Bible pictures and stories in large print

IN LARGE PRINT.

ADAM AND EVE.

God made the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the sea and all the beasts, birds, insects, plants and fishes. After that He made man, then woman. Adam was the first man, Eve the first woman. He planted a lovely garden and gave it to Adam and Eve to live in. There was every kind of luscious fruits in this garden and God was willing they should eat all but one; this He told them they must not even touch.

For a while they minded God and were happy, but one day they both ate some of this fruit. Then God was very angry and sorry for what they had done. He drove them out of the lovely garden forever.

CAIN AND ABEL.

Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain, when he got old enough, became a farmer, Abel a shepherd. They both brought gifts to God. Cain’s gift was fruit; Abel’s gift was the very best of his lambs. For some reason God liked Abel’s gift, but did not like Cain’s. This made Cain hate Abel so much that he killed him.

When God asked Cain what had become of his brother he said: “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?” But God, who sees everything, had seen what Cain had done and punished him by making him wander homeless and friendless over all the earth.

THE FLOOD.

A great many years after Cain killed Abel—over a thousand perhaps—the people had grown to be so very wicked that God made up his mind to destroy them by a great flood. But there was one good old man Noah, whom God loved. So He had him build a huge boat or ark and told him to put into it all his own family, and two of every kind of animal on the earth. As soon as Noah had done this, the rain began to fall. It kept on raining for forty days and forty nights until everything was covered by the water, even the highest mountains. Nothing was saved except what was in the ark.

BABEL.

After Noah’s death, his sons and their families kept traveling westward. By and by they came to a beautiful plain. They were very tired of traveling, so they rested a long time. The plain pleased them so much that they thought they would like to live there always, and they began to build a great city and a high tower “whose top should reach unto Heaven.” God came down to see the city and the tower. The sight made him angry and at once he caused the workmen to speak different languages, so they could not understand one another and had to stop building. The tower is called Babel because God “did there confound the language of all the earth.”

LOT’S FLIGHT FROM SODOM.

Lot lived in Sodom, a city so wicked that not ten good men could be found there. One evening two angels came to Lot, to tell him that God was going to destroy the wicked city and to warn him to flee in the morning with his wife and daughters. Lot and his family heeded the angel’s warning and fled to Zoar, a city near by. Then God rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom, until it was burned to ashes. Lot and his two daughters were saved, but Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt, because she looked back at the burning city. This the angels had warned them not to do.

THE FINDING OF MOSES.

In time there came to be so many Israelites in Egypt that Pharaoh began to be afraid of them. So he issued an order that all boy babies should be put to death. But one mother hid her baby boy three months. Then she made a little boat out of rushes, laid the baby in it, and put the boat in the water near the shore. A little while after she did this one of Pharaoh’s daughters came down to the river to bathe and saw the little boat. She had one of her maids wade out and get it. When she saw the little boy, she felt so sorry for him that she took him for her own son. She named him Moses, which means “drawn out of the water.”

THE FLIGHT FROM EGYPT.

Pharaoh made the Israelites work very hard and treated them cruelly in other ways. God was sorry for his people, so he came to Moses and told him to go to Pharaoh with his brother Aaron and order him to let the Israelites go away from Egypt to a land He had made ready for them. But Pharaoh did not care anything about what God told him to do and would not let the people go. So God sent dreadful plagues upon the Egyptians. Still Pharaoh was stubborn and held out against God until the tenth plague came, which killed the eldest child in every Egyptian house. Then he sent the Israelites out of the land.

MOSES STRIKING THE ROCK.

After the Israelites had been away from Egypt quite a long time, they came into a dry, stony country called the Wilderness, where there were no springs of water and no rivers. They got very thirsty, but could find nothing anywhere to drink. This made them angry with their leader, Moses, so angry that they were going to stone him to death. But Moses asked God to help him, saying: “What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.” God told him to take his rod and strike a certain rock on Mount Horeb. Moses did so. At once a clear stream of water burst out of the rock, enough for all the people.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

When the Israelites came near Mount Sinai, God said that in three days from that time he would come down upon the mountain. But none of the people except Moses and Aaron were to touch the mountain. If they did, they would die. They could come up into the mountain and be with Him. God did as he promised. There was a thick cloud all about Him, and fire and smoke, and thunder and lightnings, so the people could not see him. And the mountain shook and the voice of God was heard like the sound of a trumpet, giving to them the Ten Commandments. And the people were afraid and drew back from the mountain.

BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB.

After God had given the Ten Commandments, Moses went up into the mountain and stayed with God forty days and forty nights. God told him that the Israelites must build Him a house to live in which should be called “The Tabernacle.” They must give gold, silver, brass, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, oils, spices, costly woods, jewels and other precious things, for this house. Bezaleel and Aholiab must build it, because He had made them wise. Moses told the people what God had said. They were so anxious to help that they brought more than God had asked for. And God’s beautiful house was soon made.

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

Once, almost forty years after they made God’s House, the Israelites were very hungry and thirsty. They said hateful things about Moses and about God too, which was very wicked. So God sent fiery serpents to bite the people. The bite was poisonous, and many died. Then they knew this was because they had done wrong. They came to Moses and asked him to pray God to take the serpents away. Moses prayed. God told Moses to make a brass serpent and set it on a pole where all the people could see it. When Moses had done this he told the people to look. Every one who was bitten was made well as soon as he saw the brass serpent.

THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN.

After Moses died Joshua led the people of Israel. They had come very near to the land God had made ready for them, but there was still the great river Jordan to cross. They did not know how to get across, for the water was deep and they had no boats. But God had a way for them. He told Joshua to have the priests of his Tabernacle go into the water first and stand there. As soon as the feet of the priests touched the water it stopped flowing from above and piled up in a great heap. So the people went across the Jordan on dry land. After the priests left the river, the water flowed just as it had before.

THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD’S HOST.

When the Canaanites heard how the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, they were afraid and shut themselves up in their city, Jericho. The Israelites had to find some way to break into the city. One day when Joshua was walking near the wall of Jericho, he saw a man with a drawn sword in his hand. He at once asked the man whether he was a friend or an enemy. The man answered: “As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.” Then Joshua knew it was an angel and fell down and worshiped him. The angel said: “Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy.” Joshua did so.

HOW JERICHO WAS CAPTURED.

The Israelites took Jericho in a very curious way. Every day for six days the armed men marched around the city once. On the seventh day they marched around seven times, while the priests blew their trumpets. Just as they finished the last march, the trumpets gave a long blast and all the people together gave a mighty shout. Then that strong, high wall fell down flat, and they went in and took the city and burnt it and everything in it except the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron. The rest of the people of Canaan were greatly surprised when they heard how Jericho was captured.

ACHAN’S SIN.

Ai was a city not far from Jericho. Three thousand Israelites went to take it. But some were killed and the rest got frightened and ran away. Joshua felt so badly that he went and told God all about it. God said that the Israelites had been beaten because one of them had kept for his own some of the silver and gold taken from Jericho. God pointed out that Achan was the man who had stolen these things and that he had hidden them in his tent. When they looked in the tent they found them buried in the ground. Achan and all his family and all that he had were stoned and burned and a great heap of stones raised over them as a warning.

THE ALTAR ON MOUNT EBAL.

After Achan had been burned, the Israelites captured Ai and hanged its king on a tree. Then Joshua built an altar to God on Mount Ebal of whole stones that had never been cut. On the altar he put burnt offerings. On the stones of the altar he wrote the laws that Moses had given to the people when he was alive. Then he got all the people together, men, women and little ones, and read to them God’s promises of the good things that would happen to them if they did right, and the bad things that would happen if they did wrong. The people listened carefully to the reading. Joshua did this because he had promised Moses that he would just before he died.

THE CITIES OF REFUGE.

In those old times, when one man killed another, the friends of the dead man had the right to kill the murderer. But sometimes it happened that one person killed another without meaning to do it. Of course it was not right that he should be killed for what he could not help. God saw that there ought to be some way of saving him. So he told Joshua to name six cities to which such a person could flee and where no one could touch him. These cities were called Cities of Refuge. Three of them were on the west side of Jordan and three on the east. Some say that all the guide posts along the way had “Refuge!” “Refuge!” written on them.

THE DEATH OF JOSHUA.

A long time after the fall of Jericho, when Joshua was an old man, he made all the Israelites come into one place so that he could talk to them, before he left them, forever. He asked them to count over the good things God had done for them, and promised that He would do even more for them than He had already. He told them to be brave, to do as Moses had wanted them to do when he was alive, and never to have anything to do with people who worshiped idols. If they did, God would punish them. When Joshua had instructed the Israelites in all the good ways, having said all that was on his mind, he died. He was one hundred and ten years old.