earth began to be full of people once more. But there was one great difference between the people who had lived before the flood and those who lived after it. Before the flood, all the people stayed close together so that very many lived in one land and no one lived in other lands. So far as we know all the people on the earth before the great flood lived in the lands where the two great rivers flowed called the Tigris and Euphrates. This part of the world was very full of people but few or none crossed the mountains on the east or the desert on the west. And the great world beyond was without people living in it. After the flood, families began to move from one place to another seeking for themselves new homes. Some went one way and some another. This moving about was a part of God's plan to have the whole earth used for the home of men. And not merely a small part of it. Then too a family who wished to serve God and do right could go away to another land if the people around them became evil. And in a place by themselves they could bring up their children in the right way. From Mount Ararat where the ark rested many of the people moved southward into a country between the two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. And there they built houses for themselves. They undertook to build a great city which should rule all the peoples around them. They found that the soil in that country could be made into bricks and that the bricks could be heated and made hard so that it was easy to build houses to live in and walls around their city to make it strong against enemies. And the people said to each other, let us build a great tower that shall stand on the earth and shall reach up to the sky so that we may be kept together and not scattered abroad on the earth. So they began to build their great tower out of bricks which they piled up one story above another. But God did not wish all people on the earth to live close together just as they had lived before the great flood. God knew that if they all kept together, those that were wicked would lead away from God, those that were good. And all the world would become evil again as it had been before the flood. This was the way that God kept people from staying in one place. While they were building this great city and tower which they intended to rule the world, God caused their speech to change. At that time, all men were speaking one language so that everybody could understand what every other person said. God caused men to change their language. Perhaps not all at once but by degrees, little by little. After a time, the people that belonged to one family found that they could not understand what the people of another family were saying. Just as now, Germans do not understand English and French people cannot talk to Italians until they have learned their different languages. As people began to grow apart in their speech, they moved away into other places where the families speaking one language could understand each other. So the men who were building the city and the great tower could no longer understand each other's speech. They left the building without finishing it and many of them went away into other lands so the building stayed forever unfinished. And the city was named Babel, a word which means confusion. It was afterward known as Babylon and for a long time was one of the greatest cities of that part of the world, even after many of its people had left to live elsewhere. Part of the people who left Babylon went up to the north and built a city called Nineveh which became the ruling city of a great land called Assyria whose people were called Assyrians. Another company went away to the west and settled by the Great River Nile and founded the land of Egypt with its strange temples and pyramids, its Sphinx and its monuments. Another company wandered northwest until they came to the shore of the Great Sea which we call the Mediterranean Sea. There they founded the cities of Sidon and Tyra where the people were sailors, sailing to countries far away and bringing home many things from other lands to sell to the people of Babylon and Assyria and Egypt and other countries. So after the flood, the earth became covered with people in many lands and speaking many languages. End of story number four, recording by Robert Scott, MojoMove411.com, M-O-J-O-M-O-V-E, 411.com. October the 4th, 2007. Story number five of Hurlbut's Story of the Bible. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kalinda. Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, part one. The Story of a Long Journey, Genesis 1127 to 1318. Not far from the city of Babylon where they began to build the tower of Babel was another city called Ur of the Caldees. The Caldees were the people who lived in the country which was called Caldea where the two rivers Euphrates and Tigris come together. Among these people at Ur was living a man named Abram. Abram was a good man for he prayed to the Lord God and tried always to do God's will. But the people who lived in Ur, at home did not pray to God. They prayed to idols, images made of wood and stone. They thought that these images were gods and that they could hear their prayers and could help them. And as these people who worshipped idols did not call on God they did not know his will and they did many wicked things. The Lord God saw that Abram was good and faithful though wicked people were living all around him. And God did not wish to have Abram's family grow up in such a place for then they too might become wicked. So the Lord spoke to Abram and said, Abram, gather together all your family and go out from this place to a land far away that I will show you. And in that land I will make your family to become a great people and I will bless you and make your name great so that all the world shall give honor to your name. If you will do as I command you you shall be blessed and all the families of the earth shall obtain a blessing through you. Abram did not know just what this blessing meant that God promised to him. But we know that Abram's family grew after many years into the Israelite people out of whom came Jesus, the savior of the world for Jesus was the descendant of Abram. That is, Jesus came a long time afterward from the family of which Abram was the father and thus Abram's family became a blessing to all the world by giving to the world a savior. Although Abram did not know just what the blessing was to be that God promised to give him and although he did not know where the land lay to which God was sending him he obeyed God's word. Through all his family and with them his father, Tara, who was very old and his wife whose name was Sarai and his brother Nahor and his wife and another brother's son whose name was Lot for Lot's father, Haran, who was the younger brother of Abram had died before this time. And Abram took all that he had, his tents and his flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and went forth on a long journey to a land of which he did not even know the name. He journeyed far up the Great River Euphrates to the mountain region until he came to a place called Haran in a country called Mesopotamia. The word Mesopotamia means between the rivers and this country was between the two Great Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. At Haran they all stayed for a time. Perhaps they stopped there because Tara the father of Abram was too old to travel further for they stayed at Haran until Tara died. After the death of Tara his father Abram again went on his journey and Lot his brother's son went with him but Nahor Abram's brother stayed in Haran and his family and children and children's children whom they call his descendants lived at Haran for many years. From Haran Abram and Lot turned toward the southwest and journeyed for a long time having the mountains on their right hand and the Great Desert on their left. They crossed over rivers and climbed to hills and at last they came into the land of Canaan which was the land of which God had spoken to Abram. This land was called Canaan because the people who were living in it or children's children of a man who had lived long before whose name was Canaan. A long time after this it was called the land of Israel from the people who lived in it and because in that same land the Lord Jesus lived many years afterward we now call it the Holy Land. When Abram came into the land of Canaan he found in it a few cities and villages of the Canaanites but Abram and his people did not go into the towns to live. They lived in tents out in the open fields where they could find grass for their sheep and cattle. Not far from a city called Shechem Abram set up his tent under an oak tree on the plain. There the Lord came to Abram and said I will give this land to your children and to their children and this shall be their land forever. And Abram built there an altar and made an offering and worshiped the Lord. Wherever Abram set up his tent there he built his altar and prayed to God for Abram loved God and served God and believed God's promises. Abram and Lot moved their tents and their flocks to many places where they could find grass for their flocks and water to drink. At one time they went down to the land of Egypt where they saw the Great River Nile. Perhaps they also saw the pyramids and the Sphinx and the wonderful temples in that land for many of them were built before Abram lived. Abram did not stay long in the land of Egypt. God did not wish him to live in a land where the people worshiped idols so God sent Abram back again to the land of Canaan where he could live apart from cities and bring up his servants and people to worship the Lord. He came to a place where afterward a city called Bethel stood and there as before he built an altar and prayed to the Lord. Now Lot, the son of Abram's younger brother who had died, was with Abram and Lot, like Abram, had flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and many tents for his people. Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds quarreled because there was not grass enough in one place for both of them to feed their flocks and besides these people the Canaanites were also in the land so that there was not room for them all. When Abram heard of the quarrel between his men and the men under Lot, he said to Lot, Let there be no quarrel between you and me nor between your men and my men for you and I are like brothers to each other. The whole land is before us. Let us go apart. You shall have the first choice too. If you will take the land on the right hand then I will take the land on the left or if you choose the left hand then I will take the right. This was noble and generous in Abram for he was the older and might claim the first choice. Then too God had promised all the land to Abram so that he might have said to Lot, Go away for this land is all mine. But Abram showed a kind good heart in giving to Lot his choice of the land. And Lot looked over the land from the mountain where they were standing and saw down in the valley the river Jordan flowing between green fields where the soil was rich. He saw the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah upon the plain near the head of the Dead Sea into which the Jordan flows. And Lot said, I will go down Yonder to the plain. And he went down the mountain to the plain with his tents and his men and his flocks of sheep and his cattle leaving the land on the mountains which was not so good to his uncle Abram. Perhaps Lot did not know that the people in Sodom were the most wicked of all the people in the land but he went to live near them and gradually moved his tent closer to Sodom until after a time he was living in that wicked city. After Lot had separated from Abram God said to Abram, Lift up your eyes from this place and look east and west and north and south all the land that you can see mountains and valleys and plains I will give it to you and to your children and their children and those who come after them. Your descendants shall have all this land and they shall be as many as the dust of the earth so that if one could count the dust of the earth they could as easily count those who shall come from you. Rise up and walk through the land wherever you please for it is all yours. Then Abram moved his tent from Bethel and went to live near the city of Hebron in the south under an oak tree and there again he built an altar to the Lord. End of story number 5 Recording by Kalinda in Raymond, New Hampshire on October 19, 2007 Story number 6 of Hurlbitt's Story of the Bible This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Kalinda Hurlbitt's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbitt Part 1 How Lot's Choice Brought Trouble and Abram's Choice Brought Blessing Genesis 14, 1 to 1521 So Lot lived in Sodom and Abram lived in his tent on the mountains of Canaan At that time in the plain of Jordan near the head of the Dead Sea were five cities of which Sodom and Gomorrah were two and each of the five cities was ruled by its own king but over all these little kings and their little kingdoms was a greater king who lived far away near the land of Kaldia from which Abram had come and who ruled all the lands far and near After a time these little kings in the plain would not obey the greater king so he and all his army made war upon them A battle was fought on the plain not far from Sodom and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah took a battle and their soldiers were killed Then the king who had won the victory over his enemies came to Sodom and took everything that he could find in the city and carried away all the people in the city intending to keep them as slaves After a battle in those times the army that won the victory took away all the goods and made slaves of all the people on the side that had been beaten So Lot, with all that he owned was carried away by the enemies who went up the valley from Sodom until they came to the headwaters of the river Jordan at a place afterward called Dan So all that Lot's selfish choice gained for him was to lose all that he had and to be made a prisoner and a slave Someone ran away from the battle and came to Abram who was living in his tent under the oak tree near Hebron As soon as Abram heard what had happened he called together all the men who were with him his servants, his shepherds and his people and his friends and he led them after the enemy that had taken away Lot He followed as fast as his men could march and found the enemy with all the goods they had taken and all their prisoners at Dan one of the places where the Jordan River begins Abram rushed upon the enemies at night while they were asleep and fought them and drove them away so suddenly that they left behind them everything and ran far off among the mountains and in their camp Abram found his nephew Lot safe with his wife and daughters and all his goods and besides all the goods and all the other people that had been carried away from Sodom Then the king of Sodom came to meet Abram at a place near the city of Jerusalem which was afterward called the Kings Valley and with him came the king of Jerusalem which at that time was called Salem The name of this king was Melchizedek and unlike most other kings in the land at that time he was a worshipper of the Lord God as Abram was and the king Melchizedek blessed Abram and said May the Lord God Most High who made heaven and earth bless Abram and blessed be the Lord God Most High who has given your enemies into your hand and Abram made a present to the king Melchizedek because he worshipped the Lord and Abram gave to the king of Sodom all the people and all the goods that had been taken away and he would not take any pay for having saved them You would have thought that after this Lot would have seen that it was wrong for him to live in Sodom but he went back to that city and made his home there once more even though his heart was made sad by the wickedness that he saw around him After Abram had gone back to his tent under the oak trees at Hebron one day the Lord God spoke to him and said Fear not Abram I will be a shield to keep you safe from enemies and I will give you a very great reward for serving me and Abram said, oh Lord God what good can anything do to me I will be a shield to whom I can give it and after I die the man who will own everything that I have is not my son but a servant for although Abram had a large family of people around him and many servants he had no heir and he was now an old man and his wife Sarai was also old and God said to Abram the one to receive what you own shall not be a stranger but shall be your own son and that night God brought Abram look now up to the sky and count the stars if you can the people who shall spring from you your descendants in the years to come shall be many more than all the stars that you can see Abram did not see how this promise of God could be kept but he believed God's word and did not doubt it and God loved Abram because he believed the promise although Abram could not at the time see how God's promise could be kept yet we know that it was kept for the Israelite people in the Bible story and the Jews everywhere in the world now all came from Abram after that one day just as the sun was going down God came to Abram again and told him many things that should come to pass God said to Abram after your life has ended those who are to come from you your descendants shall go into a strange land the people of that land shall make slaves of them and shall be cruel to them and they shall stay in that strange land afterward they shall come out of that land not anymore as slaves but very rich and after the 400 years they shall come back to this land and this shall be their home all this shall come to pass after your life for you shall die in peace and be buried in a good old age and all this land where you are living shall belong to your people so that Abram might remember this promise of God God told Abram to make ready an offering of a lamb and a goat and a pair of pigeons and place them opposite to each other and that night Abram looked and saw a smoke and fire like a flaming torch that passed between the pieces of the offering so a promise was made between God and Abram God promised to give Abram a son and a people and a land and Abram promised to serve God faithfully such a promise as this made by two people to each other was called a covenant and this was God's covenant with Abram End of story number 6 Recording by Kalinda in Raymond, New Hampshire on October 19, 2007 Story 7 of Hurlboot's Story of the Bible This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hurlboot's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlboot Part 1 The Angel by the Well Genesis 161 to 1727 You remember Abram's wife who had journeyed with him from Ur of the Chaldees and who lived in his tent all those years was named Sarai Now Sarai had a maid a servant that waited on her whose name was Hagar She came from the land of Egypt where were the pyramids and the temples but Sarai and her maid Hagar had some trouble they could not agree and Sarai was so sharp and severe with Hagar that at last Hagar ran away from Sarai's tent She went out into the desert and took the road that led down to Egypt her own country the land from which she had come on the way she stopped beside a spring of water there an angel from the Lord met her and said to her Hagar are you not the servant Sarai Abram's wife what are you doing here where are you going and Hagar said to the angel I am going away from my mistress Sarai because I do not wish to stay with her and serve her any longer then the angel said to Hagar go back to your mistress Sarai and submit to her for it is better for you than to go away God knows all your troubles for he sees you and hears you and he will help you by and by you shall have a son and you shall call his name Ishmael because God has heard you the word Ishmael means God hears so whenever Hagar should speak her boy's name she would think God has heard me then the angel told Hagar that her son Ishmael should be strong and fierce and that no one should be able to overcome him or his children or his descendants those who should come after him so Hagar was comforted and went back again to serve Sarai and afterward the well where she saw the angel was called by a name which means the well of the living one who sees me and after this Hagar had a son and as the angel told her she called his name Ishmael that is God hears we shall read more about Hagar and Ishmael a little later after this while Abram was living near Hebron the Lord came to him again and spoke to him while Abram bowed with his face to the ground God said I am the almighty God walk before me and be perfect and I will make you a father of many nations and your name shall be changed you shall no more be called Abram but Abraham the word that means father of a multitude because you shall be the father of many nations of people and your wife's name shall also be changed she shall no more be called Sarai but Sarah that is princess and you and Sarah shall have a son and you shall call his name Isaac and he shall have sons when he becomes a man and his descendants those who spring from him and many many people so from this time he was no longer Abram but Abraham and his wife was called Sarah end of story 7 recording by Sean McGahey ducktapeguy.net story 8 of Hurlbut's story of the Bible this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hurlbut's story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut part 1 the rain of fire that fell on a city Genesis 18 verse 1 to 19 verse 30 one day Abraham for we shall now call him by his new name was sitting in the door of his tent when he saw three men coming toward him he knew from their looks they were not common men they were angels and one of them seems to have been the Lord God himself coming in the form of a man when Abraham saw these men coming he went out to meet them and bowed to them and he said to the one who was the leader my lord do not pass by but come and rest a little under the tree let me sand for water to wash your feet and take some food and stay with us a little while so this strange person who was God in the form of a man sat with his two followers in Abraham's tent under the oak trees at Hebron they took some food which Sarah, Abraham's wife made ready for them and then the Lord talked with Abraham he told Abraham again that in a very little time God would send to him and Sarah a little boy whose name should be Isaac in the language that Abraham spoke the name Isaac means laughing because Abraham and Sarah both laughed aloud when they heard it they were so happy that they could scarcely believe the news then the three persons rose up to go and two of them went on the road which led towards Sodom down on the plain of Jordan below the mountains but the one who Abraham called my lord stopped after the others had gone away and said shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do I am the father of a great people and all the world shall receive a blessing through him and I know that Abraham will teach his children and all those that live with him to obey the will of the Lord and to do right I will tell Abraham what I am going to do I am going down to the city of Sodom and the other cities that are near it and I am going to see if the city is as bad as it seems to be for the wickedness of the city is like a cry coming up before the Lord and Abraham knew that Sodom was very wicked and he feared that God was about to destroy it and Abraham said wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked the good with the bad in Sodom perhaps there may be fifty good people in the city wilt thou not spare the city for the sake of fifty good men who may be in it shall not the judge and ruler of all the earth do right and the Lord said if I find in Sodom fifty good people then I will not destroy the city but will spare it for their sake then Abraham said again perhaps I ought not to ask anything more for I am only a common man talking with the Lord God but suppose there should be forty-five good people in Sodom wilt thou destroy the city because it needs only five good men to make up the fifty and the Lord said if there are forty-five good men in it and Abraham said suppose there are forty good people in it what then and the Lord said I will spare the city if I find in it forty good men and Abraham said oh Lord do not be angry if I ask that if there are thirty good men in the city it may be spared and the Lord said I will not do it if I find thirty good men there and Abraham said let me venture to ask that thou wilt spare it if twenty are there the Lord said I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty good men if they are there then Abraham said oh let not the Lord be angry and I will speak only this once more perhaps there may be ten good men found in the city and the Lord said if I find ten good men in Sodom I will spare the city and Abraham had no more to say the Lord in the form of a man went on his way toward Sodom and Abraham turned back and went to his tent you remember that lot the nephew of Abraham chose the land of Sodom for his home story five and lived there though the people were so wicked you remember too how Lot was carried away captive when Sodom was taken by its enemies and how he was rescued by Abram story six that happened Lot went to live in Sodom again and he was there when the angels came to Abraham's tent as we read in the last story two of the angels who had visited Abraham went down to Sodom and walked through the city trying to find some good men for if they could find only ten the city would be saved but the only good man whom they could find was Lot he took the angels who looked like men into his house and treated them kindly and made a supper for them the men of Sodom when they found that strangers were in Lot's house came before the house in the street and tried to take the two men out so they might do them harm so wicked and cruel they were but the men of Sodom could do nothing against them for when they tried to break open the door and Lot was greatly frightened the two angels struck all those wicked men blind in a moment so that they could not see in the dark for the door then the angels said to Lot have you hear any others besides yourself any sons or sons-in-law or daughters whom you have get them out of this city quickly for we are here to destroy this place because it is so very wicked then Lot went to the houses where the young men lived who had married some of his daughters and said to them hurry and get out of this place and destroy it but his sons-in-law the husbands of his daughters would not believe his words they only laughed at him what a mistake it was for Lot to live in a wicked city where his daughters were married to young men living there and when the morning was coming the two angels tried to make poor Lot hasten away they said rise up quickly take up your wife and you will be destroyed with the city but Lot was slow to leave his house and his married daughters and all that he had and the two angels took hold of him and his wife and his two daughters and the angels dragged them out of the city God was good to Lot to take him out of the city before it was destroyed and when they had brought Lot and his wife and his daughters out of the city one of the angels said to him escape for your life do not look behind you do not stop anywhere in the plain climb up the mountain or you may be destroyed and Lot begged the angels not to send him so far away he said oh my lord I cannot climb the mountain have mercy upon me and let me go to that little city that lies yonder it is only a little city and you can spare it please to let me be safe there and the angels said we will spare that city for your sake wait until you are safe before we destroy these other cities so Lot ran to the little city and there he found safety in the language of that time the word Zoar means little so that city was afterwards called Zoar it was the time of sunrise when Lot came to Zoar then as soon as Lot and his family were safely out of Sodom the Lord caused a rain of fire to fall upon Sodom and the other cities on the plain with the fire came great clouds of sulfur smoke covering all the plain so the cities were destroyed and all the people in them not one man or woman or child was left while Lot and his daughters were flying from the city Lot's wife stopped and looked back and she became a pillar of salt standing there upon the plain Lot and his two daughters escaped but they were afraid to stay they climbed up the mountain away from the plain and found a cave and there they lived so Lot lost his wife and all that he had because he had made his home among the wicked people of Sodom and when Abraham from his tent door on the mountain looked down toward the plain the smoke was rising from it like the smoke of a great furnace and that was the end of the cities of the plain Sodom and Gamora and the other cities with them Zohar alone was saved because Lot a good man prayed for it End of Story 8 The boy who became an archer Genesis 21 1 to 21 After Sodom and Gamora were destroyed Abraham moved his tent and his camp away from that part of the land and went to live near a place called Gerar in the southwest not far from the great sea and there at last the child whom God had promised to Abraham and Sarah was born when Abraham his father was a hundred years old they named this child Isaac as the angel had told them he should be named and Abraham and Sarah were so happy to have a little boy that after a time they gave a great feast to all the people in honor of the little Isaac You remember the story about Sarah's maid Hagar the Egyptian woman and how she ran away from her mistress saw an angel by the well and afterward came back to Sarah and had a child whose name was Ishmael in Story 7 There are two boys in Abraham's tent the older boy Ishmael the son of Hagar and the younger boy Isaac the son of Abraham and Sarah Ishmael did not like the little Isaac and did not treat him kindly this made his mother Sarah very angry and she said to her husband I do not wish to have this boy Ishmael growing up with my son Isaac send away Hagar and her boy for they are a trouble to me and Abraham felt very sorry to have trouble come between Sarah and Hagar and between Isaac and Ishmael for Abraham was a good and kind man and he was friendly to them all but the Lord said to Abraham do not be troubled about Ishmael and his mother do as Sarah has asked you to do and send them away it is best that Isaac should be left alone in your tent for he is to receive everything that is yours I the Lord will take care of Ishmael and will make a great people of his descendants those who shall come from him so the next morning Abraham sent Hagar and her boy away expecting them to go back to the land of Egypt from which Hagar had come he gave them some food for the journey and a bottle of water to drink by the way the bottles in that country were not like ours made of glass they were made from the skin of a goat sewn tightly together one of these skin bottles Abraham filled with water and gave to Hagar and Hagar went away from Abraham's tent to bring her little boy but in some way she lost the road and wandered over the desert not knowing where she was until all the water in the bottle was used up and her poor boy and the hot sun and the burning sand had nothing to drink she thought he would die of his terrible thirst and she laid him down under a little bush and then she went away for she said to herself I cannot bear to look at my poor boy suffering and dying for want of water and just at that moment while Hagar was crying and her boy was moaning with thirst she heard a boy saying to her Hagar what is your trouble do not be afraid God has heard your cry and the cry of your child God will take care of you both and will make of your boy a great nation of people it was the voice of an angel from heaven and then Hagar looked and their close at hand was a spring of water in the desert and Hagar was as she filled the bottle with water and took it to her suffering boy under the bush after this Hagar did not go down to Egypt she found a place near this spring where she lived and brought up her son in the wilderness far from other people and God was with Ishmael and cared for him and Ishmael grew up in the desert and learned to shoot with the bow and arrow he became a wild man and his children after him grew up to be wild men also the Arabians of the desert who even to this day have never been ruled by any other people but wander through the desert and live as they please so Ishmael came to be the father of many people and his descendants the wild Arabians of the desert are living unto this day in that land just as the Jews who are the descendants of Isaac are living all over the world End of Story 9 Story 10 of Herbert's Story of the Bible This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Herbert's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Herbert Part 1 How an Angel's Voice Saved a Boy's Life Genesis 22 1 to 23 20 You remember that in those times of which we are telling God they built an altar of earth or stone and laid an offering upon it as a gift to God the offering was generally a sheep or a goat or a young ox some animal that was used for food such an offering was called a sacrifice but the people who worshipped idols often did what seems to us very strange and very terrible they thought that it would please their gods if they would offer as a sacrifice the most precious living things that were their own and they would take their own little children and kill them upon their altars as offerings to the gods of wood and stone that were no real gods but only images God wished to show to Abraham and all his descendants those who should come after him that he was not pleased with such offerings as those of living people killed on the altars and God took away to teach Abraham so that he and his children after him would never forget it then at the same time he wished to see how faithful and obedient Abraham would be to his commands how fully Abraham would trust in God or as we should say how great was Abraham's faith in God so God gave to Abraham a command which he did not mean to have obeyed though this he did not tell to Abraham he said take now your son your only son Isaac whom you love so greatly and go to the land of Moriah and there on a mountain that I will show you offer him for a burnt offering to me though this command filled Abraham's heart with pain yet he would not be as surprised to receive it as a father would in our day for such offerings were very common among all those people in the land where Abraham lived Abraham never for one moment doubted or disobeyed God's word he knew that Isaac was the child whom God had promised and that God had promised too and that those coming from Isaac should be a great nation he did not see how God could keep his promise with regard to Isaac if Isaac should be killed as an offering unless indeed God should raise him up from the dead afterward but Abraham undertook it once to obey God's command he took two young men with him and an ass laden with wood for the fire and he went toward the mountain on the north Isaac his son walking by his side in the days they walked sleeping under the trees at night in the open country and on the third day Abraham saw the mountain far away and as they drew near to the mountain Abraham said to the young men stay here with the ass while I go up yonder mountain with Isaac to worship and when we have worshiped we will come back to you for Abraham believed that in some way God would bring back Isaac to life he took the wood from the ass and placed it on Isaac with the mountain together as they were walking Isaac said father here is the wood but where is the lamb for the offering and Abraham said my son God will provide himself the lamb and they came to the place on the top of the mountain there Abraham built an altar of stones and earth heaped up and on it he placed the wood then he tied the hands and the feet of Isaac and laid him on the wood and the altar and he was holding a knife to kill his son a moment longer and Isaac would be slain by his own father's hand but just at that moment the angel of the Lord out of heaven called to Abraham and said Abraham Abraham and Abraham answered here I am Lord then the angel of the Lord said do not lay your hand upon your son do no harm to him now I know that you love God more than you love your only son and you are ready to give up your son your only son to God what a relief and a joy these words from heaven brought to the heart of Abraham how glad he was to know that it was not God's will for him to kill his son then Abraham looked around and there in the thicket was a ram caught by his horns and Abraham took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in place of his son so Abraham's words came true to himself a lamb the place where this altar was built Abraham named Jehovah Jirah words meaning in the language that Abraham spoke the Lord will provide this offering which seems so strange did much good it showed to Abraham and to Isaac also that Isaac belonged to God for to God he had been offered and in Isaac all those who should come from him his descendants had been given to God Abraham and to all people after him that God did not wish children or men killed his offerings for worship and while all the people around offered such sacrifices the Israelites who came from Abraham and from Isaac never offered them but offered oxen and sheep and goats instead and it looked onward to a time when just as Abraham gave his son as an offering God should give his son Jesus Christ to die for the world all this was taught in this act of worship on Mount Moriah some think that on the very place where this offering was given the altar in the temple many years afterwards stood on Mount Moriah if that be true the rock is still there and over it is a building called the Dome of the Rock many people now visit this rock under the dome and think of what took place there so long ago at this time Abraham was living at a place called Bersheba on the border of the desert from Bersheba he took this journey to Mount Moriah and to Bersheba he came again after the offering on the mountain Bersheba was the home of Abraham during most of his later years after a time Sarah the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac died being 120 years old and Abraham bought of the people of Hebron a cave called the cave of Macpela and there he buried Sarah his wife the place still known as the city of Hebron but the people who live there will not allow any strangers to visit it end of story 10 story 11 of Hurlbets story of the bible this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hurlbets story of the bible part 1 the story of a journey after a wife Genesis 24 1 to 25 18 after the death of Sarah Isaac her son was lonely and as he was now old enough to marry Abraham sought a wife for him for in those countries the parents have always chosen wives for their sons and husbands for their daughters Abraham did not wish Isaac to marry any woman of the people in the land where he was living for they were all worshipers of idols and would not teach their children in the ways of the Lord for the same reason Abraham did not settle in one place and built for himself and his people a city by moving from place to place Abraham kept his people apart you remember that when Abraham made his long journey to the land of Canaan see story 5 he stayed for a time at a place called Heran in Mesopotamia between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates far to the northeast of Canaan when Abraham left Heran to go to Canaan his brother Nahor and his family stayed in Heran they worshiped the Lord as Abraham and his family did and Abraham thought that it would be well to find among them a wife for his son Isaac as Abraham could not leave his own land of Canaan and go to Heran in Mesopotamia to find a wife for his son Isaac he called his chief servant Eliezer the man whom he trusted who cared for all his flocks and cattle and who ruled over his other servants and sent him to Heran to find a wife for his son Isaac and the servant took ten camels and many presents and went on a long journey and at last came to the city of Heran where the family of Nahor the brother of Abraham was living and at the well just outside of the city at that time of evening he made his camels kneel down then the servant prayed to the Lord that he would send to him just the right young woman to be the wife of his master's son Isaac just as the servant was praying a beautiful young woman came to the well with her pitcher upon her shoulder as she drew the water and filled her pitcher the servant came up and bowed to her and said will you kindly give me a drink of water from your pitcher and she said drink my lord and she held her pitcher for him to drink and then she said I will draw some water for your camels also to drink and she emptied her pitcher into the trough by the well she had given drink to all the camels and the servant looked at her and wondered whether she might be the right woman for Isaac to marry and he said to her will you tell me your name young lady and whose daughter you are and do you suppose that I could find a place to stay at your father's house and then he gave her a gold ring and gold bracelets for her wrists and the beautiful young woman said my name is Rebekah and my father is Bethul who is the son of Nahor you can come right to our house we have room for you and a place and food for your camels then the man bowed his head and thanked God for he saw that his prayer was answered since this kind and lovely young woman was a cousin to Isaac his master's son and he told Rebekah that he was the servant of Abraham who was so near a relative to her own family then Rebekah ran home and told her parents of the stranger and showed them the presents that he had given her and her brother Laban out to the man and brought him into the house and found a place for his camels and they washed his feet for that was the custom of the land where people did not wear shoes but sandals and they set the table for a supper and asked him to sit down and eat with them but the man said I will not eat until I have told my errand after this he told them all about Abraham's riches and how Abraham had sent him to Heran to find a wife for Isaac his son and how he had met Rebekah and felt sure that Rebekah was the one whom the Lord would choose for Isaac's wife and then he asked that they would give him Rebekah to be taken home to be married to Isaac when he had told his errand Laban, Rebekah's brother and Bethul her father said this comes from the Lord it is his will and it is not for us to oppose it here is Rebekah take her and let her be the wife of your master's son for the Lord has shown it to be his will then Abraham's servant gave rich presence to Rebekah and to her mother and her brother Laban and that night they had a feast with great joy and the next morning Abraham's servant said now I must go home to my master but they said oh not so soon let Rebekah stay with us for a few days ten days at least before she goes away from her home and he said to them do not hinder me since God has given me what I came for I must come back to my master and they called Rebekah and asked her will you go with this man and she said I will go so the servant of Abraham went away and took with him Rebekah with good wishes and blessings and prayers from all in her father's house and after a long journey they came to the place where Abraham and Isaac were living and when Isaac saw Rebekah he loved her and she became his wife and they were faithful to each other as long as they both lived afterward Abraham and the good man that he was died almost 180 years old and Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham in the cave where Abraham had buried Sarah at Hebron then Isaac became the owner of all the ridges of Abraham his tents and flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and camels and servants Isaac was a peaceful quiet man he did not move his tents often as his father had done but stayed in one place nearly all his life Story 12 of Hurlbut's Story of the Bible This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut Part 1 How Jacob stole his brother's blessing Genesis 25 verse 27 to 27 verse 46 After Abraham died his son Isaac lived in the land of Canaan like his father Isaac's home was a tent and around him were the tents of his people and many flocks of sheep and herds of cattle feeding wherever they could find grass to eat and water to drink Isaac and his wife Rebecca had two children the older was named Esau and the younger Jacob was the woods and fond of hunting and he was rough and covered with hair even as a boy he was fond of hunting with his bow and arrow Jacob was quiet and thoughtful staying at home and caring for the flocks of his father Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob because Esau brought to his father that which he had killed in his hunting but Rebecca liked Jacob because she saw that he was wise and careful in his work and in those lands when a man dies his older son receives twice as much as the younger of what the father has owned this was called his birthright for it was his right as the oldest born so Esau as the older had a birthright to more of Isaac's possessions than Jacob and besides this there was the privilege of the promise of God that the family of Isaac should receive great blessings now Esau when he grew up did not care for his birthright or the blessing which God had promised but Jacob who was a wise man wished greatly to have the birthright which would come to Esau when his father died once when Esau came home hungry and tired from hunting in the fields he saw that Jacob had a bowl of something that he had just cooked for dinner and Esau said give me some of that red stuff in the dish will you not give me some I am hungry and Jacob answered I will give it to you if you will first of all sell me your birthright and Esau said what is the use of the birthright to me now when I am almost starving to death you can have my birthright if you will give me something to eat then Esau made Jacob a solemn promise to give to Jacob his birthright all for a bowl of food it was not right for Jacob to deal so selfishly with his brother but it was very wrong in Esau to care so little for his birthright God's blessing some time after this when Esau was forty years old he married two wives though this would be very wicked in our times it was not supposed to be wrong then for even good men had more than one wife but Esau's two wives were women from the people of Canaan who worshiped idols and not the true God and they taught their children's also to pray to idols so that those who came from Esau the people who were his descendants lost all knowledge of God and became very wicked but this was long after that time Isaac and Rebecca were very sorry to have their son Esau marry women who prayed to idols and not to God but still Isaac loved his active son Esau more than his quiet son Jacob Isaac became at last very old and feeble and so blind that he could see scarcely anything one day he said to Esau my son I am very old and do not know how soon I must die but before I die I wish to give you as my older son God's blessing upon you and your children and your descendants go out into the fields and with your bow and arrows shoot some animal that is good for food and make me a dish of cooked meat such as you know I love and after I have eaten it I will give you the blessing Esau ought to have told his father that the blessing did not belong to him he had sold it to his brother Jacob but he did not tell his father he went out into the fields hunting to find the kind of meat which his father liked the most now Rebecca was listening and heard all that Isaac had said to Esau she knew that it would be better for Jacob to have the blessing than for Esau and she loved Jacob more than Esau so she called to Jacob and told him what Isaac had said to Esau and she said I will tell you and you will get the blessing instead of your brother go to the flocks and bring to me two little kids from the goats and I will cook them just like the meat which Esau cooks for your father and you will bring it to your father and he will think you are Esau and will give you the blessing and it really belongs to you but Jacob said you know that Esau and I are not alike his neck and arms are covered with hair while mine are smooth so Jacob will feel of me and he will find that I am not Esau and then instead of giving me a blessing I am afraid he will curse me but Rebecca answered her son never mind you do as I have told you and I will take care of you if any harm comes it will come to me so do not be afraid but go and bring the meat then Jacob went and brought a pair of little kids from the flock and from them his mother made a dish of food he to the taste just as Isaac liked it then Rebecca found some of Esau's clothes and dressed Jacob in them and she placed on his neck and his hands some of the skins of the kids so that his neck and hands would feel rough and hairy to the touch then Jacob came into his father's tent bringing the dinner and speaking as much like Esau as he could he said here I am my father and Isaac said son and Jacob answered I am Esau your oldest son I have done as you bade me now sit up and eat the dinner I have made and then give me your blessing as you promised me and Isaac said how is it that you found it so quickly Jacob answered because the Lord your God showed me where to go and gave me good success Isaac did not feel certain that it was his son Esau come nearer and let me feel you so that I may know that you are really my son Esau and Jacob went up close to Isaac's bed and Isaac felt of his face and his neck and his hands and he said the voice sounds like Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau are you really my son Esau and Jacob again told a lie to his father and said I am then the old man ate the food that Jacob had brought to him believing him to be Esau and he gave him the blessing saying to him may God give you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine may nations bow down to you and people become your servants may you be the master over your brother and may your family and descendants that shall come from you rule over his family and his descendants blessed be those that bless you and cursed be those that curse you just as soon as Jacob had received the blessing he rose up and hastened away he had scarcely gone out when Esau came in from his hunting with the dish of food he had cooked and he said let my father sit up and eat the food that I have brought and give me the blessing and Isaac said why who are you Esau answered I am your son your oldest son Esau and Isaac trembled and said who then is the one that came in and brought to me food and I have eaten his food and have blessed him yes and he shall be blessed when Esau heard this he knew that he had been cheated and he cried aloud with a bitter cry oh my father my brother has taken away my blessing just as he took away my birthright but cannot you give me another blessing too have you given everything to my brother and Isaac told him all that he had said to Jacob he said I have told him that he shall be the ruler and that all his brothers and their children will be under him I have promised him the richest ground for his crops and rain from heaven to make them grow all these things have been spoken and they must come to pass what is left for me to promise you my son but Esau begged for another blessing and Isaac said my son your rolling shall be of the riches of the earth and the dew of the heaven you shall live by your sword and your descendants shall serve his descendants but in time to come they shall break loose and shall shake off the yoke of your brother's rule and shall be free all this came to pass many years afterward the people who came from Esau lived in a land called Edom on the south of the land of Israel where Jacob's descendants lived after a time the Israelites became rulers over the Edomites and later still the Edomites made themselves free of the Israelites but all this took place hundreds of years after both Esau and Jacob had passed away the blessing of God's covenant or promise came to Israel and not to the people from Esau it was better that Jacob's descendants those who came after him should have the blessing than that Esau's people should have it for Jacob's people worshiped God and Esau's people walked in the way of the idols and became wicked but it was very wrong in Jacob to obtain the blessing and the way that he obtained it End of Story 12 Story 13 of Hurlbut's Story of the Bible this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut Part 1 Jacob's Wonderful Dream Genesis 27 verse 46 to 30 verse 24 after Esau had found that he had lost his birthright and his blessing he was very angry against his brother Jacob and he said to himself and told others my father Isaac is very old and cannot live long as soon as he is dead then I shall kill Jacob for having robbed me of my right when Rebecca heard this she said to Jacob before it is too late do you go away from home and get out of Esau's sight perhaps when Esau sees you no longer he will forget his anger and then you can come home again go and visit my brother Laban your uncle and Heron and stay with him for a little while your anger is past you remember that Rebecca came from the family of Nahor Abraham's younger brother who lived in Heron a long distance to the northeast of Canaan and that Laban was Rebecca's brother as was told in story 11 so Jacob went out of Bersheba on the border of the desert and walked alone towards a land far to the north carrying his staff in his hand one evening just about sunset he came to a place among the mountains more than 60 miles distant from his home and as he had no bed to lie down upon he took a stone and rested his head upon it for a pillow and lay down to sleep we would think that a hard pillow but Jacob was tired and soon fell asleep and on that night Jacob had a wonderful dream in his dream he saw stairs leading up to heaven from earth where he lay and angels were coming down and going up the stairs and above the stairs he saw the Lord God standing and God said to Jacob I am the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac your father and I will be your God too the land where you are lying all alone shall belong to you and your children after you and your children shall spread abroad over the lands east and west and north and south like the dust of the earth and in your family all the world shall receive a blessing and I am with you in your journey and I will keep you wherever you are going and will bring you back to this land I will never leave you and I will surely keep my promise to you and in the morning Jacob awaked from his sleep and he said surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it I thought that I was all alone but God has been with me this place is the house of God it is the gate of heaven and Jacob took the stone on which his head had rested and he set it up as a pillar and poured oil on it as an offering to God and Jacob named that place Bethel which in the language that Jacob spoke means the house of God and Jacob made a promise to God at that time and said if God really will go with me and keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and will bring me to my Father's house in peace then the Lord shall be my God and this stone shall be the house of God and if all that God gives me I will give back to God one tenth as an offering then Jacob went onward in his long journey he waded across the river Jordan in a shallow place feeling his way with his staff he climbed mountains journeyed beside the great desert on the east and at last came to the city of Heron beside the city was the well where Abraham's servant had met Jacob's mother Rebekah see story 11 and there after Jacob had waited for a time he saw a young woman coming with her sheep to give them water then Jacob took off the flat stone that was over the mouth of the well and drew water and gave it to the sheep and when he found that this young woman was his own cousin Rachel the daughter of Laban he was so glad that he wept for joy and at that moment began to love Rachel and longed to have her for his wife Rachel's father Laban who was Jacob's uncle the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's mother gave a welcome to Jacob and took him into his home and Jacob asked Laban if he would give his daughter Rachel to him as his wife and Jacob said if you will give me Rachel I will work for you seven years and Laban said it is better that you should have her than a stranger should marry her so Jacob lived seven years in Laban's house caring for his sheep and oxen and camels and such was his love for Rachel that the seven years seemed like a few days at last the day came for the marriage the manor of that land was covered with a thick veil so that her face could not be seen and she was married to Jacob and when Jacob lifted her veil he found that he had married not Rachel whom he loved but her older sister Leah who was not beautiful and whom Jacob did not love at all Jacob was very angry that he had been deceived though that was just the way in which Jacob himself had deceived his father see story 12 but his uncle Laban said in our land we never allow the younger daughter to be married before the older daughter keep Leah for your wife and work for me seven years longer and you shall have Rachel also for in those times as we have seen men often had two wives or even more than two no one thought that it was wrong then to have more than one wife although now it is considered very wicked Jacob stayed seven years more fourteen years and all before he received Rachel as his wife while Jacob was living at Heron eleven sons were born to him but only one of these was the child of Rachel whom Jacob loved this son was Joseph who was dearer to Jacob than any other of his children partly because he was the youngest and also because he was the child of his beloved Rachel story 13 story number 14 of Hurlbut's story of the Bible this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hurlbut's story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut part one a midnight wrestling match Genesis chapter 30 verse 25 to chapter 33 verse 20 Jacob stayed a long time in the land of Heron much longer than he had expected to stay and in that land Jacob became rich as wages for his work with Laban Jacob took a share of the sheep and oxen and camels and since Jacob was very wise and careful in his work his share grew larger until Jacob owned a great flock and much cattle at last after twenty years Jacob decided to go back to the land of Canaan and to his father Isaac who was still living though now very old and feeble Jacob did not tell his uncle Laban that he was going away but while Laban was absent from home Jacob gathered together his wives and children and all his sheep and cattle and camels and he stole away quietly when Laban found that Jacob had left him he was not at all pleased for he wished Jacob still to care for the things that he owned for Jacob managed them better than Laban himself and God blessed everything that Jacob undertook then too Laban did not like to have his two daughters the wives of Jacob taken so far away from him so Laban and the men who were with him went after Jacob but that night God spoke to Laban in a dream and said do no harm to Jacob when you meet him therefore when Laban came to where Jacob was in his camp on Mount Gilead on the east of the river Jordan Laban spoke kindly to Jacob and Jacob and Laban made a covenant that is a promise between them they piled up a heap of stones and on it they set up a large rock like a pillar inside the heap of stones they ate a meal together and Jacob said to Laban I promise not to go past this heap of stones and this pillar to do you any harm the God of your grandfather Nahor and the God of my grandfather Abraham be the judge between us and Laban made the same promise to Jacob and then he kissed his daughters Jacob's two wives and all of Jacob's children and bade them goodbye and Jacob went on to Canaan and Jacob gave two names to the heap of stones where they had made the covenant one name was Galead a word which means the heap of witness the other was Mispah which means watchtower for Jacob said the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent from each other while Jacob was going back to Canaan he heard news that filmed him with fear he heard that Esau his brother was coming to meet him leading an army of 400 men he knew how angry Esau had been long before and how he had threatened to kill him and Jacob feared that Esau would now come upon him and kill not only Jacob himself but his wives and his children if Jacob had acted rightly toward his brother he need not have feared Esau's coming but he knew how he had wronged Esau and he was terribly afraid to meet him that night Jacob divided his company into two parts so that if one part were taken the other part might escape and he sent onward before him as a present to his brother a great drove a voxen and cows and sheep and goats and camels and asses hoping that by the present his brother might be made more kind toward him and then Jacob prayed earnestly to the Lord God to help him after that he sent all his family across a brook that was in his path called the brook Jabok while he stayed alone on the other side of the brook to pray again and while Jacob was alone he felt that a man had taken hold of him and Jacob wrestled with this strange man all the night and the man was an angel from God they wrestled so hard that Jacob's thigh was strained in the struggle and the angel said the day is breaking and Jacob said I will not let thee go until thou dost bless me and the angel said what is your name and Jacob answered Jacob is my name then the angel said your name shall no more be called Jacob but Israel that is he who wrestles with God for you have wrestled with God and have won the victory and the angel blessed him there and Jacob gave a name to that place he called it peniel or penuel words which in the language that Jacob spoke mean the face of God for said Jacob I have met God face to face and after this Jacob was lame for in the wrestle he had strained his thigh and as Jacob went across the brook Jabok early in the morning he looked up and there was Esau right before him he bowed with his face to the ground over and over again as people do in those lands when they meet someone of higher rank than their own but Esau ran to meet him and placed his arms around his neck and kissed him and the two brothers wept together Esau was kind and generous to forgive his brother all the wrong that he had done and at first he would not receive Jacob's present for he said I have enough my brother but Jacob urged him until at last he took the present and so the quarrel was ended and the two brothers were at peace Jacob came to Shechem in the middle of the land of Canaan and there he set up his tents and at the foot of the mountain although there were streams of water all around he dug his own well great and deep the well where Jesus sat and talked with a woman many ages after that time and the well that may still be seen even now the traveler who visits that place may drink water from Jacob's well after this Jacob had a new name Israel which means as we have seen the one who wrestles with God sometimes he was called Jacob and sometimes Israel and all those who come from Israel his descendants were called Israelites after this Isaac died very old and was buried by his sons Jacob Esau in the cave at Hebron where Abraham and Sarah were buried already Esau with his children and his cattle went away to a land on the southeast of Canaan which was called Edom and Jacob or Israel and his family lived in the land of Canaan dwelling in tents and moving from place to place where they could find good pasture or grass upon which to feed their flocks end of story number 14 Recording by Eric