Abram Opposes False Religion
12 And it happened in the sixth week, in the seventh year thereof, Abram said unto Tarah, his father, saying, "Father!"
And he said, "Behold, here I am, my son!"
2And he said: "What assistance and what pleasure have we from all the idols which thou dost worship and before which thou dost prostrate thyself? 3For there is no spirit in them, but they are dumb statues and a deception of the heart: do not worship them. 4Worship the God of heaven, who sends down dew and rain upon the earth and does everything upon the earth and has created everything through his word and all living things are from before his face. 5Why do ye worship those who have no heart and spirit in them; for they are the works of hands, and upon your shoulders do ye carry them, and ye have from them no help, but a great disgrace to those who make them and a deception of the heart to those who worship them: do not worship them!"
6And Tarah said: "I also know it, my son; but what shall I do with this people who command me that I should serve them? 7If I tell them the truth, they will slay me; for their soul clings to them to worship and to glorify them. 8Keep silent, my son, lest they slay thee!"
9And these words he spoke to his two brothers, and they became angry at him, and he kept silent. 10And in the fortieth jubilee, in the second week, in the seventh year thereof, Abram took to himself a wife, and her name was Sara, the daughter of his father, and she became to him a wife. 11And Aran, his brother, took to himself a wife in the third year of this week, and his wife bare him a son in the seventh year of this week, and he called his name Lot. 12And Nachor also, his brother, took to himself a wife.
Abram Destroys the Idols
13And in the sixtieth year of the life of Abram, that is, in the fourth year of the fourth week, Abram arose in the night, and burned down the house of his idols, and burned all that was in the house, and there was no man that knew it. 14And they arose in the night and desired to save their idols from the midst of the flame. 15And Aran ran in order to save them, and the fire burned over him and he burned in the midst of the fire, and he died in Ur of the Chaldees before Tarah, his father, and they buried him in Ur.
16And Tarah went away from Ur of the Chaldees, he and his sons, in order to come into the land of the Lebanon and into the land of Canaan; and he dwelt in Haran, and Abram dwelt with his father Tarah in Haran two weeks of years.
Abram Communes with God
17And in the sixth week, in the fifth year thereof, Abram arose and sat in the night at the new moon of the seventh month, so that he might observe the stars from the evening to the morning, so that he might know what would be the character of the year with regard to the rains, and he was sitting alone and observing.
18And a word came into his heart, and he said: "All the signs of the stars and the signs of the sun and of the moon are all in the hand of the Lord; why do I search them out? 19If he desires, he causes it to rain, morning and evening; and if he desires, he causes it to descend, and all things are in his hands."
20And he prayed in that night, and said: "My God, God Most High, thou alone art a God to me, and thou hast created all things, and all things that are are the works of thy hand, and thee and thy godship have I chosen. 21Deliver me from the hands of the evil spirits who reign over the thoughts of the hearts of men, and let them not lead me astray from thee, my God, and cause thou me and my seed in eternity not to go astray from now on and to eternity! 22And I say, shall I return to Ur of the Chaldees, who seek my face, that I should return to them; or shall I remain here in this place; the right path before thee prosper in the hands of thy servant, that he may follow it and not walk in the error of my heart, O my God!"
23He completed his words and prayer, and, behold, the Lord sent a word to him through me, saying: "Up, go thou out of thy country, and out of thy kindred, and out of the house of thy father, into a land which I will show to thee, and I will make thee in the land which is great into a great and numerous people. 24And I will bless thee and will make thy name great, and thou shalt be blessed in the land, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in thee; those that bless thee I will bless, and those that curse thee I will curse. 25And I will be a God to thee and to thy children and to thy children's children and to all thy seed, and behind thee will be thy God. 26Fear not, from now on to all the generations of the earth I am thy God."
Abram, Steward of the Oracles of God
27And the Lord God said to me: "Open his mouth and his ears that he may hear and speak with the language which has been revealed"; for it had ceased from the mouths of all the children of men. 28And I opened his mouth and his lips, and I opened his ears, and I began to speak with him in Hebrew, in the tongue of creation; and he took the books of his father, and these were written in Hebrew, and he copied them, and he began to learn them from then on, and I made known to him every thing he was incapable of understanding, and he studied them the six months of the rainy period.
29And it happened in the seventh year of the sixth week, and he spoke with his father, and informed him that he would go from Haran to go to the land of Canaan to see it and to return to him. 30And Tarah, his father, said to him: "Go in peace! the God of the worlds make straight thy path, and the Lord be with thee and protect thee from all evil, and give to thee good will and mercy and grace before those who see thee; and may none of the sons of men come over thee to do thee evil; go in peace! 31And if thou seest a land pleasant to thy eyes to dwell in it, then up, and take me with thee; and take Lot with thee, the son of Aran thy brother, as thy son, and God be with thee. 32But Nachor thy brother leave with me until thou returnest in peace and we go with thee together."