Research source

Wherefore art thou in fear by reason of a little child?

Date of account: Modern scholarly compilation of much earlier traditions, published 1909
Source: The Legends of the Jews — Volume 1
Reference: The Legends of the Jews — Volume 1 · selected passage 96
Rights: public_domain
Language: English translation and synthesis from rabbinic sources
Translation: Henrietta Szold; compiled by Louis Ginzberg
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Wherefore art thou in fear by reason of a little child? There are myriads upon myriads of princes in thy realm,[18] rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, and overseers without number. Let the pettiest of the princes go and fetch the boy and put him in prison." But the king interposed, "Have ye ever seen a baby of twenty days walking with his feet, speaking with his mouth, and proclaiming with his tongue that there is a God in heaven, who is One, and none beside Him, who sees and is not seen?" All the assembled princes were horror struck at these words.[19]

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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