Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible

Part First- Stories from the First Five Books in the Bible

Story Seven- The Angel by the Well

Genesis xvi : 1, to xvii : 27

            You remember that Ā´brăm’s wife, who had journeyed with him from Ûr of the Chăl´dees, and who lived in his tent all those years, named Sā´rāi. Now Sā´rāi had a maid, a servant that waited on her, whose name was Hā´gar. She came from the land of Ē´gypt, where were the pyramids and the temples. But Sā´rāi and her maid Hā´gar had some trouble; they could not agree, and Sā´rāi was so sharp and severe with Hā´gar, that at last Hā´gar ran away from Sā´rāi’s tent.

            She went out into the desert, and took the road that led down to Ē´gypt, her own country, the land from which she had come. On the way she stopped beside a spring of water. There the angel from the Lord met her, and said to her:

            “Hā´gar, are you not the servant of Sā´rāi, Ā´brăm’s wife? What are you doing here? Where are you going?”

            And Hā´gar said to the angel:

            “I am going away from my mistress Sā´rāi, because I do not wish to stay with her and serve her any longer.”

            Then the angel said to Hā´gar:

            “Go back to your mistress Sā´rāi, and submit to her, for it is better for you than to go away. God knows all your troubles, for he sees and hears you, and he will help you. By and by you shall have a son, and you shall call his name Ĭsh´ma-el, because God has heard you.”

            The word Ĭsh´ma-el means “God hears.” So whenever Hā´gar should speak her boy’s name, she would think “God has heard me.”

            Then the angel told Hā´gar that her son Ĭsh´ma-el 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 Hā´gar was comforted, and went back again to serve Sā´rāi. 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.” Agter this, Hā´gar had a son; and as the angel told her, she called his name Ĭsh´ma-el; that is, “God hears.” We shall read more about Hā´gar and Ĭsh´ma-el a little later. After this, while Ā´brăm was living near Hē´bron, the Lord came to him again and spoke to him, while Ā´brăm 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 Ā´brăm, but Ā´bră-hăm, a 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 Sā´rāi, but Sā´rah; that is, ‘princess.’ And you and Sā´rah shall have a son, and you shall call his name Ī´saac; and he shall have sons when he becomes a man, and his descendants, those who spring from him, shall be very many people.” So from this time he was no longer Ā´brăm, but Ā´bră-hăm, and his wife was called Sā´rah.

story-7-the-angel-by-the-well.doc

Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible          

Part First- Stories from the First Five Books of the Bible

Story Six- How Lot’s Choice Brought Trouble and Abram’s Choice Brought Blessing

Genesis xiv : 1, to xv : 21

So Lŏt lived in Sŏd´om, and Ā´brăm lived in his tent on the mountains of Cā´năan. At that time in the plain of Jôr´dan, near the head of the Dead Sea, were five cities, of which Sŏd´om and Go-mŏr´rah 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 Chăl-dē´a, from which Ā´brăm 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 Sŏd´om, and the kings of Sŏd´om and Go-mŏr´rah were beaten in the battle, and their soldiers were killed. Then the king who had won the victory over his enemies came to Sŏd´om, 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 Lŏt, with all that he owned, was carried away by enemies, who went up the valley from Sŏd´om, and did not stop to rest until they came to the head-waters of the river Jôr´dan, at a place afterward called Dăn. So, all that Lŏt’s selfish choice gained for him was to lose all that he had, and to be made a prisoner and a slave.

            Some one ran away from the battle, and came to Ā´brăm, who was living in his tent under the oak tree near Hē´bron. As soon as Ā´brăm 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 Lŏt. 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 Dăn, on of the places where the Jôr´dan River begins.

            Ā´brăm 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 among the mountains. And in their camp Ā´brăm found his nephew Lŏt, sage, 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 Sŏd´om.

            Then the king of Sŏd´om came to meet Ā´brăm, at a place near the city of Je-ru´sa-lĕm, which at that time was called Sā´lem. The name of this king was Mĕl-chĭz´dĕk, and unlike most other kings in the land at that time, he was a worshipper of the Lord God, as Ā´brăm was. And the king Mĕl-chĭz´dĕk blessed Ā´brăm, and said, “ May the Lord God Most High, who mad heaven and earth, bless Ā´brăm; and blessed be the Lord God Most High, who has given your enemies into your hand.”

            And Ā´brăm mad a present to the King Mĕl-chĭz´dĕk, because he worshipped the Lord. And Ā´brăm gave to the king of Sŏd´om 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, Lŏt would have seen that it was frong for him to live in Sŏd´om; but he went back to the city, and made his home there once more, even though his heart was made sad by the wickedness that he saw around him.

            After Ā´brăm had gone back to his tent under the oak trees at Hē´bron, one day the Lord God spoke to him, and said:

            “Fear not, Ā´brăm; I will be a shield to keep you safe from enemies; and I will give you a very great reward for serving me.”

            And Ā´brăm said, “O Lord God, what good can anything do to me, since I have no child to whom I can give it; and after I die, the servant.” For although Ā´brăm had a large family of people around him, and many servants, he had no son, and he was now an old man, and his wife Sā´rāi was also old.

            And God said to Ā´brăm, “The one to receive what you own shall not be a stranger, but shall be your own son.”

            And that night God brought Ā´brăm out of his tent, under the heavens, and said to him:

            “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.”

            Ā´brăm 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 Ā´brăm because he believed the promise. Although Ā´brăm could nto at that time see how God’s promise could be kept, yet we know not at that time see how God’s promise could be kept, yet we know that it was kept, for the Ĭs´ra-el-īte people in the Bible story, and the Jews everywhere in the world now, all came from Ā´brăm.

            After that, one day, just as the sun was going down, God came to Ā´brăm again, and told him many things that should vome to pass. God said to Ā´brăm:

            “After your life is 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 four hundred years; and afterward they shall come out of that land, not any more as slaves, but very rich. And after the four hundred 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 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 you people.”

            So that Ā´brăm might remember this promise of God, God told Ā´brăm to make ready an offering of a lamb and a goat and a pair of pigeons, and to divide them in pieces, and place them opposite to each other. And that night Ā´brăm 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 Ā´brăm. God promised to give Ā´brăm a son and a people and a land, and Ā´brăm 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 Ā´brăm.

story-6-how-lots-choice-brought-trouble-and-abrams-choice-brought-blessing.doc

Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible

Part One- Stories from the First Five Books of the Bible

Story Five- The Story of a Long Journey

Genesis xi : 27, to xiii : 18

            Not far from the city of Băb´y-lon, where they began to build the tower of Bā´bel, was another city, called Ûr of the Chăl´dees. The Chăl´dees were the people who lived in the country which was called Chăl´dea, where the two rivers Eū-phrā´tēs and T­ī´gris come together. Among these people, at Ûr, was living a man named Ā´brăm.

Ā´brăm 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 Ûr, Ā´brăm’s 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 saw that Ā´brăm was good and faithful, though wicked people were living all around him. And God did not wish to have Ā´brăm’s family grow up in such a place, for then they too might become wicked. So the Lord spoke to Ā´brăm, and said:

            “Ā´brăm, 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.”

            Ā´brăm did not know just what this blessing meant that God promised to him. But we know that Ā´brăm’s family grew after many years into the Ĭs´ra-el-īte people, out of whom came Jē´sus, the Saviour of the world, for Jē´sus was a descendant of Ā´brăm: that is, Jē´sus came a long time afterward from the family of which Ā´brăm was the father; and thus Ā´brăm’s family became a blessing to all the world by giving to the world a Saviour.

            Although Ā´brăm 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. He took all his family, and with them his father Tē´rah, who was very old, and his wife, whose name was Sā´rāi; and his brother Nā´hôr and his wife, and another brother’s son whose name was Lŏt; for Lŏt’s father, Hā´ran, who was the younger brother of Ā´brăm, had died before this time. And Ā´brăm 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 Eū-phrā´tes to the mountain region, until he came to a place called Hā´ran, in a country called Mĕs-o-po-ta´mĭ-a. The word Mĕs-o-po-ta´mĭ-a means “between the rivers”; and this country was between the two great rivers Tī´gris and Eū-phrā´tes. At Hā´ran they all stayed for a time. Perhaps they stopped there because Tē´rah, the father of Ā´brăm, was too old to travel further; for they stayed at Hā´ran until Tē´rah died.

            After the death of Tē´rah, his father, Ā´brăm again went on his journey, and Lŏt, his brother’s son, went with him; but Nā´hôr, Ā´brăm’s brother, stayed in Hā´ran, and his family, and children, and children’s children, whom they call “his descendants,” lived at Hā´ran for many years.

            From Hā´ran, Ā´brăm and Lŏt 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 the hills, and at last they came into the land of Cā´năan, which was the land of which God had spoken to Ā´brăm.

            This land was called Cā´năan, because the people who were living in it were the descendants, or children’s children, of a man who had lived long before, whose name was Cā´năan. A long time after this it was called “the Land of Ĭs´ra-el,” from the people who lived in it; and because in that same land the Lord Jē´sus lived many years afterward; we now call it “The Holy Land.”

            When Ā´brăm came into the land of Cā´năan, he found in it a few cities and villages of the Cā´năan-ītes. But Ā´brăm 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 Shē´chem, Ā´brăm set up his tent under an oak tree on the plain. There the Lord came to Ā´brăm, and said:

            “I will give this land to your children, and to their children, and this shall be their land forever.”

            And Ā´brăm built there an altar, and made an offering, and worshipped the Lord. Wherever Ā´brăm set up his tent, there he built his altar and prayed to God; for Ā´brăm loved God, and served God, and believed God’s promises.

            Ā´brăm and Lŏt 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 Ē´gypt. God did not wish him to live in a land where the people worshipped idols; so God sent Ā´brăm back again to the land of Cā´năan, where he could live apart from cities, and bring up his servants and his people to worship the Lord. He came to a place where afterward a city called Bĕth´=el stood; and there as before he built an altar and prayed to the Lord.

            Now Lŏt, the son of Ā´brăm’s younger brother who had died, was with Ā´brăm; and Lŏt, like Ā´brăm, had flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and many tents for his people. Ā´brăm’s shepherds and Lŏt’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 Cā´năan-ītes were also in the land, so that there was not room for them all.

            When Ā´brăm heard of the quarrel between his men and the men under Lŏt, he said to Lŏt:

            “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 a noble and generous in Ā´brăm, for he was the older, and might claim the first choice. Then, too, God had promised all the land to Ā´brăm, so that he might have said to Lŏt, “Go away, for this land is all mine.” But Ā´brăm showed a kind, good heart in giving to Lŏt his choice of the land.

            And Lŏt looked over the land from the mountain where they were standing, and saw down in the valley the river Jôrdan flowing between green fields, where the soil was rich. He saw the cities of Sŏd´om and Go-mŏr´rah upon the plain, near the head of the Dead Sea, into which the Jôr´dan flows. And Lŏt 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 Ā´brăm. Perhaps Lŏt did not know that the people in Sŏd´om, until after a time he was living in that wicked city.

            After Lŏt had separated from Ā´brăm, God said to Ā´brăm:

            “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 Ā´brăm moved his tent from Bĕth´=el, and went to live near the city of H´bron, in the south, under an oak tree; and there again he built an altar to the Lord.

Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible

Part First- Stories from the First Five Books in the Bible

Story Four- The Tower That Was Never Finished

Genesis x : 1, to xi : 9

            After the great flood, the family of Nō´ah 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 Tī´gris and the Eū-phrā´tēs. 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 Âr´a-răt, where the ark rested, many of the people moved southward into a country between two great rivers, the rivers Tī´gris and Eū-phrā´tes: 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 cities 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 the 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 Bā´bel, a word which means “confusion.” It was afterward known as Băb´y-lon, and for a long time was one of the greatest cities if that part of the world, even after many of its people had left it to live elsewhere.

            Part of the people who left Băb´y-lon went up to the north, and built a city called Nĭn´e-veh, which became the ruling city of a great land called Ăs-syr´ĭ-a, whose people were called Ăs-syr´ĭ-ans.

            Another company went away to the west, and settled by the great river Nile, and founded the land of Ē´gypt, 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 Mĕd-i-ter-rā´nē-an Sea. There they founded the cities of Sī´dŏn and Tyre, where the people were sailors, sailing to countries far away, and bringing home many things from other lands to sell to the people of Băb´y-lon, and Ăs-syr´ĭ-a, and Ē´gypt, and other countries.

            So after the flood, the earth again became covered with people living in many lands and speaking many languages.

Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible

Part First- Stories from the First Five Books in the Bible

Story Three- The Great Ship that Saved Eight People

Genesis v : 1, to ix : 17

            After Ā´bĕl was slain and his brother Cāin had gone into another land, and God gave a child to Ad´ăm and Ēve. This they named Sĕth; and other sons and daughters were given to them, for Ad´ăm and Ēve 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 Ad´ăm died, there were many people on the earth; for the children of Ad´ăm and Ēve had many other children; and when these grew up, they also had children; and these too had children. And in those early times people lived much longer than they do now. Very few people now live to be a hundred years old; but in those days, when the earth was new, men often lived to be eight hundred or even nine hundred years old. So after a time that part of the earth where Ad´ăm’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 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 Ē´nŏch. He was not the son of Cāin, but another Ē´nŏch, who came from the family of Sĕth, the son of Ad´ăm who was born after the death of Ā´bĕl. While so many around Ē´nŏch 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 Ē´nŏch was three hundred and sixty-five years old, God took him away from the earth to heaven. He did not die, as all the people have died since Ad´ăm disobeyed God, but “he was not, for God took him.” This means that Ē´nŏch was taken up from earth without dying.

Ē´nŏch left a son whose name was Me-thu´se-lah. We do not know anything about Me-thu´se-lah, except that he lived to be nine hundred and sixty years old, which was longer than the life of any other man who ever lived. But at last, Me-thu´se-lah died like all his people, except his father Ē´nŏch. By the time that Me-thu´se-lah 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 Nō´ah. Nō´ah tried to do right in the sight of God. As Ē´nŏch had walked with God, so Nō´ah walked with God, and talked with him. And Nō´ah had three sons: their names were Shĕm and Hăm and Jā´pheth.

God said to Nō´ah, “The time has come when all the men and women on the earth are to be destroyed. Every one must die, because they are al wicked. But you and your family shall be saved, because you alone are trying to do right.”

Then God told Nō´ah 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 Nō´ah to build this ark, and to have it ready for the time when he would need it.

“For,” said God to Nō´ah, “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 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 Nō´ah did what God told him to do, although it must have seemed vary 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 a hundred and twenty years, that Nō´ah and his sons were at work building the ark, while the wicked people around wondered, and no doubt laughed at Nō´ah 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 Nō´ah, “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 Nō´ah and his wife, and his three sons, Shĕm, Hăm, and Jā´pheth, 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 Nō´ah 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 opened to pour great floods upon the earth. The streams filled, and 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 the 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 forty days and nights the rain kept on ,until there was no breath of life remaining outside of the ark.

After forty 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 waters grew less and less. Firs the mountains rose above the waters, then the hills rose up; and finally the ark ceased to float, and lay aground on a mountain which is called Mount Âr´a-răt. But Nō´ah 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, Nō´ah 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 Nō´ah 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 Nō´ah took it into the ark again. Then Nō´ah 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 Nō´ah 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 Nō´ah 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 al around the ark. Nō´ah 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 Nō´ah:

            “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 Nō´ah 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 Nō´ah 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 an offering to the Lord, and gave himself and his family to God, and promised to do God’s will.

            And God was pleased with Nō´ah’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 season 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 Nō´ah and his sons that whenever they or the people after them should 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 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.

Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible

Part First- Story’s From the First Five Books in the Bible

Story Two- The First Baby in the World, and His Brother

Genesis iv :1 to 18.

            So Ad´ăm 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 in the world Ēve named Cāin; and after a time another baby came, whom she named Ā´bĕl.

            When the two boys grew up, they worked, as their father worked before them. Cāin chose to work in the fields, and to raise grain and fruits. Ā´bĕl had a flock of sheep and became a shepherd.

            While Ad´ăm and Ēve were living in the Garden of Ē´den, 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 the altar 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, Cāin and Ā´bĕl, offered upon the altar to God his own gift. Cāin brought the fruits and the grain which he had grown; and Ā´bĕl brought a sheep from his flock, and killed it and burned it upon the altar. For some reason God was pleased with Ā´bĕl and his offering, but was not pleased with Cāin and his offering. Perhaps God wished Cāin to offer something that had life, as Ā´bĕl offered; perhaps Cāin’s heart was not right when he came before God.

            And God showed that he was not pleased with Cāin, and Cāin, instead of being sorry for his sin, and asking God to forgive him, was very angry with God, and angry also toward his brother Ā´bĕl. When they were out in the field together, Cāin struck his brother Ā´bĕl and killed him. So the first baby in the world grew up to be the murderer of his own brother.

            And the Lord said to Cāin, “Where is Ā´bĕl your brother?”

            And Cain answered, “I do not know; why should I take care of my brother?”

            Then the Lord said to Cāin, “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 Cāin said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Thou has 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 Cāin, “If any one harms Cāin, he shall be punished for it.” And the Lord God placed a mark on Cāin, so that whoever met him should know him, and should know also that God had forbidden any man to harm him. Then Cāin and his wife went away from Ad´ăm’s home, to live in a place by themselves, and there they had children. And Cāin’s family built a city in that land; and Cāin named the city after his first child, whom he had called Ē´nŏch.

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Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible

Part First- Stories from the First Five Books in the Bible

Story One- The Story of a Beautiful Garden

Genesis i : 1, to iii : 24

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 livings, 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 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 this 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 earth. And the arch of the sky which was over the earth God called Heaven. Thus the night and 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 form it. And the great water God called Sea, and 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 and 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 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 bloom. This was called “The Garden of Ē´dĕn” 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 Ē´dĕn 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 Ăd´ăm; and God brought to Ăd´ăm the animals that he had made, and let Ăd´ăm 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 some on to be with Ăd´ăm, and to help him.” So when Ăd´ăm was asleep, God took a rib from Ăd´ăm’s side, and from it God made a woman; and he brought her to Ăd´ăm, and Ăd´ăm called her Ēve. And Ăd´ăm and Ēve loved on 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, Ăd´ăm and Ēve were at peace in their beautiful garden. They did just as God told them to do, and talked with God as man would talk with his friend; and they did not know of anything evil or wicked. It was needful for Ăd´ăm and Ēve to understand that they must always obey God’s commands. So God said to Ăd´ăm and Ēve:

            “You may eat the fruit of all the trees in the garden except one. In 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 Ēve, “Has God told you that there is any kind of fruit in the garden, of which you are forbidden to eat?”

            And Ēve 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.”

            Ēve listened to the snake, and then she looked at the tree and its fruit. As she saw it, she thought that it would taste good; and if it would rally 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 Ăd´ăm and he too ate it.

            Ăd´ăm and Ēve 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, “Ăd´ăm where are you?” And Ăd´ăm 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 Ăd´ăm said, “The woman whom thou gavest 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 Ēve 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.”

            Then the Lord God said to the snake, “Because you have led Ăd´ăm and Ēve 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 Ăd´ăm, “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 the dust, and back again into the dust shall your body go when you die.”

            And because Ăd´ăm and Ēve had disobeyed the word of the Lord, they were driven out of the beautiful Garden of Ē´děn, 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 Ăd´ăm and his wife lost their garden, and no man has ever been able to go into it from that day.