七經詩 第 1 章

In the beginning the Lord set in place the heaven and the earth: for the earth was without form and hidden beneath the flood, and God, immeasurable, moved over the vast waters. While chaos and black darkness shrouded all things, He commanded that these be parted, and from His throne He spoke: "Let there be light!" And all things shone bright in the world. When the Lord had completed the works of the first day, He fashioned the sky, white with rising clouds. The boundless sea received the wandering shores, sweeping up with its mighty currents the manifold rivers. The third light unveiled the tawny face of the lands. Soon, its name now bestowed, the dry land is told of. Flowering shoots rise up on the windswept plains, and the fruit-bearing boughs at once arch down their arms. On the fourth day He begets the moon together with the lamp of the sun, and fixes the stars that shine with trembling light.

These elements He gave as marks of distinction to the world set beneath Him, that they might teach the seasons to be changed through their varied risings. On the fifth day the flowing rivers receive their fish, and the various birds spread their wings aloft in the air. On the sixth the Father makes the chill serpents glide in their coils, and pours out whole herds of four-footed beasts over the fields, and bade all things grow everywhere with manifold seed, and roam and feed over the boundless lands. When the divine power had established these things by His command, perceiving that a ruler was lacking for the affairs of the world, He declared this: "Let us make man to the very likeness of our countenance, that he may reign over the whole globe." And though He could have framed him by a word alone, yet He Himself, deigning to fashion him with His holy right hand, breathed into the dull body a spirit from His divine breast.

After He had seen him formed in His own image, He judged that solitude rolls gnawing cares within. At once He flooded his eyes with a refreshing sleep, that from a rib drawn out the woman might be more softly fashioned, and that the mingled substance might strengthen the twin limbs; and a name is given, which is called of life, Eve. Wherefore, by custom, children leave their parents, and, their dwellings set aside, cleave to their spouses. On the seventh day God rested, having ended His works, appointing it as hallowed for the joys of the age to come. Then, the throngs of living creatures being brought forth in order, to each and every one a name that endures Adam bestows, one by one, the skillful wisdom granted to him. Him God deigns to address, and Eve joined with him:

"Be fruitful through many a birth in the ages to come, that the heaven and the full earth may be filled with your offspring, and as my heirs gather the various fruits which the groves and the fields yield from the rich turf." When He had spoken these things, paradise is set up in a joyful hall and beholds the light of the first sun. Among these there is begotten a tree with deadly fruits, bringing forth a joined savour of life and death. In the midst of these abodes a river flows in a pure stream, which waters the noble gardens from its liquid floods, and cuts four-cleft channels from its surging spring. Phison, exceeding rich, flows with gold-bearing waves and grinds conspicuous gems from its hoarse whirlpool — to this one the name is the green prase, to that the burning carbuncle — and with its clear shallows it laps the land of Havilah.

After this, Gihon, gliding past, enriches the Ethiopians; the third is Tigris, joined to the pleasant Euphrates, furrowing Assyria separately with its swift stream. Here Adam, set as guardian with his faithful spouse, and as a craftsman, is shaped by such a word of the Thunderer: "Do not fear to pluck the permitted fruits, which the unshorn grove has produced with leafy bough; but be anxious lest perchance you gather the harmful evil that grows green, set apart for divided uses by its twofold sap." Nor meanwhile any less did deep night hold the blind; and no garment had clothed their newly-formed limbs. Among these abodes and the gardens with their mild berries, the foaming serpent, surpassing the animals in cunning sense, was creeping silently in chill coils; rolling livid lies with biting intent, he tests the soft heart beneath the woman's breast:

"Tell me, why should you fear the happy shoots of the apple? Surely God did not hallow all the fruits that are born? And yet, if you should be eager to pluck honeyed nourishment, the golden world will smile from its star-bearing pole." She refuses and fears to touch the forbidden boughs: yet still her heart is overcome by its feeble sense. At once, when she now bit the ripe fruit with her snowy tooth, a serene sky shone, stained by no cloud. Then the taste, instilling allurement in her honeyed throat, drove her to bear the gift to her unwary husband. As soon as he took it, the night being wiped away, his shining eyes flashed serene with the world resplendent. So when each of them looked upon their naked body, the things they see as shameful they shade with fig leaves. By chance, when the light of the Lord, the sun now setting, they recognize a sound, and trembling make for trackless places.

Then the Lord of heaven addresses the sorrowful Adam: "Tell me, where do you now dwell?" As a suppliant he answered thus: "O Lord, great one, when addressed by you I tremble within my fearful heart, and naked I am worn out with chilling dread." Then the Lord: "Who gave you the harmful fruits?" "This the woman handed over, while she says that her eyes, suddenly suffused with shining day and a clear serenity, beheld the sun and the stars of heaven shine for her." At once the wrath of God terrifies the troubled Eve, while the Most High seeks the author of the forbidden deed. She under this discloses: "Persuaded by the serpent's speech I received it, by deceiving guile and flattering entreaty.

For weaving its words with viperous venoms, it told me these were the sweetest of all the fruits." At once the Almighty condemns the deeds of the dragon, charging that the hateful monster should live abhorred by all, that thereafter it should crawl with body laid low, and chew the soil alone with its bite, waging war that shall endure for all time among human feelings and against the very one who falls; that with head cast down, prone, it should creep behind the legs and heels of men, while gliding it presses close at hand. The woman, wretchedly deceived by his deceit-bearing persuasions, is commanded by a harsh sentence to bear her child, and to endure servitude in zeal for her husband. "But you, to whom your wife's counsel seemed true, who was conquered and yielded to the cruel dragon, shall bewail your wretched toil through long ages.

For instead of the wheaten shoot, the thistle and the buckthorn with sharp thorns shall spring up for you, so that with weary inner parts and a sorrowful breast, many a sigh shall furnish the anxious sustenance, until in the western season of coming death, you be rendered back to the lying earth, whence you bear your body." These things done, the Lord gives the trembling pair weariness of life, and removes them, cast down, far from the hallowed gardens, and sets them facing away, and shuts them out with a fire between, in which the Cherub is whirled with a most swift heat, while the hot peak boils down and rolls forth flames. To these, lest their limbs grow stiff with numbing cold, the Lord sewed together skins torn from the bodies of beasts, covering their naked limbs with warm garments.

So when faithful Adam now perceived himself to be a husband by the union, he sets forth to his wife the name of beloved mother. Twin offspring from his seed the father at once names with different beginnings: this one bears the name of Cain, joined to whom Abel guarded with much care his harmless sheep; but the other turned the earth with the curved plough. When these brought their gifts to the Thunderer perpetually, they gave dissimilar fruits as their feeling prompted. For the first offered what had been sown from the fertile clods, but the other devotes himself with a tender lamb, bearing pure entrails in his hand and snowy fat, and at once he pleases the Lord who regards pious vows. On account of this Cain glowed with chilly wrath. Him God, deigning to address, begins with such words:

"Tell me, if you live uprightly and discern what is harmful, could you not pass your days pure, with the charge contracted withdrawn? Cease to destroy your brother with biting intent, who, subject to you as to a lord, will offer his neck. Yet not broken by these words, he leads his brother off to the fields; and when he saw him caught in the deserted meadow, gnashing he crushes his pious throat with both his palms. This deed the Lord, watching from high heaven, investigates: where in the world does Abel dwell? The other denies that he was set as his brother's keeper. To him God declares: "Does not the voice of his blood, sent up to me, cry out and ascend to the lofty pole? Know therefore what awaits you for so great a crime:

for now the earth that was soaked with your brother's blood, accursed and committed to you whom it hates, shall deny its seed, and shall not bring forth fruit from consumed plants, so that, numb and clashing your limbs with much trembling, you may ever draw sighs as if at a death close at hand." Terrified, he groans and begs death from the deity: yet this was not granted by the hostile Thunderer; for, having deserved evil, he is made known by a branded mark, lest it be permitted to anyone to lay low the guilty one with iron, and lest a greater death prepare sevenfold reprisals. At once, like one lost, he goes out from the face of the Lord, his dwellings set facing away, in the turf of the land of Nod; and no less from his sons, whom his faithful mother bore, he founded a lofty city by the name of his firstborn.

Enoch begets Irad, he then Mehujael, from whom by degrees Methuselah came forth into the air under that father and prolonged the times of a long life; but Lamech, who struck down Cain with a dread sword, suffers things much heavier than the slain guilty one; for crimes deserving seventy times sevenfold restrain him. Groaning at his deeds, he upbraids himself unbidden to his wives, of whom the first was Adah and the other Zillah. But the first bears Jabal, who as a shepherd in the grassy fields fed his joyful flocks on the herbage. Whom Jubal then follows, who invented the musical quills and the strings harmonious with varied murmur. Soon Zillah bears Tubal, whose custom it was to pour streams of bronze and to shape iron forged on the anvil into diverse modes with the hissing furnace; whom Naamah follows, created from the one father.

Among these, Adam, not feeble in his vigorous years, gentle, begets Seth after the death of Abel. He then begets Enosh, on whom the Lord bestowed a pure heart; at his asking He consents to be entreated, and received the gifts of a peaceful mind. So when Adam had completed nine hundred and thirty years, lulled in death he rested. And thereafter long-lived for nine hundred and five years Enosh lived, whom Kenan, matching, was longer only by five protracted years. Younger by thrice five years again lies down old Mahalalel; then Jared lived bound by an age longer by thrice ten and three.

Enoch, whose care it was to serve the Mighty One and to unite his mind to God, considerably younger than these — if you should take pains to add five and sixty to three hundred completed — was covered by a sudden darkness and hidden, and, removed by the Lord who greatly pitied him, lives a happy life with a peaceful time. But Methuselah extends nine hundred cycles and seventy, to which it is right to add one. Lamech, sprung from this father, when Noah was begotten, spoke such things, while after the manner of prophets he foresees the future and sends his mind into the age to come:

"This one shall give us untroubled dealings of life and remove the hard burden and bring back peace, which was driven away by evil deeds and by our guilt and by sorrowful hands, by whose toil the earth, furrowed, denies fruit, the Lord speaking it accursed." Seven hundred years and seven this one lived, seventy added on top, as the summary requires. While this one begot Noah, noble for his upright deeds, who would give seed to a guiltless age, was brought forth, and he begets three sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, accustomed to beat the softened iron into shape and to forge promptly the sparkling masses. Six hundred years this prophet had now lived.

When the Lord, wearied of the crimes of the dreadful world and the manifold guilt of men under the long light, in pity restrains the troubles of a prolonged life, and imposed a limit of twice sixty years, which no one set under that law could exceed. Among these, earthly pleasure suckles the holy ones and holds captive those moving from the heavenly citadel; while they behold faces smiling with fair body, the feminine ones, and cling too much to their pleasing embraces, they begot for themselves grim-massed giants — by whose crimes the Lord's patience at last is forced to be offended; while He conceives a long wrath and grieves that man, created by His starry right hand that formed him, He says, stirred in His holy breast:

"It is right for me to blot out the sins of the guilty world with the floods of the sea, and to envelop the whole earth, and to plunge the human race into the vast streams, and likewise all manner of beasts, which joyfully crop the grass through the fields while they wander on the lofty hills; let one destruction press down serpents and birds and wild beasts, that my wrath may grow mild, the frauds being blotted out." Noah therefore receives the mighty commands of God. He is bidden to fasten together an ark with double chambers, which should hold the nests of birds, abiding for their offspring; and, lest the oak-timbers should burst apart with splitting cracks, he smeared the ark with a very thick coating of bitumen. The ark itself was three hundred full cubits long, fifty broad, open across its hold.

But where the gables rise with lofty roof, it is raised aloft into the sky by thrice ten cubits, with squared beams, to yield to no floods, bearing at its middle door-posts with an easy hinge. When God had looked down upon these things finished from the stars, He addresses with such words the prophet to be sent upon the waters: "Climb swiftly, you and your sons and your daughters, into the bark that floats on the swelling floods, because your just heart and your purpose, long since known to me, has earned greater things than the present; and shut up together the herded gentle beasts of every kind, by sevens in pairs;

of the unclean herd you shall allow two to be with you, and you shall bring food for all these and for yourself, the accustomed kind, lest, when over the vast streams the tilling has ceased, you likewise suffer grievous hunger, being borne over the grey-green salt water with provisions not laid in beforehand; for when the bright light of the sun shall have come forth seventh in the sky, I prepare to pour out all the rain-clouds from the heavenly vault and to roll forth all the springs with a greater inrush, whereby the ocean may surge larger with its waters, receiving the foaming rivers more abundantly, and silting up all things with its outpoured course. For with twice ten days joined with night I shall fill the dripping clouds with perpetual hail, so that whatever lives may be drowned in the swelling waves."

When these things were spoken, the Lord's commands are done with His willing, and the old man hastening, noble for his long age, passing through six hundred years, entrusted himself to the waves and received his joined sons and daughters together, trusting, though he was hidden in a slender den. Meanwhile the clouds loosed all their rain-storms, and the abyss sent forth its watering springs into the sea-floods. And now all things are flooded over for twice ten days. The birds do not suspend their bodies on light wings, nor does the wild beast avoid the marble waters from a high-ridged hill; all things are buried in the deep, one death is for all. Nor any the less meanwhile, suspended over the swollen flood, the floating ark fortified the prophet shut within, hanging, and obedient to things to come it preserved the seeds for the ages, secure in its own shipwreck.

Soon the thinner air began to bind together the rain-clouds in the pitch-black clouds. And now the sea sinks back into the ebbing flood, and, after the bark floated in a moderate stream, the old man sends forth a raven black of breast, who, while he is borne on light wings by the flying breeze, did not return, frustrating the just prophet's hopes. After this he sends a white dove through the standing waters, which, weary with flight over the watery plain, finding ground nowhere, returned to the kindly prophet. And when the seventh light of the returning sun gleamed, he dismisses the bird with clapping wing, which, a grove being found, brought a mouth filled with the boughs of a very rich olive, when now through the stars the evening was rising and outrunning the night with trembling fire.

Thence again, seven days being duly passed through, the bird is sent into the sea, which, slipping away with most swift course, never returned itself to its companion's hall. The prophet then had now passed six hundred and one cycles. In the first month now following, and on the first day of the month, when the free land seemed to open up the mountains afar and to roll forth smoke, over which the sea had waved by thrice five cubits: a month now run through, then in the second, when three lights remained, the earth was now free of the whole flood and joyfully showed its own greenness. So when the ark settled on the bared mountains,

which bear the name of Ararat in ancient speech, the old man unbars the bolts, restoring new seeds to the earth, and gladly built festal sanctuaries for the Thunderer, and, mindful of his vow, while he burns up the altars with flames, the victim was worthy, while it begets mild odours, which breathe before the Lord with joyful exhalations. Then, lest the earth perish by a like destruction, the Lord lifts away the flood for the times to come, bidding the hastening months and the seasons of the moving year, restless, to roll their accustomed courses: but only the saffron bow is to be curved in the clouds, when the bright stars besprinkle with their cloudless shower. The Lord's blessing follows the gentle prophet, namely that of all things which the land and the sea beget he should command as a faithful one, since they are made subject to the ruler;

being warned to separate from his table the flesh of beasts which left their life with the blood not let out: therefore, since this spirit is set in many. "But if a man should be destroyed by iron or by a wild beast's tooth, I shall seek out," He said, "those who do such things; they shall give their necks in like manner, to pour forth blood." Hence the Lord soon divides the pledges of the pleasing prophet, and bids them take the fertile lands separately, that they might fill the empty world with thick seed. The prophet receives this reward, the Lord granting it, that as the inventor of the vine he might taste the white wines. Whom, when he had quickly filled with cups and was weighed down with sleep, Ham mocked, from whom the youth of Canaan is born, and named the nation from its tall name, displaying to his brothers the parent with his limbs laid bare.

But those equal in piety cover and veil him as he lies: with their backs joined in their zeal, while they turn away their eyes, they bore the slumbering old man, and they do not see the parts shameful to speak of, bending their necks with tender modesty. This work of piety, after the prophet now with a serene mind recognized it, he condemns the offender to the ages, making him so that he be the last among his brothers and subject to harsh rule, and that, terrified, he should pray to the strong. Thereafter the old man, his course completed, passes into nine hundred years, fifty more, as the rule of the law has decreed. His progeny, while it hastens to lead out walls, founded splendid cities with vast lofty heights; and while, intent on the work, they build the ramparts in rivalry, they mark them with the names Tarshish and Kition and Rhodes, standing out with their gates, which the sea laps with its flood.

From here Canaan has his name, from here Sidon rises, then the Jebusite, the Amorite joined to the Hittite; the Girgashite flourishes, the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite, the Zemarite, the Arvadite and the Orusite, and whoever inhabits the walls of Gaza, to which Gomorrah and Sodom are yoked, and Admah and Zeboiim, to which Lasha clings joined. Moreover they also make Mash and like-named Sephar, the high-ridged and the hill, which lifts cloudy citadels, where first the flame of the whitening day bursts forth. From the body of these is born Nimrod, accustomed to keen hunting and standing forth with huge limbs, and rejoicing to lift himself against the holy God, fierce after the manner of heroes, whom a steep neck and an immense head raise on high into the lofty air.

He places Babylon, and Erech and Accad and Calneh amid the glades of Shinar; then he founds Asshur, and set up Nineveh, eminent with its roofs, and Rehoboth, and thereafter Calah, of which Resen distinguishes the glades and rises in the middle boundary. And while, eager, they vie and give names to their walls, they come into a plain called by the name of Shinar, and, having striven to raise hollow towers to the stars, they make no lime by which inserted stones are bound, but the muddy bricks are baked in a fired kiln, so that first the walls might gleam with immense roofs, before a new migration should make the nations separate. Bitumen served for lime, which is drawn out with a soft fleece and with a tough body binds the rocks.

For among all, the tongue, conscious of speech, spoke through like utterances and civic words. At last the Lord came down and saw the walls, charging that various voices and diverse sounds should suddenly burst forth, by which the nations each speak. At once the world is filled with settled cultivators, and the divided place is soon called Confusion. These He follows, Abram, who greatly believed the Lord, whom Terah, called by ancient name, begot; and Lot is joined, a brother of joined blood. When these had now grown strong with their youthful years, they joined marriage to themselves: Lot rejoices in a covenant with Milcah, and Abram grows rich with Sarah his wife, who however led her life to old age without offspring.

These Terah anxiously removed from the Chaldean flock, while the fields of Canaan please with their leafy hills. But God, who would know the mind of His chosen Abram, commands that he take up a dwelling in another region: "Come now, hastening, remove yourself from your native lands and leave behind your kindred homes and accustomed thresholds; for I shall make you to become the chief of an immense nation. Besides these, I shall add that whoever wounds you with malicious words shall, accursed from the Lord's mouth, bear all manner of sorrows; but he who recounts your conveniences with kindly speech, let him be greater in joyful achievement." The dwellings are changed, the camp of Shechem is set up, which the Lord pledged to the prophet for a long age. There, hastening, he raises up hallowed altars:

climbing a mountain which spurns the broken waves and, ruddily swelling, looks out upon the lights of the sun, ... here too, with set-up masses, an altar is founded, and God is prayed to, when thereafter through the lonely fields the prophet drives on, where the land lies sundered from settlers; which, while it is parched with perpetual thirsting veins, drove on famine fasting, to which care clings. By this fear the fertile Nile-fields are sought. And because Sarah was white with conspicuous body, she is charged to say she is bound by no marriage-bond, but to be his sister, lest perchance, with monstrous daring, the unbridled crowd should beget harmful jealousy against the husband and that he, sorrowful, should have a rival as foe. Indeed the crowd of Canopus, marvelling at him as he comes, in every way surveys Sarah with desiring eye.

And when, praised through the nobles, she was handed over to the king, the prophet is received with sweet vows and words. Yet the King of heaven did not wish her imposed upon him; for, with many and great terrors at once, He drives off the king, smitten, who, guilty defendant of his harmful daring, upbraids the chief: why he had rather said his wife to be his sister and had mocked him with false cunning. Thereupon he bids him lead the bride away joyful with him, and whatever of the herd he had brought from his native shores. For God had ever consecrated to His servant who spoke in harmony huge wealth and all the greatest things. Lot too receives whatever he had brought thither, and at last, returning, they are set at their native shores. And there, while they wander with intermingling flocks, the shepherds of the cattle strike one another in contest, because the small pastures cramped the breeding stock of the two.

But the father, desiring to settle the untamed quarrels, offered that his nephew should take what fields he wished. He gladly obeys, seeking the shores of Jordan, which river, while it swells with its waters in place of the Nile, with overflowing stream enriched the rich fields. The old man receives by lot the Canaanite acres for the one coming and sets his herds through the green fields. But it was not permitted to settle perpetual dwellings: for the father, bidden to survey the land by beholding, which the flaming sun recurring from on high looks upon on either side, or which the twin Wains gaze upon continually, is promised to his progeny by so great a father to be created. He who is eager to grasp their number in speech will sooner tell the throngs of stars or of the sand, which the sea sometimes bares on its uncertain shore.

He proceeds also to the oak called by ancient name Mamre, and dedicates a most lofty altar to the eternal God. Without delay, after concord had made the divided brothers compose to their wish the realms through the fields, four kings rise up from a numerous nation and lay waste Sodom with much warlike soldiery, and four battle-lines, propped each by two princes, hurl iron through the clouds as far as the Salt Vale. Five tyrants take flight, abandoning the wars, and in headlong flight hide on the leafy mountains whatever could survive slaughter; who by their true names are called Arioch, Tidal, Bera the Gomorrite, and also Amraphel, agape for fair years. Among these things, which happen in great number in the crisis of war, Lot too is captured with his whole stock and household.

When a messenger with sorrowful mouth had recounted this, the prophet rises up, from the great flock of servants three hundred attendants, adding nine times twice more, the leader himself musters for war and handles iron afresh. Over the middle of the night he presses upon them now fearing nothing, and puts the victors to flight and slays many of the enemy. Moreover he receives his brother snatched from so great a crisis, and draws the plunder with him in a wide column. He is met with the joyful praise of the suitors of Sodom and of the priest of God, who, noble in holy deed — Melchizedek it was, prince and ruler of Salem — and he blessed him, presenting bread and wine, and took a tenth of the fruits from Abram's gift. He asks that the victor deign to return the captives, ready to bear off the rest by the law of war according to merits.

But the victorious virtue, content with its own moderation, receives the longed-for brother for its whole reward. Soon God, illumining the slumbering heart of the prophet, charges that he empty his breast of all dread, since he is safe under the protection of the unconquered right hand. He, eager, by the license granted to him speaks: "What do your gifts furnish me, for such great speech? For long-lived old age, joined to me, shakes me weary, nor is it granted to leave behind a deserving son after death. And because I have no offspring from a noble marriage-chamber, a degenerate heir shall be ours, whom a slave-woman bore." The Lord confirms the prophet, while He speaks such things: "Fear not, trusting; a slave shall not be your heir.

For if anyone is able to know the stars lacking number, or to run through all the sands of the sea, he alone will be able to number by reckoning the offspring which is to be furnished to you, as far as the whole globe is stretched, and which shall be born from your seed — a son who shall behold you and even be born of the eternal King: for I am the Lord, founder of the heavens, and I led you back safe by my aid from the Chaldean nation." The old man believed these things, nor does he reckon anything to be lacking from the Lord's words with the sincere keenness of his heart, and, relying, he asks, while he supplicates with peaceful beginnings, what signs of God he should bear in mind, which he should follow in his heart, in return for so great a gift, by which he should beget a son with a sluggish body, the times now run out for his cold limbs.

Being admonished, he prepares a heifer now of three years' age, joining with it a brisk young bullock of grim brow, then a ram and a goat and a shaggy she-goat, paired doves, joined with a like turtle-dove. Soon he splits the bodies of the cattle into twin divisions, sending forth the birds unharmed with their whole flesh; he arranges all things and fits them to the sacred altars, and places himself nearby, cunning in sense and ear. But behold, under the first hour of the dark night, the white breast of the sanctifying prophet is terrified, and the black darkness rushes in with confused light. Astonished at these things, he takes the comforts of the Lord, while he foreknows the new seeds of a coming nation, to be placed through various misfortunes under a harsh king of Egypt, whose name shall be that of bitter Pharaoh.

"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.

He himself hides the false gods in the cave of the Terebinth, and sees the great Lord bring forth his accustomed words to him, and that he himself shall be a seer of the high deity in the rich lands which the Lord had vowed to Abraham. He himself set a name on the place and consecrated the stone, which, venerating, he wholly drenched with clear oil, and raised a house beneath the roofs of the tower of Gader. Among these things Rachel, undone by grievous pain, by a funereal deed poured Benjamin from her womb. For besides the sons born of lawful mothers, the seer begot pledges through a substituted parent, and gladly acknowledged, from the allied seed of Bilhah, conspicuous Dan, whom Naphtali presses close upon. But others soon Zilpah bears, both Gad and Asher.

He obtains this also, which he knew was lacking to his merits, that he should see his father's countenance with such great offspring; that he, who had already been begotten of an aged mother, might rejoice, distinguished by twice six grandsons. So when at last, through twice ninety years, his life had been tall and drawn out through a long age, he is dissolved and, white, goes forth from his wearied body, about to behold the holy seats which prudence measures out as his portion, in which, reclining for ages on a star-bearing couch, he secure invites the snow-white just to joys. And now it pleases the brothers to divide measured-out dwellings; for because they could not, in the narrow border of the land, restrain their settlers growing with many flocks, the elder, after the fields of Canaan, receives Mount Seir and took rich, glad pastures.

Following the realms of Canaan, Jacob does not leave them, that his pious mind might ever rejoice in his father's rite. There Joseph takes up conspicuous deeds, shining forth among his brothers amid so great a distinction as the moon gleams small among the stars of heaven. He, when he now reached seventeen years, kept his father's ewes in the grassy herbage, going as the youngest by birth of those whom he begot in noble marriage-chambers, or by a servile concubine of the field. And because, conspicuous, he flourished green in the brotherly company, he stirred the fraternal feelings with the chill of envy. Him the father, embracing out of the whole stock of his sons, soothed, tender among the sturdy bodies of his brothers, and, that he might be more conspicuous among all, a flowing garment veiled him with varied dye.

When this one now served the Lord from his tender years, by chance, lulled with calm sleep over his eyes, he sees himself, mingled among his brothers, binding sheaves. While they bind the spelt in the midst of the new fields, his own rises high in an upright cone, near which the bowed sheaves of the brothers fell down crowding. After the youth unfolded this in calm speech, he stirred their fearing hearts with trembling tumult; murmuring with terrifying sound, calling him king and lord, they betrayed that the secret of crime was wanting in him alone (i.e., he was free of malice). And that he might the more break the sad ones with twin wrath, he reveals to his learned-speaking parent the dreams perceived, all being summoned whom the line of blood binds together.

For it seemed to him that he beheld the rosy sun and the moon joined together with trembling light, and these ten stars together with one rise up joined, and bend their bowed necks to him as to a lord. After the father had learned these things with sidelong mouth, he confessed that the trembling brothers must soon adore him. Forthwith the young men go off, and seek out the paternal flocks through valleys flowery in the river's grasses; to them, sent, he goes and wanders amid silent thickets, instructed by a certain youth pointing out the retreats, the pasture changed, where the band of brothers had gathered, whom he had chosen; whom, as soon as it was permitted to recognize from afar by his varied garment, they fit out an unhappy plan with discordant tongues.

It is agreed by all who hate him to destroy their brother and to report him slain by the bite of wild beasts, while the fierce ones mutter among themselves with windy murmuring: 'Let us see whether dreams will be able to drive off his death.' Was not the gentler one rejecting this with calm words, and does he not warn them against burying the cruel iron in him, advising that it were better to sink him in a standing pool? At once he is stripped, and naked he is wrapped in cold. Meanwhile one who was wont to trade Sabaean wares was driving on his camels under a heavy load, hastening to bring the Arabian harvests to Canopus. So when the hope of the younger brother is brought low, Judah says: 'You would do better to sell Joseph for coin.' Their father is kept in the dark, and beholding the garment dipped in blood he measures him as slain by no deceit.

Jacob rends his garment with hooked hands and wraps black sackcloth mourning-robes about himself. Stricken with grief the father seeks his lost one, whom of late Pharaoh's eunuch held when received, accustomed to load the tyrant's gilded tables with platters and to delight in the din of a great kitchen. Meanwhile Tamar gives birth, while glad delights of guilt are pleasing, and her womb is filled with a twofold pledge. Of these the boy who first earned the light of life thrust forth and put out a hand, which the clever woman bound with a scarlet thread; soon it is drawn back into the belly, and with the turn reversed at once the other is born, holding the first place, who had been second by lot. Since this one had once been marked off by a boundary, he bears the name Zarah; the other they called Pharez.

The Lord's faithful guardianship was watching over the lands, not suffering him though enslaved to live under harsh law. For the master, called his lord before, gives all things to his servant, and not on idle hope indeed; for the gentle Lord from on high increased more bountifully all that the young man kept. Yet he did not win the love of cruel Potiphar; for because his eyes shone in a conspicuous countenance, his mistress, wickedly wounded, begs the embrace of her servant. But the boy now shuns the foul thing and refuses to press the consecrated bed with excessive guilt. The woman, ruined in vain by forbidden flames, explores soft approaches and watches for her chances. By chance when she found the house empty and him alone, she presses on and with her hand forces him to lie down with her, grasping him. He, all the more eager, strips the garment from his body and slips out between his mistress's two arms.

The woman cries out and draws strength from her crime, screaming that the young man, trusting in his beauty, had violated the most sweet glory of her modesty, while slippery with youth he burns and contrives to climb his master's bed. Nay more, she assails her husband with sorrowful voice and wishes to subject the harmless accused to her chosen penalty; he, as though thinking it true, shuts him in a hostile prison, in which already the penalty held back the king's ministers. Soon the keeper of the prison soothes him with a kindly heart, and seeing him harmless entrusts to him the committed dungeons. There by chance two men, whom the grim tyrant, stirred by black bile, had buried in the lofty hall, shut up, dreaded their punishment with trembling heart, and while they steal their eyes away from anxious cares, they saw dreams that were heralds of things to come.