To be "Good" or To Be "Successful": Biblical Women, Building Legacies

(15) And God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah. (16) I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she shall give rise to nations; rulers of peoples shall issue from her.” (17) Abraham threw himself on his face and laughed, as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man a hundred years old, or can Sarah bear a child at ninety?” (18) And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live by Your favor!” (19) God said, “Nevertheless, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac; and I will maintain My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring to come. (20) As for Ishmael, I have heeded you. I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation. (21) But My covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”

(2) and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed down to the earth, (3) and said: ‘My lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. (4) Let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves under the tree. (5) And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and stay ye your heart; after that ye shall pass on; forasmuch as ye are come to your servant.’ And they said: ‘So do, as thou hast said.’ (6) And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said: ‘Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.’ (7) And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto the servant; and he hastened to dress it. (8) And he took curd, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

(9) They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he replied, “There, in the tent.” (10) Then one said, “I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son!” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, which was behind him. (11) Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years; Sarah had stopped having the periods of women. (12) And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “Now that I am withered, am I to have enjoyment—with my husband so old?” (13) Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?’ (14) Is anything too wondrous for the LORD? I will return to you at the same season next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” (15) Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was frightened. But He replied, “You did laugh.”

(2) "She laughed inside her" - With derision like "the sitter in the heavens will laugh, God will mock them" (Psalms 2:4), because laughter in joy is with the mouth "then our mouths will be filled with laughter" (ibid 126:2). But laughter in the heart is not said with reference to joy.

(1) And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. (2) And Sarah died in Kiriatharba—the same is Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

(1) Now Sarai Abram’s wife bore him no children; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. (2) And Sarai said unto Abram: ‘Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing; go in, I pray thee, unto my handmaid; it may be that I shall be builded up through her.’ And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. (3) And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. (4) And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

(3) And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. (4) And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.

(20) And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

Three good leaders had arisen for Israel, namely, Moses, Aaron and Miriam, and for their sake three good things were conferred [upon Israel], namely, the Well, the Pillar of Cloud and the Manna. The Well, for the merit of Miriam; the Pillar of Cloud for the merit of Aaron; the Manna for the merit of Moses. When Miriam died the well disappeared, as it is said, And Miriam died there, and immediately follows [the verse], And therewas no water for the congregation; and it returned for the merit of the [latter] two.

(1) And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. (2) And they said: ‘Hath the LORD indeed spoken only with Moses? hath He not spoken also with us?’ And the LORD heard it.— (3) Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.— (4) And the LORD spoke suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam: ‘Come out ye three unto the tent of meeting.’ And they three came out. (5) And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth. (6) And He said: ‘Hear now My words: if there be a prophet among you, I the LORD do make Myself known unto him in a vision, I do speak with him in a dream. (7) My servant Moses is not so; he is trusted in all My house; (8) with him do I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD doth he behold; wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?’ (9) And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and He departed. (10) And when the cloud was removed from over the Tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam; and, behold, she was leprous. (11) And Aaron said unto Moses: ‘Oh my lord, lay not, I pray thee, sin upon us, for that we have done foolishly, and for that we have sinned. (12) Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb.’ (13) And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying: ‘Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee.’ (14) And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘If her father had but spit in her face, should she not hide in shame seven days? let her be shut up without the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.’ (15) And Miriam was shut up without the camp seven days; and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. (16) And afterward the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.

(8) Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you, as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do. (9) Remember what the LORD thy God did unto Miriam, by the way as ye came forth out of Egypt.

Remember what the Lord, your God, did to Miriam: If you wish to take precautions against being stricken with tzara’ath, then do not speak לָשׁוֹן הָרַע [slander, derogatory remarks]. Remember what was done to Miriam, who spoke against her brother [Moses] and was stricken with lesions [of tzara’ath] (see Num. 12:1-16). - [Sifrei 24: 141]

(9) Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. (10) On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Bizzetha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that ministered in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, (11) to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to show the peoples and the princes her beauty; for she was fair to look on. (12) But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by the chamberlains; therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.

(7) And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was of beautiful form and fair to look on; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.

(8) When the king’s order and edict was proclaimed, and when many girls were assembled in the fortress Shushan under the supervision of Hegai, Esther too was taken into the king’s palace under the supervision of Hegai, guardian of the women.

(9) The girl pleased him and won his favor, and he hastened to furnish her with her cosmetics and her rations, as well as with the seven maids who were her due from the king’s palace; and he treated her and her maids with special kindness in the harem.

(10) Esther had not made known her people nor her kindred; for Mordecai had charged her that she should not tell it.

(17) And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

(16) ’Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast in like manner; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.’

(5) Then the king said: ‘Cause Haman to make haste, that it may be done as Esther hath said.’ So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

(3) Esther spoke to the king again, falling at his feet and weeping, and beseeching him to avert the evil plotted by Haman the Agagite against the Jews.

(5) “If it please Your Majesty,” she said, “and if I have won your favor and the proposal seems right to Your Majesty, and if I am pleasing to you—let dispatches be written countermanding those which were written by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, embodying his plot to annihilate the Jews throughout the king’s provinces.

(6) for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?’

(11) to this effect: The king has permitted the Jews of every city to assemble and fight for their lives; if any people or province attacks them, they may destroy, massacre, and exterminate its armed force together with women and children, and plunder their possessions—