"For it shall serve, subject to masters for four hundred years, to be called back again to fertile lands; and with the lot changed, that which once as a slave trembled shall wield the sceptre, restraining the nations with mighty virtue. But you, when the boundary of your measured age has come, having done your course, shall be committed to the tomb in your native dwellings. For the people, torn from a seat hostile to them, shall come hither, to be given the homes of their ancient forefathers. For where the inhabitant now rejoices in the Nile-lands, and the swift Euphrates swims before the realms of the Syrians, they shall hold the Kenite peoples and the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites joined with the Perizzite nation; and Rephaim, to which is clinging the hand of the Jebusite, and the Canaanites shall be driven from the seat dear to them.
Moreover the Amorite, driven out from his friend the Girgashite, half-alive shall give his possessed fields to those who come." When the prophet's holy words of God had uttered these things, beneath the setting sun He gives a bright sign with lightning; for, as if a flame were seething from a surging furnace, it was seen to lick the flesh of the slaughtered beasts. Meanwhile Sarah, now long since wearied through barren years, had even lost the hope of being a mother; and because she would not lay a child in her too-cold womb, she began to suckle her husband to a second venture; and joy compels her to know the consortship of her slave-woman, so that at least the father might have a pledge by the cheap one. At once the Egyptian Hagar is led into the marriage-chambers, and from her fertile womb she begets the bastard Ishmael; she, when with servile cunning she scorned her mistress.
Afflicted and wounded by harsh blows, she fled. And while she hid in a remote spot by a nearby spring, a messenger came down from the airy summit of heaven, and sent her, after first consulting her, to the dwelling of her masters; moreover he endowed her, rejoicing, with abundant gift. And because she had seen the holy one shining with conspicuous light, she named the spring from a like name. And now Abraham the seer had completed ninety-nine years, when he at last recognized himself to be a father by the great gift of a son to be given — he with whom the covenants of the most high God are in accord, destined to be father and leader of countless nations, attaining peaceful dwellings through the great ages. Moreover, he comes forth greater than his accustomed name, the added vocal letter brings an additional honor; and she who had been Sarah is ordered to be called Sarrah.
Moreover Ishmael, richer than his father's prayer, as a prince begets and rules twice six peoples. After these things were done, when the old man's eighth day arrived, he removed the foreskins with iron from the males presented to him, joining at the same time whomever from the separate household. Then, when the time of the promised gift now drew near, he dissolved into trembling laughter with a wrinkling face, while silently he turned over within himself the immense promises: "Will you believe that God can fashion whatever has never existed, and produce strength through broken-down limbs?" Now the sun, blazing more fiercely, was climbing the middle of the sky, and the magnificent old man was catching the coolness in the shade, when suddenly he perceives three young men present together. Eager toward them all, he courts and entreats one more than the rest.
That he might not, while passing by, leave the youth with hurried step, but graciously deign to take the shelter of his oak, and that he might wash both feet with cooling water, and deign to take the bread set on a friendly table. He assents, and the servant swiftly carries out the venerable commands. Sarah herself also, hastening, gives herself to be seen, and gladly brings forth three measures of fine flour, which she had given to be baked in the roasting heat of the ashes. Then a calf, lowering its swelling horns from its brow, is chosen, its hide darkened by no blemish, and dishes of freshly curdled milk are set out. And while he feeds God set under a threefold image, he tastes sweet joys at the hallowing words: "What is Sarah now doing?" (for she was then hidden within the dwelling), and the true Light repeats the begun conversation: "Well, mindful seer!"
"No less surely, when the year is full, she shall be a mother." Then the woman, joyful, laughed afar at such words and despaired of childbirth from her aged body. The question arises among them: what had been the cause of her laughter? She denies that she had been shaken with easy laughter, while she fears and turns over the fault within her silent breast. The young men rise up, comely with matching radiance, and look upon Sodom laid open beneath their whole gaze. Then the Lord, not allowing anything to remain unrevealed to the seer, declares what cause leads him to the grievous cities: "Roused by the immoderate clamor of Sodom and neighboring Gomorrah I have come, and I am concerned to inspect the truth" — namely, that, since the harmful throng, since the dreadful outcry, labors, the two towns may together blaze from the heavenly thunderbolt. Here the trembling seer pleaded in servile speech: what number of saints might preserve the guilty walls?
Taking fifty as the starting point of the sum, he learns from twice five men that the people oppressed by vices may escape ruin under strong covering. Forthwith two come to Sodom, the Son and the Nourisher, when the evening star was already bursting forth with moist fire. There before the doors Lot was sitting after his custom. And when he had surveyed the men, illustrious with like form, bowing down he led them, adored, to his accustomed threshold, though they preferred rather to lodge in the middle of the square. He feeds them with white unleavened bread of fine flour. And thereafter they compose their drowsy limbs upon the couch. Behold, the whole raging mob of Gomorrah rushes forth, surrounding the halls of Lot with savage uproar, and demanding the men, it wrangles with swollen mouth.
Mindful of peace, he tries to soften the raging men, and even eagerly offers his daughters to the madmen, that perverse pleasure might rather burn with lawful indulgence, turning away vile acts to a like sex. But the words move them nothing. The doors are broken with iron. And while they crowd together, while they tear away the strong bolts, the eyes hedged about for themselves groaned in pitch-black darkness. These things done, ordered to carry off his pledges far away, he invites his sons-in-law, who refuse with numbed sense — yet which his coaxing mind could ask by persistent pleading. He led out his daughters following in the presence of their mother. And while he advances, while he climbs the heights of the opposite hill and ponders with himself what might follow next, the woman, while she looks back at the citadels left behind, grew rigid, and took on the appearance of salt in place of her body.
He, secure, enters beneath the roofs of lofty Zoar. Soon a crash from the dread-sounding sky hurls thunderbolts, and sulphurous flames pour down with a foul whirlwind, which together lick the walls and the lofty rooftops. When all had been torn away into ash with swift downfall, Abraham from afar beheld the flames rising with ruddy crest, pondering in his mindful heart that he had never attached any falsehood to the Lord's words. And no less Lot, settled safe within his hall, was offering comfort with tender love to his daughters, who without husbands could not bring forth offspring. These, when they perceived the use of seed taken away and their maternal glory gone, the father alone being left, prepare a feast and bring out wine to their parent, that he, unwitting, might learn the forbidden use of his daughters.
Without delay the burden swells in the female fibres, and the vital parts of both alike grow turgid from a matching kindling. The first bears a boy, Moab by her father's tongue; the other names hers Ammon with differing speech. This one is father of the Ammonites, that one the begetter of the Moabites. Meanwhile Abram departs from his appointed dwellings and passes to the lands of Gerar with his consort wife. Here Abimelech, desiring intimacy with Sarah, at the prince's discretion (for the excellent seer had said she would be his sister, lest her beauty contrive a snare for the innocent man's wife, while he guards against rivals' anger) — yet he did not prevail, driven by strong terrors that strike the mind whenever lust is perverse:
For God, sending a tormentor, tortured the tyrant, who, when he had broken off his dreams with a terrifying vision, trembling, with mind scarcely returned, pursues the seer, to whom Sarah had been said to be a sister, as though no marriage bonds bind the bride who was joined to the prophet. He teaches the reasons and clears himself of the charge, having lied in nothing; for Sarah had sprung from the father's seed — a joined line drawing down the blood. When these things had been settled, the ruler gives a thousand talents and servants; to these he joins soft sheep and herds; nay, even acres spread wide through broad fields, that the gifts might soothe the well-deserved guilt. For the king's house, paying the penalties admitted, with a host of diseases alike raging through all, had long since cast down the offspring from the female wombs.
But when the peacemaking seer, prostrate, pleaded before God on behalf of the king, fruitfulness at once joyfully restored itself through all and filled the rich wombs. He himself too, by unwonted vows, in his last days becomes a father, and reckoning the solaces of joyful laughter, names him Isaac, and fulfills the commands of the high deity. On the eighth dawn plucking the covering from the member, and now seeing him already advance with steady steps, the begetter feasts among kinsmen joined from his own allied stock and rejoices at the rich tables; for to vows despaired of, greater is the grace. And now while the child, joined to the child, plays with his foster-mate —
this drove the mother to swell with fiery gall, that she might drive out the hated handmaid together with her offspring — and yet the old man, unwilling, while he observes the supreme commands of the Lord, thrust out both alike. But the woman, after she was removed from the master's seat, wanders trackless through secret retreats in a remote nook. And now she had used up all the bread and all the wine, sighing with weary breast over her dying son; she comes to a well, to which the name Oath had then been given, and filled the wilderness with sorrowful lament: when God, moved across the heavens by the afflicted woman's tears, strengthens the trembling one and tells her of the immense realms prepared for her son, at whose downfall she now groans. Forthwith, drawing draughts from the watering eddy, she rises up and rejoices together with her now-glad son. The pious commands of God go forward.
Now the little one began to draw the bow and to whirl the winged arrows. Meanwhile the seer, lest the leader Abimelech secretly contrive anything, knits together a covenant of peace, so that, since contests had been stirred concerning wells, they might secure restored leisure for a safe life. An oath is sworn, and the harmony of an agreeable peace remains. Then the old man, while he cleaves the earth with the curved plough, filled his vast hall with glad harvests, and, a suppliant, having entreated the high God through his vows, peacefully settled in the fields of the Philistines. There he is tested by the words of the heavenly deity, that his only son should lie down by the sword at the altar. Without delay, he climbs the heights of the swelling hill, leading his horse-hoofed beast going along with the servants and his son.
And now on the third day, when the sun shone brighter at the mid-axis, while it draws in all shadows, the old man dismisses the boys and takes his son, that, bearing the brushwood — the fuel of flames — on his neck, he might together climb the summit of the opposite hill. And now indeed, as the flames rose, at the very altar he is set, bound with hands twisted back behind. And while the father hastens to cleave his son with the knife, attentive he descries from afar a white lamb, which might better fulfill the rites with shed gore. These things done, Sarah departs from her aged body. And when her children would furnish a place for the tomb from the Hittites, the seer dissented, ready to fix it at a price. The rich man gave four hundred sesterces to Ephron, while he rejoices to commit his consort to the double sepulchre. The age of the ancients had told the place's name, Mamre.
Forthwith he bids a certain one of his servants, whom life and faithfulness had made distinguished, to speak in solemn words and to swear, while he places his friendly right hand and joins it beneath the thigh: that none from the race of Canaan should be joined to his son, since rather she must be led from the stock of the forefathers; and if perhaps she should resist, the matter must be entrusted to heaven, which easily softens wrath. He, eager, places gifts upon the swelling camels and seeks Assyria, now descrying the roofs of Nahor. And while silent he turns over within himself the master's commands, he beholds the excellent Rebecca coming from the spring, who, not slow, holds out cooling waters to the man and invites him home. He asks whose daughter she is; the youth is joined in hospitality, and soon brings forth gifts. When all is unfolded, she goes to be married to her husband.
And now Isaac, near at hand, descries those who have completed the journey; Rebecca, seeing him, slid down from the high back of the camel and veils her bowed head with a thin covering. They are joined in silence and rejoice with the Lord as author. But after the old man had passed beyond a hundred years — seventy and seven — having bestowed gifts on all, he departed, granted a place in the twin sepulchre. Meanwhile the son, having attained his father's house, dwells at the well to which the name had been Vision. And now he had spent forty years there; with the said wife he had enriched his ancestral hall: she, though she shone white with a surpassing star of beauty, long barren, knew not the joys of a mother. But when with hallowing mouth he besought the Lord that the pregnant wife might bring forth a just heir, he is heard; teeming Rebecca swells with twins.
She, long marveling at the growing weight of her womb, a suppliant consults the responses of the heavenly Thunderer, and learns that two peoples within her breast rise to the light of life with differing merits. For he who holds the first beginnings of the deserved light is led, subjected to commands, to serve the younger. So when now the pledges are born with easy delivery, the elder comes forth into the air with ruddy body, clothed over his whole frame with blackening bristles, whom the father called Esau by a pleasing name. After, holding his brother's heel with pressed hands, is born — distinguished, exceeding rich in mind — Jacob. The elder ranged the empty fields in hunting, while the horn fills the rocks with hoarse-sounding trembling. But the other, preserving the deeds of a gentle heart, rejoiced to live unharmed beneath his father's roof.
The father caressed the elder with tender love, but the mother soothed the other with all her heart. When this one had dissolved Nile-lentils in water, he urged his shining brother to take the prepared food, that he might yield up to him his first honors. Among these things, ill-counseling hunger and the first of evils compelled the seer to depart from his ancestral lands. He seeks the Philistine countryside, soon passing Gerar, which Abimelech then held under his own rule. Advancing, he saw the Lord with bright light reproving with words, that he should not approach the realms of Canopus, but hold only the land which the Lord had granted.
"For though you may seem to sojourn among strangers, yet, you who will remain a father unto the immense world, you shall rejoice to see nations increase with manifold seed, who shall take up the greatest covenants of my word." Forthwith, dwelling in Gerar with his consort wife, he declares her rather his sister by his father's deed, lest the Philistine throng, moved by light desire, should snatch the seer's marriage with seized arms. But the king, while he surveys the secret places through a wide window, descries the seer playing with his snow-white wife, and seeing their union, restrains all under law, lest anyone attempt to ravish the prophet's consort. And now, he who had long fled famine from his native shores, while he scatters the entrusted barley over the softened earth, plucked a hundredfold fruits from the glad turf.
And no less meanwhile he grows rich in peaceful occupation amid manifold flocks and fruitful land. Continually, while envy torments the wretched breasts, it troubles the watering wells and fills them with a mound, so that, departing far off, he might leave the possessed fields. Avoiding therefore the hazards of swollen strife, he departed and stayed long in the valley of Gerar; and while with anxious effort he opened wells, he found cool waters from a gushing source. But, beset by the shepherds' trickery, he abandons his anger and the hated places, marking it with the name Strife. Thence he moves his step, and again, the earth dug out from the deep hollow, brought forth cool streams into the light. And because he had been thrust away by biting contention —
he addresses the envious breasts with deserving words; and, after golden peace had broken the grim quarrels, he was eager to inscribe the name of Abundance upon the land. And while, shrewd, he changes the fresh herbage with swift step, he comes to the hills which have the name Oath. There with clear light he descries the Lord, at the time when the stars unroll their mid-courses, admonished to thrust sad emotions from his breast, with unconquered God protecting him through wars, through foes. Roused after sleep, he gathers his cold limbs and, venerating, soon entreats the Lord at the built altar. Meanwhile the kings Abimelech and Ahuzzath come, with Phicol accompanying and bearing the sword, that, since he wished to ally himself with the peaceful seer, he might knit covenants of concord with clasped right hands.
He is received kindly, and filled at the same table, having laid aside hazard, carries back the desired peace. Hence discord arises among the brothers; for the father, now grown greater with long age, bearing in his calm mind the day lost with the sun and his eyes buried, and remembering that death draws near, urges his elder son — whom alone affection regarded — to take the quiver and swift arrows, and to provide for him wild flesh after the custom, being about to take the gifts of his father's tongue forthwith. Rebecca, seeing this, makes it known to her dear Jacob, urging him to bring two kids promptly, and to be eager to slaughter for his parent in place of his wandering brother.
And, lest perhaps he should lay bare the deception by his smooth body, he is covered with skins which would make him seem hairy, and veiling his breast and limbs with his brother's robe, he offered the obtained food as though caught in hunting. Yet he did not utterly hide the foreboding heart. For the old man, while his right hand surveys the whole young man, recognizes Esau by the bristles, but Jacob by the voice. And after hunger was satisfied and the table removed, he admonishes him to set himself nearer and place himself by him. When that one came forward with bowed head to the right hand, he received the bright words of his hallowed-speaking parent, while he tastes sweet kisses upon pressed lips. For after the desired exchange of a long life, the elder brother is ordered to serve the youngest. Meanwhile Esau, driven by long roamings —
he was now carrying the captured game to his satisfied parent. And although by his service and deed he had pleased much, yet, the gift being intercepted, he could not receive it. Hence wrath and tears and a fraud sought for harming: which Rebecca, seeing it betrayed in the brother's breast, warns Jacob to visit kindred Haran and to seek Laban, her own mother's brother, until the long day might soften the conceived wrath. And the seer's resolve is joined to the mother's admonitions, while, teaching, he calmly equips his son in common: "Seek no marriage, young man, from the race of Canaan, but mindful of the sayings of your dear father, cleave to them. There is a place among the Assyrians, which is girded by a twin river."
"Here is the father of our mother, the friendly Bethuel, and his son-in-law Laban, who holds the glad estates in all Haran and cherishes his daughters in their blooming years. From them let a wife be sought for you, I counsel, from the stock which draws its noble race from our blood." But the young man, rejoicing to serve his father's admonitions, goes forth, leaving his homeland, and, weary with much labor, inclines his eyes to sweet sleep. And while he spreads the rocks as a very cold bed, he places a hard stone beneath his wearied head. And while his limbs are refreshed by carefree slumber, undaunted he beholds, with the whole light of his mind, a ladder clinging through the clear sky beyond the clouds, from whose steps a lofty throng was rushing down; while another from earth was climbing up to the heights above.
And while the bodies are rolled in headlong fall, the Almighty was watching the falling ones with bent brow, adding these words above: "I am the great king of Olympus, long since your Lord and your parent's Lord: drive away your sad fears; the land to which you have given your limbs is a sure seat for you and for all your offspring with you as leader. Now go on, mindful, and do not desert the begun task. With me as leader you shall return again to the cities you left." A huge terror breaks his sleep and shakes all his bones, drenching his limbs with moist flow. And he records above these things: "This is a great house of the Thunderer, and a gate which opens heaven from a twin hinge." Soon he anoints the stone which had been placed beneath his head, and, addressing the House of the Lord by the pointing stone, he promises that he will give the tenth of his fruits.
And now hastening the begun journey, where the path led, he arrives at a well which alone, through the vast wilds, had ever soothed the soft flock with watering waves. Here, with three flocks, the shepherds, while the sun was hot, sipped the slender liquids and relieved the heat; and, greeting these, the seer asks each detail. And he sees all unharmed whom he was seeking in mind. Among these, walking with snow-white form, Rachel was driving her father's sheep to the familiar troughs. Whom the youth, seen from his brotherly threshold, promptly joins in chaste embrace, to kindred breast. Rolling away the stone which had covered the mouth of the well, he at the same time reveals himself a kinsman joined by allied blood. Whom Laban, beholding from afar with rejoicing sense, hastens to and settles the youth in his accustomed hall.
Nor does he suffer the kindred seer to serve for nothing, and for the man's labor he betroths his daughter to the lover. So when he had drawn out the reward through seven years, he demands the betrothed to be joined to him by the bond of the bridal chamber. Without delay, Leah is given by a feigned gift, heavy in her eyes, but sprung from the first birth. But Jacob, grieving at the contrivances of fraud, sings words to his father-in-law, cheated of the agreed maiden. Again, for the price of another, by separate wages Jacob endures the labors of a long life, receiving the deserved Rachel, the fraud now dispelled. But God, the greatest ruler of the heavenly hall, removed the losses of form by manifold offspring. For Leah bears Reuben, then thereafter Simeon; third, born with excellent heart, the Levite possessed the consecrated altars of our Lord.
Judah follows this one, soon set as founder of a tribe. But other births, whom Bilhah brought forth from her womb, it is permitted to know; now it is right to name the illustrious sons. After these Issachar is born of the fifth seed. The sixth offspring comes on, having obtained the name of Zebulun, and a maiden is born, Dinah, suited to her brothers. At last, late, God grants gifts to Rachel: she begets tender Joseph into the heavenly airs. So when now both offspring had been born from his wife, he asks for departure from his father-in-law, and what he had sought: who, when they wished to pay the reward according to merits, lay aside their spirits at the son-in-law's request, when entreated:
who, desiring nothing foreign, testifying that he would grow rich by the gifts of the Lord alone, departed, content only with both wives, striving to prepare lasting memorials for himself. He plucks rods from the broken body of the mothers' trees. The first was of myrtle; soon a second was taken from storax; a third torn from a nut-tree, so that the wool might gradually take up its divided colors, the rods being smeared with juice. For while hastening to plunge the bleating flock through the pools, he marked it dyed with varied distinction of color, on account of envy, because his father-in-law had said his wages were to be the varied, which he had withheld for many years. When this man, nourished by riches unbought, excelled, he stirred envy by the left-handed spite of the grieving.
And while the dread father-in-law shears the fleeces of the wools, freedom was permitted to the man, by which he might carry off all profits and the household gods, half-baked in a roasting furnace, which the Syrian in his native Haran believed to be deities. Yet these cautious Rachel kept hidden in coverings, lest the father, the crime discovered, should punish the offenses. Departing, the river overcome, he climbed the hill which the natives call Galeed in their fatherland's speech. And now on the third day the departure of the son-in-law together with that of the daughters reaches the father-in-law's ears. Forthwith he seeks aid from the brotherly band, and, having gained it long sought now on the sixth dawn, lest he do harm, he is forbidden by the holy terror of the Lord, and gentled toward his own, he asks for what he believes to be deities; and grieves, sought in all places, that they are not found.
After sure peace returned, the quarrels laid aside, a high heap is built up of growing stones, that the place might remain a witness by the built defense, and the set boundary might separate the dispute over the fields. Behold, in the middle of the way the seer sees lofty camps, which God the ruler leads with star-bearing governance, and he applied the name of separation, testifying: "This God fills." Meanwhile he ordered chosen youths to run ahead, heavy with gifts, which he bids be used for his brother, that he might peacefully grant a return; and his brother gladly assents to the one seeking peace; surrounded by companions and a great band, they pressed forward. Not at all turbulent does he go out against his brother, and though the throng of four hundred men terrified, the appearance harms more than the weapons of the attending arms.
With the flocks therefore divided, he placed these first, which his brother might deign to take as given to himself, and at the same time, immense, he besought the Lord with bowed neck: "O God, hope and substance of an immense kingdom, who art ever God of my father and grandfather alone, by whose commands they make me return from exile, having lavished great advantages upon your enriched servant: you bade me cross the river with the slow rod and to cross your Jordan with humble step. And now you see me dwelling in divided camps, that I might shun varied chances by a twin defense. Snatch me, O unconquered one, from these evils, and the brother's darts strike down peacefully as soon as may be with iron broken, lest the swift one strike my breast with hard weapon." So when he had settled his companions and sought sleep, by night he labors to overcome God who wrestled with him;
for that part of his body grew numb at the pressed thigh. And when he, who had struck the seer in the strong contest, long wished to loosen the knots of his limbs, the Lord, after the granted gifts, sent him away dismissed. With his name changed, Jacob ceases to be, and is called by the mouth of all "He who sees the Lord"; nay, though he dared to learn the name of the Lord, he could not, since the right to know it belongs to the Thunderer alone. He himself calls the place by the name of the Lord seen, whose lofty countenance it had befallen him to behold. And when the Lord, night now driven off, removed himself, he goes forth, supporting his steps with a long spear. Hence Judaea, mindful, avoids eating the sinew which props the bound thigh with rigid support. And now seeing his brother surrounded by a thronging band, bowing forward he salutes his brother with bent neck:
They, meeting, join their breasts with much weeping. And more and more he inquires with varied conversation who they may be that come with attending hand, what throng follows. He teaches by what father his brides were born, and by what wages the diverse flocks were prepared. And at once the daughters-in-law, poured down on bent knee, brought their tender children near to the kindred kisses. But the elder, piously refusing the gifts offered, gently soothes the pledges of the harmonious seer, and gladly, his brother accompanying him equally — so that by turns of speech they might gradually recount their own deeds. But because the pregnant flocks crept on in a slow-paced column, the seer halted to govern the flocks and servants, and set up little huts with leafy roof, which it pleased him to call by the fixed name Booths.
He comes to Shechem, which is in the region of Canaan, having bought at a price the bordering estates of the land. And hastening, he prays to God at the built altars. There Shechem the Hivite (Correus), too wickedly enamored, defiled the beloved Dinah and plucked away the use of the tender maiden, and, wishing to be joined, bowed down and removed his foreskin, bringing great gifts to the seer in place of the ravished consort. Then on the third light, when wounds rage greater, he is slain together with all his manhood like the stars. Jacob grieved at these deeds done by the sword of his sons, having spoken of the broken covenant with the allied people. Forthwith the Almighty admonished the seer to depart and to place his radiant household in a faithful seat. He hastens and obeys God, and beseeches his sons to crush small the shrines of the gods formed of rigid metal and to take robes beneath snow-white covering.