Skip to content
← Research library

Research source

The angel Gabriel was eager to drown the Egyptians during the same night, but God bade him wait until early the…

Date of account
Modern scholarly compilation of much earlier traditions, published 1911
Source
The Legends of the Jews — Volume 3
Reference
The Legends of the Jews — Volume 3 · selected passage 5
Rights
public_domain
Language
English translation and synthesis from rabbinic sources
Translation
Henrietta Szold; compiled by Louis Ginzberg
Record updated
2026-08-24

View the original source ↗

Record summary

The angel Gabriel was eager to drown the Egyptians during the same night, but God bade him wait until early the next day, until the hour of the morning watch, when Abraham had made himself ready to set out for the sacrifice of his son

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

The angel Gabriel was eager to drown the Egyptians during the same night, but God bade him wait until early the next day, until the hour of the morning watch, when Abraham had made himself ready to set out for the sacrifice of his son. Gabriel succeeded, however, in holding back the turbulent water about to sweep over Israel. To the wall of water on the right, he called, "Beware of Israel, who will receive the law in time to come from the right hand of the Lord," and turning to the wall of water on the left, he said, "Beware of Israel, who will wind the phylacteries about their left hand in time to come." The water behind he admonished, "Beware of Israel, who will let the Zizit drop down upon their back in time to come," and to the water towering in front of them, he called, "Beware of Israel, who bear the sign of the covenant upon their bodies." [34]

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.

Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.