BOOK OF JASHER
REFERRED TO IN
JOSHUA AND SECOND
SAMUEL.
FAITHFULLY
TRANSLATED
FROM THE ORIGINAL
HEBREW INTO ENGLISH
A Reprint of PHOTO LITHOGRAPHIC REPRINT
OF EXACT EDITION
Is not this written
in the Book of Jasher?"--Joshua, x. 13.
"Behold it is written in the Book of
Jasher."--II Samuel, i. 18
CONTENTS
THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE GENERATIONS OF MAN WHOM GOD CREATED
UPON THE EARTH ON THE DAY WHEN THE LORD GOD
MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH.
CHAPTER 1
1 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness, and God created man in his own image.
2 And God formed man from the ground, and he blew
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul endowed with
speech.
3 And the Lord said, It is not good for man to be
alone; I will make unto him a helpmeet.
4 And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam, and he slept, and he took away one of his ribs, and he built flesh upon
it, and formed it and brought it to Adam, and Adam awoke from his sleep, and
behold a woman was standing before him.
5 And he said, This is a bone of my bones and it
shall be called woman, for this has been taken from man; and Adam called her
name Eve, for she was the mother of all living.
6 And God blessed them and called their names Adam
and Eve in the day that he created them, and the Lord God said, Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth.
7 And the Lord God took Adam and his wife, and he
placed them in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it; and he commanded
them and said unto them, From every tree of the garden you may eat, but from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat thereof you shall surely die.
8 And when God had blessed and commanded them, he
went from them, and Adam and his wife dwelt in the garden according to the
command which the Lord had commanded them.
9 And the serpent, which God had created with them
in the earth, came to them to incite them to transgress the command of God
which he had commanded them.
10 And the serpent enticed and persuaded the woman
to eat from the tree of knowledge, and the woman hearkened to the voice of the
serpent, and she transgressed the word of God, and took from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, and she ate, and she took from it and gave also to
her husband and he ate.
11 And Adam and his wife transgressed the command
of God which he commanded them, and God knew it, and his anger was kindled
against them and he cursed them.
12 And the Lord God drove them that day from the
garden of Eden, to till the ground from which they were taken, and they went
and dwelt at the east of the garden of Eden; and Adam knew his wife Eve and she
bore two sons and three daughters.
13 And she called the name of the first born Cain,
saying, I have obtained a man from the Lord, and the name of the other she
called Abel, for she said, In vanity we came into the earth, and in vanity we
shall be taken from it.
14 And the boys grew up and their father gave them
a possession in the land; and Cain was a tiller of the ground, and Abel a
keeper of sheep.
15 And it was at the expiration of a few years,
that they brought an approximating offering to the Lord, and Cain brought from
the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought from the firstlings of his flock from
the fat thereof, and God turned and inclined to Abel and his offering, and a
fire came down from the Lord from heaven and consumed it.
16 And unto Cain and his offering the Lord did not
turn, and he did not incline to it, for he had brought from the inferior fruit
of the ground before the Lord, and Cain was jealous against his brother Abel on
account of this, and he sought a pretext to slay him.
17 And in some time after, Cain and Abel his
brother, went one day into the field to do their work; and they were both in
the field, Cain tilling and ploughing his ground, and Abel feeding his flock;
and the flock passed that part which Cain had ploughed in the ground, and it
sorely grieved Cain on this account.
18 And Cain approached his brother Abel in anger,
and he said unto him, What is there between me and thee, that thou comest to
dwell and bring thy flock to feed in my land?
19 And Abel answered his brother Cain and said unto
him, What is there between me and thee, that thou shalt eat the flesh of my
flock and clothe thyself with their wool?
20 And now therefore, put off the wool of my sheep
with which thou hast clothed thyself, and recompense me for their fruit and
flesh which thou hast eaten, and when thou shalt have done this,
I will
then go from thy land as thou hast said?
21 And Cain said
to his brother Abel, Surely if I slay thee this day, who will require thy blood
from me?
22 And Abel answered Cain, saying, Surely God who
has made us in the earth, he will avenge my cause, and he will require my blood
from thee shouldst thou slay me, for the Lord is the judge and arbiter, and it
is he who will requite man according to his evil, and the wicked man according
to the wickedness that he may do upon earth.
23 And now, if thou shouldst slay me here, surely
God knoweth thy secret views, and will judge thee for the evil which thou didst
declare to do unto me this day.
24 And when Cain heard the words which Abel his
brother had spoken, behold the anger of Cain was kindled against his brother
Abel for declaring this thing.
25 And Cain hastened and rose up, and took the iron
part of his ploughing instrument, with which he suddenly smote his brother and
he slew him, and Cain spilt the blood of his brother Abel upon the earth, and
the blood of Abel streamed upon the earth before the flock.
26 And after this Cain repented having slain his
brother, and he was sadly grieved, and he wept over him and it vexed him
exceedingly.
27 And Cain rose up and dug a hole in the field,
wherein he put his brother's body, and he turned the dust over it.
28 And the Lord knew what Cain had done to his
brother, and the Lord appeared to Cain and said unto him, Where is Abel thy
brother that was with thee?
29 And Cain dissembled, and said, I do not know, am
I my brother's keeper? And the Lord said unto him, What hast thou done? The
voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground where thou hast
slain him.
30 For thou hast slain thy brother and hast
dissembled before me, and didst imagine in thy heart that I saw thee not, nor
knew all thy actions.
31 But thou didst this thing and didst slay thy
brother for naught and because he spoke rightly to thee, and now, therefore,
cursed be thou from the ground which opened its mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand, and wherein thou didst bury him.
32 And it shall be when thou shalt till it, it
shall no more give thee its strength as in the beginning, for thorns and
thistles shall the ground produce, and thou shalt be moving and wandering in
the earth until the day of thy death.
33 And at that time Cain went out from the presence
of the Lord, from the place where he was, and he went moving and wandering in
the land toward the east of Eden, he and all belonging to him.
34 And Cain knew his wife in those days, and she
conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Enoch, saying, In that time
the Lord began to give him rest and quiet in the earth.
35 And at that time Cain also began to build a
city: and he built the city and he called the name of the city Enoch, according
to the name of his son; for in those days the Lord had given him rest upon the
earth, and he did not move about and wander as in the beginning.
36 And Irad was born to Enoch, and Irad begat
Mechuyael and Mechuyael begat Methusael.
CHAPTER 2
1 And it was in the hundred and thirtieth year of
the life of Adam upon the earth, that he again knew Eve his wife, and she
conceived and bare a son in his likeness and in his image, and she called his
name Seth, saying, Because God has appointed me another seed in the place of
Abel, for Cain has slain him.
2 And Seth lived one hundred and five years, and he
begat a son; and Seth called the name of his son Enosh, saying, Because in that
time the sons of men began to multiply, and to afflict their souls and hearts
by transgressing and rebelling against God.
3 And it was in the days of Enosh that the sons of
men continued to rebel and transgress against God, to increase the anger of the
Lord against the sons of men.
4 And the sons of men went and they served other
gods, and they forgot the Lord who had created them in the earth: and in those
days the sons of men made images of brass and iron, wood and stone, and they
bowed down and served them.
5 And every man made his god and they bowed down to
them,
and the
sons of men forsook the Lord all the days of Enosh and his children; and the
anger of the Lord was kindled on account of their works and abominations which
they did in the earth.
6 And the Lord caused the waters of the river Gihon
to overwhelm them, and he destroyed and consumed them, and he destroyed the
third part of the earth, and notwithstanding this, the sons of men did not turn
from their evil ways, and their hands were yet extended to do evil in the sight
of the Lord.
7 And in those days there was neither sowing nor
reaping in the earth; and there was no food for the sons of men and the famine
was very great in those days.
8 And the seed which they sowed in those days in
the ground became thorns, thistles and briers; for from the days of Adam was
this declaration concerning the earth, of the curse of God, which he cursed the
earth, on account of the sin which Adam sinned before the Lord.
9 And it was when men continued to rebel and
transgress against God, and to corrupt their ways, that the earth also became
corrupt.
10 And Enosh lived ninety years and he begat
Cainan;
11 And Cainan grew up and he was forty years old,
and he became wise and had knowledge and skill in all wisdom, and he reigned
over all the sons of men, and he led the sons of men to wisdom and knowledge;
for Cainan was a very wise man and had understanding in all wisdom, and with
his wisdom he ruled over spirits and demons;
12 And Cainan knew by his wisdom that God would
destroy the sons of men for having sinned upon earth, and that the Lord would
in the latter days bring upon them the waters of the flood.
13 And in those days Cainan wrote upon tablets of
stone, what was to take place in time to come, and he put them in his
treasures.
14 And Cainan reigned over the whole earth, and he
turned some of the sons of men to the service of God.
15 And when Cainan was seventy years old, he begat
three sons and two daughters.
16 And these are the names of the children of
Cainan; the name of the first born Mahlallel, the second Enan, and the third
Mered, and their sisters were Adah and Zillah; these are the five children of
Cainan that were born to him.
17 And Lamech, the son of Methusael, became related
to Cainan by marriage, and he took his two daughters for his wives, and Adah
conceived and bare a son to Lamech, and she called his name Jabal.
18 And she again conceived and bare a son, and
called his name Jubal; and Zillah, her sister, was barren in those days and had
no offspring.
19 For in those days the sons of men began to
trespass against God, and to transgress the commandments which he had commanded
to Adam, to be fruitful and multiply in the earth.
20 And some of the sons of men caused their wives
to drink a draught that would render them barren, in order that they might
retain their figures and whereby their beautiful appearance might not fade.
21 And when the sons of men caused some of their
wives to drink, Zillah drank with them.
22 And the child-bearing women appeared abominable
in the sight of
their
husbands as widows, whilst their husbands lived, for to the barren ones only
they were attached.
23 And in the end of days and years, when Zillah
became old, the Lord opened her womb.
24 And she conceived and bare a son and she called
his name Tubal Cain, saying, After I had withered away have I obtained him from
the Almighty God.
25 And she conceived again and bare a daughter, and
she called her name Naamah, for she said, After I had withered away have I
obtained pleasure and delight.
26 And Lamech was old and advanced in years, and
his eyes were dim that he could not see, and Tubal Cain, his son, was leading
him and it was one day that Lamech went into the field and Tubal Cain his son
was with him, and whilst they were walking in the field, Cain the son of Adam
advanced towards them; for Lamech was very old and could not see much, and
Tubal Cain his son was very young.
27 And Tubal Cain told his father to draw his bow,
and with the arrows he smote Cain, who was yet far off, and he slew him, for he
appeared to them to be an animal.
28 And the arrows entered Cain's body although he
was distant from them, and he fell to the ground and died.
29 And the Lord requited Cain's evil according to
his wickedness, which he had done to his brother Abel, according to the word of
the Lord which he had spoken.
30 And it came to pass when Cain had died, that
Lamech and Tubal went to see the animal which they had slain, and they saw, and
behold Cain their grandfather was fallen dead upon the earth.
31 And Lamech was very much grieved at having done
this, and in clapping his hands together he struck his son and caused his
death.
32. And the wives of Lamech heard what Lamech had
done, and they sought to kill him.
33 And the wives of Lamech hated him from that day,
because he slew Cain and Tubal Cain, and the wives of Lamech separated from
him, and would not hearken to him in those days.
34 And Lamech came to his wives, and he pressed
them to listen to him about this matter.
35 And he said to his wives Adah and Zillah, Hear
my voice O wives of Lamech, attend to my words, for now you have imagined and
said that I slew a man with my wounds, and a child with my stripes for their
having done no violence, but surely know that I am old and grey-headed, and that
my eyes are heavy through age, and I did this thing unknowingly.
36 And the wives of Lamech listened to him in this
matter, and they returned to him with the advice of their father Adam, but they
bore no children to him from that time, knowing that God's anger was increasing
in those days against the sons of men, to destroy them with the waters of the
flood for their evil doings.
37 And Mahlallel the son of Cainan lived sixty-five
years and he begat Jared; and Jared lived sixty-two years and he begat Enoch.
CHAPTER 3
1 And Enoch lived sixty-five years and he begat
Methuselah; and Enoch walked with God after having begot Methuselah, and he
served the Lord, and despised the evil ways of men.
2 And the soul of Enoch was wrapped up in the
instruction of the Lord, in knowledge and in understanding; and he wisely
retired from the sons of men, and secreted himself from them for many days.
3 And it was at the expiration of many years,
whilst he was serving the Lord, and praying before him in his house, that an
angel of the Lord called to him from Heaven, and he said, Here am I.
4 And he said, Rise, go forth from thy house and
from the place where thou dost hide thyself, and appear to the sons of men, in
order that thou mayest teach them the way in which they should go and the work
which they must accomplish to enter in the ways of God.
5 And Enoch rose up according to the word of the
Lord, and went forth from his house, from his place and from the chamber in
which he was concealed; and he went to the sons of men and taught them the ways
of the Lord, and at that time assembled the sons of men and acquainted them
with the instruction of the Lord.
6 And he ordered it to be proclaimed in all places
where the sons of men dwelt, saying, Where is the man who wishes to know the
ways of the Lord and good works? let him come to Enoch.
7 And all the sons of men then assembled to him,
for all who desired this thing went to Enoch, and Enoch reigned over the sons
of men according to the word of the Lord, and they came and bowed to him and
they heard his word.
8 And the spirit of God was upon Enoch, and he
taught all his men the wisdom of God and his ways, and the sons of men served
the Lord all the days of Enoch, and they came to hear his wisdom.
9 And all the kings of the sons of men, both first
and last, together with their princes and judges, came to Enoch when they heard
of his wisdom, and they bowed down to him, and they also required of Enoch to
reign over them, to which he consented.
10 And they assembled in all, one hundred and
thirty kings and princes, and they made Enoch king over them and they were all
under his power and command.
11 And Enoch taught them wisdom, knowledge, and the
ways of the Lord; and he made peace amongst them, and peace was throughout the
earth during the life of Enoch.
12 And Enoch reigned over the sons of men two
hundred and forty-three years, and he did justice and righteousness with all
his people, and he led them in the ways of the Lord.
13 And these are the generations of Enoch,
Methuselah, Elisha, and Elimelech, three sons; and their sisters were Melca and
Nahmah, and Methuselah lived eighty-seven years and he begat Lamech.
14 And it was in the fifty-sixth year of the life
of Lamech when Adam died; nine hundred and thirty years old was he at his
death, and his two sons, with Enoch and Methuselah his son, buried him with
great pomp, as at the burial of kings, in the cave which God had told him.
15 And in that place all the sons of men made a
great mourning and weeping on account of Adam; it has therefore become a custom
among the sons of men to this day.
16 And Adam died because he ate of the tree of
knowledge; he and his children after him, as the Lord God had spoken.
17 And it was in the year of Adam's death which was
the two hundred and forty-third year of the reign of Enoch, in that time Enoch
resolved to separate himself from the sons of men and to secret himself as at
first in order to serve the Lord.
18 And Enoch did so, but did not entirely secret
himself from them, but kept away from the sons of men three days and then went
to them for one day.
19 And during the three days that he was in his
chamber, he prayed to, and praised the Lord his God, and the day on which he
went and appeared to his subjects he taught them the ways of the Lord, and all
they asked him about the Lord he told them.
20 And he did in this manner for many years, and he
afterward concealed himself for six days, and appeared to his people one day in
seven; and after that once in a month, and then once in a year, until all the
kings, princes and sons of men sought for him, and desired again to see the
face of Enoch, and to hear his word; but they could not, as all the sons of men
were greatly afraid of Enoch, and they feared to approach him on account of the
Godlike awe that was seated upon his countenance; therefore no man could look
at him, fearing he might be punished and die.
21 And all the kings and princes resolved to
assemble the sons of men, and to come to Enoch, thinking that they might all
speak to him at the time when he should come forth amongst them, and they did
so.
22 And the day came when Enoch went forth and they
all assembled and came to him, and Enoch spoke to them the words of the Lord
and he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and they bowed down before him and
they said, May the king live! May the king live!
23 And in some time after, when the kings and
princes and the sons of men were speaking to Enoch, and Enoch was teaching them
the ways of God, behold an angel of the Lord then called unto Enoch from
heaven, and wished to bring him up to heaven to make him reign there over the
sons of God, as he had reigned over the sons of men upon earth.
24 When at that time Enoch heard this he went and
assembled all the inhabitants of the earth, and taught them wisdom and
knowledge and gave them divine instructions, and he said to them, I have been
required to ascend into heaven, I therefore do not know the day of my going.
25 And now therefore I will teach you wisdom and
knowledge and will give you instruction before I leave you, how to act upon
earth whereby you may live; and he did so.
26 And he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and
gave them instruction, and he reproved them, and he placed before them statutes
and judgments to do upon earth, and he made peace amongst them, and he taught
them everlasting life, and dwelt with them some time teaching them all these
things.
27 And at that time the sons of men were with
Enoch, and Enoch was speaking to them, and they lifted up their eyes and the
likeness of a great horse descended from heaven, and the horse paced in the
air;
28 And they told Enoch what they had seen, and
Enoch said to them, On my account does this horse descend upon earth; the time
is come when I must go from you and I shall no more be seen by you.
29 And the horse descended at that time and stood
before Enoch, and all the sons of men that were with Enoch saw him.
30 And Enoch then again ordered a voice to be
proclaimed, saying, Where is the man who delighteth to know the ways of the
Lord his God, let him come this day to Enoch before he is taken from us.
31 And all the sons of men assembled and came to
Enoch that day; and all the kings of the earth with their princes and
counsellors remained with him that day; and Enoch then taught the sons of men
wisdom and knowledge, and gave them divine instruction; and he bade them serve
the Lord and walk in his ways all the days of their lives, and he continued to
make peace amongst them.
32 And it was after this that he rose up and rode
upon the horse; and he went forth and all the sons of men went after him, about
eight hundred thousand men; and they went with him one day's journey.
33 And the second day he said to them, Return home
to your tents, why will you go? perhaps you may die; and some of them went from
him, and those that remained went with him six day's journey; and Enoch said to
them every day, Return to your tents, lest you may die; but they were not
willing to return, and they went with him.
34 And on the sixth day some of the men remained
and clung to him, and they said to him, We will go with thee to the place where
thou goest; as the Lord liveth, death only shall separate us.
35 And they urged so much to go with him, that he
ceased speaking to them; and they went after him and would not return;
36 And when the kings returned they caused a census
to be taken, in order to know the number of remaining men that went with Enoch;
and it was upon the seventh day that Enoch ascended into heaven in a whirlwind,
with horses and chariots of fire.
37 And on the eighth day all the kings that had
been with Enoch sent to bring back the number of men that were with Enoch, in
that place from which he ascended into heaven.
38 And all those kings went to the place and they
found the earth there filled with snow, and upon the snow were large stones of
snow, and one said to the other, Come, let us break through the snow and see,
perhaps the men that remained with Enoch are dead, and are now under the stones
of snow, and they searched but could not find him, for he had ascended into
heaven.
CHAPTER 4
1 And all the days that Enoch lived upon earth,
were three hundred and sixty-five years.
2 And when Enoch had ascended into heaven, all the
kings of the earth rose and took Methuselah his son and anointed him, and they
caused him to reign over them in the place of his father.
3 And Methuselah acted uprightly in the sight of
God, as his father Enoch had taught him, and he likewise during the whole of
his life taught the sons of men wisdom, knowledge and the fear of God, and he
did not turn from the good way either to the right or to the left.
4 But in the latter days of Methuselah, the sons of
men turned from the Lord, they corrupted the earth, they robbed and plundered
each other, and they rebelled against God and they transgressed, and they
corrupted their ways, and would not hearken to the voice of Methuselah, but
rebelled against him.
5 And the Lord was exceedingly wroth against them,
and the Lord continued to destroy the seed in those days, so that there was
neither sowing nor reaping in the earth.
6 For when they sowed the ground in order that they
might obtain food for their support, behold, thorns and thistles were produced
which they did not sow.
7 And still the sons of men did not turn from their
evil ways, and their hands were still extended to do evil in the sight of God,
and they provoked the Lord with their evil ways, and the Lord was very wroth,
and repented that he had made man.
8 And he thought to destroy and annihilate them and
he did so.
9 In those days when Lamech the son of Methuselah
was one hundred and sixty years old, Seth the son of Adam died.
10 And all the days that Seth lived, were nine
hundred and twelve years, and he died.
11 And Lamech was one hundred and eighty years old
when he took Ashmua, the daughter of Elishaa the son of Enoch his uncle, and
she conceived.
12 And at that time the sons of men sowed the
ground, and a little food was produced, yet the sons of men did not turn from
their evil ways, and they trespassed and rebelled against God.
13 And the wife of Lamech conceived and bare him a
son at that time, at the revolution of the year.
14 And Methuselah called his name Noah, saying, The
earth was in his days at rest and free from corruption, and Lamech his father
called his name Menachem, saying, This one shall comfort us in our works and
miserable toil in the earth, which God had cursed.
15 And the child grew up and was weaned, and he
went in the ways of his father Methuselah, perfect and upright with God.
16 And all the sons of men departed from the ways
of the Lord in those days as they multiplied upon the face of the earth with
sons and daughters, and they taught one another their evil practices and they
continued sinning against the Lord.
17 And every man made unto himself a god, and they
robbed and plundered every man his neighbor as well as his relative, and they
corrupted the earth, and the earth was filled with violence.
18 And their judges and rulers went to the
daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to
their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the
earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture
of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the
Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had
corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.
19 And the Lord said, I will blot out man that I
created from the face of the earth, yea from man to the birds of the air,
together with cattle and beasts that are in the field for I repent that I made
them.
20 And all men who walked in the ways of the Lord,
died in those days, before the Lord brought the evil upon man which he had
declared, for this was from the Lord, that they should not see the evil which
the Lord spoke of concerning the sons of men.
21 And Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord,
and the Lord chose him and his children to raise up seed from them upon the
face of the whole earth.
CHAPTER 5
1 And it was in the eighty-fourth year of the life
of Noah, that Enoch the son of Seth died, he was nine hundred and five years
old at his death.
2 And in the one hundred and seventy ninth year of
the life of Noah, Cainan the son of Enosh died, and all the days of Cainan were
nine hundred and ten years, and he died.
3 And in the two hundred and thirty fourth year of
the life of Noah, Mahlallel the son of Cainan died, and the days of Mahlallel
were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died.
4 And Jared the son of Mahlallel died in those
days, in the three hundred and thirty-sixth year of the life of Noah; and all
the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died.
5 And all who followed the Lord died in those days,
before they saw the evil which God declared to do upon earth.
6 And after the lapse of many years, in the four
hundred and eightieth year of the life of Noah, when all those men, who
followed the Lord had died away from amongst the sons of men, and only
Methuselah was then left, God said unto Noah and Methuselah, saying,
7 Speak ye, and proclaim to the sons of men,
saying, Thus saith the Lord, return from your evil ways and forsake your works,
and the Lord will repent of the evil that he declared to do to you, so that it
shall not come to pass.
8 For thus saith the Lord, Behold I give you a
period of one hundred and twenty years; if you will turn to me and forsake your
evil ways, then will I also turn away from the evil which I told you, and it
shall not exist, saith the Lord.
9 And Noah and Methuselah spoke all the words of
the Lord to the sons of men, day after day, constantly speaking to them.
10 But the sons of men would not hearken to them,
nor incline their ears to their words, and they were stiffnecked.
11 And the Lord granted them a period of one
hundred and twenty years, saying, If they will return, then will God repent of
the evil, so as not to destroy the earth.
12 Noah the son of Lamech refrained from taking a
wife in those days, to beget children, for he said, Surely now God will destroy
the earth, wherefore then shall I beget children?
13 And Noah was a just man, he was perfect in his
generation, and the Lord chose him to raise up seed from his seed upon the face
of the earth.
14 And the Lord said unto Noah, Take unto thee a
wife, and beget children, for I have seen thee righteous before me in this
generation.
15 And thou shalt raise up seed, and thy children
with thee, in the midst of the earth; and Noah went and took a wife, and he
chose Naamah the daughter of Enoch, and she was five hundred and eighty years
old.
16 And Noah was four hundred and ninety-eight years
old, when he took Naamah for a wife.
17 And Naamah conceived and bare a son, and he
called his name Japheth, saying, God has enlarged me in the earth; and she
conceived again and bare a son, and he called his name Shem, saying, God has
made me a remnant, to raise up seed in the midst of the earth.
18 And Noah was five hundred and two years old when
Naamah bare Shem, and the boys grew up and went in the ways of the Lord, in all
that Methuselah and Noah their father taught them.
19 And Lamech the father of Noah, died in those
days; yet verily he did not go with all his heart in the ways of his father,
and he died in the hundred and ninety-fifth year of the life of Noah.
20 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred
and seventy years, and he died.
21 And all the sons of men who knew the Lord, died
in that year before the Lord brought evil upon them; for the Lord willed them
to die, so as not to behold the evil that God would bring upon their brothers
and relatives, as he had so declared to do.
22 In that time, the Lord said to Noah and
Methuselah, Stand forth and proclaim to the sons of men all the words that I
spoke to you in those days, peradventure they may turn from their evil ways,
and I will then repent of the evil and will not bring it.
23 And Noah and Methuselah stood forth, and said in
the ears of the sons of men, all that God had spoken concerning them.
24 But the sons of men would not hearken, neither
would they incline their ears to all their declarations.
25 And it was after this that the Lord said to
Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, on account of their evil deeds,
and behold I will destroy the earth.
26 And do thou take unto thee gopher wood, and go
to a certain place and make a large ark, and place it in that spot.
27 And thus shalt thou make it; three hundred
cubits its length, fifty cubits broad and thirty cubits high.
28 And thou shalt make unto thee a door, open at
its side, and to a cubit thou shalt finish above, and cover it within and
without with pitch.
29 And behold I will bring the flood of waters upon
the earth, and all flesh be destroyed, from under the heavens all that is upon
earth shall perish.
30 And thou and thy household shall go and gather
two couple of all living things, male and female, and shall bring them to the
ark, to raise up seed from them upon earth.
31 And gather unto thee all food that is eaten by
all the animals, that there may be food for thee and for them.
32 And thou shalt choose for thy sons three
maidens, from the daughters of men, and they shall be wives to thy sons.
33 And Noah rose up, and he made the ark, in the
place where God had commanded him, and Noah did as God had ordered him.
34 In his five hundred and ninety-fifth year Noah
commenced to make the ark, and he made the ark in five years, as the Lord had
commanded.
35 Then Noah took the three daughters of Eliakim,
son of Methuselah, for wives for his sons, as the Lord had commanded Noah.
36 And it was at that time Methuselah the son of
Enoch died, nine hundred and sixty years old was he, at his death.
CHAPTER 6
1 At that time, after the death of Methuselah, the
Lord said to Noah, Go thou with thy household into the ark; behold I will
gather to thee all the animals of the earth, the beasts of the field and the
fowls of the air, and they shall all come and surround the ark.
2 And thou shalt go and seat thyself by the doors
of the ark, and all the beasts, the animals, and the fowls, shall assemble and
place themselves before thee, and such of them as shall
come and
crouch before thee, shalt thou take and deliver into the hands of thy sons, who
shall bring them to the ark, and all that will stand before thee thou shalt
leave.
3 And the Lord brought this about on the next day,
and animals, beasts and fowls came in great multitudes and surrounded the ark.
4 And Noah went and seated himself by the door of
the ark, and of all flesh that crouched before him, he brought into the ark,
and all that stood before him he left upon earth.
5 And a lioness came, with her two whelps, male and
female, and the three crouched before Noah, and the two whelps rose up against
the lioness and smote her, and made her flee from her place, and she went away,
and they returned to their places, and crouched upon the earth before Noah.
6 And the lioness ran away, and stood in the place
of the lions.
7 And Noah saw this, and wondered greatly, and he
rose and took the two whelps, and brought them into the ark.
8 And Noah brought into the ark from all living
creatures that were upon earth, so that there was none left but which Noah
brought into the ark.
9 Two and two came to Noah into the ark, but from
the clean animals, and clean fowls, he brought seven couples, as God had
commanded him.
10 And all the animals, and beasts, and fowls, were
still there, and they surrounded the ark at every place, and the rain had not
descended till seven days after.
11 And on that day, the Lord caused the whole earth
to shake, and the sun darkened, and the foundations of the world raged, and the
whole earth was moved violently, and the lightning flashed, and the thunder roared,
and all the fountains in the earth were broken up, such as was not known to the
inhabitants before; and God did this mighty act, in order to terrify the sons
of men, that there might be no more evil upon earth.
12 And still the sons of men would not return from
their evil ways, and they increased the anger of the Lord at that time, and did
not even direct their hearts to all this.
13 And at the end of seven days, in the six
hundredth year of the life of Noah, the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
14 And all the fountains of the deep were broken
up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth
forty days and forty nights.
15 And Noah and his household, and all the living
creatures that were with him, came into the ark on account of the waters of the
flood, and the Lord shut him in.
16 And all the sons of men that were left upon the
earth, became exhausted through evil on account of the rain, for the waters
were coming more violently upon the earth, and the animals and beasts were
still surrounding the ark.
17 And the sons of men assembled together, about
seven hundred thousand men and women, and they came unto Noah to the ark.
18 And they called to Noah, saying, Open for us
that we may come to thee in the ark--and wherefore shall we die?
19 And Noah, with a loud voice, answered them from
the ark, saying, Have you not all rebelled against the Lord, and said that he
does not exist? and therefore the Lord brought upon you this evil, to destroy
and cut you off from the face of the earth.
20 Is not this the thing that I spoke to you of one
hundred and twenty years back, and you would not hearken to the voice of the
Lord, and now do you desire to live upon earth?
21 And they said to Noah, We are ready to return to
the Lord; only open for us that we may live and not die.
22 And Noah answered them, saying, Behold now that
you see the trouble of your souls, you wish to return to the Lord; why did you
not return during these hundred and twenty years, which the Lord granted you as
the determined period?
23 But now you come and tell me this on account of
the troubles of your souls, now also the Lord will not listen to you, neither
will he give ear to you on this day, so that you will not now succeed in your
wishes.
24 And the sons of men approached in order to break
into the ark, to come in on account of the rain, for they could not bear the
rain upon them.
25 And the Lord sent all the beasts and animals
that stood round the ark. And the beasts overpowered them and drove them from
that place, and every man went his way and they again scattered themselves upon
the face of the earth.
26 And the rain was still descending upon the
earth, and it descended forty days and forty nights, and the waters prevailed
greatly upon the earth; and all flesh that was upon the earth or in the waters
died, whether men, animals, beasts, creeping things or birds of the air, and
there only remained Noah and those that were with him in the ark.
27 And the waters prevailed and they greatly
increased upon the earth, and they lifted up the ark and it was raised from the
earth.
28 And the ark floated upon the face of the waters,
and it was tossed upon the waters so that all the living creatures within were
turned about like pottage in a cauldron.
29 And great anxiety seized all the living
creatures that were in the ark, and the ark was like to be broken.
30 And all the living creatures that were in the
ark were terrified, and the lions roared, and the oxen lowed, and the wolves
howled, and every living creature in the ark spoke and lamented in its own
language, so that their voices reached to a great distance, and Noah and his
sons cried and wept in their troubles; they were greatly afraid that they had
reached the gates of death.
31 And Noah prayed unto the Lord, and cried unto
him on account of this, and he said, O Lord help us, for we have no strength to
bear this evil that has encompassed us, for the waves of the waters have
surrounded us, mischievous torrents have terrified us, the snares of death have
come before us; answer us, O Lord, answer us, light up thy countenance toward
us and be gracious to us, redeem us and deliver us.
32 And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Noah, and
the Lord remembered him.
33 And a wind passed over the earth, and the waters
were still and the ark rested.
34 And the fountains of the deep and the windows of
heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.
35 And the waters decreased in those days, and the
ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
36 And Noah then opened the windows of the ark, and
Noah still called out to the Lord at that time and he said, O Lord, who didst
form the earth and the heavens and all that are therein, bring forth our souls
from this confinement, and from the prison wherein thou hast placed us, for I
am much wearied with sighing.
37 And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Noah, and
said to him, When though shalt have completed a full year thou shalt then go
forth.
38 And at the revolution of the year, when a full
year was completed to Noah's dwelling in the ark, the waters were dried from
off the earth, and Noah put off the covering of the ark.
39 At that time, on the twenty-seventh day of the
second month, the earth was dry, but Noah and his sons, and those that were
with him, did not go out from the ark until the Lord told them.
40 And the day came that the Lord told them to go
out, and they all went out from the ark.
41 And they went and returned every one to his way
and to his place, and Noah and his sons dwelt in the land that God had told
them, and they served the Lord all their days, and the Lord blessed Noah and
his sons on their going out from the ark.
42 And he said to them, Be fruitful and fill all
the earth; become strong and increase abundantly in the earth and multiply
therein.
CHAPTER 7
1 And these are the names of the sons of Noah:
Japheth, Ham and Shem; and children were born to them after the flood, for they
had taken wives before the flood.
2 These are the sons of Japheth; Gomer, Magog,
Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras, seven sons.
3 And the sons of Gomer were Askinaz, Rephath and
Tegarmah.
4 And the sons of Magog were Elichanaf and Lubal.
5 And the children of Madai were Achon, Zeelo,
Chazoni and Lot.
6 And the sons of Javan were Elisha, Tarshish, Chittim
and Dudonim.
7 And the sons of Tubal were Ariphi, Kesed and
Taari.
8 And the sons of Meshech were Dedon, Zaron and
Shebashni.
9 And the sons of Tiras were Benib, Gera, Lupirion
and Gilak; these are the sons of Japheth according to their families, and their
numbers in those days were about four hundred and sixty men.
10 And these are the sons of Ham; Cush, Mitzraim,
Phut and Canaan, four sons; and the sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabta,
Raama and Satecha, and the sons of Raama were Sheba and Dedan.
11 And the sons of Mitzraim were Lud, Anom and
Pathros, Chasloth and Chaphtor.
12 And the sons of Phut were Gebul, Hadan, Benah
and Adan.
13 And the sons of Canaan were Zidon, Heth, Amori,
Gergashi, Hivi, Arkee, Seni, Arodi, Zimodi and Chamothi.
14 These are the sons of Ham, according to their
families, and their numbers in those days were about seven hundred and thirty
men.
15 And these are the sons of Shem; Elam, Ashur,
Arpachshad, Lud and Aram, five sons; and the sons of Elam were Shushan, Machul
and Harmon.
16 And the sons of Ashar were Mirus and Mokil, and
the sons of Arpachshad were Shelach, Anar and Ashcol.
17 And the sons of Lud were Pethor and Bizayon, and
the sons of Aram were Uz, Chul, Gather and Mash.
18 These are the sons of Shem, according to their
families; and their numbers in those days were about three hundred men.
19 These are the generations of Shem; Shem begat
Arpachshad and Arpachshad begat Shelach, and Shelach begat Eber and to Eber
were born two children, the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the sons of
men were divided, and in the latter days, the earth was divided.
20 And the name of the second was Yoktan, meaning
that in his day the lives of the sons of men were diminished and lessened.
21 These are the sons of Yoktan; Almodad, Shelaf,
Chazarmoveth, Yerach, Hadurom, Ozel, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir,
Havilah and Jobab; all these are the sons of Yoktan.
22 And Peleg his brother begat Yen, and Yen begat
Serug, and Serug begat Nahor and Nahor begat Terah, and Terah was thirty-eight
years old, and he begat Haran and Nahor.
23 And Cush the son of Ham, the son of Noah, took a
wife in those days in his old age, and she bare a son, and they called his name
Nimrod, saying, At that time the sons of men again began to rebel and
transgress against God, and the child grew up, and his father loved him
exceedingly, for he was the son of his old age.
24 And the garments of skin which God made for Adam
and his wife, when they went out of the garden, were given to Cush.
25 For after the death of Adam and his wife, the
garments were given to Enoch, the son of Jared, and when Enoch was taken up to
God, he gave them to Methuselah, his son.
26 And at the death of Methuselah, Noah took them
and brought them to the ark, and they were with him until he went out of the
ark.
27 And in their going out, Ham stole those garments
from Noah his father, and he took them and hid them from his brothers.
28 And when Ham begat his first born Cush, he gave
him the garments in secret, and they were with Cush many days.
29 And Cush also concealed them from his sons and
brothers, and when Cush had begotten Nimrod, he gave him those garments through
his love for him, and Nimrod grew up, and when he was twenty years old he put on
those garments.
30 And Nimrod became strong when he put on the
garments, and God gave him might and strength, and he was a mighty hunter in
the earth, yea, he was a mighty hunter in the field, and he hunted the animals
and he built altars, and he offered upon them the animals before the Lord.
31 And Nimrod strengthened himself, and he rose up
from amongst his brethren, and he fought the battles of his brethren against
all their enemies round about.
32 And the Lord delivered all the enemies of his
brethren in his hands, and God prospered him from time to time in his battles,
and he reigned upon earth.
33 Therefore it became current in those days, when
a man ushered forth those that he had trained up for battle, he would say to
them, Like God did to Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter in the earth, and who
succeeded in the battles that prevailed against his brethren, that he delivered
them from the hands of their enemies, so may God strengthen us and deliver us
this day.
34 And when Nimrod was forty years old, at that
time there was a war between his brethren and the children of Japheth, so that
they were in the power of their enemies.
35 And Nimrod went forth at that time, and he
assembled all the sons of Cush and their families, about four hundred and sixty
men, and he hired also from some of his friends and acquaintances about eighty
men, and be gave them their hire, and he went with them to battle, and when he
was on the road, Nimrod strengthened the hearts of the people that went with
him.
36 And he said to them, Do not fear, neither be
alarmed, for all our enemies will be delivered into our hands, and you may do
with them as you please.
37 And all the men that went were about five
hundred, and they fought against their enemies, and they destroyed them, and subdued
them, and Nimrod placed standing officers over them in their respective places.
38 And he took some of their children as security,
and they were all servants to Nimrod and to his brethren, and Nimrod and all
the people that were with him turned homeward.
39 And when Nimrod had joyfully returned from
battle, after having conquered his enemies, all his brethren, together with
those who knew him before, assembled to make him king over them, and they
placed the regal crown upon his head.
40 And he set over his subjects and people,
princes, judges, and rulers, as is the custom amongst kings.
41 And he placed Terah the son of Nahor the prince
of his host, and he dignified him and elevated him above all his princes.
42 And whilst he was reigning according to his
heart's desire, after having conquered all his enemies around, he advised with
his counselors to build a city for his palace, and they did so.
43 And they found a large valley opposite to the
east, and they built him a large and extensive city, and Nimrod called the name
of the city that he built Shinar, for the Lord had vehemently shaken his
enemies and destroyed them.
44 And Nimrod dwelt in Shinar, and he reigned
securely, and he fought with his enemies and he subdued them, and he prospered
in all his battles, and his kingdom became very great.
45 And all nations and tongues heard of his fame,
and they gathered themselves to him, and they bowed down to the earth, and they
brought him offerings, and he became their lord and king, and they all dwelt
with him in the city at Shinar, and Nimrod reigned in the earth over all the
sons of Noah, and they were all under his power and counsel.
46 And all the earth was of one tongue and words of
union, but Nimrod did not go in the ways of the Lord, and he was more wicked
than all the men that were before him, from the days of the flood until those
days.
47 And he made gods of wood and stone, and he bowed
down to them, and he rebelled against the Lord, and taught all his subjects and
the people of the earth his wicked ways; and Mardon his son was more wicked
than his father.
48 And every one that heard of the acts of Mardon
the son of Nimrod would say, concerning him, From the wicked goeth forth
wickedness; therefore it became a proverb in the whole earth, saying, From the
wicked goeth forth wickedness, and it was current in the words of men from that
time to this.
49 And Terah the son of Nahor, prince of Nimrod's
host, was in those days very great in the sight of the king and his subjects,
and the king and princes loved him, and they elevated him very high.
50 And Terah took a wife and her name was Amthelo
the daughter of Cornebo; and the wife of Terah conceived and bare him a son in
those days.
51 Terah was seventy years old when he begat him,
and Terah called the name of his son that was born to him Abram, because the
king had raised him in those days, and dignified him above all his princes that
were with him.
CHAPTER 8
1 And it was in the night that Abram was born, that
all the servants of Terah, and all the wise men of Nimrod, and his conjurors
came and ate and drank in the house of Terah, and they rejoiced with him on
that night.
2 And when all the wise men and conjurors went out
from the house of Terah, they lifted up their eyes toward heaven that night to
look at the stars, and they saw, and behold one very large star came from the
east and ran in the heavens, and he swallowed up the four stars from the four
sides of the heavens.
3 And all the wise men of the king and his
conjurors were astonished at the sight, and the sages understood this matter,
and they knew its import.
4 And they said to each other, This only betokens
the child that has been born to Terah this night, who will grow up and be
fruitful, and multiply, and possess all the earth, he and his children for
ever, and he and his seed will slay great kings, and inherit their lands.
5 And the wise men and conjurors went home that
night, and in the morning all these wise men and conjurors rose up early, and
assembled in an appointed house.
6 And they spoke and said to each other, Behold the
sight that we saw last night is hidden from the king, it has not been made
known to him.
7 And should this thing get known to the king in
the latter days, he will say to us, Why have you concealed this matter from me,
and then we shall all suffer death; therefore, now let us go and tell the king
the sight which we saw, and the interpretation thereof, and we shall then
remain clear.
8 And they did so, and they all went to the king
and bowed down to him to the ground, and they said, May the king live, may the
king live.
9 We heard that a son was born to Terah the son of
Nahor, the prince of thy host, and we yesternight came to his house, and we ate
and drank and rejoiced with him that night.
10 And when thy servants went out from the house of
Terah, to go to our respective homes to abide there for the night, we lifted up
our eyes to heaven, and we saw a great star coming from the east, and the same
star ran with great speed, and swallowed up four great stars, from the four
sides of the heavens.
11 And thy servants were astonished at the sight
which we saw, and were greatly terrified, and we made our judgment upon the
sight, and knew by our wisdom the proper interpretation thereof, that this
thing applies to the child that is born to Terah, who will grow up and multiply
greatly, and become powerful, and kill all the kings of the earth, and inherit
all their lands, he and his seed forever.
12 And now our lord and king, behold we have truly
acquainted thee with what we have seen concerning this child.
13 If it seemeth good to the king to give his
father value for this child, we will slay him before he shall grow up and
increase in the land, and his evil
increase
against us, that we and our children perish through his evil.
14 And the king heard their words and they seemed
good in his sight, and he sent and called for Terah, and Terah came before the
king.
15 And the king said to Terah, I have been told that
a son was yesternight born to thee, and after this manner was observed in the
heavens at his birth.
16 And now therefore give me the child, that we may
slay him before his evil springs up against us, and I will give thee for his
value, thy house full of silver and gold.
17 And Terah answered the king and said to him: My
Lord and king, I have heard thy words, and thy servant shall do all that his
king desireth.
18 But my lord and king, I will tell thee what
happened to me yesternight, that I may see what advice the king will give his
servant, and then I will answer the king upon what he has just spoken; and the
king said, Speak.
19 And Terah said to the king, Ayon, son of Mored,
came to me yesternight, saying,
20 Give unto me the great and beautiful horse that
the king gave thee, and I will give thee silver and gold, and straw and
provender for its value; and I said to him, Wait till I see the king concerning
thy words, and behold whatever the king saith, that will I do.
21 And now my lord and king, behold I have made
this thing known to thee, and the advice which my king will give unto his
servant, that will I follow.
22 And the king heard the words of Terah, and his
anger was kindled and he considered him in the light of a fool.
23 And the king answered Terah, and he said to him,
Art thou so silly, ignorant, or deficient in understanding, to do this thing,
to give thy beautiful horse for silver and gold or even for straw and
provender?
24 Art thou so short of silver and gold, that thou
shouldst do this thing, because thou canst not obtain straw and provender to
feed thy horse? and what is silver and gold to thee, or straw and provender,
that thou shouldst give away that fine horse which I gave thee, like which
there is none to be had on the whole earth?
25 And the king left off speaking, and Terah
answered the king, saying, Like unto this has the king spoken to his servant;
26 I beseech thee, my lord and king, what is this
which thou didst say unto me, saying, Give thy son that we may slay him, and I
will give thee silver and gold for his value; what shall I do with silver and
gold after the death of my son? who shall inherit me? surely then at my death,
the silver and gold will return to my king who gave it.
27 And when the king heard the words of Terah, and
the parable which he brought concerning the king, it grieved him greatly and he
was vexed at this thing, and his anger burned within him.
28 And Terah saw that the anger of the king was
kindled against him, and he answered the king, saying, All that I have is in
the king's power; whatever the king desireth to do to his servant, that let him
do, yea, even my son, he is in the king's power, without value in exchange, he
and his two brothers that are older than he.
29 And the king said to Terah, No, but I will
purchase thy younger son for a price.
30 And Terah answered the king, saying, I beseech
thee my lord and king to let thy servant speak a word before thee, and let the
king hear
the word
of his servant, and Terah said, Let my king give me three days' time till I
consider this matter within myself, and consult with my family concerning the
words of my king; and he pressed the king greatly to agree to this.
31 And the king hearkened to Terah, and he did so
and he gave him three days' time, and Terah went out from the king's presence,
and he came home to his family and spoke to them all the words of the king; and
the people were greatly afraid.
32 And it was in the third day that the king sent
to Terah, saying, Send me thy son for a price as I spoke to thee; and shouldst
thou not do this, I will send and slay all thou hast in thy house, so that thou
shalt not even have a dog remaining.
33 And Terah hastened, (as the thing was urgent
from the king), and he took a child from one of his servants, which his
handmaid had born to him that day, and Terah brought the child to the king and
received value for him.
34 And the Lord was with Terah in this matter, that
Nimrod might not cause Abram's death, and the king took the child from Terah
and with all his might dashed his head to the ground, for he thought it had
been Abram; and this was concealed from him from that day, and it was forgotten
by the king, as it was the will of Providence not to suffer Abram's death.
35 And Terah took Abram his son secretly, together
with his mother and nurse, and he concealed them in a cave, and he brought them
their provisions monthly.
36 And the Lord was with Abram in the cave and he
grew up, and Abram was in the cave ten years, and the king and his princes,
soothsayers and sages, thought that the king had killed Abram.
CHAPTER 9
1 And Haran, the son of Terah, Abram's oldest
brother, took a wife in those days.
2 Haran was thirty-nine years old when he took her;
and the wife of Haran conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Lot.
3 And she conceived again and bare a daughter, and
she called her name Milca; and she again conceived and bare a daughter, and she
called her name Sarai.
4 Haran was forty-two years old when he begat
Sarai, which was in the tenth year of the life of Abram; and in those days
Abram and his mother and nurse went out from the cave, as the king and his
subjects had forgotten the affair of Abram.
5 And when Abram came out from the cave, he went to
Noah and his son Shem, and he remained with them to learn the instruction of
the Lord and his ways, and no man knew where Abram was, and Abram served Noah
and Shem his son for a long time.
6 And Abram was in Noah's house thirty-nine years,
and Abram knew the Lord from three years old, and he went in the ways of the
Lord until the day of his death, as Noah and his son Shem had taught him; and
all the sons of the earth in those days greatly transgressed against the Lord,
and they rebelled against him and they served other gods, and they forgot the
Lord who had created them in the earth; and the inhabitants of the earth made
unto themselves, at that time, every man his god; gods of wood and stone which
could neither speak, hear, nor deliver, and the sons of men served them and
they became their gods.
7 And the king and all his servants, and Terah with
all his household were then the first of those that served gods of wood and
stone.
8 And Terah had twelve gods of large size, made of
wood and stone, after the twelve months of the year, and he served each one
monthly, and every month Terah would bring his meat offering and drink offering
to his gods; thus did Terah all the days.
9 And all that generation were wicked in the sight
of the Lord, and they thus made every man his god, but they forsook the Lord
who had created them.
10 And there was not a man found in those days in
the whole earth, who knew the Lord (for they served each man his own God)
except Noah and his household, and all those who were under his counsel knew
the Lord in those days.
11 And Abram the son of Terah was waxing great in
those days in the house of Noah, and no man knew it, and the Lord was with him.
12 And the Lord gave Abram an understanding heart,
and he knew all the works of that generation were vain, and that all their gods
were vain and were of no avail.
13 And Abram saw the sun shining upon the earth,
and Abram said unto himself Surely now this sun that shines upon the earth is
God, and him will I serve.
14 And Abram served the sun in that day and he
prayed to him, and when evening came the sun set as usual, and Abram said
within himself, Surely this cannot be God?
15 And Abram still continued to speak within
himself, Who is he who made the heavens and the earth? who created upon earth?
where is he?
16 And night darkened over him, and he lifted up
his eyes toward the west, north, south, and east, and he saw that the sun had
vanished from the earth, and the day became dark.
17 And Abram saw the stars and moon before him, and
he said, Surely this is the God who created the whole earth as well as man, and
behold these his servants are gods around him: and Abram served the moon and
prayed to it all that night.
18 And in the morning when it was light and the sun
shone upon the earth as usual, Abram saw all the things that the Lord God had
made upon earth.
19 And Abram said unto himself Surely these are not
gods that made the earth and all mankind, but these are the servants of God,
and Abram remained in the house of Noah and there knew the Lord and his ways'
and he served the Lord all the days of his life, and all that generation forgot
the Lord, and served other gods of wood and stone, and rebelled all their days.
20 And king Nimrod reigned securely, and all the earth
was under his control, and all the earth was of one tongue and words of union.
21 And all the princes of Nimrod and his great men
took counsel together; Phut, Mitzraim, Cush and Canaan with their families, and
they said to each other, Come let us build ourselves a city and in it a strong
tower, and its top reaching heaven, and we will make ourselves famed, so that
we may reign upon the whole world, in order that the evil of our enemies may
cease from us, that we may reign mightily over them, and that we may not become
scattered over the earth on account of their wars.
22 And they all went before the king, and they told
the king these words, and the king agreed with them in this affair, and he did
so.
23 And all the families assembled consisting of
about six hundred thousand men, and they went to seek an extensive piece of
ground to build the city and the tower, and they sought in the whole earth and
they found none like one valley at the east of the land of Shinar, about two
days' walk, and they journeyed there and they dwelt there.
24 And they began to make bricks and burn fires to
build the city and the tower that they had imagined to complete.
25 And the building of the tower was unto them a
transgression and a sin, and they began to build it, and whilst they were
building against the Lord God of heaven, they imagined in their hearts to war
against him and to ascend into heaven.
26 And all these people and all the families
divided themselves in three parts; the first said We will ascend into heaven
and fight against him; the second said, We will ascend to heaven and place our
own gods there and serve them; and the third part said, We will ascend to
heaven and smite him with bows and spears; and God knew all their works and all
their evil thoughts, and he saw the city and the tower which they were
building.
27 And when they were building they built
themselves a great city and a very high and strong tower; and on account of its
height the mortar and bricks did not reach the builders in their ascent to it,
until those who went up had completed a full year, and after that, they reached
to the builders and gave them the mortar and the bricks; thus was it done
daily.
28 And behold these ascended and others descended
the whole day; and if a brick should fall from their hands and get broken, they
would all weep over it, and if a man fell and died, none of them would look at
him.
29 And the Lord knew their thoughts, and it came to
pass when they were building they cast the arrows toward the heavens, and all
the arrows fell upon them filled with blood, and when they saw them they said
to each other, Surely we have slain all those that are in heaven.
30 For this was from the Lord in order to cause
them to err, and in order; to destroy them from off the face of the ground.
31 And they built the tower and the city, and they
did this thing daily until many days and years were elapsed.
32 And God said to the seventy angels who stood
foremost before him, to those who were near to him, saying, Come let us descend
and confuse their tongues, that one man shall not understand the language of
his neighbor, and they did so unto them.
33 And from that day following, they forgot each
man his neighbor's tongue, and they could not understand to speak in one
tongue, and when the builder took from the hands of his neighbor lime or stone
which he did not order, the builder would cast it away and throw it upon his
neighbor, that he would die.
34 And they did so many days, and they killed many
of them in this manner.
35 And the Lord smote the three divisions that were
there, and he punished them according to their works and designs; those who
said, We will ascend to heaven
and
serve our gods, became like apes and elephants; and those who said, We will
smite the heaven with arrows, the Lord killed them, one man through the hand of
his neighbor; and the third division of those who said, We will ascend to
heaven and fight against him, the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.
36 And those who were left amongst them, when they
knew and understood the evil which was coming upon them, they forsook the
building, and they also became scattered upon the face of the whole earth.
37 And they ceased building the city and the tower;
therefore he called that place Babel, for there the Lord confounded the
Language of the whole earth; behold it was at the east of the land of Shinar.
38 And as to the tower which the sons of men built,
the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up one third part thereof, and a fire
also descended from heaven and burned another third, and the other third is
left to this day, and it is of that part which was aloft, and its circumference
is three days' walk.
39 And many of the sons of men died in that tower,
a people without number.
CHAPTER 10
1 And Peleg the son of Eber died in those days, in
the forty-eighth year of the life of Abram son of Terah, and all the days of
Peleg were two hundred and thirty-nine years.
2 And when the Lord had scattered the sons of men
on account of their sin at the tower, behold they spread forth into many
divisions, and all the sons of men were dispersed into the four corners of the
earth.
3 And all the families became each according to its
language, its land, or its city.
4 And the sons of men built many cities according
to their families, in all the places where they went, and throughout the earth
where the Lord had scattered them.
5 And some of them built cities in places from
which they were afterward extirpated, and they called these cities after their
own names, or the names of their children, or after their particular
occurrences.
6 And the sons of Japheth the son of Noah went and
built themselves cities in the places where they were scattered, and they
called all their cities after their names, and the sons of Japheth were divided
upon the face of the earth into many divisions and languages.
7 And these are the sons of Japheth according to
their families, Gomer, Magog, Medai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras; these are
the children of Japheth according to their generations.
8 And the children of Gomer, according to their
cities, were the Francum, who dwell in the land of Franza, by the river Franza,
by the river Senah.
9 And the children of Rephath are the Bartonim, who
dwell in the land of Bartonia by the river Ledah, which empties its waters in
the great sea Gihon, that is, oceanus.
10 And the children of Tugarma are ten families,
and these are their names: Buzar, Parzunac, Balgar, Elicanum, Ragbib, Tarki,
Bid, Zebuc, Ongal and Tilmaz; all these spread and rested in the north and
built themselves cities.
11 And they called their cities after their own
names, those are they who abide by the rivers Hithlah and Italac unto this day.
12 But the families of Angoli, Balgar and Parzunac,
they dwell by the great river Dubnee; and the names of their cities are also
according to their own names.
13 And the children of Javan are the Javanim who
dwell in the land of Makdonia, and the children of Medaiare are the Orelum that
dwell in the land of Curson, and the children of Tubal are those that dwell in
the land of Tuskanah by the river Pashiah.
14 And the children of Meshech are the Shibashni
and the children of Tiras are Rushash, Cushni, and Ongolis; all these went and
built themselves cities; those are the cities that are situate by the sea Jabus
by the river Cura, which empties itself in the river Tragan.
15 And the children of Elishah are the Almanim, and
they also went and built themselves cities; those are the cities situate
between the mountains of Job and Shibathmo; and of them were the people of
Lumbardi who dwell opposite the mountains of Job and Shibathmo, and they
conquered the land of Italia and remained there unto this day.
16 And the children of Chittim are the Romim who
dwell in the valley of Canopia by the river Tibreu.
17 And the children of Dudonim are those who dwell
in the cities of the sea Gihon, in the land of Bordna.
18 These are the families of the children of
Japheth according to their cities and languages, when they were scattered after
the tower, and they called their cities after their names and occurrences; and
these are the names of all their cities according to their families, which they
built in those days after the tower.
19 And the children of Ham were Cush, Mitzraim,
Phut and Canaan according to their generation and cities.
20 All these went and built themselves cities as
they found fit places for them, and they called their cities after the names of
their fathers Cush, Mitzraim, Phut and Canaan.
21 And the children of Mitzraim are the Ludim,
Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuchim, Pathrusim, Casluchim and Caphturim, seven
families.
22 All these dwell by the river Sihor, that is the
brook of Egypt, and they built themselves cities and called them after their
own names.
23 And the children of Pathros and Casloch
intermarried together, and from them went forth the Pelishtim, the Azathim, and
the Gerarim, the Githim and the Ekronim, in all five families; these also built
themselves cities, and they called their cities after the names of their
fathers unto this day.
24 And the children of Canaan also built themselves
cities, and they called their cities after their names, eleven cities and
others without number.
25 And four men from the family of Ham went to the
land of the plain; these are the names of the four men, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah
and Zeboyim.
26 And these men built themselves four cities in
the land of the plain, and they called the names of their cities after their
own names.
27 And they and their children and all belonging to
them dwelt in those cities, and they were fruitful and multiplied greatly and
dwelt peaceably.
28 And Seir the son of Hur, son of Hivi, son of
Canaan, went and found a valley opposite to Mount Paran, and he built a city
there, and he and his seven sons and his household dwelt there, and he called
the city which he built Seir, according to his name; that is the land of Seir
unto this day.
29 These are the families of the children of Ham,
according to their languages and cities, when they were scattered to their countries
after the tower.
30 And some of the children of Shem son of Noah,
father of all the children of Eber, also went and built themselves cities
in the
places wherein they were scattered, and they called their cities after their
names.
31 And the sons of Shem were Elam, Ashur,
Arpachshad, Lud and Aram, and they built themselves cities and called the names
of all their cities after their names.
32 And Ashur son of Shem and his children and
household went forth at that time, a very large body of them, and they went to
a distant land that they found, and they met with a very extensive valley in
the land that they went to, and they built themselves four cities, and they
called them after their own names and occurrences.
33 And these are the names of the cities which the
children of Ashur built, Ninevah, Resen, Calach and Rehobother; and the
children of Ashur dwell there unto this day.
34 And the children of Aram also went and built
themselves a city, and they called the name of the city Uz after their eldest
brother, and they dwell therein; that is the land of Uz to this day.
35 And in the second year after the tower a man
from the house of Ashur, whose name was Bela, went from the land of Ninevah to
sojourn with his household wherever he could find a place; and they came until
opposite the cities of the plain against Sodom, and they dwelt there.
36 And the man rose up and built there a small
city, and called its name Bela, after his name; that is the land of Zoar unto
this day.
37 And these are the families of the children of
Shem according to their language and cities, after they were scattered upon the
earth after the tower.
38 And every kingdom, city, and family of the
families of the children of Noah built themselves many cities after this.
39 And they established governments in all their
cities, in order to be regulated by their orders; so did all the families of
the children of Noah forever.
CHAPTER 11
1 And Nimrod son of Cush was still in the land of
Shinar, and he reigned over it and dwelt there, and he built cities in the land
of Shinar.
2 And these are the names of the four cities which
he built, and he called their names after the occurrences that happened to them
in the building of the tower.
3 And he called the first Babel, saying, Because
the Lord there confounded the language of the whole earth; and the name of the
second he called Erech, because from there God dispersed them.
4 And the third he called Eched, saying there was a
great battle at that place; and the fourth he called Calnah, because his
princes and mighty men were consumed there, and they vexed the Lord, they
rebelled and transgressed against him.
5 And when Nimrod had built these cities in the
land of Shinar, he placed in them the remainder of his people, his princes and
his mighty men that were left in his kingdom.
6 And Nimrod dwelt in Babel, and he there renewed
his reign over the rest of his subjects, and he reigned securely, and the
subjects and princes of Nimrod called his name Amraphel, saying that at the
tower his princes and men fell through his means.
7 And notwithstanding this, Nimrod did not return
to the Lord, and he continued in wickedness and
teaching
wickedness to the sons of men; and Mardon, his son, was worse than his father,
and continued to add to the abominations of his father.
8 And he caused the sons of men to sin, therefore
it is said, From the wicked goeth forth wickedness.
9 At that time there was war between the families
of the children of Ham, as they were dwelling in the cities which they had
built.
10 And Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, went away from
the families of the children of Ham, and he fought with them and he subdued
them, and he went to the five cities of the plain and he fought against them
and he subdued them, and they were under his control.
11 And they served him twelve years, and they gave
him a yearly tax.
12 At that time died Nahor, son of Serug, in the
forty-ninth year of the life of Abram son of Terah.
13 And in the fiftieth year of the life of Abram
son of Terah, Abram came forth from the house of Noah, and went to his father's
house.
14 And Abram knew the Lord, and he went in his ways
and instructions, and the Lord his God was with him.
15 And Terah his father was in those days, still
captain of the host of king Nimrod, and he still followed strange gods.
16 And Abram came to his father's house and saw
twelve gods standing there in their temples, and the anger of Abram was kindled
when he saw these images in his father's house.
17 And Abram said, As the Lord liveth these images
shall not remain in my father's house; so shall the Lord who created me do unto
me if in three days' time I do not break them all.
18 And Abram went from them, and his anger burned
within him. And Abram hastened and went from the chamber to his father's outer
court, and he found his father sitting in the court, and all his servants with
him, and Abram came and sat before him.
19 And Abram asked his father, saying, Father, tell
me where is God who created heaven and earth, and all the sons of men upon
earth, and who created thee and me. And Terah answered his son Abram and said,
Behold those who created us are all with us in the house.
20 And Abram said to his father, My lord, shew them
to me I pray thee; and Terah brought Abram into the chamber of the inner court,
and Abram saw, and behold the whole room was full of gods of wood and stone,
twelve great images and others less than they without number.
21 And Terah said to his son, Behold these are they
which made all thou seest upon earth, and which created me and thee, and all
mankind.
22 And Terah bowed down to his gods, and he then
went away from them, and Abram, his son, went away with him.
23 And when Abram had gone from them he went to his
mother and sat before her, and he said to his mother, Behold, my father has
shown me those who made heaven and earth, and all the sons of men.
24 Now, therefore, hasten and fetch a kid from the
flock, and make of it savory meat, that I may bring it to my father's gods as
an offering for them to eat; perhaps I may thereby become acceptable to them.
25 And his mother did so, and she fetched a kid,
and made savory meat thereof,
and
brought it to Abram, and Abram took the savory meat from his mother and brought
it before his father's gods, and he drew nigh to them that they might eat; and
Terah his father, did not know of it.
26 And Abram saw on the day when he was sitting
amongst them, that they had no voice, no hearing, no motion, and not one of
them could stretch forth his hand to eat.
27 And Abram mocked them, and said, Surely the
savory meat that I prepared has not pleased them, or perhaps it was too little
for them, and for that reason they would not eat; therefore tomorrow I will
prepare fresh savory meat, better and more plentiful than this, in order that I
may see the result.
28 And it was on the next day that Abram directed
his mother concerning the savory meat, and his mother rose and fetched three
fine kids from the flock, and she made of them some excellent savory meat, such
as her son was fond of, and she gave it to her son Abram; and Terah his father
did not know of it.
29 And Abram took the savory meat from his mother,
and brought it before his father's gods into the chamber; and he came nigh unto
them that they might eat, and he placed it before them, and Abram sat before
them all day, thinking perhaps they might eat.
30 And Abram viewed them, and behold they had
neither voice nor hearing, nor did one of them stretch forth his hand to the
meat to eat.
31 And in the evening of that day in that house
Abram was clothed with the spirit of God.
32 And he called out and said, Wo unto my father
and this wicked generation, whose hearts are all inclined to vanity, who serve
these idols of wood and stone which can neither eat, smell, hear nor speak, who
have mouths without speech, eyes without sight, ears without hearing, hands
without feeling, and legs which cannot move; like them are those that made them
and that trust in them.
33 And when Abram saw all these things his anger
was kindled against his father, and he hastened and took a hatchet in his hand,
and came unto the chamber of the gods, and he broke all his father's gods.
34 And when he had done breaking the images, he
placed the hatchet in the hand of the great god which was there before them,
and he went out; and Terah his father came home, for he had heard at the door
the sound of the striking of the hatchet; so Terah came into the house to know
what this was about.
35 And Terah, having heard the noise of the hatchet
in the room of images, ran to the room to the images, and he met Abram going
out.
36 And Terah entered the room and found all the
idols fallen down and broken, and the hatchet in the hand of the largest, which
was not broken, and the savory meat which Abram his son had made was still
before them.
37 And when Terah saw this his anger was greatly
kindled, and he hastened and went from the room to Abram.
38 And he found Abram his son still sitting in the
house; and he said to him, What is this work thou hast done to my gods?
39 And Abram answered Terah his father and he said,
Not so my lord, for I brought savory meat before them, and when I came nigh to
them with the meat that they might eat, they all at once stretched forth their
hands to eat before the great one had put forth his hand to eat.
40 And the large one saw their works that they did
before him, and his anger was violently kindled against them, and he went and
took the hatchet that was in the house and came to them and broke them all, and
behold the hatchet is yet in his hand as thou seest.
41 And Terah's anger was kindled against his son
Abram, when he spoke this; and Terah said to Abram his son in his anger, What
is this tale that thou hast told? Thou speakest lies to me.
42 Is there in these gods spirit, soul or power to
do all thou hast told me? Are they not wood and stone, and have I not myself
made them, and canst thou speak such lies, saying that the large god that was
with them smote them? It is thou that didst place the hatchet in his hands, and
then sayest he smote them all.
43 And Abram answered his father and said to him,
And how canst thou then serve these idols in whom there is no power to do any
thing? Can those idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? can they hear thy
prayers when thou callest upon them? can they deliver thee from the hands of
thy enemies, or will they fight thy battles for thee against thy enemies, that
thou shouldst serve wood and stone which can neither speak nor hear?
44 And now surely it is not good for thee nor for
the sons of men that are connected with thee, to do these things; are you so
silly, so foolish or so short of understanding that you will serve wood and
stone, and do after this manner?
45 And forget the Lord God who made heaven and
earth, and who created you in the earth, and thereby bring a great evil upon
your souls in this matter by serving stone and wood?
46 Did not our fathers in days of old sin in this
matter, and the Lord God of the universe brought the waters of the flood upon
them and destroyed the whole earth?
47 And how can you continue to do this and serve
gods of wood and stone, who cannot hear, or speak, or deliver you from
oppression, thereby bringing down the anger of the God of the universe upon
you?
48 Now therefore my father refrain from this, and
bring not evil upon thy soul and the souls of thy household.
49 And Abram hastened and sprang from before his
father, and took the hatchet from his father's largest idol, with which Abram
broke it and ran away.
50 And Terah, seeing all that Abram had done,
hastened to go from his house, and he went to the king and he came before
Nimrod and stood before him, and he bowed down to the king; and the king said,
What dost thou want?
51 And he said, I beseech thee my lord, to hear
me--Now fifty years back a child was born to me, and thus has he done to my
gods and thus has he spoken; and now therefore, my lord and king, send for him
that he may come before thee, and judge him according to the law, that we may
be delivered from his evil.
52 And the king sent three men of his servants, and
they went and brought Abram before the king. And Nimrod and all his princes and
servants were that day sitting before him, and Terah sat also before them.
53 And the king said to Abram, What is this that
thou hast done to thy father and to his gods? And Abram answered the king in
the words that he
spoke
to his father, and he said, The large god that was with them in the house did
to them what thou hast heard.
54 And the king said to Abram, Had they power to
speak and eat and do as thou hast said? And Abram answered the king, saying,
And if there be no power in them why dost thou serve them and cause the sons of
men to err through thy follies?
55 Dost thou imagine that they can deliver thee or
do anything small or great, that thou shouldst serve them? And why wilt thou
not sense the God of the whole universe, who created thee and in whose power it
is to kill and keep alive?
56 0 foolish, simple, and ignorant king, woe unto
thee forever.
57 I thought thou wouldst teach thy servants the
upright way, but thou hast not done this, but hast filled the whole earth with
thy sins and the sins of thy people who have followed thy ways.
58 Dost thou not know, or hast thou not heard, that
this evil which thou doest, our ancestors sinned therein in days of old, and
the eternal God brought the waters of the flood upon them and destroyed them
all, and also destroyed the whole earth on their account? And wilt thou and thy
people rise up now and do like unto this work, in order to bring down the anger
of the Lord God of the universe, and to bring evil upon thee and the whole
earth?
59 Now therefore put away this evil deed which thou
doest, and serve the God of the universe, as thy soul is in his hands, and then
it will be well with thee.
60 And if thy wicked heart will not hearken to my
words to cause thee to forsake thy evil ways, and to serve the eternal God,
then wilt thou die in shame in the latter days, thou, thy people and all who
are connected with thee, hearing thy words or walking in thy evil ways.
61 And when Abram had ceased speaking before the
king and princes, Abram lifted up his eyes to the heavens, and he said, The
Lord seeth all the wicked, and he will judge them.
CHAPTER 12
1 And when the king heard the words of Abram he
ordered him to be put into prison; and Abram was ten days in prison.
2 And at the end of those days the king ordered
that all the kings, princes and governors of different provinces and the sages
should come before him, and they sat before him, and Abram was still in the
house of confinement.
3 And the king said to the princes and sages, Have
you heard what Abram, the son of Terah, has done to his father? Thus has he
done to him, and I ordered him to be brought before me, and thus has he spoken;
his heart did not misgive him, neither did he stir in my presence, and behold
now he is confined in the prison.
4 And therefore decide what judgment is due to this
man who reviled the king; who spoke and did all the things that you heard.
5 And they all answered the king saying, The man
who revileth the king should be hanged upon a tree; but having done all the
things that he said, and having despised our gods, he must therefore be burned
to death, for this is the law in this matter.
6 If it pleaseth the king to do this, let him order
his servants to kindle a fire both night and day in thy brick furnace, and then
we will cast this man into it.
And the
king did so, and he commanded his servants that they should prepare a fire for
three days and three nights in the king's furnace, that is in Casdim; and the
king ordered them to take Abram from prison and bring him out to be burned.
7 And all the king's servants, princes, lords,
governors, and judges, and all the inhabitants of the land, about nine hundred
thousand men, stood opposite the furnace to see Abram.
8 And all the women and little ones crowded upon
the roofs and towers to see what was doing with Abram, and they all stood
together at a distance; and there was not a man left that did not come on that
day to behold the scene.
9 And when Abram was come, the conjurors of the
king and the sages saw Abram, and they cried out to the king, saying, Our
sovereign lord, surely this is the man whom we know to have been the child at
whose birth the great star swallowed the four stars, which we declared to the
king now fifty years since.
10 And behold now his father has also transgressed
thy commands, and mocked thee by bringing thee another child, which thou didst
kill.
11 And when the king heard their words, he was
exceedingly wroth, and he ordered Terah to be brought before him.
12 And the king said, Hast thou heard what the
conjurors have spoken? Now tell me truly, how didst thou; and if thou shalt
speak truth thou shalt be acquitted.
13 And seeing that the king's anger was so much
kindled, Terah said to the king, My lord and king, thou hast heard the truth,
and what the sages have spoken is right. And the king said, How couldst thou do
this thing, to transgress my orders and to give me a child that thou didst not
beget, and to take value for him?
14 And Terah answered the king, Because my tender
feelings were excited for my son, at that time, and I took a son of my
handmaid, and I brought him to the king.
15 And the king said Who advised thee to this? Tell
me, do not hide aught from me, and then thou shalt not die.
16 And Terah was greatly terrified in the king's
presence, and he said to the king, It was Haran my eldest son who advised me to
this; and Haran was in those days that Abram was born, two and thirty years
old.
17 But Haran did not advise his father to anything,
for Terah said this to the king in order to deliver his soul from the king, for
he feared greatly; and the king said to Terah, Haran thy son who advised thee
to this shall die through fire with Abram; for the sentence of death is upon
him for having rebelled against the king's desire in doing this thing.
18 And Haran at that time felt inclined to follow
the ways of Abram, but he kept it within himself.
19 And Haran said in his heart, Behold now the king
has seized Abram on account of these things which Abram did, and it shall come
to pass, that if Abram prevail over the king I will follow him, but if the king
prevail I will go after the king.
20 And when Terah had spoken this to the king
concerning Haran his son, the king ordered Haran to be seized with Abram.
21 And they brought them both, Abram and Haran his
brother, to cast them into the fire; and all the inhabitants of the land and
the king's servants and princes and all the women and little ones were there,
standing that day over them.
22 And the king's servants took Abram and his
brother, and they stripped them of all their clothes excepting their lower
garments which were upon them.
23 And they bound their hands and feet with linen
cords, and the servants of the king lifted them up and cast them both into the
furnace.
24 And the Lord loved Abram and he had compassion
over him, and the Lord came down and delivered Abram from the fire and he was
not burned.
25 But all the cords with which they bound him were
burned, while Abram remained and walked about in the fire.
26 And Haran died when they had cast him into the
fire, and he was burned to ashes, for his heart was not perfect with the Lord;
and those men who cast him into the fire, the flame of the fire spread over
them, and they were burned, and twelve men of them died.
27 And Abram walked in the midst of the fire three days
and three nights, and all the servants of the king saw him walking in the fire,
and they came and told the king, saying, Behold we have seen Abram walking
about in the midst of the fire, and even the lower garments which are upon him
are not burned, but the cord with which he was bound is burned.
28 And when the king heard their words his heart
fainted and he would not believe them; so he sent other faithful princes to see
this matter, and they went and saw it and told it to the king; and the king
rose to go and see it, and he saw Abram walking to and fro in the midst of the
fire, and he saw Haran's body burned, and the king wondered greatly.
29 And the king ordered Abram to be taken out from
the fire; and his servants approached to take him out and they could not, for
the fire was round about and the flame ascending toward them from the furnace.
30 And the king's servants fled from it, and the
king rebuked them, saying, Make haste and bring Abram out of the fire that you
shall not die.
31 And the servants of the king again approached to
bring Abram out, and the flames came upon them and burned their faces so that
eight of them died.
32 And when the king saw that his servants could
not approach the fire lest they should be burned, the king called to Abram, O
servant of the God who is in heaven, go forth from amidst the fire and come
hither before me; and Abram hearkened to the voice of the king, and he went
forth from the fire and came and stood before the king.
33 And when Abram came out the king and all his
servants saw Abram coming before the king, with his lower garments upon him,
for they were not burned, but the cord with which he was bound was burned.
34 And the king said to Abram, How is it that thou
wast not burned in the fire?
35 And Abram said to the king, The God of heaven
and earth in whom I trust and who has all in his power, he delivered me from
the fire into which thou didst cast me.
36 And Haran the brother of Abram was burned to
ashes, and they sought for his body, and they found it consumed.
37 And Haran was eighty-two years old when he died
in the fire of Casdim. And the king, princes, and inhabitants of the land,
seeing that
Abram
was delivered from the fire, they came and bowed down to Abram.
38 And Abram said to them, Do not bow down to me,
but bow down to the God of the world who made you, and serve him, and go in his
ways for it is he who delivered me from out of this fire, and it is he who
created the souls and spirits of all men, and formed man in his mother's womb,
and brought him forth into the world, and it is he who will deliver those who
trust in him from all pain.
39 And this thing seemed very wonderful in the eyes
of the king and princes, that Abram was saved from the fire and that Haran was
burned; and the king gave Abram many presents and he gave him his two head
servants from the king's house; the name of one was Oni and the name of the
other was Eliezer.
40 And all the kings, princes and servants gave
Abram many gifts of silver and gold and pearl, and the king and his princes
sent him away, and he went in peace.
41 And Abram went forth from the king in peace, and
many of the king's servants followed him, and about three hundred men joined
him.
42 And Abram returned on that day and went to his
father's house, he and the men that followed him, and Abram served the Lord his
God all the days of his life, and he walked in his ways and followed his law.
43 And from that day forward Abram inclined the
hearts of the sons of men to serve the Lord.
44 And at that time Nahor and Abram took unto
themselves wives, the daughters of their brother Haran; the wife of Nahor was
Milca and the name of Abram's wife was Sarai. And Sarai, wife of Abram, was
barren; she had no offspring in those days.
45 And at the expiration of two years from Abram's
going out of the fire, that is in the fifty-second year of his life, behold
king Nimrod sat in Babel upon the throne, and the king fell asleep and dreamed
that he was standing with his troops and hosts in a valley opposite the king's
furnace.
46 And he lifted up his eyes and saw a man in the
likeness of Abram coming forth from the furnace, and that he came and stood
before the king with his drawn sword, and then sprang to the king with his
sword, when the king fled from the man, for he was afraid; and while he was
running, the man threw an egg upon the king's head, and the egg became a great
river.
47 And the king dreamed that all his troops sank in
that river and died, and the king took flight with three men who were before
him and he escaped.
48 And the king looked at these men and they were
clothed in princely dresses as the garments of kings, and had the appearance
and majesty of kings.
49 And while they were running, the river again
turned to an egg before the king, and there came forth from the egg a young
bird which came before the king, and flew at his head and plucked out the
king's eye.
50 And the king was grieved at the sight, and he
awoke out of his sleep and his spirit was agitated; and he felt a great terror.
51 And in the morning the king rose from his couch
in fear, and he ordered all the wise men and magicians to come before him, when
the king related his dream to them.
52 And a wise servant of the king, whose name was
Anuki, answered the king, saying, This is nothing else but the evil of Abram
and his seed which will spring up against my Lord
and
king in the latter days.
53 And behold the day will come when Abram and his
seed and the children of his household will war with my king, and they will
smite all the king's hosts and his troops.
54 And as to what thou hast said concerning three
men which thou didst see like unto thyself, and which did escape, this means
that only thou wilt escape with three kings from the kings of the earth who
will be with thee in battle.
55 And that which thou sawest of the river which
turned to an egg as at first, and the young bird plucking out thine eye, this
means nothing else but the seed of Abram which will slay the king in latter
days.
56 This is my king's dream, and this is its
interpretation, and the dream is true, and the interpretation which thy servant
has given thee is right.
57 Now therefore my king, surely thou knowest that
it is now fifty-two years since thy sages saw this at the birth of Abram, and
if my king will suffer Abram to live in the earth it will be to the injury of
my lord and king, for all the days that Abram liveth neither thou nor thy
kingdom will be established, for this was known formerly at his birth; and why
will not my king slay him, that his evil may be kept from thee in latter days?
58 And Nimrod hearkened to the voice of Anuki, and
he sent some of his servants in secret to go and seize Abram, and bring him
before the king to suffer death.
59 And Eliezer, Abram's servant whom the king had
given him, was at that time in the presence of the king, and he heard what
Anuki had advised the king, and what the king had said to cause Abram's death.
60 And Eliezer said to Abram, Hasten, rise up and
save thy soul, that thou mayest not die through the hands of the king, for thus
did he see in a dream concerning thee, and thus did Anuki interpret it, and
thus also did Anuki advise the king concerning thee.
61 And Abram hearkened to the voice of Eliezer, and
Abram hastened and ran for safety to the house of Noah and his son Shem, and he
concealed himself there and found a place of safety; and the king's servants
came to Abram's house to seek him, but they could not find him, and they
searched through out the country and he was not to be found, and they went and
searched in every direction and he was not to be met with.
62 And when the king's servants could not find
Abram they returned to the king, but the king's anger against Abram was
stilled, as they did not find him, and the king drove from his mind this matter
concerning Abram.
63 And Abram was concealed in Noah's house for one
month, until the king had forgotten this matter, but Abram was still afraid of
the king; and Terah came to see Abram his son secretly in the house of Noah, and
Terah was very great in the eyes of the king.
64 And Abram said to his father, Dost thou not know
that the king thinketh to slay me, and to annihilate my name from the earth by
the advice of his wicked counsellors?
65 Now whom hast thou here and what hast thou in
this land? Arise, let us go together to the land of Canaan, that we may be
delivered from his hand, lest thou perish also through him in the latter days.
66 Dost thou not know or hast thou not heard, that
it is not through
love
that Nimrod giveth thee all this honor, but it is only for his benefit that he
bestoweth all this good upon thee?
67 And if he do unto thee greater good than this,
surely these are only vanities of the world, for wealth and riches cannot avail
in the day of wrath and anger.
68 Now therefore hearken to my voice, and let us
arise and go to the land of Canaan, out of the reach of injury from Nimrod; and
serve thou the Lord who created thee in the earth and it will be well with
thee; and cast away all the vain things which thou pursuest.
69 And Abram ceased to speak, when Noah and his son
Shem answered Terah, saying, True is the word which Abram hath said unto thee.
70 And Terah hearkened to the voice of his son
Abram, and Terah did all that Abram said, for this was from the Lord, that the
king should not cause Abram's death.
CHAPTER 13
1 And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson
Lot, the son of Haran, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son
Abram, and all the souls of his household and went with them from Ur Casdim to
go to the land of Canaan. And when they came as far as the land of Haran they
remained there, for it was exceedingly good land for pasture, and of sufficient
extent for those who accompanied them.
2 And the people of the land of Haran saw that
Abram was good and upright with God and men, and that the Lord his God was with
him, and some of the people of the land of Haran came and joined Abram, and he
taught them the instruction of the Lord and his ways; and these men remained
with Abram in his house and they adhered to him.
3 And Abram remained in the land three years, and
at the expiration of three years the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him; I
am the Lord who brought thee forth from Ur Casdim, and delivered thee from the
hands of all thine enemies.
4 And now therefore if thou wilt hearken to my
voice and keep my commandments, my statutes and my laws, then will I cause thy
enemies to fall before thee, and I will multiply thy seed like the stars of
heaven, and I will send my blessing upon all the works of thy hands, and thou
shalt lack nothing.
5 Arise now, take thy wife and all belonging to
thee and go to the land of Canaan and remain there, and I will there be unto
thee for a God, and I will bless thee. And Abram rose and took his wife and all
belonging to him, and he went to the land of Canaan as the Lord had told him;
and Abram was fifty years old when he went from Haran.
6 And Abram came to the land of Canaan and dwelt in
the midst of the city, and he there pitched his tent amongst the children of
Canaan, inhabitants of the land.
7 And the Lord appeared to Abram when he came to
the land of Canaan, and said to him, This is the land which I gave unto thee
and to thy seed after thee forever, and I will make thy seed like the stars of
heaven, and I will give unto thy seed for an inheritance all the lands which
thou seest.
8 And Abram built an altar in the place where God
had spoken to him, and Abram there called upon the name of the Lord.
9 At that time, at the end of three years of
Abram's dwelling in the land of Canaan, in that year Noah died, which was the
fifty-eighth year of the life of Abram; and all the days that Noah lived were
nine hundred and fifty years and he died.
10 And Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, he, his
wife, and all belonging to him, and all those that accompanied him, together
with those that joined him from the people of the land; but Nahor, Abram's
brother, and Terah his father, and Lot the son of Haran and all belonging to
them dwelt in Haran.
11 In the fifth year of Abram's dwelling in the
land of Canaan the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the cities of the plain
revolted from the power of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam; for all the kings of the
cities of the plain had served Chedorlaomer for twelve years, and given him a
yearly tax, but in those days in the thirteenth year, they rebelled against
him.
12 And in the tenth year of Abram's dwelling in the
land of Canaan there was war between Nimrod king of Shinar and Chedorlaomer
king of Elam, and Nimrod came to fight with Chedorlaomer and to subdue him.
13 For Chedorlaomer was at that time one of the
princes of the hosts of Nimrod, and when all the people at the tower were
dispersed and those that remained were also scattered upon the face of the
earth, Chedorlaomer went to the land of Elam and reigned over it and rebelled
against his lord.
14 And in those days when Nimrod saw that the
cities of the plain had rebelled, he came with pride and anger to war with
Chedorlaomer, and Nimrod assembled all his princes and subjects, about seven
hundred thousand men, and went against Chedorlaomer, and Chedorlaomer went out
to meet him with five thousand men, and they prepared for battle in the valley
of Babel which is between Elam and Shinar.
15 And all those kings fought there, and Nimrod and
his people were smitten before the people of Chedorlaomer, and there fell from
Nimrod's men about six hundred thousand, and Mardon the king's son fell amongst
them.
16 And Nimrod fled and returned in shame and disgrace
to his land, and he was under subjection to Chedorlaomer for a long time, and
Chedorlaomer returned to his land and sent princes of his host to the kings
that dwelt around him, to Arioch king of Elasar, and to Tidal king of Goyim,
and made a covenant with them, and they were all obedient to his commands.
17 And it was in the fifteenth year of Abram's
dwelling in the land of Canaan, which is the seventieth year of the life of
Abram, and the Lord appeared to Abram in that year and he said to him, I am the
Lord who brought thee out from Ur Casdim to give thee this land for an
inheritance.
18 Now therefore walk before me and be perfect and
keep my commands, for to thee and to thy seed I will give this land for an
inheritance, from the river Mitzraim unto the great river Euphrates.
19 And thou shalt come to thy fathers in peace and
in good age, and the fourth generation shall return here in this land and shall
inherit it forever; and Abram built an altar, and he called upon the name of the
Lord who appeared to him, and he brought up sacrifices upon the altar to the
Lord.
20 At that time Abram returned and went to
Haran
to see his father and mother, and his father's household, and Abram and his
wife and all belonging to him returned to Haran, and Abram dwelt in Haran five
years.
21 And many of the people of Haran, about
seventy-two men, followed Abram and Abram taught them the instruction of the
Lord and his ways, and he taught them to know the Lord.
22 In those days the Lord appeared to Abram in
Haran, and he said to him, Behold, I spoke unto thee these twenty years back
saying,
23 Go forth from thy land, from thy birth-place and
from thy father's house, to the land which I have shown thee to give it to thee
and to thy children, for there in that land will I bless thee, and make thee a
great nation, and make thy name great, and in thee shall the families of the
earth be blessed.
24 Now therefore arise, go forth from this place,
thou, thy wife, and all belonging to thee, also every one born in thy house and
all the souls thou hast made in Haran, and bring them out with thee from here,
and rise to return to the land of Canaan.
25 And Abram arose and took his wife Sarai and all
belonging to him and all that were born to him in his house and the souls which
they had made in Haran, and they came out to go to the land of Canaan.
26 And Abram went and returned to the land of
Canaan, according to the word of the Lord. And Lot the son of his brother Haran
went with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old when he went forth from
Haran to return to the land of Canaan.
27 And he came to the land of Canaan according to
the word of the Lord to Abram, and he pitched his tent and he dwelt in the
plain of Mamre, and with him was Lot his brother's son, and all belonging to
him.
28 And the Lord again appeared to Abram and said,
To thy seed will I give this land; and he there built an altar to the Lord who
appeared to him, which is still to this day in the plains of Mamre.
CHAPTER 14
1 In those days there was in the land of Shinar a
wise man who had understanding in all wisdom, and of a beautiful appearance,
but he was poor and indigent; his name was Rikayon and he was hard set to
support himself.
2 And he resolved to go to Egypt, to Oswiris the
son of Anom king of Egypt, to show the king his wisdom; for perhaps he might
find grace in his sight, to raise him up and give him maintenance; and Rikayon
did so.
3 And when Rikayon came to Egypt he asked the
inhabitants of Egypt concerning the king, and the inhabitants of Egypt told him
the custom of the king of Egypt, for it was then the custom of the king of
Egypt that he went from his royal palace and was seen abroad only one day in
the year, and after that the king would return to his palace to remain there.
4 And on the day when the king went forth he passed
judgment in the land, and every one having a suit came before the king that day
to obtain his request.
5 And when Rikayon heard of the custom in Egypt and
that he could not come into the presence of the king, he grieved greatly and
was very sorrowful.
6 And in the evening Rikayon went out and found a
house in ruins, formerly a bake house in Egypt, and he abode there all night in bitterness of soul and
pinched with hunger, and sleep was removed from his eyes.
7 And Rikayon considered within himself what he
should do in the town until the king made his appearance, and how he might
maintain himself there.
8 And he rose in the morning and walked about, and
met in his way those who sold vegetables and various sorts of seed with which
they supplied the inhabitants.
9 And Rikayon wished to do the same in order to get
a maintenance in the city, but he was unacquainted with the custom of the
people, and he was like a blind man among them.
10 And he went and obtained vegetables to sell them
for his support, and the rabble assembled about him and ridiculed him, and took
his vegetables from him and left him nothing.
11 And he rose up from there in bitterness of soul,
and went sighing to the bake house in which he had remained all the night
before, and he slept there the second night.
12 And on that night again he reasoned within
himself how he could save himself from starvation, and he devised a scheme how
to act.
13 And he rose up in the morning and acted ingeniously,
and went and hired thirty strong men of the rabble, carrying their war
instruments in their hands, and he led them to the top of the Egyptian
sepulchre, and he placed them there.
14 And he commanded them, saying, Thus saith the
king, Strengthen yourselves and be valiant men, and let no man be buried here
until two hundred pieces of silver be given, and then he may be buried; and
those men did according to the order of Rikayon to the people of Egypt the
whole of that year.
15 And in eight months time Rikayon and his men
gathered great riches of silver and gold, and Rikayon took a great quantity of
horses and other animals, and he hired more men, and he gave them horses and
they remained with him.
16 And when the year came round, at the time the
king went forth into the town, all the inhabitants of Egypt assembled together
to speak to him concerning the work of Rikayon and his men.
17 And the king went forth on the appointed day,
and all the Egyptians came before him and cried unto him, saying,
18 May the king live forever. What is this thing
thou doest in the town to thy servants, not to suffer a dead body to be buried
until so much silver and gold be given? Was there ever the like unto this done
in the whole earth, from the days of former kings yea even from the days of
Adam, unto this day, that the dead should not be buried only for a set price?
19 We know it to be the custom of kings to take a
yearly tax from the living, but thou dost not only do this, but from the dead
also thou exactest a tax day by day.
20 Now, O king, we can no more bear this, for the
whole city is ruined on this account, and dost thou not know it?
21 And when the king heard all that they had spoken
he was very wroth, and his anger burned within him at this affair, for he had
known nothing of it.
22 And the king said, Who and where is he that
dares to do this wicked thing in my land without my command? Surely you will
tell me.
23 And they told him all the works of Rikayon and
his men, and the king's anger was aroused, and he ordered Rikayon and his men
to be brought before him.
24 And Rikayon took about a thousand children, sons
and daughters, and clothed them in silk and embroidery, and he set them upon
horses and sent them to the king by means of his men, and he also took a great
quantity of silver and gold and precious stones, and a strong and beautiful
horse, as a present for the king, with which he came before the king and bowed
down to the earth before him; and the king, his servants and all the
inhabitants of Egypt wondered at the work of Rikayon, and they saw his riches
and the present that he had brought to the king.
25 And it greatly pleased the king and he wondered
at it; and when Rikayon sat before him the king asked him concerning all his
works, and Rikayon spoke all his words wisely before the king, his servants and
all the inhabitants of Egypt.
26 And when the king heard the words of Rikayon and
his wisdom, Rikayon found grace in his sight, and he met with grace and
kindness from all the servants of the king and from all the inhabitants of
Egypt, on account of his wisdom and excellent speeches, and from that time they
loved him exceedingly.
27 And the king answered and said to Rikayon, Thy
name shall no more be called Rikayon but Pharaoh shall be thy name, since thou
didst exact a tax from the dead; and he called his name Pharaoh.
28 And the king and his subjects loved Rikayon for
his wisdom, and they consulted with all the inhabitants of Egypt to make him
prefect under the king.
29 And all the inhabitants of Egypt and its wise
men did so, and it was made a law in Egypt.
30 And they made Rikayon Pharaoh prefect under
Oswiris king of Egypt, and Rikayon Pharaoh governed over Egypt, daily
administering justice to the whole city, but Oswiris the king would judge the
people of the land one day in the year, when he went out to make his
appearance.
31 And Rikayon Pharaoh cunningly usurped the
government of Egypt, and he exacted a tax from all the inhabitants of Egypt.
32 And all the inhabitants of Egypt greatly loved
Rikayon Pharaoh, and they made a decree to call every king that should reign
over them and their seed in Egypt, Pharaoh.
33 Therefore all the kings that reigned in Egypt
from that time forward were called Pharaoh unto this day.
CHAPTER 15
1 And in that year there was a heavy famine
throughout the land of Canaan, and the inhabitants of the land could not remain
on account of the famine for it was very grievous.
2 And Abram and all belonging to him rose and went
down to Egypt on account of the famine, and when they were at the brook
Mitzraim they remained there some time to rest from the fatigue of the road.
3 And Abram and Sarai were walking at the border of
the brook Mitzraim, and Abram beheld his wife Sarai that she was very
beautiful.
4 And Abram said to his wife Sarai, Since God has
created thee with such a beautiful countenance, I am afraid of the Egyptians
lest they should slay me and take thee away, for the fear of God is not in
these places.
5 Surely then thou shalt do this, Say thou art my
sister to all that may ask thee, in order that it may be well with me, and that
we may live and not be put to death.
6 And Abram commanded the same to all those that
came with him to Egypt on account of the famine; also his nephew Lot he
commanded, saying, If the Egyptians ask thee concerning Sarai say she is the
sister of Abram.
7 And yet with all these orders Abram did not put
confidence in them, but he took Sarai and placed her in a chest and concealed
it amongst their vessels, for Abram was greatly concerned about Sarai on
account of the wickedness of the Egyptians.
8 And Abram and all belonging to him rose up from
the brook Mitzraim and came to Egypt; and they had scarcely entered the gates
of the city when the guards stood up to them saying, Give tithe to the king
from what you have, and then you may come into the town; and Abram and those
that were with him did so.
9 And Abram with the people that were with him came
to Egypt, and when they came they brought the chest in which Sarai was
concealed and the Egyptians saw the chest.
10 And the king's servants approached Abram,
saying, What hast thou here in this chest which we have not seen? Now open thou
the chest and give tithe to the king of all that it contains.
11 And Abram said, This chest I will not open, but
all you demand upon it I will give. And Pharaoh's officers answered Abram,
saying, It is a chest of precious stones, give us the tenth thereof.
12 Abram said, All that you desire I will give, but
you must not open the chest.
13 And the king's officers pressed Abram, and they
reached the chest and opened it with force, and they saw, and behold a
beautiful woman was in the chest.
14 And when the officers of the king beheld Sarai
they were struck with admiration at her beauty, and all the princes and
servants of Pharaoh assembled to see Sarai, for she was very beautiful. And the
king's officers ran and told Pharaoh all that they had seen, and they praised
Sarai to the king; and Pharaoh ordered her to be brought, and the woman came
before the king.
15 And Pharaoh beheld Sarai and she pleased him
exceedingly, and he was struck with her beauty, and the king rejoiced greatly
on her account, and made presents to those who brought him the tidings
concerning her.
16 And the woman was then brought to Pharaoh's
house, and Abram grieved on account of his wife, and he prayed to the Lord to
deliver her from the hands of Pharaoh.
17 And Sarai also prayed at that time and said, O
Lord God thou didst tell my Lord Abram to go from his land and from his
father's house to the land of Canaan, and thou didst promise to do well with
him if he would perform thy commands; now behold we have done that which thou
didst command us, and we left our land and our families, and we went to a strange
land and to a people whom we have not known before.
18 And we came to this land to avoid the famine,
and this evil accident has befallen me; now therefore, O Lord God, deliver us
and save us from the hand of this oppressor, and do well with me for the sake
of thy mercy.
19 And the Lord hearkened to the voice of
Sarai,
and the Lord sent an angel to deliver Sarai from the power of Pharaoh.
20 And the king came and sat before Sarai and
behold an angel of the Lord was standing over them, and he appeared to Sarai
and said to her, Do not fear, for the Lord has heard thy prayer.
21 And the king approached Sarai and said to her,
What is that man to thee who brought thee hither? and she said, He is my
brother.
22 And the king said, It is incumbent upon us to
make him great, to elevate him and to do unto him all the good which thou shalt
command us; and at that time the king sent to Abram silver and gold and
precious stones in abundance, together with cattle, men servants and maid
servants; and the king ordered Abram to be brought, and he sat in the court of
the king's house, and the king greatly exalted Abram on that night.
23 And the king approached to speak to Sarai, and
he reached out his hand to touch her, when the angel smote him heavily, and he
was terrified and he refrained from reaching to her.
24 And when the king came near to Sarai, the angel
smote him to the ground, and acted thus to him the whole night, and the king
was terrified.
25 And the angel on that night smote heavily all
the servants of the king, and his whole household, on account of Sarai, and
there was a great lamentation that night amongst the people of Pharaoh's house.
26 And Pharaoh, seeing the evil that befell him,
said, Surely on account of this woman has this thing happened to me, and he
removed himself at some distance from her and spoke pleasing words to her.
27 And the king said to Sarai, Tell me I pray thee
concerning the man with whom thou camest here; and Sarai said, This man is my
husband, and I said to thee that he was my brother for I was afraid, lest thou
shouldst put him to death through wickedness.
28 And the king kept away from Sarai, and the
plagues of the angel of the Lord ceased from him and his household; and Pharaoh
knew that he was smitten on account of Sarai, and the king was greatly
astonished at this.
29 And in the morning the king called for Abram and
said to him, What is this thou hast done to me? Why didst thou say, She is my
sister, owing to which I took her unto me for a wife, and this heavy plague has
therefore come upon me and my household.
30 Now therefore here is thy wife, take her and go
from our land lest we all die on her account. And Pharaoh took more cattle, men
servants and maid servants, and silver and gold, to give to Abram, and he
returned unto him Sarai his wife.
31 And the king took a maiden whom he begat by his
concubines, and he gave her to Sarai for a handmaid.
32 And the king said to his daughter, It is better
for thee my daughter to be a handmaid in this man's house than to be mistress
in my house, after we have beheld the evil that befell us on account of this
woman.
33 And Abram arose, and he and all belonging to him
went away from Egypt; and Pharaoh ordered some of his men to accompany him and
all that went with him.
34 And Abram returned to the land of Canaan, to the
place where he had made the altar, where he at first had pitched his tent.
35 And Lot the son of Haran, Abram's brother, had a
heavy stock of cattle, flocks and herds and tents, for the Lord was bountiful
to them on account of Abram.
36 And when Abram was dwelling in the land the
herdsmen of Lot quarrelled with the herdsmen of Abram, for their property was
too great for them to remain together in the land, and the land could not bear
them on account of their cattle.
37 And when Abram's herdsmen went to feed their
flock they would not go into the fields of the people of the land, but the
cattle of Lot's herdsmen did otherwise, for they were suffered to feed in the
fields of the people of the land.
38 And the people of the land saw this occurrence
daily, and they came to Abram and quarrelled with him on account of Lot's
herdsmen.
39 And Abram said to Lot, What is this thou art
doing to me, to make me despicable to the inhabitants of the land, that thou
orderest thy herdsman to feed thy cattle in the fields of other people? Dost
thou not know that I am a stranger in this land amongst the children of Canaan,
and why wilt thou do this unto me?
40 And Abram quarrelled daily with Lot on account
of this, but Lot would not listen to Abram, and he continued to do the same and
the inhabitants of the land came and told Abram.
41 And Abram said unto Lot, How long wilt thou be
to me for a stumbling block with the inhabitants of the land? Now I beseech
thee let there be no more quarrelling between us, for we are kinsmen.
42 But I pray thee separate from me, go and choose
a place where thou mayest dwell with thy cattle and all belonging to thee, but
Keep thyself at a distance from me, thou and thy household.
43 And be not afraid in going from me, for if any
one do an injury to thee, let me know and I will avenge thy cause from him,
only remove from me.
44 And when Abram had spoken all these words to
Lot, then Lot arose and lifted up his eyes toward the plain of Jordan.
45 And he saw that the whole of this place was well
watered, and good for man as well as affording pasture for the cattle.
46 And Lot went from Abram to that place, and he
there pitched his tent and he dwelt in Sodom, and they were separated from each
other.
47 And Abram dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is
in Hebron, and he pitched his tent there, and Abram remained in that place many
years.
CHAPTER 16
1 At that time Chedorlaomer king of Elam sent to
all the neighboring kings, to Nimrod, king of Shinar who was then under his
power, and to Tidal, king of Goyim, and to Arioch, king of Elasar, with whom he
made a covenant, saying, Come up to me and assist me, that we may smite all the
towns of Sodom and its inhabitants, for they have rebelled against me these
thirteen years.
2 And these four kings went up with all their
camps, about eight hundred thousand men, and they went as they were, and smote
every man they found in their road.
3 And the five kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, Shinab
king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboyim, Bera king of Sodom, Bersha king of
Gomorrah, and Bela king of Zoar,
went
out to meet them, and they all joined together in the valley of Siddim.
4 And these nine kings made war in the valley of
Siddim; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were smitten before the kings of
Elam.
5 And the valley of Siddim was full of lime pits
and the kings of Elam pursued the kings of Sodom, and the kings of Sodom with
their camps fled and fell into the lime pits, and all that remained went to the
mountain for safety, and the five kings of Elam came after them and pursued
them to the gates of Sodom, and they took all that there was in Sodom.
6 And they plundered all the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah, and they also took Lot, Abram's brother's son, and his property, and
they seized all the goods of the cities of Sodom, and they went away; and Unic,
Abram's servant, who was in the battle, saw this, and told Abram all that the
kings had done to the cities of Sodom, and that Lot was taken captive by them.
7 And Abram heard this, and he rose up with about
three hundred and eighteen men that were with him, and he that night pursued
these kings and smote them, and they all fell before Abram and his men, and
there was none remaining but the four kings who fled, and they went each his
own road.
8 And Abram recovered all the property of Sodom,
and he also recovered Lot and his property, his wives and little ones and all
belonging to him, so that Lot lacked nothing.
9 And when he returned from smiting these kings, he
and his men passed the valley of Siddim where the kings had made war together.
10 And Bera king of Sodom, and the rest of his men
that were with him, went out from the lime pits into which they had fallen, to
meet Abram and his men.
11 And Adonizedek king of Jerusalem, the same was
Shem, went out with his men to meet Abram and his people, with bread and wine,
and they remained together in the valley of Melech.
12 And Adonizedek blessed Abram, and Abram gave him
a tenth from all that he had brought from the spoil of his enemies, for
Adonizedek was a priest before God.
13 And all the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah who were
there, with their servants, approached Abram and begged of him to return them
their servants whom he had made captive, and to take unto himself all the
property.
14 And Abram answered the kings of Sodom, saying,
As the Lord liveth who created heaven and earth, and who redeemed my soul from
all affliction, and who delivered me this day from my enemies, and gave them
into my hand, I will not take anything belonging to you, that you may not boast
tomorrow, saying, Abram became rich from our property that he saved.
15 For the Lord my God in whom I trust said unto
me, Thou shalt lack nothing, for I will bless thee in all the works of thy
hands.
16 And now therefore behold, here is all belonging
to you, take it and go; as the Lord liveth I will not take from you from a
living soul down to a shoetie or thread, excepting the expense of the food of those
who went out with me to battle, as also the portions of the men who went with
me, Anar, Ashcol, and Mamre, they and their men, as well as those also who had
remained to watch the baggage, they shall take their portion of the spoil.
17 And the kings of Sodom gave Abram according to
all that he had said, and they pressed him to take of whatever he chose, but he
would not.
18 And he sent away the kings of Sodom and the
remainder of their men, and he gave them orders about Lot, and they went to
their respective places.
19 And Lot, his brother's son, he also sent away
with his property, and he went with them, and Lot returned to his home, to
Sodom, and Abram and his people returned to their home to the plains of Mamre,
which is in Hebron.
20 At that time the Lord again appeared to Abram in
Hebron, and he said to him, Do not fear, thy reward is very great before me,
for I will not leave thee, until I shall have multiplied thee, and blessed thee
and made thy seed like the stars in heaven, which cannot be measured nor
numbered.
21 And I will give unto thy seed all these lands
that thou seest with thine eyes, to them will I give them for an inheritance
forever, only be strong and do not fear, walk before me and be perfect.
22 And in the seventy-eighth year of the life of
Abram, in that year died Reu, the son of Peleg, and all the days of Reu were
two hundred and thirty-nine years, and he died.
23 And Sarai, the daughter of Haran, Abram's wife,
was still barren in those days; she did not bear to Abram either son or
daughter.
24 And when she saw that she bare no children she
took her handmaid Hagar, whom Pharaoh had given her, and she gave her to Abram
her husband for a wife.
25 For Hagar learned all the ways of Sarai as Sarai
taught her, she was not in any way deficient in following her good ways.
26 And Sarai said to Abram, Behold here is my
handmaid Hagar, go to her that she may bring forth upon my knees, that I may
also obtain children through her.
27 And at the end of ten years of Abram's dwelling
in the land of Canaan, which is the eighty-fifth year of Abram's life, Sarai
gave Hagar unto him.
28 And Abram hearkened to the voice of his wife
Sarai, and he took his handmaid Hagar and Abram came to her and she conceived.
29 And when Hagar saw that she had conceived she
rejoiced greatly, and her mistress was despised in her eyes, and she said
within herself, This can only be that I am better before God than Sarai my
mistress, for all the days that my mistress has been with my lord, she did not
conceive, but me the Lord has caused in so short a time to conceive by him.
30 And when Sarai saw that Hagar had conceived by
Abram, Sarai was jealous of her handmaid, and Sarai said within herself, This
is surely nothing else but that she must be better than I am.
31 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon
thee, for at the time when thou didst pray before the Lord for children why
didst thou not pray on my account, that the Lord should give me seed from thee?
32 And when I speak to Hagar in thy presence, she despiseth
my words, because she has conceived, and thou wilt say nothing to her; may the
Lord judge between me and thee for what thou hast done to me.
33 And Abram said to Sarai, Behold thy handmaid is
in thy hand, do unto her as it may seem good in thy eyes; and Sarai afflicted
her, and Hagar fled from her to the wilderness.
34 And an angel of the Lord found her in the place
where she had fled, by a well, and he said to her, Do not fear, for I will
multiply thy seed, for thou shalt bear a son and thou shalt call his name
Ishmael; now then return to Sarai thy mistress, and submit thyself under her
hands.
35 And Hagar called the place of that well
Beer-lahai-roi, it is between Kadesh and the wilderness of Bered.
36 And Hagar at that time returned to her master's
house, and at the end of days Hagar bare a son to Abram, and Abram called his
name Ishmael; and Abram was eighty-six years old when he begat him.
CHAPTER 17
1 And in those days, in the ninety-first year of
the life of Abram, the children of Chittim made war with the children of Tubal,
for when the Lord had scattered the sons of men upon the face of the earth, the
children of Chittim went and embodied themselves in the plain of Canopia, and
they built themselves cities there and dwelt by the river Tibreu.
2 And the children of Tubal dwelt in Tuscanah, and
their boundaries reached the river Tibreu, and the children of Tubal built a
city in Tuscanan, and they called the name Sabinah, after the name of Sabinah
son of Tubal their father, and they dwelt there unto this day.
3 And it was at that time the children of Chittim
made war with the children of Tubal, and the children of Tubal were smitten
before the children of Chittim, and the children of Chittim caused three
hundred and seventy men to fall from the children of Tubal.
4 And at that time the children of Tubal swore to
the children of Chittim, saying, You shall not intermarry amongst us, and no
man shall give his daughter to any of the sons of Chittim.
5 For all the daughters of Tubal were in those days
fair, for no women were then found in the whole earth so fair as the daughters
of Tubal.
6 And all who delighted in the beauty of women went
to the daughters of Tubal and took wives from them, and the sons of men, kings
and princes, who greatly delighted in the beauty of women, took wives in those
days from the daughters of Tubal.
7 And at the end of three years after the children
of Tubal had sworn to the children of Chittim not to give them their daughters
for wives, about twenty men of the children of Chittim went to take some of the
daughters of Tubal, but they found none.
8 For the children of Tubal kept their oaths not to
intermarry with them, and they would not break their oaths.
9 And in the days of harvest the children of Tubal
went into their fields to get in their harvest, when the young men of Chittim
assembled and went to the city of Sabinah, and each man took a young woman from
the daughters of Tubal, and they came to their cities.
10 And the children of Tubal heard of it and they
went to make war with them, and they could not prevail over them, for the
mountain was exceedingly high from them, and when they saw they could not
prevail over them they returned to their land.
11 And at the revolution of the year the children
of Tubal went and hired about ten thousand men from those cities that were near
them, and they went to war with the children of Chittim.
12 And the children of Tubal went to war with the
children of Chittim, to destroy their land and to distress them, and in this
engagement the children of Tubal prevailed over the children of Chittim, and
the children of Chittim, seeing that they were greatly distressed, lifted up
the children which they had had by the daughters of Tubal, upon the wall which
had been built, to be before the eyes of the children of Tubal.
13 And the children of Chittim said to them, Have
you come to make war with your own sons and daughters, and have we not been
considered your flesh and bones from that time till now?
14 And when the children of Tubal heard this they
ceased to make war with the children of Chittim, and they went away.
15 And they returned to their cities, and the
children of Chittim at that time assembled and built two cities by the sea, and
they called one Purtu and the other Ariza.
16 And Abram the son of Terah was then ninety-nine
years old.
17 At that time the Lord appeared to him and he
said to him, I will make my covenant between me and thee, and I will greatly
multiply thy seed, and this is the covenant which I make between me and thee,
that every male child be circumcised, thou and thy seed after thee.
18 At eight days old shall it be circumcised, and
this covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
19 And now therefore thy name shall no more be
called Abram but Abraham, and thy wife shall no more be called Sarai but Sarah.
20 For I will bless you both, and I will multiply
your seed after you that you shall become a great nation, and kings shall come
forth from you.
CHAPTER 18
1 And Abraham rose and did all that God had ordered
him, and he took the men of his household and those bought with his money, and
he circumcised them as the Lord had commanded him.
2 And there was not one left whom he did not
circumcise, and Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised in the flesh of
their foreskin; thirteen years old was Ishmael when he was circumcised in the
flesh of his foreskin.
3 And in the third day Abraham went out of his tent
and sat at the door to enjoy the heat of the sun, during the pain of his flesh.
4 And the Lord appeared to him in the plain of
Mamre, and sent three of his ministering angels to visit him, and he was
sitting at the door of the tent, and he lifted his eyes and saw, and lo three
men were coming from a distance, and he rose up and ran to meet them, and he
bowed down to them and brought them into his house.
5 And he said to them, If now I have found favor in
your sight, turn in and eat a morsel of bread; and he pressed them, and they
turned in and he gave them water and they washed their feet, and he placed them
under a tree at the door of the tent.
6 And Abraham ran and took a calf, tender and good,
and he hastened to kill it, and gave it to his servant Eliezer to dress.
7 And Abraham came to Sarah into the tent, and he
said to her, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it and make
cakes to cover the pot containing the meat, and she did so.
8 And Abraham hastened and brought before them
butter and milk, beef and mutton, and gave it before
them to
eat before the flesh of the calf was sufficiently done, and they did eat.
9 And when they had done eating one of them said to
him, I will return to thee according to the time of life, and Sarah thy wife
shall have a son.
10 And the men afterward departed and went their
ways, to the places to which they were sent.
11 In those days all the people of Sodom and
Gomorrah, and of the whole five cities, were exceedingly wicked and sinful
against the Lord and they provoked the Lord with their abominations, and they
strengthened in aging abominably and scornfully before the Lord, and their
wickedness and crimes were in those days great before the Lord.
12 And they had in their land a very extensive
valley, about half a day's walk, and in it there were fountains of water and a
great deal of herbage surrounding the water.
13 And all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah went
there four times in the year, with their wives and children and all belonging
to them, and they rejoiced there with timbrels and dances.
14 And in the time of rejoicing they would all rise
and lay hold of their neighbor's wives, and some, the virgin daughters of their
neighbors, and they enjoyed them, and each man saw his wife and daughter in the
hands of his neighbor and did not say a word.
15 And they did so from morning to night, and they
afterward returned home each man to his house and each woman to her tent; so
they always did four times in the year.
16 Also when a stranger came into their cities and
brought goods which he had purchased with a view to dispose of there, the
people of these cities would assemble, men, women and children, young and old,
and go to the man and take his goods by force, giving a little to each man
until there was an end to all the goods of the owner which he had brought into
the land.
17 And if the owner of the goods quarreled with
them, saying, What is this work which you have done to me, then they would
approach to him one by one, and each would show him the little which he took
and taunt him, saying, I only took that little which thou didst give me; and
when he heard this from them all, he would arise and go from them in sorrow and
bitterness of soul, when they would all arise and go after him, and drive him
out of the city with great noise and tumult.
18 And there was a man from the country of Elam who
was leisurely going on the road, seated upon his ass, which carried a fine
mantle of divers colors, and the mantle was bound with a cord upon the ass.
19 And the man was on his journey passing through
the street of Sodom when the sun set in the evening, and he remained there in
order to abide during the night, but no one would let him into his house; and
at that time there was in Sodom a wicked and mischievous man, one skillful to do
evil, and his name was Hedad.
20 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler
in the street of the city, and he came to him and said, Whence comest thou and
whither dost thou go?
21 And the man said to him, I am traveling from
Hebron to Elam where I belong, and as I passed the sun set and no one would
suffer me to enter his house, though I had bread and water and also straw and
provender for my ass, and am short of nothing.
22 And Hedad answered and said to him, All that
thou shalt want shall be supplied by me, but in the street thou shalt not abide
all night.
23 And Hedad brought him to his house, and he took
off the mantle from the ass with the cord, and brought them to his house, and
he gave the ass straw and provender whilst the traveler ate and drank in
Hedad's house, and he abode there that night.
24 And in the morning the traveler rose up early to
continue his journey, when Hedad said to him, Wait, comfort thy heart with a
morsel of bread and then go, and the man did so; and he remained with him, and
they both ate and drank together during the day, when the man rose up to go.
25 And Hedad said to him, Behold now the day is
declining, thou hadst better remain all night that thy heart may be comforted;
and he pressed him so that he tarried there all night, and on the second day he
rose up early to go away, when Hedad pressed him, saying, Comfort thy heart
with a morsel of bread and then go, and he remained and ate with him also the
second day, and then the man rose up to continue his journey.
26 And Hedad said to him, Behold now the day is
declining, remain with me to comfort thy heart and in the morning rise up early
and go thy way.
27 And the man would not remain, but rose and
saddled his ass, and whilst he was saddling his ass the wife of Hedad said to
her husband, Behold this man has remained with us for two days eating and
drinking and he has given us nothing, and now shall he go away from us without
giving anything? and Hedad said to her, Be silent.
28 And the man saddled his ass to go, and he asked
Hedad to give him the cord and mantle to tie it upon the ass.
29 And Hedad said to him, What sayest thou? And he
said to him, That thou my lord shalt give me the cord and the mantle made with
divers colors which thou didst conceal with thee in thy house to take care of
it.
30 And Hedad answered the man, saying, This is the
interpretation of thy dream, the cord which thou didst see, means that thy life
will be lengthened out like a cord, and having seen the mantle colored with all
sorts of colors, means that thou shalt have a vineyard in which thou wilt plant
trees of all fruits.
31 And the traveler answered, saying, Not so my
lord, for I was awake when I gave thee the cord and also a mantle woven with
different colors, which thou didst take off the ass to put them by for me; and
Hedad answered and said, Surely I have told thee the interpretation of thy
dream and it is a good dream, and this is the interpretation thereof.
32 Now the sons of men give me four pieces of
silver, which is my charge for interpreting dreams, and of thee only I require
three pieces of silver.
33 And the man was provoked at the words of Hedad,
and he cried bitterly, and he brought Hedad to Serak judge of Sodom.
34 And the man laid his cause before Serak the
judge, when Hedad replied, saying, It is not so, but thus the matter stands;
and the judge said to the traveler, This man Hedad telleth thee truth, for he
is famed in the cities for the accurate interpretation of dreams.
35 And the man cried at the word of the judge, and
he said, Not so my Lord, for it was in the day that I gave him the cord and
mantle which was upon the ass, in order to put them by in his house; and they
both disputed before the judge, the one saying,
Thus
the matter was, and the other declaring otherwise.
36 And Hedad said to the man, Give me four pieces
of silver that I charge for my interpretations of dreams; I will not make any
allowance; and give me the expense of the four meals that thou didst eat in my
house.
37 And the man said to Hedad, Truly I will pay thee
for what I ate in thy house, only give me the cord and mantle which thou didst
conceal in thy house.
38 And Hedad replied before the judge and said to
the man, Did I not tell thee the interpretation of thy dream? the cord means
that thy days shall be prolonged like a cord, and the mantle, that thou wilt
have a vineyard in which thou wilt plant all kinds of fruit trees.
39 This is the proper interpretation of thy dream,
now give me the four pieces of silver that I require as a compensation, for I
will make thee no allowance.
40 And the man cried at the words of Hedad and they
both quarreled before the judge, and the judge gave orders to his servants, who
drove them rashly from the house.
41 And they went away quarreling from the judge,
when the people of Sodom heard them, and they gathered about them and they
exclaimed against the stranger, and they drove him rashly from the city.
42 And the man continued his journey upon his ass
with bitterness of soul, lamenting and weeping.
43 And whilst he was going along he wept at what
had happened to him in the corrupt city of Sodom.
CHAPTER 19
1 And the cities of Sodom had four judges to four
cities, and these were their names, Serak in the city of Sodom, Sharkad in
Gomorrah, Zabnac in Admah, and Menon in Zeboyim.
2 And Eliezer Abraham's servant applied to them
different names, and he converted Serak to Shakra, Sharkad to Shakrura, Zebnac
to Kezobim, and Menon to Matzlodin.
3 And by desire of their four judges the people of
Sodom and Gomorrah had beds erected in the streets of the cities, and if a man
came to these places they laid hold of him and brought him to one of their
beds, and by force made him to lie in them.
4 And as he lay down, three men would stand at his
head and three at his feet, and measure him by the length of the bed, and if
the man was less than the bed these six men would stretch him at each end, and
when he cried out to them they would not answer him.
5 And if he was longer than the bed they would draw
together the two sides of the bed at each end, until the man had reached the
gates of death.
6 And if he continued to cry out to them, they
would answer him, saying, Thus shall it be done to a man that cometh into our
land.
7 And when men heard all these things that the
people of the cities of Sodom did, they refrained from coming there.
8 And when a poor man came to their land they would
give him silver and gold, and cause a proclamation in the whole city not to
give him a morsel of bread to eat, and if the stranger should remain there some
days, and die from hunger, not having been able to obtain a morsel of bread,
then at his death all the people of the city would come and take their silver
and gold which they had given to him.
9 And those that could recognize the silver or gold
which they had given him took it back, and at his death they also stripped him
of his garments, and they would fight about them, and he that prevailed over
his neighbor took them.
10 They would after that carry him and bury him
under some of the shrubs in the deserts; so they did all the days to any one
that came to them and died in their land.
11 And in the course of time Sarah sent Eliezer to
Sodom, to see Lot and inquire after his welfare.
12 And Eliezer went to Sodom, and he met a man of
Sodom fighting with a stranger, and the man of Sodom stripped the poor man of
all his clothes and went away.
13 And this poor man cried to Eliezer and
supplicated his favor on account of what the man of Sodom had done to him.
14 And he said to him, Why dost thou act thus to
the poor man who came to thy land?
15 And the man of Sodom answered Eliezer, saying,
Is this man thy brother, or have the people of Sodom made thee a judge this
day, that thou speakest about this man?
16 And Eliezer strove with the man of Sodom on
account of the poor man, and when Eliezer approached to recover the poor man's
clothes from the man of Sodom, he hastened and with a stone smote Eliezer in
the forehead.
17 And the blood flowed copiously from Eliezer's forehead,
and when the man saw the blood he caught hold of Eliezer, saying, Give me my
hire for having rid thee of this bad blood that was in thy forehead, for such
is the custom and the law in our land.
18 And Eliezer said to him, Thou hast wounded me
and requirest me to pay thee thy hire; and Eliezer would not hearken to the
words of the man of Sodom.
19 And the man laid hold of Eliezer and brought him
to Shakra the judge of Sodom for judgment.
20 And the man spoke to the judge, saying, I
beseech thee my lord, thus has this man done, for I smote him with a stone that
the blood flowed from his forehead, and he is unwilling to give me my hire.
21 And the judge said to Eliezer, This man speaketh
truth to thee, give him his hire, for this is the custom in our land; and
Eliezer heard the words of the judge, and he lifted up a stone and smote the
judge, and the stone struck on his forehead, and the blood flowed copiously
from the forehead of the judge, and Eliezer said, If this then is the custom in
your land give thou unto this man what I should have given him, for this has
been thy decision, thou didst decree it.
22 And Eliezer left the man of Sodom with the
judge, and he went away.
23 And when the kings of Elam had made war with the
kings of Sodom, the kings of Elam captured all the property of Sodom, and they
took Lot captive, with his property, and when it was told to Abraham he went
and made war with the kings of Elam, and he recovered from their hands all the
property of Lot as well as the property of Sodom.
24 At that time the wife of Lot bare him a
daughter, and he called her name Paltith, saying, Because God had delivered him
and his whole household from the kings of Elam; and Paltith daughter of Lot
grew up, and one of the men of Sodom took her for a wife.
25 And a poor man came into the city to seek a
maintenance, and he remained in the city some days, and all the people of Sodom
caused a proclamation of their custom not to give this man a morsel of bread to
eat, until he dropped dead upon the earth, and they did so.
26 And Paltith the daughter of Lot saw this man
lying in the streets starved with hunger, and no one would give him any thing
to keep him alive, and he was just upon the point of death.
27 And her soul was filled with pity on account of
the man, and she fed him secretly with bread for many days, and the soul of
this man was revived.
28 For when she went forth to fetch water she would
put the bread in the water pitcher, and when she came to the place where the
poor man was, she took the bread from the pitcher and gave it him to eat; so
she did many days.
29 And all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
wondered how this man could bear starvation for so many days.
30 And they said to each other, This can only be
that he eats and drinks, for no man can bear starvation for so many days or
live as this man has, without even his countenance changing; and three men
concealed themselves in a place where the poor man was stationed, to know who
it was that brought him bread to eat.
31 And Paltith daughter of Lot went forth that day
to fetch water, and she put bread into her pitcher of water, and she went to
draw water by the poor man's place, and she took out the bread from the pitcher
and gave it to the poor man and he ate it.
32 And the three men saw what Paltith did to the
poor man, and they said to her, It is thou then who hast supported him, and
therefore has he not starved, nor changed in appearance nor died like the rest.
33 And the three men went out of the place in which
they were concealed, and they seized Paltith and the bread which was in the
poor man's hand.
34 And they took Paltith and brought her before
their judges, and they said to them, Thus did she do, and it is she who
supplied the poor man with bread, therefore did he not die all this time; now
therefore declare to us the punishment due to this woman for having
transgressed our law.
35 And the people of Sodom and Gomorrah assembled
and kindled a fire in the street of the city, and they took the woman and cast
her into the fire and she was burned to ashes.
36 And in the city of Admah there was a woman to
whom they did the like.
37 For a traveler came into the city of Admah to
abide there all night, with the intention of going home in the morning, and he
sat opposite the door of the house of the young woman's father, to remain
there, as the sun had set when be had reached that place; and the young woman
saw him sitting by the door of the house.
38 And he asked her for a drink of water and she
said to him, Who art thou? and he said to her, I was this day going on the
road, and reached here when the sun set, so I will abide here all night, and in
the morning I will arise early and continue my journey.
39 And the young woman went into the house and
fetched the man bread and water to eat and drink.
40 And this affair became known to the people of
Admah, and they assembled and brought the young woman before the judges, that
they should judge her for this act.
41 And the judge said, The judgment of death must
pass upon this woman because she transgressed our law, and this therefore is
the decision concerning her.
42 And the people of those cities assembled and
brought out the young woman, and anointed her with honey from head to foot, as
the judge had decreed, and they placed her before a swarm of bees which were
then in their hives, and the bees flew upon her and stung her that her whole
body was swelled.
43 And the young woman cried out on account of the
bees, but no one took notice of her or pitied her, and her cries ascended to
heaven.
44 And the Lord was provoked at this and at all the
works of the cities of Sodom, for they had abundance of food, and had
tranquility amongst them, and still would not sustain the poor and the needy,
and in those days their evil doings and sins became great before the Lord.
45 And the Lord sent for two of the angels that had
come to Abraham's house, to destroy Sodom and its cities.
46 And the angels rose up from the door of
Abraham's tent, after they had eaten and drunk, and they reached Sodom in the
evening, and Lot was then sitting in the gate of Sodom, and when he saw them he
rose to meet them, and he bowed down to the ground.
47 And he pressed them greatly and brought them
into his house, and he gave them victuals which they ate, and they abode all
night in his house.
48 And the angels said to Lot, Arise, go forth from
this place, thou and all belonging to thee, lest thou be consumed in the
iniquity of this city, for the Lord will destroy this place.
49 And the angels laid hold upon the hand of Lot
and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hands of his children, and all
belonging to him, and they brought him forth and set him without the cities.
50 And they said to Lot, Escape for thy life, and
he fled and all belonging to him.
51 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon
Gomorrah and upon all these cities brimstone and fire from the Lord out of
heaven.
52 And he overthrew these cities, all the plain and
all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground; and Ado
the wife of Lot looked back to see the destruction of the cities, for her
compassion was moved on account of her daughters who remained in Sodom, for
they did not go with her.
53 And when she looked back she became a pillar of
salt, and it is yet in that place unto this day.
54 And the oxen which stood in that place daily
licked up the salt to the extremities of their feet, and in the morning it
would spring forth afresh, and they again licked it up unto this day.
55 And Lot and two of his daughters that remained
with him fled and escaped to the cave of Adullam, and they remained there for
some time.
56 And Abraham rose up early in the morning to see
what had been done to the cities of Sodom; and he looked and beheld the smoke
of the cities going up like the smoke of a furnace.
57 And Lot and his two daughters remained in the
cave, and they made their father drink wine, and they lay with him, for they
said there was no man upon earth that could raise up seed from them, for they
thought that the whole earth was destroyed.
58 And they both lay with their father, and they
conceived and bare sons, and the first born called the name of her son Moab,
saying, From my father did I conceive him; he is the father of the Moabites
unto this day.
59 And the younger also called her son Benami; he
is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
60 And after this Lot and his two daughters went
away from there, and he dwelt on the other side of the Jordan with his two
daughters and their sons, and the sons of Lot grew up, and they went and took
themselves wives from the land of Canaan, and they begat children and they were
fruitful and multiplied.
CHAPTER 20
1 And at that time Abraham journeyed from the plain
of Mamre, and he went to the land of the Philistines, and he dwelt in Gerar; it
was in the twenty-fifth year of Abraham's being in the land of Canaan, and the
hundredth year of the life of Abraham, that he came to Gerar in the land of the
Philistines.
2 And when they entered the land he said to Sarah
his wife, Say thou art my sister, to any one that shall ask thee, in order that
we may escape the evil of the inhabitants of the land.
3 And as Abraham was dwelling in the land of the Philistines,
the servants of Abimelech, king of the Philistines, saw that Sarah was
exceedingly beautiful, and they asked Abraham concerning her, and he said, She
is my sister.
4 And the servants of Abimelech went to Abimelech,
saying, A man from the land of Canaan is come to dwell in the land, and he has
a sister that is exceeding fair.
5 And Abimelech heard the words of his servants who
praised Sarah to him, and Abimelech sent his officers, and they brought Sarah
to the king.
6 And Sarah came to the house of Abimelech, and the
king saw that Sarah was beautiful, and she pleased him exceedingly.
7 And he approached her and said to her, What is
that man to thee with whom thou didst come to our land? and Sarah answered and
said He is my brother, and we came from the land of Canaan to dwell wherever we
could find a place.
8 And Abimelech said to Sarah, Behold my land is
before thee, place thy brother in any part of this land that pleases thee, and
it will be our duty to exalt and elevate him above all the people of the land
since he is thy brother.
9 And Abimelech sent for Abraham, and Abraham came
to Abimelech.
10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, Behold I have
given orders that thou shalt be honored as thou desirest on account of thy
sister Sarah.
11 And Abraham went forth from the king, and the
king's present followed him.
12 As at evening time, before men lie down to rest,
the king was sitting upon his throne, and a deep sleep fell upon him, and he
lay upon the throne and slept till morning.
13 And he dreamed that an angel of the Lord came to
him with a drawn sword in his hand, and the angel stood over Abimelech, and
wished to slay him with the sword, and the king was terrified in his dream, and
said to the angel, In what have I sinned against thee that thou comest to slay
me with thy sword?
14 And the angel answered and said to Abimelech,
Behold thou diest on account of the woman which thou didst yesternight bring to
thy house, for she is a married woman, the wife of Abraham who came to thy
house; now therefore return that man his wife, for she is his wife; and
shouldst thou not return her, know that thou wilt surely die, thou and all
belonging to thee.
15 And on that night there was a great outcry in
the land of the Philistines, and the inhabitants of the land saw the figure of
a man standing with a drawn sword in his hand, and he smote the inhabitants of
the land with the sword, yea he continued to smite them.
16 And the angel of the Lord smote the whole land
of the Philistines on that night, and there was a great confusion on that night
and on the following morning.
17 And every womb was closed, and all their issues,
and the hand of the Lord was upon them on account of Sarah, wife of Abraham,
whom Abimelech had taken.
18 And in the morning Abimelech rose with terror
and confusion and with a great dread, and he sent and had his servants called
in, and he related his dream to them, and the people were greatly afraid.
19 And one man standing amongst the servants of the
king answered the king, saying, O sovereign king, restore this woman to her
husband, for he is her husband, for the like happened to the king of Egypt when
this man came to Egypt.
20 And he said concerning his wife, She is my
sister, for such is his manner of doing when he cometh to dwell in the land in
which he is a stranger.
21 And Pharaoh sent and took this woman for a wife
and the Lord brought upon him grievous plagues until he returned the woman to
her husband.
22 Now therefore, O sovereign king, know what
happened yesternight to the whole land, for there was a very great
consternation and great pain and lamentation, and we know that it was on
account of the woman which thou didst take.
23 Now, therefore, restore this woman to her
husband, lest it should befall us as it did to Pharaoh king of Egypt and his
subjects, and that we may not die; and Abimelech hastened and called and had
Sarah called for, and she came before him, and he had Abraham called for, and
he came before him.
24 And Abimelech said to them, What is this work
you have been doing in saying you are brother and sister, and I took this woman
for a wife?
25 And Abraham said, Because I thought I should
suffer death on account of my wife; and Abimelech took flocks and herds, and
men servants and maid servants, and a thousand pieces of silver, and he gave
them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah to him.
26 And Abimelech said to Abraham, Behold the whole
land is before thee, dwell in it wherever thou shalt choose.
27 And Abraham and Sarah, his wife, went forth from
the king's presence with honor and respect, and they dwelt in the land, even in
Gerar.
28 And all the inhabitants of the land of the
Philistines and the king's servants were still in pain, through the plague
which the angel had inflicted upon them the whole night on account of Sarah.
29 And Abimelech sent for Abraham, saying, Pray now
for thy servants to the Lord thy God, that he may put away this mortality from
amongst us.
30 And Abraham prayed on account of Abimelech and
his subjects, and the Lord heard the prayer of Abraham, and he healed Abimelech
and all his subjects.
CHAPTER 21
1 And it was at that time at the end of a year and
four months of Abraham's dwelling in the land of the Philistines in Gerar, that
God visited Sarah, and the Lord remembered her, and she conceived and bare a
son to Abraham.
2 And Abraham called the name of the son which was
born to him, which Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
3 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac at eight
days old, as God had commanded Abraham to do unto his seed after him; and
Abraham was one hundred, and Sarah ninety years old, when Isaac was born to
them.
4 And the child grew up and he was weaned, and
Abraham made a great feast upon the day that Isaac was weaned.
5 And Shem and Eber and all the great people of the
land, and Abimelech king of the Philistines, and his servants, and Phicol, the
captain of his host, came to eat and drink and rejoice at the feast which
Abraham made upon the day of his son Isaac's being weaned.
6 Also Terah, the father of Abraham, and Nahor his
brother, came from Haran, they and all belonging to them, for they greatly
rejoiced on hearing that a son had been born to Sarah.
7 And they came to Abraham, and they ate and drank
at the feast which Abraham made upon the day of Isaac's being weaned.
8 And Terah and Nahor rejoiced with Abraham, and
they remained with him many days in the land of the Philistines.
9 At that time Serug the son of Reu died, in the
first year of the birth of Isaac son of Abraham.
10 And all the days of Serug were two hundred and
thirty-nine years, and he died.
11 And Ishmael the son of Abraham was grown up in
those days; he was fourteen years old when Sarah bare Isaac to Abraham.
12 And God was with Ishmael the son of Abraham, and
he grew up, and he learned to use the bow and became an archer.
13 And when Isaac was five years old he was sitting
with Ishmael at the door of the tent.
14 And Ishmael came to Isaac and seated himself
opposite to him, and he took the bow and drew it and put the arrow in it, and
intended to slay Isaac.
15 And Sarah saw the act which Ishmael desired to
do to her son Isaac, and it grieved her exceedingly on account of her son, and
she sent for Abraham, and said to him, Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for
her son shall not be heir with my son, for thus did he seek to do unto him this
day.
16 And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarah, and
he rose up early in the morning, and he took twelve loaves and a bottle of
water which he gave to Hagar, and sent her away with her son, and Hagar went
with her son to the wilderness, and they dwelt in the wilderness of Paran with
the inhabitants of the wilderness, and Ishmael was an archer, and he dwelt in
the wilderness a long time.
17 And he and his mother afterward went to the land
of Egypt, and they dwelt there, and Hagar took a wife for her son from Egypt,
and her name was Meribah.
18 And the wife of Ishmael conceived and bare four
sons and two daughters, and Ishmael and his mother and his wife and children
afterward went and returned to the wilderness.
19 And they made themselves tents in the
wilderness, in which they dwelt, and they continued to travel and then to rest
monthly and yearly.
20 And God gave Ishmael flocks and herds and tents
on account of Abraham his father, and the man increased in cattle.
21 And Ishmael dwelt in deserts and in tents,
traveling and resting for a long time, and he did not see the face of his
father.
22 And in some time after, Abraham said to Sarah
his wife, I will go and see my son Ishmael, for I have a desire to see him, for
I have not seen him for a long time.
23 And Abraham rode upon one of his camels to the
wilderness to seek his son Ishmael, for he heard that he was dwelling in a tent
in the wilderness with all belonging to him.
24 And Abraham went to the wilderness, and he
reached the tent of Ishmael about noon, and he asked after Ishmael, and he
found the wife of Ishmael sitting in the tent with her children, and Ishmael
her husband and his mother were not with them.
25 And Abraham asked the wife of Ishmael, saying,
Where has Ishmael gone? and she said, He has gone to the field to hunt, and
Abraham was still mounted upon the camel, for he would not get off to the
ground as he had sworn to his wife Sarah that he would not get off from the
camel.
26 And Abraham said to Ishmael's wife, My daughter,
give me a little water that I may drink, for I am fatigued from the journey.
27 And Ishmael's wife answered and said to Abraham,
We have neither water nor bread, and she continued sitting in the tent and did
not notice Abraham, neither did she ask him who he was.
28 But she was beating her children in the tent,
and she was cursing them, and she also cursed her husband Ishmael and
reproached him, and Abraham heard the words of Ishmael's wife to her children,
and he was very angry and displeased.
29 And Abraham called to the woman to come out to
him from the tent, and the woman came and stood opposite to Abraham, for Abraham
was still mounted upon the camel.
30 And Abraham said to Ishmael's wife, When thy
husband Ishmael returneth home say these words to him,
31 A very old man from the land of the Philistines
came hither to seek thee, and thus was his appearance and figure; I did not ask
him who he was, and seeing thou wast not here he spoke unto me and said, When
Ishmael thy husband returneth tell him thus did this man say, When thou comest
home put away this nail of the tent which thou hast placed here, and place another
nail in its stead.
32 And Abraham finished his instructions to the
woman, and he turned and went off on the camel homeward.
33 And after that Ishmael came from the chase he
and his mother, and returned to the tent, and his wife spoke these words to
him,
34 A very old man from the land of the Philistines
came to seek thee, and thus was his appearance and figure; I did not ask him
who he was, and seeing thou wast not at home he said to me, When thy husband
cometh home tell him, thus saith the old man, Put away the nail of the tent
which thou hast placed here and place another nail in its stead.
35 And Ishmael heard the words of his wife, and he
knew that it was his father, and that his wife did not honor him.
36 And Ishmael understood his father's words that
he had spoken to his wife, and Ishmael hearkened to the voice of his father,
and Ishmael cast off that woman and she went away.
37 And Ishmael afterward went to the land of
Canaan, and he took another wife and he brought her to his tent to the place
where he then dwelt.
38 And at the end of three years Abraham said, I
will go again and see Ishmael my son, for I have not seen him for a long time.
39 And he rode upon his camel and went to the
wilderness, and he reached the tent of Ishmael about noon.
40 And he asked after Ishmael, and his wife came
out of the tent and she said, He is not here my lord, for he has gone to hunt
in the fields, and to feed the camels, and the woman said to Abraham, Turn in
my lord into the tent, and eat a morsel of bread, for thy soul must be wearied
on account of the journey.
41 And Abraham said to her, I will not stop for I
am in haste to continue my journey, but give me a little water to drink, for I
have thirst; and the woman hastened and ran into the tent and she brought out water
and bread to Abraham, which she placed before him and she urged him to eat, and
he ate and drank and his heart was comforted and he blessed his son Ishmael.
42 And he finished his meal and he blessed the
Lord, and he said to Ishmael's wife, When Ishmael cometh home say these words
to him,
43 A very old man from the land of the Philistines
came hither and asked after thee, and thou wast not here; and I brought him out
bread and water and he ate and drank and his heart was comforted.
44 And he spoke these words to me: When Ishmael thy
husband cometh home, say unto him, The nail of the tent which thou hast is very
good, do not put it away from the tent.
45 And Abraham finished commanding the woman, and
he rode off to his home to the land of the Philistines; and when Ishmael came
to his tent his wife went forth to meet him with joy and a cheerful heart.
46 And she said to him, An old man came here from
the land of the Philistines and thus was his appearance, and he asked after
thee and thou wast not here, so I brought out bread and water, and he ate and
drank and his heart was comforted.
47 And he spoke these words to me, When Ishmael thy
husband cometh home say to him, The nail of the tent which thou hast is very
good, do not put it away from the tent.
48 And Ishmael knew that it was his father, and
that his wife had honored him, and the Lord blessed Ishmael.
CHAPTER 22
1 And Ishmael then rose up and took his wife and
his children and his cattle and all belonging to him, and he journeyed from
there and he went to his father in the land of the Philistines.
2 And Abraham related to Ishmael his son the
transaction with the first wife that Ishmael took, according to what she did.
3 And Ishmael and his children dwelt with Abraham
many days in that land, and Abraham dwelt in the land of the Philistines a long
time.
4 And the days increased and reached twenty six
years, and after that Abraham with his servants and all belonging to him went
from the land of the Philistines and removed to a great distance, and they came
near to Hebron, and they remained there, and the servants of Abraham dug wells
of water, and Abraham and all belonging to him dwelt by the water, and the
servants of Abimelech king of the Philistines heard the report that Abraham's
servants had dug wells of water in the borders of the land.
5 And they came and quarreled with the servants of
Abraham, and they robbed them of the great well which they had dug.
6 And Abimelech king of the Philistines heard of
this affair, and he with Phicol the captain of his host and twenty of his men
came to Abraham, and Abimelech spoke to Abraham concerning his servants, and
Abraham rebuked Abimelech concerning the well of which his servants had robbed
him.
7 And Abimelech said to Abraham, As the Lord liveth
who created the whole earth, I did not hear of the act which my servants did
unto thy servants until this day.
8 And Abraham took seven ewe lambs and gave them to
Abimelech, saying, Take these, I pray thee, from my hands that it may be a
testimony for me that I dug this well.
9 And Abimelech took the seven ewe lambs which
Abraham had given to him, for he had also given him cattle and herds in
abundance, and Abimelech swore to Abraham concerning the well, therefore he
called that well Beersheba, for there they both swore concerning it.
10 And they both made a covenant in Beersheba, and
Abimelech rose up with Phicol the captain of his host and all his men, and they
returned to the land of the Philistines, and Abraham and all belonging to him
dwelt in Beersheba and he was in that land a long time.
11 And Abraham planted a large grove in Beersheba,
and he made to it four gates facing the four sides of the earth, and he planted
a vineyard in it, so that if a traveler came to Abraham he entered any gate
which was in his road, and remained there and ate and drank and satisfied
himself and then departed.
12 For the house of Abraham was always open to the
sons of men that passed and repassed, who came daily to eat and drink in the
house of Abraham.
13 And any man who had hunger and came to Abraham's
house, Abraham would give him bread that he might eat and drink and be
satisfied, and any one that came naked to his house he would clothe with
garments as he might choose, and give him silver and gold and make known to him
the Lord who had created him in the earth; this did Abraham all his life.
14 And Abraham and his children and all belonging
to him dwelt in Beersheba, and he pitched his tent as far as Hebron.
15 And Abraham's brother Nahor and his father and
all belonging to them dwelt in Haran, for they did not come with Abraham to the
land of Canaan.
16 And children were born to Nahor which Milca the
daughter of Haran, and sister to Sarah, Abraham's wife, bare to him.
17 And these are the names of those that were born
to him, Uz, Buz,
Kemuel,
Kesed, Chazo, Pildash, Tidlaf, and Bethuel, being eight sons, these are the
children of Milca which she bare to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
18 And Nahor had a concubine and her name was
Reumah, and she also bare to Nahor, Zebach, Gachash, Tachash and Maacha, being
four sons.
19 And the children that were born to Nahor were
twelve sons besides his daughters, and they also had children born to them in
Haran.
20 And the children of Uz the first born of Nahor
were Abi, Cheref, Gadin, Melus, and Deborah their sister.
21 And the sons of Buz were Berachel, Naamath,
Sheva, and Madonu.
22 And the sons of Kemuel were Aram and Rechob.
23 And the sons of Kesed were Anamlech, Meshai,
Benon and Yifi; and the sons of Chazo were Pildash, Mechi and Opher.
24 And the sons of Pildash were Arud, Chamum, Mered
and Moloch.
25 And the sons of Tidlaf were Mushan, Cushan and
Mutzi.
26 And the children of Bethuel were Sechar, Laban
and their sister Rebecca.
27 These are the families of the children of Nahor,
that were born to them in Haran; and Aram the son of Kemuel and Rechob his
brother went away from Haran, and they found a valley in the land by the river
Euphrates.
28 And they built a city there, and they called the
name of the city after the name of Pethor the son of Aram, that is Aram
Naherayim unto this day.
29 And the children of Kesed also went to dwell
where they could find a place, and they went and they found a valley opposite
to the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
30 And they there built themselves a city, and they
called the name at the city Kesed after the name of their father, that is the
land Kasdim unto this day, and the Kasdim dwelt in that land and they were
fruitful and multiplied exceedingly.
31 And Terah, father of Nahor and Abraham, went and
took another wife in his old age, and her name was Pelilah, and she conceived
and bare him a son and he called his name Zoba.
32 And Terah lived twenty-five years after he begat
Zoba.
33 And Terah died in that year, that is in the
thirty-fifth year of the birth of Isaac son of Abraham.
34 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five
years, and he was buried in Haran.
35 And Zoba the son of Terah lived thirty years and
he begat Aram, Achlis and Merik.
36 And Aram son of Zoba son of Terah, had three
wives and he begat twelve sons and three daughters; and the Lord gave to Aram
the son of Zoba, riches and possessions, and abundance of cattle, and flocks
and herds, and the man increased greatly.
37 And Aram the son of Zoba and his brother and all
his household journeyed from Haran, and they went to dwell where they should
find a place, for their property was too great to remain in Haran; for they
could not stop in Haran together with their brethren the children of Nahor.
38 And Aram the son of Zoba went with his brethren,
and they found a valley at a distance toward the eastern country and they dwelt
there.
39 And they also built a city there, and they
called the name thereof Aram, after the name of their eldest brother; that is
Aram Zoba to this day.
40 And Isaac the son of Abraham was growing up in
those days, and
Abraham
his father taught him the way of the Lord to know the Lord, and the Lord was
with him.
41 And when Isaac was thirty-seven years old,
Ishmael his brother was going about with him in the tent.
42 And Ishmael boasted of himself to Isaac, saying,
I was thirteen years old when the Lord spoke to my father to circumcise us, and
I did according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to my father, and I gave
my soul unto the Lord, and I did not transgress his word which he commanded my
father.
43 And Isaac answered Ishmael, saying, Why dost
thou boast to me about this, about a little bit of thy flesh which thou didst
take from thy body, concerning which the Lord commanded thee?
44 As the Lord liveth, the God of my father
Abraham, if the Lord should say unto my father, Take now thy son Isaac and
bring him up an offering before me, I would not refrain but I would joyfully
accede to it.
45 And the Lord heard the word that Isaac spoke to
Ishmael, and it seemed good in the sight of the Lord, and he thought to try
Abraham in this matter.
46 And the day arrived when the sons of God came
and placed themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with the sons of God
before the Lord.
47 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest
thou? and Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth,
and from walking up and down in it.
48 And the Lord said to Satan, What is thy word to
me concerning all the children of the earth? and Satan answered the Lord and
said, I have seen all the children of the earth who serve thee and remember
thee when they require anything from thee.
49 And when thou givest them the thing which they
require from thee, they sit at their ease, and forsake thee and they remember
thee no more.
50 Hast thou seen Abraham the son of Terah, who at
first had no children, and he served thee and erected altars to thee wherever
he came, and he brought up offerings upon them, and he proclaimed thy name
continually to all the children of the earth.
51 And now that his son Isaac is born to him, he
has forsaken thee, he has made a great feast for all the inhabitants of the
land, and the Lord he has forgotten.
52 For amidst all that he has done he brought thee
no offering; neither burnt offering nor peace offering, neither ox, lamb nor
goat of all that he killed on the day that his son was weaned.
53 Even from the time of his son's birth till now,
being thirty-seven years, he built no altar before thee, nor brought any
offering to thee, for he saw that thou didst give what he requested before
thee, and he therefore forsook thee.
54 And the Lord said to Satan, Hast thou thus
considered my servant Abraham? for there is none like him upon earth, a perfect
and an upright man before me, one that feareth God and avoideth evil; as I
live, were I to say unto him, Bring up Isaac thy son before me, he would not
withhold him from me, much more if I told him to bring up a burnt offering
before me from his flock or herds.
55 And Satan answered the Lord and said, Speak then
now unto Abraham as thou hast said, and thou wilt see whether he will not this
day transgress and cast aside thy words.
CHAPTER 23
1 At that time the word of the Lord came to
Abraham, and he said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.
2 And he said to him, Take now thy son, thine only
son whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him
there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which shall be shown to
thee, for there wilt thou see a cloud and the glory of the Lord.
3 And Abraham said within himself, How shall I
separate my son Isaac from Sarah his mother, in order to bring him up for a
burnt offering before the Lord?
4 And Abraham came into the tent, and he sat before
Sarah his wife, and he spoke these words to her,
5 My son Isaac is grown up and he has not for some
time studied the service of his God, now tomorrow I will go and bring him to
Shem, and Eber his son, and there he will learn the ways of the Lord, for they
will teach him to know the Lord as well as to know that when he prayeth
continually before the Lord, he will answer him, therefore there he will know
the way of serving the Lord his God.
6 And Sarah said, Thou hast spoken well, go my lord
and do unto him as thou hast said, but remove him not at a great distance from
me, neither let him remain there too long, for my soul is bound within his
soul.
7 And Abraham said unto Sarah, My daughter, let us
pray to the Lord our God that he may do good with us.
8 And Sarah took her son Isaac and he abode all
that night with her, and she kissed and embraced him, and gave him instructions
till morning.
9 And she said to him, O my son, how can my soul
separate itself from thee? And she still kissed him and embraced him, and she
gave Abraham instructions concerning him.
10 And Sarah said to Abraham, O my lord, I pray
thee take heed of thy son, and place thine eyes over him, for I have no other
son nor daughter but him.
11 O forsake him not. If he be hungry give him
bread, and if he be thirsty give him water to drink; do not let him go on foot,
neither let him sit in the sun.
12 Neither let him go by himself in the road,
neither force him from whatever he may desire, but do unto him as he may say to
thee.
13 And Sarah wept bitterly the whole night on
account of Isaac, and she gave him instructions till morning.
14 And in the morning Sarah selected a very fine
and beautiful garment from those garments which she had in the house, that
Abimelech had given to her.
15 And she dressed Isaac her son therewith, and she
put a turban upon his head, and she enclosed a precious stone in the top of the
turban, and she gave them provision for the road, and they went forth, and
Isaac went with his father Abraham, and some of their servants accompanied them
to see them off the road.
16 And Sarah went out with them, and she
accompanied them upon the road to see them off, and they said to her, Return to
the tent.
17 And when Sarah heard the words of her son Isaac
she wept bitterly, and Abraham her husband wept with her, and their son wept
with them a great weeping; also those who went with them wept greatly.
18 And Sarah caught hold of her son Isaac, and she
held him in her arms, and she embraced him and continued to weep with him, and
Sarah said, Who knoweth if after this day I shall ever see thee again?
19 And they still wept together, Abraham, Sarah and
Isaac, and all those that accompanied them on the road wept with them, and
Sarah afterward turned away from her son, weeping bitterly, and all her men
servants and maid servants returned with her to the tent.
20 And Abraham went with Isaac his son to bring him
up as an offering before the Lord, as He had commanded him.
21 And Abraham took two of his young men with him,
Ishmael the son of Hagar and Eliezer his servant, and they went together with
them, and whilst they were walking in the road the young men spoke these words
to themselves,
22 And Ishmael said to Eliezer, Now my father
Abraham is going with Isaac to bring him up for a burnt offering to the Lord,
as He commanded him.
23 Now when he returneth he will give unto me all
that he possesses, to inherit after him, for I am his first born.
24 And Eliezer answered Ishmael and said, Surely
Abraham did cast thee away with thy mother, and swear that thou shouldst not
inherit any thing of all he possesses, and to whom will he give all that he
has, with all his treasures, but unto me his servant, who has been faithful in
his house, who has served him night and day, and has done all that he desired
me? to me will he bequeath at his death all that he possesses.
25 And whilst Abraham was proceeding with his son
Isaac along the road, Satan came and appeared to Abraham in the figure of a
very aged man, humble and of contrite spirit, and he approached Abraham and
said to him, Art thou silly or brutish, that thou goest to do this thing this
day to thine only son?
26 For God gave thee a son in thy latter days, in
thy old age, and wilt thou go and slaughter him this day because he committed
no violence, and wilt thou cause the soul of thine only son to perish from the
earth?
27 Dost thou not know and understand that this
thing cannot be from the Lord? for the Lord cannot do unto man such evil upon
earth to say to him, Go slaughter thy child.
28 And Abraham heard this and knew that it was the
word of Satan who endeavored to draw him aside from the way of the Lord, but
Abraham would not hearken to the voice of Satan, and Abraham rebuked him so
that he went away.
29 And Satan returned and came to Isaac; and he
appeared unto Isaac in the figure of a young man comely and well favored.
30 And he approached Isaac and said unto him, Dost
thou not know and understand that thy old silly father bringeth thee to the
slaughter this day for naught?
31 Now therefore, my son, do not listen nor attend
to him, for he is a silly old man, and let not thy precious soul and beautiful
figure be lost from the earth.
32 And Isaac heard this, and said unto Abraham,
Hast thou heard, my father, that which this man has spoken? even thus has he
spoken.
33 And Abraham answered his son Isaac and said to
him, Take heed of him and do not listen to his words, nor attend to him, for he
is Satan, endeavoring to draw us aside this day from the commands of God.
34 And Abraham still rebuked Satan, and Satan went
from them, and seeing he could not prevail over them he hid himself from them,
and he went and passed before them in the road; and he transformed himself to a
large brook of water in the road, and Abraham and Isaac and his two young men
reached that place, and they saw a brook large and powerful as the mighty
waters.
35 And they entered the brook and passed through
it, and the waters at first reached their legs.
36 And they went deeper in the brook and the waters
reached up to their necks, and they were all terrified on account of the water;
and whilst they were going over the brook Abraham recognized that place, and he
knew that there was no water there before.
37 And Abraham said to his son Isaac, I know this
place in which there was no brook nor water, now therefore it is this Satan who
does all this to us, to draw us aside this day from the commands of God.
38 And Abraham rebuked him and said unto him, The
Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, begone from us for we go by the commands of God.
39 And Satan was terrified at the voice of Abraham,
and he went away from them, and the place again became dry land as it was at
first.
40 And Abraham went with Isaac toward the place
that God had told him.
41 And on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes
and saw the place at a distance which God had told him of.
42 And a pillar of fire appeared to him that
reached from the earth to heaven, and a cloud of glory upon the mountain, and
the glory of the Lord was seen in the cloud.
43 And Abraham said to Isaac, My son, dost thou see
in that mountain, which we perceive at a distance, that which I see upon it?
44 And Isaac answered and said unto his father, I
see and lo a pillar of fire and a cloud, and the glory of the Lord is seen upon
the cloud.
45 And Abraham knew that his son Isaac was accepted
before the Lord for a burnt offering.
46 And Abraham said unto Eliezer and unto Ishmael
his son, Do you also see that which we see upon the mountain which is at a
distance?
47 And they answered and said, We see nothing more
than like the other mountains of the earth. And Abraham knew that they were not
accepted before the Lord to go with them, and Abraham said to them, Abide ye
here with the ass whilst I and Isaac my son will go to yonder mount and worship
there before the Lord and then return to you.
48 And Eliezer and Ishmael remained in that place,
as Abraham had commanded.
49 And Abraham took wood for a burnt offering and
placed it upon his son Isaac, and he took the fire and the knife, and they both
went to that place.
50 And when they were going along Isaac said to his
father, Behold, I see here the fire and wood, and where then is the lamb that
is to be the burnt offering before the Lord?
51 And Abraham answered his son Isaac, saying, The
Lord has made choice of thee my son, to be a perfect burnt offering instead of
the lamb.
52 And Isaac said unto his father, I will do all
that the Lord spoke to thee with joy and cheerfulness of heart.
53 And Abraham again said unto Isaac his son, Is
there in thy heart any thought or counsel concerning this, which is not proper?
tell me my son, I pray thee, O my son conceal it not from me.
54 And Isaac answered his father Abraham and said
unto him, O my father, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, there is
nothing in my heart to cause me to deviate either to the right or to the left
from the word that he has spoken to thee.
55 Neither limb nor muscle has moved or stirred at
this, nor is there in my heart any thought or evil counsel concerning this.
56 But I am of joyful and cheerful heart in this
matter, and I say, Blessed is the Lord who has this day chosen me to be a burnt
offering before Him.
57 And Abraham greatly rejoiced at the words of
Isaac, and they went on and came together to that place that the Lord had
spoken of.
58 And Abraham approached to build the altar in
that place, and Abraham was weeping, and Isaac took stones and mortar until
they had finished building the altar.
59 And Abraham took the wood and placed it in order
upon the altar which he had built.
60 And he took his son Isaac and bound him in order
to place him upon the wood which was upon the altar, to slay him for a burnt
offering before the Lord.
61 And Isaac said to his father, Bind me securely
and then place me upon the altar lest I should turn and move, and break loose
from the force of the knife upon my flesh and thereof profane the burnt
offering; and Abraham did so.
62 And Isaac still said to his father, O my father,
when thou shalt have slain me and burnt me for an offering, take with thee that
which shall remain of my ashes to bring to Sarah my mother, and say to her,
This is the sweet smelling savor of Isaac; but do not tell her this if she
should sit near a well or upon any high place, lest she should cast her soul
after me and die.
63 And Abraham heard the words of Isaac, and he
lifted up his voice and wept when Isaac spake these words; and Abraham's tears
gushed down upon Isaac his son, and Isaac wept bitterly, and he said to his
father, Hasten thou, O my father, and do with me the will of the Lord our God
as He has commanded thee.
64 And the hearts of Abraham and Isaac rejoiced at
this thing which the Lord had commanded them; but the eye wept bitterly whilst
the heart rejoiced.
65 And Abraham bound his son Isaac, and placed him
on the altar upon the wood, and Isaac stretched forth his neck upon the altar
before his father, and Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the knife to
slay his son as a burnt offering before the Lord.
66 At that time the angels of mercy came before the
Lord and spake to him concerning Isaac, saying,
67 0 Lord, thou art a merciful and compassionate
King over all that thou hast created in heaven and in earth, and thou
supportest them all; give therefore ransom and redemption instead of thy
servant Isaac, and pity and have compassion upon Abraham and Isaac his son, who
are this day performing thy commands.
68 Hast thou seen, O Lord, how Isaac the son of
Abraham thy servant is bound down to the slaughter like an animal? now
therefore let thy pity be roused for them, O Lord.
69 At that time the Lord appeared unto Abraham, and
called to him, from heaven, and said unto him, Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou any thing unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God in
performing this act, and in not withholding thy son, thine only son, from me.
70 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and
behold, a ram was caught in a thicket by his horns; that was the ram which the
Lord God had created in the earth in the day that he made earth and heaven.
71 For the Lord had prepared this ram from that
day, to be a burnt offering instead of Isaac.
72 And this ram was advancing to Abraham when Satan
caught hold of him and entangled his horns in the thicket, that he might not
advance to Abraham, in order that Abraham might slay his son.
73 And Abraham, seeing the ram advancing to him and
Satan withholding him, fetched him and brought him before the altar, and he
loosened his son Isaac from his binding, and he put the ram in his stead, and
Abraham killed the ram upon the altar, and brought it up as an offering in the
place of his son Isaac.
74 And Abraham sprinkled some of the blood of the
ram upon the altar, and he exclaimed and said, This is in the place of my son,
and may this be considered this day as the blood of my son before the Lord.
75 And all that Abraham did on this occasion by the
altar, he would exclaim and say, This is in the room of my son, and may it this
day be considered before the Lord in the place of my son; and Abraham finished
the whole of the service by the altar, and the service was accepted before the
Lord, and was accounted as if it had been Isaac; and the Lord blessed Abraham
and his seed on that day.
76 And Satan went to Sarah, and he appeared to her
in the figure of an old man very humble and meek, and Abraham was yet engaged
in the burnt offering before the Lord.
77 And he said unto her, Dost thou not know all the
work that Abraham has made with thine only son this day? for he took Isaac and
built an altar, and killed him, and brought him up as a sacrifice upon the
altar, and Isaac cried and wept before his father, but he looked not at him,
neither did he have compassion over him.
78 And Satan repeated these words, and he went away
from her, and Sarah heard all the words of Satan, and she imagined him to be an
old man from amongst the sons of men who had been with her son, and had come
and told her these things.
79 And Sarah lifted up her voice and wept and cried
out bitterly on account of her son; and she threw herself upon the ground and
she cast dust upon her head, and she said, O my son, Isaac my son, O that I had
this day died instead of thee. And she continued to weep and said, It grieves
me for thee, O my son, my son Isaac, O that I had died this day in thy stead.
80 And she still continued to weep, and said, It
grieves me for thee after that I have reared thee and have brought thee up; now
my joy is turned into mourning over thee, I that had a longing for thee, and
cried and prayed to God till I bare thee at ninety years old; and now hast thou
served this day for the knife and the fire, to be made an offering.
81 But I console myself with thee, my son, in its
being the word of the Lord, for thou didst perform the
command
of thy God; for who can transgress the word of our God, in whose hands is the
soul of every living creature?
82 Thou art just, O Lord our God, for all thy works
are good and righteous; for I also am rejoiced with thy word which thou didst
command, and whilst mine eye weepeth bitterly my heart rejoiceth.
83 And Sarah laid her head upon the bosom of one of
her handmaids, and she became as still as a stone.
84 She afterward rose up and went about making
inquiries till she came to Hebron, and she inquired of all those whom she met
walking in the road, and no one could tell her what had happened to her son.
85 And she came with her maid servants and men
servants to Kireath-arba, which is Hebron, and she asked concerning her Son,
and she remained there while she sent some of her servants to seek where
Abraham had gone with Isaac; they went to seek him in the house of Shem and
Eber, and they could not find him, and
they sought throughout the land and he was not there.
86 And behold, Satan came to Sarah in the shape of
an old man, and he came and stood before her, and he said unto her, I spoke
falsely unto thee, for Abraham did not kill his son and he is not dead; and
when she heard the word her joy was so exceedingly violent on account of her
son, that her soul went out through joy; she died and was gathered to her
people.
87 And when Abraham had finished his service he
returned with his son Isaac to his young men, and they rose up and went
together to Beersheba, and they came home.
88 And Abraham sought for Sarah, and could not find
her, and he made inquiries concerning her, and they said unto him, She went as
far as Hebron to seek you both where you had gone, for thus was she informed.
89 And Abraham and Isaac went to her to Hebron, and
when they found that she was dead they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly
over her; and Isaac fell upon his mother's face and wept over her, and he said,
O my mother, my mother, how hast thou left me, and where hast thou gone? O how,
how hast thou left me!
90 And Abraham and Isaac wept greatly and all their
servants wept with them on account of Sarah, and they mourned over her a great
and heavy mourning.
CHAPTER 24
1 And the life of Sarah was one hundred and
twenty-seven years, and Sarah died; and Abraham rose up from before his dead to
seek a burial place to bury his wife Sarah; and he went and spoke to the
children of Heth, the inhabitants of the land, saying,
2 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you in your
land; give me a possession of a burial place in your land, that I may bury my
dead from before me.
3 And the children of Heth said unto Abraham,
behold the land is before thee, in the choice of our sepulchers bury thy dead,
for no man shall withhold thee from burying thy dead.
4 And Abraham said unto them, If you are agreeable
to this go and entreat for me to Ephron, the son of
Zochar,
requesting that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which is in the end of
his field, and I will purchase it of him for whatever he desire for it.
5 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth, and
they went and called for him, and he came before Abraham, and Ephron said unto
Abraham, Behold all thou requirest thy servant will do; and Abraham said, No,
but I will buy the cave and the field which thou hast for value, In order that
it may be for a possession of a burial place for ever.
6 And Ephron answered and said, Behold the field
and the cave are before thee, give whatever thou desirest; and Abraham said,
Only at full value will I buy it from thy hand, and from the hands of those
that go in at the gate of thy city, and from the hand of thy seed for ever.
7 And Ephron and all his brethren heard this, and
Abraham weighed to Ephron four hundred shekels of silver in the hands of Ephron
and in the hands of all his brethren; and Abraham wrote this transaction, and
he wrote it and testified it with four witnesses.
8 And these are the names of the witnesses, Amigal
son of Abishna the Hittite, Adichorom son of Ashunach the Hivite, Abdon son of
Achiram the Gomerite, Bakdil the son of Abudish the Zidonite.
9 And Abraham took the book of the purchase, and
placed it in his treasures, and these are the words that Abraham wrote in the
book, namely:
10 That the cave and the field Abraham bought from
Ephron the Hittite, and from his seed, and from those that go out of his city,
and from their seed for ever, are to be a purchase to Abraham and to his seed
and to those that go forth from his loins, for a possession of a burial place
for ever; and he put a signet to it and testified it with witnesses.
11 And the field and the cave that was in it and
all that place were made sure unto Abraham and unto his seed after him, from
the children of Heth; behold it is before Mamre in Hebron, which is in the land
of Canaan.
12 And after this Abraham buried his wife Sarah
there, and that place and all its boundary became to Abraham and unto his seed
for a possession of a burial place.
13 And Abraham buried Sarah with pomp as observed
at the interment of kings, and she was buried in very fine and beautiful
garments.
14 And at her bier was Shem, his sons Eber and
Abimelech, together with Anar, Ashcol and Mamre, and all the grandees of the
land followed her bier.
15 And the days of Sarah were one hundred and
twenty-seven years and she died, and Abraham made a great and heavy mourning,
and he performed the rites of mourning for seven days.
16 And all the inhabitants of the land comforted
Abraham and Isaac his son on account of Sarah.
17 And when the days of their mourning passed by
Abraham sent away his son Isaac, and he went to the house of Shem and Eber, to
learn the ways of the Lord and his instructions, and Abraham remained there
three years.
18 At that time Abraham rose up with all his
servants, and they went and returned homeward to Beersheba, and Abraham and all
his servants remained in Beersheba.
19 And at the revolution of the year Abimelech king
of the Philistines died in that year; he was one hundred and ninety-three years
old at his death; and Abraham went with his people to the land of the
Philistines, and they comforted the whole household and all his servants, and
he then turned and went home.
20 And it was after the death of Abimelech that the
people of Gerar took Benmalich his son, and he was only twelve years old, and
they made him lying in the place of his father.
21 And they called his name Abimelech after the
name of his father, for thus was it their custom to do in Gerar, and Abimelech
reigned instead of Abimelech his father, and he sat upon his throne.
22 And Lot the son of Haran also died in those
days, in the thirty-ninth year of the life of Isaac, and all the days that Lot
lived were one hundred and forty years and he died.
23 And these are the children of Lot, that were
born to him by his daughters, the name of the first born was Moab, and the name
of the second was Benami.
24 And the two sons of Lot went and took themselves
wives from the land of Canaan, and they bare children to them, and the children
of Moab were Ed, Mayon, Tarsus, and Kanvil, four sons, these are fathers to the
children of Moab unto this day.
25 And all the families of the children of Lot went
to dwell wherever they should light upon, for they were fruitful and increased
abundantly.
26 And they went and built themselves cities in the
land where they dwelt, and they called the names of the cities which they built
after their own names.
27 And Nahor the son of Terah, brother to Abraham,
died in those days in the fortieth year of the life of Isaac, and all the days
of Nahor were one hundred and seventy-two years and he died and was buried in
Haran.
28 And when Abraham heard that his brother was dead
he grieved sadly, and he mourned over his brother many days.
29 And Abraham called for Eliezer his head servant,
to give him orders concerning his house, and he came and stood before him.
30 And Abraham said to him, Behold I am old, I do
not know the day of my death; for I am advanced in days; now therefore rise up,
go forth and do not take a wife for my son from this place and from this land,
from the daughters of the Canaanites amongst whom we dwell.
31 But go to my land and to my birthplace, and take
from thence a wife for my son, and the Lord God of Heaven and earth who took me
from my father's house and brought me to this place, and said unto me, To thy
seed will I give this land for an inheritance for ever, he will send his angel
before thee and prosper thy way, that thou mayest obtain a wife for my son from
my family and from my father's house.
32 And the servant answered his master Abraham and
said, Behold I go to thy birthplace and to thy father's house, and take a wife
for thy son from there; but if the woman be not willing to follow me to this
land, shall I take thy son back to the land of thy birthplace?
33 And Abraham said unto him, Take heed that thou
bring not my son hither again, for the Lord before whom I have walked he will
send his angel before thee and prosper thy way.
34 And Eliezer did as Abraham ordered him, and
Eliezer swore unto Abraham his master upon this matter; and Eliezer rose up and
took ten camels of the camels of his master, and ten men from his master's
servants with him, and they rose up and went to Haran, the city of Abraham and
Nahor, in order to fetch a wife for Isaac the son of Abraham; and whilst they
were gone Abraham sent to the house of Shem and Eber, and they brought from
thence his son Isaac.
35 And Isaac came home to his father's house to
Beersheba, whilst Eliezer and his men came to Haran; and they stopped in the
city by the watering place, and he made his camels to kneel down by the water
and they remained there.
36 And Eliezer, Abraham's servant, prayed and said,
O God of Abraham my master; send me I pray thee good speed this day and show
kindness unto my master, that thou shalt appoint this day a wife for my
master's son from his family.
37 And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Eliezer,
for the sake of his servant Abraham, and he happened to meet with the daughter
of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, brother to Abraham, and
Eliezer came to her house.
38 And Eliezer related to them all his concerns,
and that he was Abraham's servant, and they greatly rejoiced at him.
39 And they all blessed the Lord who brought this
thing about, and they gave him Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, for a wife for
Isaac.
40 And the young woman was of very comely
appearance, she was a virgin, and Rebecca was ten years old in those days.
41 And Bethuel and Laban and his children made a
feast on that night, and Eliezer and his men came and ate and drank and
rejoiced there on that night.
42 And Eliezer rose up in the morning, he and the
men that were with him, and he called to the whole household of Bethuel, saying,
Send me away that I may go to my master; and they rose up and sent away Rebecca
and her nurse Deborah, the daughter of Uz, and they gave her silver and gold,
men servants and maid servants, and they blessed her.
43 And they sent Eliezer away with his men; and the
servants took Rebecca, and he went and returned to his master to the land of
Canaan.
44 And Isaac took Rebecca and she became his wife,
and he brought her into the tent.
45 And Isaac was forty years old when he took
Rebecca, the daughter of his uncle Bethuel, for a wife.
CHAPTER 25
1 And it was at that time that Abraham again took a
wife in his old age, and her name was Keturah, from the land of Canaan.
2 And she bare unto him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan,
Midian, Ishbak and Shuach, being six sons. And the children of Zimran were
Abihen, Molich and Narim.
3 And the sons of Jokshan were Sheba and Dedan, and
the sons of Medan were Amida, Joab, Gochi, Elisha and Nothach; and the sons of
Midian were Ephah, Epher, Chanoch, Abida and Eldaah.
4 And the sons of Ishbak were Makiro, Beyodua and
Tator.
5 And the sons of Shuach were Bildad, Mamdad, Munan
and Meban; all these are the families
of the
children of Keturah the Canaanitish woman which she bare unto Abraham the
Hebrew.
6 And Abraham sent all these away, and he gave them
gifts, and they went away from his son Isaac to dwell wherever they should find
a place.
7 And all these went to the mountain at the east,
and they built themselves six cities in which they dwelt unto this day.
8 But the children of Sheba and Dedan, children of
Jokshan, with their children, did not dwell with their brethren in their
cities, and they journeyed and encamped in the countries and wildernesses unto
this day.
9 And the children of Midian, son of Abraham, went
to the east of the land of Cush, and they there found a large valley in the
eastern country, and they remained there and built a city, and they dwelt
therein, that is the land of Midian unto this day.
10 And Midian dwelt in the city which he built, he
and his five sons and all belonging to him.
11 And these are the names of the sons of Midian
according to their names in their cities, Ephah, Epher, Chanoch, Abida and
Eldaah.
12 And the sons of Ephah were Methach, Meshar, Avi
and Tzanua, and the sons of Epher were Ephron, Zur, Alirun and Medin, and the
sons of Chanoch were Reuel, Rekem, Azi, Alyoshub and Alad.
13 And the sons of Abida were Chur, Melud, Kerury,
Molchi; and the sons of Eldaah were Miker, and Reba, and Malchiyah and Gabol;
these are the names of the Midianites according to their families; and
afterward the families of Midian spread throughout the land of Midian.
14 And these are the generations of Ishmael the son
Abraham, whom Hagar, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham.
15 And Ishmael took a wife from the land of Egypt,
and her name was Ribah, the same is Meribah.
16 And Ribah bare unto Ishmael Nebayoth, Kedar,
Adbeel, Mibsam and their sister Bosmath.
17 And Ishmael cast away his wife Ribah, and she
went from him and returned to Egypt to the house of her father, and she dwelt
there, for she had been very bad in the sight of Ishmael, and in the sight of
his father Abraham.
18 And Ishmael afterward took a wife from the land
of Canaan, and her name was Malchuth, and she bare unto him Nishma, Dumah, Masa,
Chadad, Tema, Yetur, Naphish and Kedma.
19 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are
their names, being twelve princes according to their nations; and the families
of Ishmael afterward spread forth, and Ishmael took his children and all the
property that he had gained, together with the souls of his household and all
belonging to him, and they went to dwell where they should find a place.
20 And they went and dwelt near the wilderness of
Paran, and their dwelling was from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt as
thou comest toward Assyria.
21 And Ishmael and his sons dwelt in the land, and
they had children born to them, and they were fruitful and increased
abundantly.
22 And these are the names of the sons of Nebayoth
the first born of Ishmael; Mend, Send, Mayon; and the sons of Kedar were Alyon,
Kezem, Chamad and Eli.
23 And the sons of Adbeel were Chamad and Jabin;
and the sons of Mibsam were Obadiah,
Ebedmelech and Yeush; these are the families of the children of Ribah the wife
of Ishmael.
24 And the sons of Mishma the son of Ishmael were
Shamua, Zecaryon and Obed; and the sons of Dumah were Kezed, Eli, Machmad and
Amed.
25 And the sons of Masa were Melon, Mula and
Ebidadon; and the sons of Chadad were Azur, Minzar and Ebedmelech; and the sons
of Tema were Seir, Sadon and Yakol.
26 And the sons of Yetur were Merith, Yaish, Alyo,
and Pachoth; and the sons of Naphish were Ebed-Tamed, Abiyasaph and Mir; and
the sons of Kedma were Calip, Tachti, and Omir; these were the children of
Malchuth the wife of Ishmael according to their families.
27 All these are the families of Ishmael according
to their generations, and they dwelt in those lands wherein they had built
themselves cities unto this day.
28 And Rebecca the daughter of Bethuel, the wife of
Abraham's son Isaac, was barren in those days, she had no offspring; and Isaac
dwelt with his father in the land of Canaan; and the Lord was with Isaac; and
Arpachshad the son of Shem the son of Noah died in those days, in the
forty-eighth year of the life of Isaac, and all the days that Arpachshad lived
were four hundred and thirty-eight years, and he died.
CHAPTER 26
1 And in the fifty-ninth year of the life of Isaac
the son of Abraham, Rebecca his wife was still barren in those days.
2 And Rebecca said unto Isaac, Truly I have heard,
my lord, that thy mother Sarah was barren in her days until my Lord Abraham,
thy father, prayed for her and she conceived by him.
3 Now therefore stand up, pray thou also to God and
he will hear thy prayer and remember us through his mercies.
4 And Isaac answered his wife Rebecca, saying,
Abraham has already prayed for me to God to multiply his seed, now therefore
this barrenness must proceed to us from thee.
5 And Rebecca said unto him, But arise now thou
also and pray, that the Lord may hear thy prayer and grant me children, and
Isaac hearkened to the words of his wife, and Isaac and his wife rose up and
went to the land of Moriah to pray there and to seek the Lord, and when they
had reached that place Isaac stood up and prayed to the Lord on account of his
wife because she was barren.
6 And Isaac said, O Lord God of heaven and earth,
whose goodness and mercies fill the earth, thou who didst take my father from
his father's house and from his birthplace, and didst bring him unto this land,
and didst say unto him, To thy seed will I give the land, and thou didst
promise him and didst declare unto him, I will multiply thy seed as the stars
of heaven and as the sand of the sea, now may thy words be verified which thou
didst speak unto my father.
7 For thou art the Lord our God, our eyes are
toward thee to give us seed of men, as thou didst promise us, for thou art the
Lord our God and our eyes are directed toward thee only.
8 And the Lord heard the prayer of Isaac the son of
Abraham, and the Lord was entreated of him and Rebecca his wife conceived.
9 And in about seven months after the children
struggled together within her, and it pained her greatly that she was wearied on
account of them, and she said to all the women who were then in the land, Did
such a thing happen to you as it has to me? and they said unto her, No.
10 And she said unto them, Why am I alone in this
amongst all the women that were upon earth? and she went to the land of Moriah
to seek the Lord on account of this; and she went to Shem and Eber his son to
make inquiries of them in this matter, and that they should seek the Lord in
this thing respecting her.
11 And she also asked Abraham to seek and inquire
of the Lord about all that had befallen her.
12 And they all inquired of the Lord concerning
this matter, and they brought her word from the Lord and told her, Two children
are in thy womb, and two nations shall rise from them; and one nation shall be
stronger than the other, and the greater shall serve the younger.
13 And when her days to be delivered were
completed, she knelt down, and behold there were twins in her womb, as the Lord
had spoken to her.
14 And the first came out red all over like a hairy
garment, and all the people of the land called his name Esau, saying, That this
one was made complete from the womb.
15 And after that came his brother, and his hand
took hold of Esau's heel, therefore they called his name Jacob.
16 And Isaac, the son of Abraham, was sixty years
old when he begat them.
17 And the boys grew up to their fifteenth year,
and they came amongst the society of men. Esau was a designing and deceitful
man, and an expert hunter in the field, and Jacob was a man perfect and wise,
dwelling in tents, feeding flocks and learning the instructions of the Lord and
the commands of his father and mother.
18 And Isaac and the children of his household
dwelt with his father Abraham in the land of Canaan, as God had commanded them.
19 And Ishmael the son of Abraham went with his
children and all belonging to them, and they returned there to the land of
Havilah, and they dwelt there.
20 And all the children of Abraham's concubines
went to dwell in the land of the east, for Abraham had sent them away from his
son, and had given them presents, and they went away.
21 And Abraham gave all that he had to his son
Isaac, and he also gave him all his treasures.
22 And he commanded him saying, Dost thou not know
and understand the Lord is God in heaven and in earth, and there is no other
beside him?
23 And it was he who took me from my father's
house, and from my birth place, and gave me all the delights upon earth; who
delivered me from the counsel of the wicked, for in him did I trust.
24 And he brought me to this place, and he
delivered me from Ur Casdim; and he said unto me, To thy seed will I give all
these lands, and they shall inherit them when they keep my commandments, my
statutes and my judgments that I have commanded thee, and which I shall command
them.
25 Now therefore my son, hearken to my voice, and
keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I commanded thee, do not turn
from the right way either to the right or to the left, in order that it may be
well with thee and thy children after thee forever.
26 And remember the wonderful works of the Lord,
and his kindness that he has shown toward us, in having delivered us from the
hands of our enemies, and the Lord our God caused them to fall into our hands;
and now therefore keep all that I have commanded thee, and turn not away from
the commandments of thy God, and serve none beside him, in order that it may be
well with thee and thy seed after thee.
27 And teach thou thy children and thy seed the
instructions of the Lord and his commandments, and teach them the upright way
in which they should go, in order that it may be well with them forever.
28 And Isaac answered his father and said unto him,
That which my Lord has commanded that will I do, and I will not depart from the
commands of the Lord my God, I will keep all that he commanded me; and Abraham
blessed his son Isaac, and also his children; and Abraham taught Jacob the
instruction of the Lord and his ways.
29 And it was at that time that Abraham died, in
the fifteenth year of the life of Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac, and all
the days of Abraham were one hundred and seventy-five years, and he died and
was gathered to his people in good old age, old and satisfied with days, and
Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him.
30 And when the inhabitants of Canaan heard that
Abraham was dead, they all came with their kings and princes and all their men
to bury Abraham.
31 And all the inhabitants of the land of Haran,
and all the families of the house of Abraham, and all the princes and grandees,
and the sons of Abraham by the concubines, all came when they heard of
Abraham's death, and they requited Abraham's kindness, and comforted Isaac his
son, and they buried Abraham in the cave which he bought from Ephron the
Hittite and his children, for the possession of a burial place.
32 And all the inhabitants of Canaan, and all those
who had known Abraham, wept for Abraham a whole year, and men and women mourned
over him.
33 And all the little children, and all the
inhabitants of the land wept on account of Abraham, for Abraham had been good
to them all, and because he had been upright with God and men.
34 And there arose not a man who feared God like
unto Abraham, for he had feared his God from his youth, and had served the
Lord, and had gone in all his ways during his life, from his childhood to the
day of his death.
35 And the Lord was with him and delivered him from
the counsel of Nimrod and his people, and when he made war with the four kings
of Elam he conquered them.
36 And he brought all the children of the earth to
the service of God, and he taught them the ways of the Lord, and caused them to
know the Lord.
37 And he formed a grove and he planted a vineyard
therein, and he had always prepared in his tent meat and drink to those that
passed through the land, that they might satisfy themselves in his house.
38 And the Lord God delivered the whole earth on
account of Abraham.
39 And it was after the death of Abraham that God
blessed his son Isaac and his children, and the Lord was with Isaac as he had
been with his father Abraham, for Isaac kept all the commandments of the Lord
as Abraham his father had commanded
him; he
did not turn to the right or to the left from the right path which his father
had
commanded him.
CHAPTER 27
1 And Esau at that time, after the death of
Abraham, frequently went in the field to hunt.
2 And Nimrod king of Babel, the same was Amraphel,
also frequently went with his mighty men to hunt in the field, and to walk
about with his men in the cool of the day.
3 And Nimrod was observing Esau all the days, for a
jealousy was formed in the heart of Nimrod against Esau all the days.
4 And on a certain day Esau went in the field to
hunt, and he found Nimrod walking in the wilderness with his two men.
5 And all his mighty men and his people were with
him in the wilderness, but they removed at a distance from him, and they went
from him in different directions to hunt, and Esau concealed himself for
Nimrod, and he lurked for him in the wilderness.
6 And Nimrod and his men that were with him did not
know him, and Nimrod and his men frequently walked about in the field at the
cool of the day, and to know where his men were hunting in the field.
7 And Nimrod and two of his men that were with him
came to the place where they were, when Esau started suddenly from his lurking
place, and drew his sword, and hastened and ran to Nimrod and cut off his head.
8 And Esau fought a desperate fight with the two
men that were with Nimrod, and when they called out to him, Esau turned to them
and smote them to death with his sword.
9 And all the mighty men of Nimrod, who had left
him to go to the wilderness, heard the cry at a distance, and they knew the
voices of those two men, and they ran to know the cause of it, when they found
their king and the two men that were with him lying dead in the wilderness.
10 And when Esau saw the mighty men of Nimrod
coming at a distance, he fled, and thereby escaped; and Esau took the valuable
garments of Nimrod, which Nimrod's father had bequeathed to Nimrod, and with
which Nimrod prevailed over the whole land, and he ran and concealed them in
his house.
11 And Esau took those garments and ran into the
city on account of Nimrod's men, and he came unto his father's house wearied
and exhausted from fight, and he was ready to die through grief when he
approached his brother Jacob and sat before him.
12 And he said unto his brother Jacob, Behold I
shall die this day, and wherefore then do I want the birthright? And Jacob
acted wisely with Esau in this matter, and Esau sold his birthright to Jacob,
for it was so brought about by the Lord.
13 And Esau's portion in the cave of the field of
Machpelah, which Abraham had bought from the children of Heth for the
possession of a burial ground, Esau also sold to Jacob, and Jacob bought all
this from his brother Esau for value given.
14 And Jacob wrote the whole of this in a book, and
he testified the same with witnesses, and he sealed it, and the book remained
in the hands of Jacob.
15 And when Nimrod the son of Cush died, his men
lifted him up and brought him in consternation, and buried him in his city, and
all the days that Nimrod lived were two hundred and fifteen years and he died.
16 And the days that Nimrod reigned upon the people
of the land were one hundred and eighty-five years; and Nimrod died by the
sword of Esau in shame and contempt, and the seed of Abraham caused his death
as he had seen in his dream.
17 And at the death of Nimrod his kingdom became
divided into many divisions, and all those parts that Nimrod reigned over were
restored to the respective kings of the land, who recovered them after the
death of Nimrod, and all the people of the house of Nimrod were for a long time
enslaved to all the other kings of the land.
CHAPTER 28
1 And in those days, after the death of Abraham, in
that year the Lord brought a heavy famine in the land, and whilst the famine
was raging in the land of Canaan, Isaac rose up to go down to Egypt on account
of the famine, as his father Abraham had done.
2 And the Lord appeared that night to Isaac and he
said to him, Do not go down to Egypt but rise and go to Gerar, to Abimelech
king of the Philistines, and remain there till the famine shall cease.
3 And Isaac rose up and went to Gerar, as the Lord
commanded him, and he remained there a full year.