Page "Sarah" Paragraph 19

Legends connect Sarah's death with the attempted sacrifice of Isaac, there being two versions of the story.

According to one, Samael came to her and said: " Your old husband seized the boy and sacrificed him.

The boy wailed and wept ; but he could not escape from his father.

" Sarah began to cry bitterly, and ultimately died of her grief.

According to the other legend, Satan came to Sarah disguised as an old man, and told her that Isaac had been sacrificed.

Believing it to be true, she cried bitterly, but soon comforted herself with the thought that the sacrifice had been offered at the command of God.

She started from Beer-sheba to Hebron, asking everyone she met if he knew in which direction Abraham had gone.

Then Satan came again in human shape and told her that it was not true that Isaac had been sacrificed, but that he was living and would soon return with his father.

Sarah, on hearing this, died of joy at Hebron.

Abraham and Isaac returned to their home at Beer-sheba, and, not finding Sarah there, went to Hebron, where they discovered her dead.

According to the Genesis Rabbah, during Sarah's lifetime her house was always hospitably open, the dough was miraculously increased, a light burned from Saturday evening to Saturday evening, and a pillar of cloud rested upon the entrance to her tent.