Heptateuch (Biblical Epic) 1 part 5/11

him, advancing iron-handed into the undertaken battle, the leader aids with vows and prayers, and ascends the hill Horeb with hastening step, whom Aaron, joined together, and Hur flank in their midst, and through the aged time of toil they strengthen, with a stone placed beneath, his limbs failing and not strong to stand for the duties, and they set a hard seat under him and spread it for the leader; then thereafter they support his flowing hands in the downward slope, so that to the beginnings of his breast the prayer of his palms might be joined; for often, falling with the weight of his great age, they were waging a doubtful contest. When the right hands placed beneath had strengthened these on every side, the hostile lines give way and the plains are filled with the slaughter of men, and none out of so many thousands survives. When these things had been done by God's command, the prophet wrote them in a teachable book for the times to come;

and at once he builds an altar consecrated to God, addressing the holy place with faithful words: "My sure hope of God, whose protection alone has always given me aid, who with strength shut up and hand hidden scattered the warring Amalekites, slays them along with all their offspring, the cohorts." Meanwhile Jethro, his kinsman, learns of the deeds, and hastening comes, glad to discern with his eyes what had been recounted to him. And he finds him beset with immoderate toil, while he learns all the causes, of the multitude lacking number, and having prayed before the great God, he slaughters cattle; then thereafter by counsel he brings it about that tribunes might be chosen from the people, and other and other ranks, which the soldiery receives in order, so that the legions might be ruled by fixed law and might weigh out moderate disputes.

so that the great quarrels alone might be known to the leader. When these things had been duly accomplished, Jethro seeks his own dwelling and left his son-in-law. Meanwhile the third month, varied through the seasons, gave itself in haste. When through the lone fields the column is led to the mountain of the Lord of Sinai, which the prophet quickly ascends, driven by voices, that he might prevail, and by the warnings of God: soon prostrate he hears: "These things which are spoken to you, remember to tell to all: you have seen what marvels, O men, Egypt has endured, while care of you holds me and I gather all and bear you, as it were led by the track of wings, which the prince of birds spreads while he furrows the clouds.

And now, if my words should come through your ears, so that what is commanded may be done and your hearts may cleave consonant to the just law, I will always have you as a people distinguished with rich things, and I will set you before all nations, so that, strong, you may reign in the whole world. For all this earth is mine; and whatever is begotten anywhere, that is always subject to eternal right. You I will make a kingdom—as my right hand is renowned—and a holy nation to me, which prolongs a long age." He, mindful of the command, unrolled what had been said to the princes of the people, and the people with notable words believed and submitted their hearts to the great Thunderer, saying that it would do the illustrious commands.

The Lord, about to establish from his lofty seats another, greater thing, acts, and sends the prophet to the duties accustomed to him, and bids all to wash away their stained filth with flowing waters, whether on garment or on limb, and that the men should spend the night apart, so that, with mind and body pure, on the third light God might be seen from the lofty stars by those set far off from the mountain, whom no one standing close at hand may touch and drive away; the cattle he is commanded to drive into the long deserts, lest punishment be joined to the guilty. Whichever creature comes upon the rocks, when the hurled missile—an arrow thrust—the hand whirls, or the lashes shake the crag. When these things had been done, with no body stained by blemish, the people gazes forward on the hill, when the third light gave its redness with the stars removed.

And now the lightnings flash, now from the lofty stars a great roar of voices is heard, and the storm-cloud holds itself poised in a dense mass, and with awesome crashing the trumpet repeats terrible sounds, and fenced within the rampart in the camps the sorrowful people trembles, and the lofty flanks of the consecrated mountain, witnessed to the heavenly God, smoke. And whoever was a priest chosen out of the people dwells far from the mountain, which it is lawful for these alone to climb—for the godly Aaron and Moses. Then with everlasting utterance God gives commands destined to abide, in this order of the law: "I am that Lord, who, freeing you from the peril of Egypt, brought you out of the land and bade the hard labour, which the care of slavery gave, to cease. Let your hearts worship me alone, and frame no idols for yourself, nor leaning low adore a fabricated god;

nor believe the powers which are the bright stars in heaven, nor wonder at anything on earth in like manner, nor at whatever the grey-green marbles of the floating sea cover. I am a jealous Lord, repaying upon the fathers, for their sins and crimes, and thereafter upon the offspring which is begotten to the fourth generation; very merciful, and rendering greater and grand things which the just men have deserved, who in their inmost heart, embracing my commands, hold them and follow them with the mind. You—venerate the name of God. You—keep the festal sabbaths with your children and your slaves, and willingly lay aside all labour, as often as that light recurs to the world. In twice three days the Lord made whatever things are alive on earth and in heaven and in the swelling sea: on the seventh, with the perfect end of his works, he rested;

hence that day flourishes festal, hence it is always—ever honoured—consecrated to the Lord, with him granting indulgence. Give honour, son, to your parents, so that you may be in the land of perpetual life, which the immense God from his immense seat prolongs. Do not love adulteresses, nor kill a man, nor, swearing falsely, bear false witness; do not commit any theft, nor, an evil witness, protect with fraud one engaged in dispute. Restrain your mind and your countenance from another's spouse, and whatever your mind warns is not yours, shudder at it. Let altars heaped from a mound of earth rise up, here where it is right to slaughter devoted sheep. But if it chances to please you to raise up a mass of stones, leave the iron far off, since things smoothed by the craftsman's hand become defiled;

and you are not allowed to climb with ready step, lest perhaps you bare your shame. Whoever is born a slave in a kindred nation, let him bear the servile yoke for twice three years; afterwards let him go free, carrying with him his rewards, with his wife sent forth together, if she does not yet seem to be with child. But if he now rejoices in children and his father's name, he ought to dismiss to the master his wife and offspring; himself master of himself and stripped of the bond of his lord. But if without doubt he prefers to remain a home-born slave, let him be set before the doors, with his master standing in the holy place, to suffer wounds, which a slender awl pricks, even to his soft ear, never to be sold for an age. To sell a daughter born to a parent, separated into a distinct nation, is not lawful, and power remains with the allied people; yet it is in no way lawful to send her forth as a slave-woman.

But if she should displease the master to whom, once sold, she has passed, the money shall be repaid at the price for which she was assessed, so that she may be able to recall herself to her father's threshold. But if perchance she is given to his son, it is fitting that he treat her as his own daughter. If he prefers rather to take her lawfully, as is permitted to him, he shall openly furnish the garments by which her body is clothed, nor afterward deny them to her, if by union she has become known to him; or, if these commitments made to the man are not ratified, he shall be able to let her go free as she departs, nor reclaim the price he gave. He who with a harsh wound lays low a man, let him lie dead by the same death by which he slew; but if the harm was inflicted rather by chance, the master handing over the guilty one to the blows of another, there is a place that can grant a pardon to be bestowed, the master mercifully granting his safety.

But truly he who with cunning cuts apart living limbs with the sword and with eagerness rejoices in the shedding of blood, bears the charge of murder; in vain does he seek the shelters consecrated to God on high, for he shall be taken thence and, set far apart, beheaded with the rigid blade. And he who proudly reviles or strikes his parents rushes into a capital crime, which is expiated by death. No less is he sought for punishment who perchance, treacherous with crafty intent, steals one born among his father's people and rejoices to transfer him for money received. But if a quarrel has arisen through words, and someone struck with fist or with a hurled stone should recover his accustomed strength, no guilt of fraud shall cling; yet what the care of the physician has required must be paid.

He who with the lash of a rod straightway kills his maidservant or his slave does not escape the clinging penalty. But if the homeborn slave should die after another day, no capital guilt remains, since the master has lost his own property. But if perchance a brawl flares up between two men, while heated and stirred with bile, and one of them strikes a married woman swollen with the seed conceived, his hand thrust forth to the blow, and causes the future offspring to be driven from the mother's womb before its day, he shall make good the offspring with a price, the husband setting the assessment, if the form was not yet completed and shaped. But if the infant departs with features fully formed, he shall fall by a deserved death. Each guilty one shall render light for light snatched away, surrendering a tooth for a tooth, and for a hand he shall give a hand and a foot in turn — whoever cuts off a foot;

and the devouring fire expiates what has been burned by flames; a wound shall be given for a wound; bruised limbs are atoned by a bruised body. But if anyone deprives his servant of an eye by snatching it away, or his maidservant, let him allow them sent off to depart, freedom calling them wherever it will; or if fragments of a tooth have been knocked out by his hand, let the maimed one take this as solace, that the gift may compensate for his wound. But if an ox, rejoicing in his strong neck, untamed as yet and free from the curved plough, gores anyone with his horn, let him be crushed beneath a mass of stones, and buried; not to be tasted by any tooth of men, he shall give his limbs to the earth, his liquid joints to be dissolved away, leaving the innocent master no penalty. But if it was wont to strike its neighbors with its horned brow, the foolish owner long since warned —

let him lie dead for the slaughter, and let the bull be killed. But if a milder verdict demands the price of the dead, let him pay also whatever the assessment requires. This too it is right to demand for the slaying of one's own son or daughter, against whatever man. If a young slave has fallen by the blow of a bull, the care of paying thirty pieces of money binds the master, the savage bullock perishing. But if anyone wishes to sink a pit with much digging, the soil dug out all the way, let him soon close it with a covering, lest, if perchance a beast should be tumbled headlong over it, he pay the damages, the owner demanding the price, being one who must buy the flesh of the fallen cattle as slender comfort. But if perchance an ox should kill an ox with its hooked horn, let it be sold; let the price become common to the two, and let them divide and gather the entrails of the slaughtered bull.

But if its vice had already become more notorious, the owner shall give back beast for beast, himself blameless for the lost one, claiming the limbs of the slaughtered bullock. He who steals a calf, let him be compelled to repay five; let whoever has carried off a lamb pay four. It is lawful to lay low a nocturnal thief with the sword, while he breaks in through the doorposts and bursts the barred threshold. But if he has been caught after the sun has risen, the guilty one is bidden to repay double what he carried off. If these are not within his means and resources, he shall be sold, about to pay for the thefts of his hands by labor. He whose flock has stripped bare another's standing crop or vineyard, eating piecemeal with open mouth, let him at once measure off acres of fertile field with equal produce and extent: thus he shall make good the damages that were inflicted before.

This rule binds also those who sweep away all the fallow lands at once and reap the vine-bearing vineyards, the tendrils consumed; so that what magnificent things they had had through their own fields, they may lose by the same reckoning. For the crackling fire, wont from a small bit of kindling to seize the brambles, the dry stubble and the trunks bared of bark — if it should consume another's standing crop or vine by its heat, the charge recurs to the author's deserts through the damages, so that he repays whatever the noxious flame has devoured. A deposit it is fitting to return: but if the treacherous hand of thieves has plundered it, when the author is found, double the sum is given; but if that one is hidden who took away the diverted goods, the victim alone shall make himself free of the fault, since he will be free of fraud. But if the deceiver is unmasked in his lying craft,

let him repay double the weight of the deposit before the judge. This measure must also be kept in cases concerning cattle: therefore, what things have been carried off by sinister theft, let him restore whose guardianship was negligent. But if the mad fury of wolves mangles the tender flock, the strife is appeased by the flesh shown forth. But if anyone lends a pair of bullocks to be led to the wagons, let him not claim that they were employed under excessive weight, the same man, if he was present, being the driver of the going beasts. This also in the rest, who are pressed by the burdens commanded. But if anyone, while driving in haste, loses the animals received, it is just that he feel the whole loss. But if the hired man loses them when a wage has been set, those losses he shall promptly assess to be set against the price of the labor.

If anyone takes for himself the use of a virgin not betrothed, he shall join the same to himself as wife with a dowry. But if his mind is not in accord with marriage to the ravished one, let him give the gifts that are suitable to the bridal chamber to her father. To conceal a sorcerer is a wickedness. A hard death shall slay the one mingled with a beast in the foul act of union. Let life depart from men who revere the shrines of demons, since to the Lord alone it is right to bend the neck. Let no one wrong a stranger by word or by hand: for this reason, because you yourselves Egypt received when you left your native soil and your former dwelling. Let a woman not be despised when her husband is dead, but rather caressed, and so the children bereft of parents; lest the faithful undergo equal punishments with the guilty and abandon their own, terrified by the swift death of one snatched away: for God observes deeds and hearts, and hears and helps.

To one asking for credit, grant the use of the money he requests, putting away any interest and foul usury; nor in haste press the trembling debtor to restore what he took. And if perchance he commits and hands over to you, as pledge for the money, the very covering of his own body, restore it before the sun lays its head in heaven. 'I am a merciful Lord: these I hear readily.' Cease, all of you, to revile foreign gods and the foremost men, the people who shall hold the reins. From the first-fruits bring pious gifts to the Lord, and whatever firstborn of his bride's first offspring you beget, you shall consecrate to the Lord, after the seventh sun has measured out its lofty journey, that you may be a holy offspring. A beast killed by the tooth of ravening wolves let no one eat: let him reject what things are not worthy of the table.

You shall not believe things told to you which no firm grounds of faith support. Nor with an unjust mind, as a witness, shall you wish to speak falsehood. Nor, added to a crowd, shall you strive together with many to overcome one guilty man, so as to condemn a slight and humble person on a charge sought out. Nay rather, if perchance you see a beast straying, even one with whose owner your hearts are not joined, lead it back. And if the beasts of burden are weighed down by a heavy load, raise them up and, striving with alternating hands, lift them. Do not lay low an innocent man, for there is justice in your breast. You shall not take gifts on behalf of a trembling guilty man's care and an anxious defendant, since gifts soon blind the eyes and break the words of men and all their judgments.

For six years let the vigorous farmer bend over the fertile clods, for the seventh ought to be one bearing slow leisure, in which every poor man may take what had been openly produced, and let him gladly leave what remains over to be chewed by the wild beasts, while they wander in the woodland pastures. As the perpetual year revolves all around in flight, you shall keep your solemn rites divided into three modes on the seventh day: on which it is right, rejoicing, to take the soft unleavened bread of wheaten meal — as I warned long ago, you in the first month of new things, when there was full liberty to depart from Egypt. Let no one come forth empty before my face. Know the first-fruits of your works and the beginnings of harvest to be a feast for you, as often as you have scattered seed in the field; or when, the year completed, rest is joined, all things being unfolded which the care of labors produces.

Let every man distinguish a threefold time in the year, in which he may be able to present himself before my face. For when the glad possession of the land shall have been entrusted and committed to you, the nations subdued, know that unleavened bread alone is to be set upon my altars; that manifold cattle and the red wave of blood profit nothing for your feasts, nor the fat of Gomorrah, and that the wakeful night must endure into the hours of light. These return as often as the care of the sacred rites recurs. And let not the tender lamb be cooked in its mother's milk. Behold, I send a starry minister from the heavenly citadel to your care, who with much strength shall cherish you as you go toward the land which, glad, grows green with rich fields and rolls forth the sweet waves of nectar. Preparing to hear him, trust in his hallowed words.

He is joined to you and shall remain faithful, keeping forever my name upon his heavenly height. Come now, and join your hearing to his holy words; and take up my command with a sincere mind, that you may be a people dear to me and a blessed nation and the lofty kingdom of God, a race ever exalted in all the lands which the sun, returning on both courses, beholds and embraces the world with its hot axis. I will favor your concordant ones and resist all who prepare to make war with you; to you the Amorite shall yield and the fierce Hittite and those whom now the best of lands sustains, soon to be turned over to you as cultivator for the age. Take care that you do not, leaning, bow your necks to forbidden shrines, and trembling, propped up, adore hostile gods.

Nay rather, raze the profane things and cast down all the idols with their inscriptions, and blot out the names written, that you may be able to serve God, before whom all things tremble. Soon I will hallow your food and the flowing fountains; and I will take away from your body the plagues of diseases. No one among all the people shall grieve over a barren wife, that the father's name and honor are not his. I will grant length of days, whatever wider limit of life may prolong the seasons of the longed-for life. Before your battle-lines grim terror shall fly, and venom-stinging wasps shall run before with their wound, so that your standards may be feared by the warlike companies, and through the wild nations easy victory may yield. Yet these subdued I will make gradually diminish, lest the land be empty of men, and the holy land increase too much with a swelling throng of raging wild beasts.

With your soldiery spread abroad I will make the borders of your land and of your dwelling extend, where with red marble the ocean, slippery, seethes with windy waves, as far as the Philistine sea and the land bare of human cultivation, renowned and with a great host where the Euphrates flows, gleaming clear with glassy waves. When he had thus thundered forth, the Lord bids Aaron and Moses ascend the hill, and seventy men noble in age, and bend their necks far off to the eternal and most high God; for he permits the leader himself to hasten near at hand, who, performing the holy commands of God, straightway builds a lofty altar beneath the surpassing mountain. He who rises into the empty air joins close together twelve stones, which seems to be the sum of the tribes.

Here he presents young bullocks not yet broken to harness, and immolates them upon the holy altars; of whose blood he pours out a portion to the altar, dripping another part into the bowls, and sprinkles the thronging people with light dew, and unrolls the book that keeps the records of the eternal God. After he had spoken these harmonious things, and the people's docile resolve, dear to him, was in accord, he ascends the swelling hill with slow effort and stations the aged elders and his brother on the height. These at the same time behold a gem gleaming with lightning-flash, in which had stood the footprints of the starry King: it bears the name sapphire; and here is seen the whitening heaven stretched out along the back of the ridge: all which, in reverence, they extol with lofty praise and take their food.

Meanwhile, the prophet, with the elders settling there at his admonition, joins Joshua to himself as a companion and, with a peaceful heart, leaves Sennar and Hur and Aaron to his people, that they may judge the disputes of contending men with an even balance and may speak the words of justice. He himself, when he had reached the many ridges of the sanctifying hill, swiftly a shining cloud glides down from the ethereal heaven and, embracing the mountain, covers it and hides the prophet apart from his companions for twice three days of the sun's light. And now the seventh day had opened the snowy sky, when the Lord addresses the prophet from the midst of the cloud. While, shining, he begins amid wondrous flames, and for four times ten days gives commands to the prophet, that he might learn what sanctuaries are worthy of the most high God; and he bids these lofty things to be built with strong timbers forever.

which no age can scatter. These descend in marvelous fashions, and a ductile plate of conspicuous gold, as commanded, veils the dimensions. Joining twin rings with a rounded turn on the right and left side, where holy things are worshipped, then he interweaves the ark with smoothed leaves, in which may abide forever the commands of the perpetual Thunderer. Nay more, he makes them burst forth in glowing gold and places them in various positions, where the altars spread themselves open, with equal splendor of wings and like flight, as if they moved their nimble pinions into the windy clouds. And many other devices of new things besides were made in marvelous fashions, which whoever wishes to tell will sooner declare what sands the sea rolls. But neither how many kinds, nor what the names are, can the law, bound by meters, set forth in speech.

While the prophet fashions cups, bowls, mortars, and makes engraved dishes to be carried for the offerings, and the supports that are set beneath the lamps of Thara. Now whatever things cover the consecrated ark above or veil the doorposts, Lothus dyed with glowing tincture. Nay more, mantles are woven of Melcha's embroidered robe for Aaron and the pious priests who pour out the offerings consecrated under the roofs of God, and glittering gems cling to their folds, marking the six names of the tribes, distinctly, from whose body the people is. Marking the several names with noble gems, the topaz holds the first seat in place, with the emerald joined; the sapphire follows it, with which the carbuncle burns, and the jasper flourishes and gleams amid tawny gold; the third, the ligure for the elders; the unbridled river, Sardius, and amethyst.

the gleaming purple tints it. The chrysolith is fourth, the onyx joined to the beryl. There is added the venerable sign of the heavenly King, which the plate of conspicuous gold holds, formed. Moreover, linen cloths with snowy texture are commanded to confine into loose folds and to put upon the limbs, and to cover the shameful part of the flesh, lest, while they carry the holy things, the priests bare what is unseemly. Among these the whole order of the sacred rites is unfolded: what gifts may lighten sin, or what victim, struck by the iron, may fall and mark out the holy wrath of God. For whoever of men touches the consecrated altars is made holier, his breast purged of the blemish. That a lamp may always hang from the high paneled ceilings, kindled, and overcome the night by its own light, the censure of God decrees.

lest perchance the darkness make a horrible night through the holy altars. There is set also at times the juice of liquid olive, sanctifying the flesh of men, while at the topmost crown it melts and bathes the limbs with thick unguent. Add frankincense too, whose light breath becomes fitting to the nostrils and dews the senses with sweet airs, so that the structure of the great temple might shine and surpass all other dwellings with its adornment. God granted very teachable senses and the greatest ornaments to the craftsmen, and instilled all these arts in them — to Achisamus, of the tribe of Dan, and to Beselus joined with him, whose lineage was of noble birth from the fleet of Judah; and that the Lord's sayings might be most well known to the people.

The prophet receives from a twin rock tablets formed, God granting them, which the renowned hand of the King wrote with holy thumb and equal fingers. Meanwhile the people, lodged in the measured-out camp, while it now groans for a long time under its biting heart that its prophet is absent and murmurs that he is nowhere to be seen, demented, incessantly demands a deity for itself; perversely it demands Aaron; and he, bidden, ordered those raging and long insistent men to bring forth and hand over the ornaments which the daughters and daughters-in-law wear on their ears, while the native form is thought to have too little splendor and the gold drips down from a foul wound. When the people had heaped this up, he cast it into the fire, and then, drawing out what the furnace's flame had softened, mixed and formed a bullock with a grim brow, and said that the appointed day would come.

Forthwith, as soon as the morning star brought forth its whitening fires and shut night away in lofty heaven, the Judean band rises up and joyfully keeps its ruinous feast and floods its breasts with many cups, and, exulting, leads frenzied dances. The Lord, sublime on his lofty citadel, beholds these things and bids the innocent prophet swiftly descend, while he recounts: 'Run down quickly and leave the mountain, you leader of a perverse people and master of a congregation whom profane things delight; greatly has your Judea sinned under you their patron, while it despises holy deeds. Behold those by whom, with you as prince, it was permitted to loose the chains of untamed Pharaoh and to go forth from dusky Canopus! The transgressors stand with bull-like faces and in place of God celebrate the counterfeit limbs of a bullock, and now name this the deity of their liberty.'

Do not bend my impulses nor go to meet them, while I send upon them deserved terrors and a worthy ruin. Nor do you fear the loss, lest power taken away should at once, sent off, recur to the height of another. There shall be given in the lands a people, far more excellent in arms, unknown to you, which shall be victorious with you as prince. Terrified by these things, the prophet, bowing low, adores the Lord, having spoken thus: 'Why does your anger now go forth against your people in such commotions — the people whom Egypt, fearing too much, released as it groaned under hard rule, while it dreaded you, O great one, while the broken strength of your lofty right hand terrified the wretched tyrant with neck cast down? And now, O Lord, what will the throng of Canopus say, deprived of its captives and hostile to a people which it now sees to be yours, unless that you, O mighty God,'

'in vain favoring with your accustomed mercy, led these men forth into a desert seat to be slain, while amid vast woodland passes they lead their own funerals.' Sublime One, be gracious to your own and show a serene countenance to the one beseeching; for who can live, with you stirred, in the lands or in heaven? To whom alone does that which dies and lives run for you. And let it at last recur to your senses, Venerable One. What gifts you once prepared for Abraham, what then for tall Jacob and pious Isaac, whom a happy servitude adorns, because they pleased you: sworn by your strength, O Holy One, while you pledge that their offspring would be in your care, O unconquered King, to be thronged with a frequent populace and a countless line, like the stars of great heaven and the gleaming gems that flash in the world's pole — why do the promises waver?

Why has no one the goods of the rich land, and the prophet stands an exile from his dwellings, to whom you pledge streams of honey and rivers of milk?' By these things the Lord is moved and casts forth all his anger from his breast. Forthwith the prophet descends from the lofty hill, bringing back the tablets written from the Lord's law, both within and without at once; for the holy page was committed even on the back; and when, hastening, he comes out, by the immoderate voices of the people Joshua is fixed in attention, and thinks the clamor to be that of a warring crowd. But the prophet sees no wars, but breasts languid with wine sending forth manifold voices to heaven. And now, having entered the camp's threshold, the leader perceives the dances of a bacchanal people seething, and sees the gilded bullock with swollen neck, which the throng was gazing upon as if a heavenly parent.