thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou
fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine
only son from me.'

"And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind
him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, and Abraham went
and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in
the stead of his son. . . . And the angel of the Lord called unto
Abraham, out of heaven, the second time, and said: 'By myself
have I _sworn_ saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, . . . I
will bless thee, and . . . I will multiply thy seed as the
stars in the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea
shore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blest,
because thou hast obeyed my voice.' So Abraham returned unto
his young men, and they rose up and went together to
Beer-sheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba."

There is a Hindoo story related to the Sankhayana-sutras, which, in
substance, is as follows: King Hariscandra had no son; he then prayed to
Varuna, promising, that if a son were born to him, he would sacrifice
the child to the god. Then a son was born to him, called Rohita. When
Rohita was grown up his father one day told him of the vow he had made
to Varuna, and bade him prepare to be sacrificed. The son objected to
being killed and ran away from his father's house. For six years he
wandered in the forest, and at last met a starving Brahman. Him he
persuaded to sell one of his sons named Sunahsepha, for a hundred cows.
This boy was bought by Rohita and taken to Hariscandra and about to be
sacrificed to Varuna as a substitute for Rohita, when, on praying to the
gods with verses from the Veda, he was released by them.[39:1]

There was an ancient _Phenician_ story, written by Sanchoniathon, who
wrote about 1300 years before our era, which is as follows:

"Saturn, whom the Phoenicians call _Israel_, had by a nymph of
the country a _male_ child whom he named Jeoud, that is, _one
and only_. On the breaking out of a war, which brought the
country into imminent danger, Saturn erected an altar, brought
to it his son, clothed in royal garments, and sacrificed
him."[39:2]

There is also a _Grecian_ fable to the effect that