The Book on Genesis

In the beginning the Lord set in place heaven and earth:

For the earth was formless, and hidden by the flood,

And immense God moved over the vast waters;

While chaos and black darkness dimmed all things,

While He, from His starry throne, separates these things, He speaks:

Let there be light, and all things shone forth in a joyful world.

And when God had completed the works of the first day,

He established the sky whitening with newborn clouds.

The immense sea receives the wandering shores,

Seizing the manifold rivers with mighty courses.

The third light uncovered the tawny face of the lands.

Soon the dry land is called by the name given to it.

Flowering shoots rise up in the windy fields,

And at the same time fruit-bearing branches curve their arms.

On the fourth day He begets the moon along with the lamp of the sun,

And paints the stars radiant with trembling light.

These He gave as signs of the elements to the world set beneath them,

To mark the times to be changed through their various risings.

On the fifth day the flowing rivers receive fish,

And birds suspend their bodies with varied plumage.

On the sixth the Father makes the cold serpents glide in coils,

And spreads the herds of four-footed beasts through all the fields,

And He commanded all things everywhere to grow

With manifold seed, and to wander, and to graze over the vast lands.

When by His divine command He had established these things,

Seeing that a ruler was lacking for the affairs of the world,

He speaks thus: Let us make Man in exact

likeness to our own countenance, who may reign over the whole world.

And although He could have formed him by word alone,

Yet He Himself deigned to shape him with His holy right hand,

And breathes a living breath into the dumb breast from His divine bosom.

After He saw him formed in the likeness, as it were, of His own image,

He judges it fitting to turn over gnawing cares.

Straightway He pours over his eyes a soaking sleep,

That woman might be formed the more gently from a rib drawn out,

And a mingled substance might strengthen the twin limbs,

And a name is given, which is called Life, that is, Eve.

Therefore children customarily leave their parents,

And cleave to their own spouses, their homes set aside.

On the seventh light God rested at the end of His works,

Establishing it as sacred unto the joys of the age to come.

Straightway, with the throngs of living creatures brought forward in order,

Adam gives to each one severally a name, which remains,

Being granted skillful wisdom for the task.

Whom God, addressing him, and Eve joined to him, deigns also to address:

Increase, through manifold offspring, into the times to come,

That the sky and the full earth may be filled with your seed,

And, as my heirs, gather the various fruits,

Which the groves and the rich turf of the fields yield.

When He had spoken these things, Paradise is furnished

In a joyful hall, and beholds the light of the first sun.

Amid it grows this tree bearing deadly fruits,

Bringing forth together the taste of life and of death.

In the midst of the dwelling a river flows in a pure stream,

With which it waters the notable springs from its liquid waves,

And cuts fourfold channels from its surging fount,

The Phison flows rich with gold-bearing waters,

And grinds notable gems from its hoarse whirl,

This one is named Prasine, that one the glowing carbuncle,

And with its clear shallows it passes before the land of Evila.

After this, the Gehon, gliding along, enriches the Ethiopians.

The third is the Tigris, joined to the pleasant Euphrates,

Cutting through Assyria distinctly with its swift stream.

Here Adam is placed as guardian, with his faithful wife;

And he, the Maker, is fashioned by such a voice of the Thunderer:

Do not fear at all to pluck the permitted fruits,

Which the unshorn grove has produced on its leafy branch,

Being careful lest perchance the harmful evil fruit be gathered,

Which is green, set apart by its double juice for separate purposes.

Nor meanwhile did deep night hold their eyes any less blind,

Nor did clothing yet cover their newly-formed limbs.

Among these dwellings, and gardens with mild berries,

Foaming, surpassing the animals in cunning sense,

The serpent was creeping silently with its cold coils;

Rolling livid lies with its biting sense,

It tempts the soft heart beneath the woman's breast:

Tell me, why do you fear the happy fruits of the apple?

Has not God consecrated all things that are born as fruit?

But if you should be eager to pluck honeyed foods,

The golden world will return on its starry hinge.

She refuses, and fears to touch the forbidden branches;

But nevertheless her heart is overcome by weak understanding.

As soon as she has bitten the ripe fruit with her white tooth,

No cloud shone forth to mar the clear sky.

Then the taste, placing allurement in her honeyed mouth,

Drove her to bring the gift, unaccustomed as it was, to her husband.

As soon as he took it, the night being wiped away, his shining

Eyes flashed forth, clear, as the world grew bright.

Therefore, when each one beheld their bodies uncovered,

They shade with fig leaves the parts that shame requires.

By chance, at the setting light of the Lord's sun,

They recognize a sound, and trembling turn aside into hiding.

Then the Lord of heaven addresses sorrowful Adam:

Tell me, where do you now dwell? He answers thus, suppliant:

O Lord, spoken to, I tremble beneath a fearful heart.

Great One, I am wearied by dread of You, naked and stiff with fear.

Then the Lord: Who gave you the harmful fruits?

The woman gave them, he says. While he speaks, his eyes, promptly

suffused with bright day, and the liquid clear sky

Had shone upon him, and the sun, and the stars of heaven.

At once the wrath of God terrifies troubled Eve,

While the Almighty seeks out the author of the forbidden deed.

She discloses thus: Persuaded by the serpent's speeches

I took it, deceived by guile and beguiling entreaty.

For weaving his words with viperous poisons,

He told me these were sweeter than all fruits.

Straightway the Almighty condemns the deeds of the dragon,

Commanding that the hateful monster live despised by all,

Soon to creep forth upon its outstretched breast, and then

to chew only with its bite: whatever enmity should remain for time everlasting in war,

among human senses, and it itself gliding,

its head cast down, so that prone it might crawl behind the legs of men,

and at the heels, while gliding it presses close at hand.

The woman, wretchedly deceived by deceitful persuasions,

is bidden, in hard travail, to bring forth her offspring,

and to endure the servitude owed to her husband's will.

But thou, to whom thy husband's word seemed true,

thou who, overcome, didst yield to the pitiless serpent,

Thou shalt bewail thy wretched toil through long ages.

For thee, instead of a wheaten harvest, there shall spring up

the thistle, and the buckthorn thick with many sharp spines.

So that, with wearied vitals and a sorrowful breast,

many an anxious sigh shall furnish thy troubled sustenance,

until, in the setting hour of death that comes,

thou be given back, whence thou bearest thy body, to the lying earth.

These things done, the Lord gives to the trembling ones weariness of life,

and removes them, cast down, far from the sacred gardens,

and sets them turned away, and shuts them out by fire in the midst,

in which the Cherub is whirled about with very swift heat,

while the hot point boils down and rolls forth its flames.

The Lord, lest their limbs grow stiff with sluggish cold,

sewed together skins torn from the flesh of cattle,

covering their naked limbs with warm garments.

Therefore when Adam, now faithful in wedlock,

felt himself to be a husband, he gave to his wife

the name of the beloved mother, two offspring from her seed.

Straightway the father named them with differing beginnings:

this one bears the name Cain, and joined to him was Abel,

whose care kept many innocent sheep.

But the other turned the earth with the curved plough.

When these were bringing their perpetual gifts to the Thunderer,

they gave, as their own mind prompted, unlike fruits.

For the former offered what had been sown in the fertile clods,

he offered; but the other devoted himself to a gentle lamb,

bearing in his hand its unblemished entrails, and its snow-white fat,

and forthwith the pious offerings please the Lord who watches over.

On account of this Cain grew hot with cold anger,

whom God, deigning to address, thus begins:

Tell me, if thou livest rightly, and dost perceive wrongdoing,

canst thou not live pure, withdrawn from crime?

Cease to destroy thy brother with mortal intent,

who, as to a lord, will offer thee his neck in subjection.

Yet, not broken by these words, he led his brother out to the fields,

and when he saw him caught in the grass of the wilderness,

gnashing his teeth, he crushed his innocent throat with both hands.

This deed the Lord, beholding from high heaven,

inquires into, asking in what part of the earth Abel dwells.

He denies it, saying that he had been set as his brother's keeper.

To whom God says: Does not the voice of his blood,

sent to me, resound, and ascend to the lofty pole?

Know therefore what shall remain for thee in return for so great a crime;

for now the earth which has been soaked with a brother's blood

shall, cursed, deny to thee, hateful one, the seeds entrusted to it,

and shall bring forth no fruit from the withered plants.

So that, numb, striking thy limbs together with much trembling,

thou shalt ever draw sighs as if joined to a funeral.

Terrified, he groans, and begs death from the divinity:

which, however, was not granted by the wrathful Thunderer;

for, having deserved evil, he is marked with a branded sign,

lest it be lawful for anyone to strike down the guilty one with the sword,

lest a sevenfold vengeance should prepare a greater death.

Straightway he departs from the face of the Lord, as one lost.

With his dwelling turned toward the soil of the land of Nod,

no less from the sons whom his faithful mother bore,

he founded a lofty city, named after his firstborn.

Enoch begets Naida, and then Malech,

from whom, this father continuing gradually,

Methuselah came forth into the light, and prolonged the ages of a long life.

But Lamech, who strikes dread Cain with the sword,

suffers punishment far graver than the slain guilty one.

For his crimes are restrained by a tenfold sevenfold penalty.

This man, groaning, of his own accord reproaches himself before his wives,

of whom the first was Ada, and the second Sella.

But the first bore Jabal, who as a shepherd in the fields

fed his flocks joyfully on the grassy herb.

Then followed Jubal, who musical plectra

discovered, and strings agreeing in varied murmuring sound.

Sella soon bore Tubal, whose custom it was to pour streams of bronze,

and to shape iron, subdued upon the anvil, into diverse forms, with the forge hissing:

whom Noema followed, born of the same father.

Meanwhile Adam, not feeble amid vigorous years,

begets Seth after the death of gentle Abel,

who then begets Enosh, to whom a pure heart

the Lord bestowed, and, when this man asked to be called upon, consented,

and received the offerings of a peaceful mind.

Therefore after Adam had completed nine hundred

and thirty years, lulled by death he rested.

Long-lived thereafter, for nine hundred and five years

Enosh lived, whom Cainan, matching him,

was only five years longer in his extended years.

Younger than this one, again he lies down after thirty years.

Old Mahalaleel, by thirty, then Jared

lived, more constrained by a long age, by three more.

Enoch, whose care it was to serve the Mighty One,

and to join his mind to God, younger than these,

when three hundred years were completed, if you take care to add five,

and sixty more, covered by sudden darkness

is hidden away, and, removed by the Lord's great mercy,

lives a happy life in peaceful time.

But Methuselah extends nine hundred circling years,

and seventy, to which one more may rightly be joined.

Lamech, begotten of this father, when Noah was born,

spoke such things, while, after the manner of prophets, he foresees

the future, and sends forth his mind into the age to come:

This one shall give us secure dealings of life,

and shall remove the harsh burden, and bring back the peace

which has been driven away by evil deeds, and by our guilt,

by sorrowful hands, by whose labor the furrowed

earth refuses fruit, the Lord having spoken the curse.

This man lived seven hundred and seven years,

with seventy more added, as the sum requires.

This one begetting, noble Noah, of upright deeds,

is brought forth, destined to give seed to an innocent world,

and begets three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth,

accustomed to beat countless softened iron,

And swiftly forge the sparkling masses.

Six hundred years had this prophet now lived,

When the Lord, wearied of the crimes of the wretched world,

And the manifold guilt of men through the long light of time,

In pity restrains the crimes of their prolonged life,

And sets a limit of a hundred and twenty years,

Which no man under any law might overcome.

Meanwhile this earthly pleasure allures among the holy,

And holds captive those journeying from the heavenly citadel:

While they behold the fair-smiling faces

Of women, in beautiful bodies, and cling too much to their desired embraces,

They begot for themselves giants of grim bulk:

By whose crimes the patience of the Lord at last

Is compelled to be offended, while it conceives a lasting wrath,

And grieves that man, formed by the starry right hand of the Creator,

Moved in his holy breast, speaks thus:

It is my right to blot out the sins of the guilty world,

And to wrap the whole earth in the waves of the sea,

And to drown the human race in vast floods,

Together with all kinds of cattle, which happily

Crop the grass through the fields, while they wander on the lofty hills.

Let a single death crush the serpents, the birds, and the beasts,

That my wrath may be appeased when their deceits are destroyed.

Noah therefore receives the great commands of God,

Bidden to construct an ark with double decks,

Which should hold nests to preserve the offspring of birds.

And lest the timbers should split apart with cracking fissures,

He smeared the ark with a rich unguent of bitumen.

The ark itself was three hundred cubits long,

Fifty wide across its belly.

But where the roof rises aloft in its peak,

It is raised thirty cubits toward the sky,

With a square beam, unmeasured by any flowing lines,

Bearing doors at the middle with an easy hinge.

After God, looking down from the stars, beheld these things completed,

He speaks thus to the prophet who was to be sent upon the waters:

Climb quickly, you and your son, and your daughter, into the vessel

Floating upon the swelling waves, for I have seen a just heart

In you, and long ago your known will

Has earned more than is present; and having gathered together

Shut up likewise gentle cattle of every kind,

By sevens in pairs, and of the unclean herd

You shall allow two with you, and you shall bring in food for all these,

And for yourself as accustomed, lest, when through the vast floods

Tillage has ceased, you likewise suffer troublesome

Hunger of the salt sea, food not provided beforehand to be carried through the grey waters, for when the bright lights of the sun in heaven

Shall have come forth for the seventh time, I prepare to pour out whole rainstorms

From the heavenly pole, and to unroll all the fountains

With a greater downpour, so that the Ocean may swell

Larger with its waters, receiving all more abundantly with foaming waves,

And covering everything with a spreading, muddying flood.

For with forty days joined to as many nights

I will fill the dripping clouds with continual hail,

So that whatever lives may be submerged in the swelling waves.

When these things were spoken, the commands of the Lord came to pass, by his will,

And the old man, hastening—he who, noble through long age,

Was passing his six hundredth year—entrusted himself to the waves,

And took in together his sons and daughters,

Though he was enclosed and hidden in a narrow cave.

Meanwhile the clouds released all their storms,

And the deep sent forth its watery fountains into the seas.

And now for forty days all things were flooded,

The birds do not lift their bodies on light wings,

Nor does the wild beast avoid the waters from the high ridge of the hill,

All things are buried beneath the sea, death is one for all.

Nor meanwhile any less did the ark, floating suspended

Over the swollen sea, shelter, hanging, the enclosed prophet,

And, as a parent to the ages to come, preserved the seeds of life.

Secure from its own shipwreck.

Soon the air, growing rarer,

Began to constrain the storms within the pitch-black clouds.

And now the sea decreases as it recedes upon the returning waters,

And after the vessel floated with a gentle breeze,

The old man sent forth the raven, black of breast,

Which, borne on light wings by the flying breeze,

Did not return, disappointing the hopes of the just prophet.

After him he sent a white dove over the waters,

Which, over the watery plain, weary with flight,

Finding nowhere solid ground, returned to the kindly prophet.

And when the returning sun's seventh

Light shone forth, he sent out the bird with clapping wing,

Which, having found a grove, brought back in her mouth

Branches heavy with olive leaves, when now through the stars the evening

Was rising, and hastening the night before it with trembling fire.

Then again, seven days duly passed,

The bird is sent forth over the sea, which in swift and rapid flight

Never returned again to her companion abode.

The prophet had now passed six hundred and one

Years, when the first month had now followed,

And on the first day of the month, when the free earth

Was seen from afar to open its mountains, and to roll up smoke,

Over which the sea had once surged fifteen cubits high:

The month now having run its course, then when three

Lights remained, cutting through, the earth was now free of every flood,

And joyfully showed its own greenness.

Therefore when the ark settled upon the flooded mountains,

Which in ancient speech bear the name of Ararat,

The old man loosens its bars, releasing new seeds of the earth,

And rejoicing lifts himself up before the holy God.

As is the custom of heroes, whose towering neck

And immense head shall lift them sublime into the air.

Here he founds Babylon, and Orichas, and Archata

Acalla,

Then among the forests he founds Assur,

And placed splendid Nineveh with its buildings.

And Robotham, and Calcha, then Dasemata, whose

Boundaries he marks out, and rises in the midst of their border.

And while eagerly they vie, and give names to their walls,

They come into a plain, called by the name of Shinar,

And undertake to raise hollow towers to the stars,

They make no lime, by which stones joined together are bound,

But bricks of baked clay are fired in the furnace,

So that the walls might shine with immense structures

Before the migration should make the new peoples distinct.

Bitumen served instead of lime, which is drawn out

by soft fleece, and binds the stones with its clinging substance.

For among all peoples a harmonious tongue,

through like utterances, spoke a common speech.

Then the Lord descended, and beheld the walls,

commanding diverse voices to burst forth suddenly,

and varied sounds, by which each people should speak.

Straightway the world is filled with settlers dispersed,

and the divided place was soon called Confusion.

Him follows one who greatly trusted in the Lord,

Abram, whom Thara begot, called by his ancient name.

Lothus too is joined, a brother of joined blood.

When these had now become strong in ripening years,

they joined marriages for themselves: Lod rejoices in union with Melcia,

and Abram grows old with his wife Sarra:

who yet led her life to old age without offspring.

These Thara anxiously sent forth from the Chaldean flock,

while the fields of Chanaan pleased with their leafy hills.

But God, who knew the mind of chosen Abraham,

commands that he take up another dwelling in another region:

Come now, hastening, remove yourself from your ancestral lands,

and leave your kindred houses and accustomed thresholds.

For I will make you now to be the forefather of an immense nation,

and besides this I will add, that whoever wounds you

with malicious words shall be cursed from the Lord's mouth,

and shall bear every sorrow; but whoever with kindly speech

recounts your blessings shall be fed with joy and grow greater in wisdom.

His dwelling is changed, camp is pitched at Sychem,

which the Lord promised to the prophet for a long age.

There, hastening, he raises up sacred altars:

and climbing the mountain, which, broken, rejects the waves,

and swelling gazes upon the reddened lights of the sun;

here too, with mounds laid down, an altar is founded,

and God is prayed to, when thereafter the prophet

travels through lonely fields, land lying apart from tillers;

which, while it burns for perpetual streams athirst,

struck hunger into him, parched, to which care clings.

For this reason the fertile lands of the Nile are sought through fear.

And because Sarra shone with conspicuous beauty,

he is bidden to say she is joined by no marriage bond,

but that she is his sister, lest perchance by monstrous daring

an unrestrained crowd should breed harmful jealousy against her husband,

and a sad rival should have an adversary.

The crowd of Canopus, marveling indeed at him as he came,

gazes at Sarra in every way with desiring eyes.

And when, praised by the nobles, she was handed over to the king,

she is received with sweet wishes and words of the prophet.

Yet the king of heaven did not wish this imposed upon her.

For, driven by many and great terrors at once,

he expels the king, who, guilty of the harmful daring,

rebukes the noble, why he had rather said

his wife was his sister, and had deceived by false cunning.

Then he commands him to lead away his wife with joy,

along with the herds, and whatever he had brought from his native shores.

For God, ever in harmony speaking to His servant,

had dedicated to him vast wealth and all the greatest things.

Lod too receives whatever he had brought there,

and they are at last set again upon their homeward native shores,

and there, while their flocks mingle as they wander,

the shepherds of the flocks clash with each other in strife,

because the small pastures could not contain the offspring of both.

But the father, wishing to settle the untamed quarrels,

offered that the brother should take whatever fields he wished.

He willingly agrees, asking for the shores of the Jordan,

that river which formerly, like the Nile, when it swells with waters,

ruins the rich fields with its overflowing stream.

The old man receives by lot the lands of Chanaan as he comes,

and sets his herds through the green fields.

But it was not permitted to establish everlasting dwellings.

For the father is bidden to survey the land by looking upon it,

which the fiery sun, running back and forth from on high,

beholds on both sides, or which the twin Bears

gaze down upon continually—the land promised

to descendants of so great a forefather to be created,

whose number, whoever strives to grasp in speech,

would sooner count the throngs of stars, or say the grains of sand

which the sea sometimes lays bare on its uncertain shore.

And he goes to the oak called by its ancient name Mambre,

and dedicates a lofty altar to the everlasting God.

Without delay, after harmony had made the separated

brothers settle their kingdoms as they wished throughout the fields,

kings arise from the numerous nation of Terniqua,

and, warlike with much soldiery, they lay waste Sodom,

where three battle-lines, each supported by two leaders,

hurl steel through the clouds as far as the Salt Valley.

Five tyrants take flight, abandoning the battles,

and in headlong flight hide in the leafy mountains,

whatever could survive slaughter; who by their true names

are called Ariac, Halachar, Godullagomurus.

And also Amarfalus, rejoicing in fine arms among these.

Amid these things, which happen with much peril of war,

Lod too is captured with his whole stock and household.

When a messenger reported this with sorrowful mouth,

the prophet rises up, adding from the great flock of servants

three hundred followers, nine times two more besides,

and himself as leader summons them to war, and they take up the sword again.

In the middle of the night, upon those fearing nothing now, he falls,

puts the victors to flight, and kills many enemies.

Moreover his brother, rescued from so great a peril,

he receives, and drags away the spoil with him in a broad column.

He is received with the joyful praise of the nobles of Sodom,

and the high priest of God, noble in holy deeds,

Melchisedech, presents bread and wine.

He asks that the victor deign to return the captives,

willing to bear the rest according to the law for the merits of war.

But the conquering valor, content with its own restraint,

accepts the desired brother as recompense for the whole gift.

Soon God, illuminating the lulled heart of the prophet,

commands that he empty his breast of all fear,

since he is safe under the shelter of the invincible right hand.

He, eager, speaks with the license granted to him;

What do your gifts avail me, for all your promised speech?

For long-lasting old age shakes my weary frame together,

nor is it given me to leave behind a deserving son after death.

And since I have no offspring from a noble marriage-bed,

an unworthy heir will be he whom my slave-woman has borne me.

The Lord confirms the prophet, saying such things:

Fear not, trusting one, your servant shall not be your heir.

For if anyone is able to know the stars that lack number,

or to run through all the sands of the sea,

He alone will be able to number the offspring, thinking

That which must be granted to thee, by which the whole world is stretched out,

And there shall be born of thy seed one who shall behold thine own,

A Son, who shall also be born the Son of the eternal King:

For I am the Lord, founder of the heavens, and thee

Have I led back safe by my aid out of the Chaldean race.

The old man believed these things, nor did he measure by the sincere

Keenness of heart that anything should be lacking to the words of the Lord,

And, relying thereon, he asks, while he beseeches with gentle utterances,

What signs of God he should bear in mind, what he should follow in heart,

In return for so great a gift, whereby he might beget a son with his powerless

Body, the times now having run their course upon his chilled limbs.

Being admonished, he prepares a heifer now three years of age,

Joining a lively bullock with grim brow,

A ram, and then a he-goat, and a shaggy she-goat,

Paired doves, joined with a like turtledove.

He then splits the bodies of the beasts into twin divisions,

Letting the birds go untouched in their whole flesh,

He arranges all things, and fits them to the sacred altars,

And places himself near, shrewd in sense and ear.

But behold, at the first hours of the shadowy night,

The bright breast of the sanctifying seer is terrified,

And blackening darknesses rush in with confused light.

Upon this, astonished, he receives the comforts of the Lord,

While he learns beforehand the new seeds of the people to come,

Who, through various chances, are to be placed under a harsh king

Of Egypt, whose name was the bitter Pharaoh,

For four hundred years subjected to the Lord

Shall it serve, to be called back again to fruitful lands,

And, the turn being changed, that which once, a slave, trembled,

Shall hold the sceptre, restraining nations with mighty power.

But thou, when the term of thy allotted age shall have come,

Having fulfilled thy course, shalt be committed to the tomb in thy fathers' seats.

For a people, torn from a hostile abode,

Shall come hither, to be granted the homes of their ancient forefathers.

For in the region where now the inhabitant rejoices in the lands of the Nile,

They shall hold the Genaean peoples, and the Genezites,

The Chalmoneans, and the Hittites joined with the Pherezite race,

And the Raphaites, whose hand clings to the Jebusite,

And the Canaanites shall be driven from their beloved seat.

Nay, even the Amorite, thrust out by his friend the Girgashite,

Half-alive, shall give the possessed fields to those who come.

When God had promised these holy words through the prophet,

Beneath the setting sun He gives a bright sign by a flame.

For as though a flame were seething in a surging furnace,

It seemed to lick the flesh of the slain beasts.

Meanwhile Sarah, long since weary through barren years,

Had also lost even the hope of being a parent,

And because she could not lay a child in her too-chilled womb,

She began to nurse for her husband a second

Joy, and forces the bent-down consorting with her handmaid

To be known, so that at least by a lowly pledge he might be a father.

Straightway the Egyptian Hagar is led into the marriage-chamber,

And, eloquent from the reed-bed, bears the illegitimate Ishmael.

Since she, with servile cunning, began to despise her mistress,

She was afflicted with harsh stripes, and, wounded, fled.

And while, straying, she hid herself by a nearby spring,

A messenger descends from the ethereal height of heaven,

And sends her, first counselled, back to the house of her masters,

Nay, even gives her a gift in which she rejoices greatly,

Because, having seen him, holy, shining with conspicuous light,

She named the spring by a similar name.

And now the seer Abraham had completed ninety

And nine years, when he recognizes himself soon, soon

To be the parent of a son to be given by a great gift,

To whom the covenants of the most high God are concordant,

Destined to be father and leader of countless nations,

Receiving peaceful seats through great ages.

Nay, even from his solid name he goes forth greater,

While a vocal letter brings added glory,

And she who had been Sara is bidden to be called Sarra.

Nay too, Ishmael, made rich for his father's prayer,

Twice six princes he begets and rules over peoples.

After these things were done, the old man, when the eighth sun was present,

Removes the foreskins from the males with iron,

Joining likewise whomsoever from the separate people.

Thence also the time of the promised gift draws near.

He dissolves, his face wrinkling, into trembling laughter,

While silently within himself he turns over the great promises,

Believing that God is able to establish whatever has never yet existed,

And to beget strength through broken limbs.

Already the sun, burning more fiercely, was mounting to the middle of its course,

And the magnificent old man was seeking coolness in the shade,

When suddenly he perceives three young men present together,

Attentive to all, he entreats one more, and beseeches,

That he not leave the boy behind with swift step as he passes by,

And that he peacefully deign to accept the shelter of his oak,

And that he wash both his feet with cool water,

And deign to accept the loaves set upon a friendly table.

It is granted, and swiftly he carries out the venerable commands.

He himself, hastening, causes Sarah to be seen.

And, offering, he brings forth three measures of fine flour,

Which he had given to be baked with roasted heat of the ashes.

Then a calf, curving its swollen horns upon its brow,

Is chosen, its hide unmarked by any blemish,

And dishes of curdled milk are set out as well.

And while he feeds God, set beneath a threefold image,

He tastes sweet joys with sanctifying words,

What now Sarah is doing; for hidden within the tents

She then was, and the true light repeats the speech begun.

Well done, mindful of the prophet—not later than a full year

Shall she be a mother, when the joyful woman laughed afar off at such words,

And, her body aged, despairs of childbirth.

It is asked what cause there was for the laughter,

She, shaken, denies that laughter came easily upon her,

While she fears, and turns over the fault silently within her breast.

The young men rise up, alike in comely brightness,

And behold Sodom lying beneath the full light.

Then the Lord, suffering nothing to be hidden from the seer,

Declares what cause leads him to the grievous cities:

Roused by the immoderate outcry of Sodom, and Gomorrah joined with it,

I have come, and I desire to see whether it be true.

So that, because the guilty crowd, because the dreadful outcry, labors,

Both cities together might blaze from a heavenly thunderbolt.

Here the trembling prophet, with servant speech, asked,

What number would preserve the guilty walls of the holy men?

Taking the beginnings of the sum five times from ten,

He learns from these five men, with strong covering,

To spare from ruin the people oppressed by vices.

Straightway two came to Sodom, one born,

and Another,

when Hesperus already began to sink toward the fire.

There Lot sat before the doors, as was his custom.

And when he had looked upon the men, bright with like body,

Bowing down, he led them, once worshipped, to his accustomed threshold,

Though they wished rather to lodge in the middle of the square,

whom he feeds with bright unleavened bread of fine flour;

And then they compose their limbs, laid to rest, upon a couch.

Behold, the raging whole mob of Gomorrah rushes forth,

Surrounding Lot's courts with fierce sedition,

And, demanding the men, wrangles with swollen mouth.

He, mindful of peace, tries to soften the raging ones,

And even eagerly offers his daughters to the madmen,

So that rather a perverse desire might seethe in lawful indulgence,

Separating shameful acts from like sex.

But no words move them; the doors are broken by iron,

And while they cluster together, while they wrench away the strong bars,

Their shut-up eyes groaned amid pitch-black darkness.

These things done, bidden to remove far off his own pledges,

He invites his sons-in-law, who refuse with dulled sense.

Yet what a gentle mind could obtain by constant asking,

He led out his daughters, following their dear mother,

And as he goes forth, as he climbs the heights of the opposing hill,

And ponders within himself what may follow next,

The woman, looking back at the citadels set behind her,

Grew stiff, and took on the appearance of salt instead of a body.

He safely enters the lofty roofs of Segor.

Soon a crash, hurling thunderbolts from a dreadful sky,

thundering,

And sulphurous flames rush down with a foul whirlwind,

Which lick alike the walls and the lofty roofs.

When all had been swept away into ashes with swift ruin,

Abraham, watching from afar, saw the flames rising with reddening summit,

Pondering with mindful heart

That no fault ever attaches itself to the words of the Lord.

No less also Lot, settled safe within his dwelling,

Offered comfort to his daughters with tender love,

Who without husbands could not bring forth offspring.

These, when they perceived that the use of offspring was taken away,

And motherly honor, with only their father left,

Prepare a feast, and bring forth wine for their parent,

That he, unaware, might not know the forbidden use of his daughters.

Without delay, the burden grows in the women's wombs,

And the vital parts of both swell with like seed.

The first bears a son, and by her father's speech names him Moab,

The other, in different words, calls hers Amman.

This one is the father of the Ammonites, that one the begetter of the Moabites.

Meanwhile, Abram, having left his settled dwellings,

Passes over into the lands of Gerar with his companion wife.

Here Abimelech, desiring union with Sarah,

By the prince's judgment—for the excellent prophet had said

She would be his sister—lest her beauty prepare deceit

Against his innocent wife, while he guards against a rival's anger,

Yet he was not able, driven by strong terrors,

Which afflict the mind whenever desire is perverse:

For God, sending a lictor, tormented the tyrant,

Who, trembling, with mind scarcely restored, pursues the prophet.

Why was Sarah called sister, as though no bonds

Bound her as wife, though she was joined to the prophet.

He explains the reasons, and clears himself of the crime,

Having lied in nothing, for, sprung from the seed of a brother,

Sarah was, the joined line drawing apart the blood.

When these things had been settled, the ruler gives a thousand talents,

And adds servants, gentle flocks, and herds to these.

Indeed also broad fields spread through wide lands,

Provided the gifts might soothe the deserved guilt.

For the king's house, paying for the sins committed,

When he had broken his sleep with a terrifying vision,

While a train of diseases equally raged through all,

Had long since shaken the seeds from the women's wombs.

But when the peaceful prophet interceded for the king,

Prostrate before God, joyful fruitfulness promptly

Returned through all, and filled others richly.

He himself too, in his last years, by unaccustomed

vows

Becomes a father, and, reckoning the comforts of joyful laughter,

Names him Isaac, and fulfills the commands of the high godhead,

Cutting away the covering from the member on the eighth

day of light, and now seeing him take firm steps.

Joined among kinsmen of his own stock,

He feasts, and the father rejoices at the rich tables.

For greater is the grace that comes to desperate prayers.

And now, while the boy plays, joined with the boy foster-child,

He drove the mother to swell with fiery bile.

And yet the elder, though unwilling, while he observes

The greatest commands of the Lord, thrust out both alike.

But the woman, after she had been removed from the master's dwelling,

Wanders through trackless, remote solitudes with turned-back path.

And now she had used up all the bread, and all the wine,

Sighing with weary breast over her fainting son,

She comes to a well, to which then the name Miratio

Had been given, which she bewailed with sorrowful lament in that lonely place:

When God, moved across the heavens by the tears of the afflicted woman,

Strengthens her trembling heart, and tells her of the great

Kingdom prepared for her son, at whose downfall he then groans.

Straightway, drawing draughts from the flowing spring,

She rises up, and rejoices together with her rejoicing son.

The pious commands of God go forward; now the little one begins

To draw the bow, and to hurl winged arrows.

Meanwhile the prophet, lest by chance Abimelech the leader

Might secretly prepare something, forms a covenant of peace.

So that, since disputes had arisen over wells,

They might establish a secure and peaceful life restored.

An oath is sworn, and by the agreed accord peace remains.

Thence the old man, while he furrows the earth with the curved ploughshare,

Filled a vast hall with joyful harvests,

And, a suppliant, prayed to the exalted God with vows,

And settled peacefully in the fields of the Philistines.

In which the beginnings of the heavenly name are tested, that the only son should fall by the sword at the altar.

Without delay, when he climbed the heights of the swelling hill,

Leading the horned-hoofed one, going along with his servants and his son,

And now the third day, when the sun shone whiter in the midst of its course,

While it draws in all shadows,

The old man dismisses the boys, and takes hold of his son,

That, bearing brushwood, fuel for the flames, upon his neck,

He might likewise climb the summit of the opposing hill.

And now, with the flames rising, he is set before the very altar,

Bound, with his hands twisted behind his back.

And while the father hastens to cleave his son with the knife,

He watches attentively from afar a white lamb,

Which might better fulfill the sacred rite with poured-out blood.

Here Sarah departs in body, her deeds accomplished, from old age.

And when the children of Heth offered a place for her tomb,

The prophet disagreed, ready to fix the price.

The rich man gave four hundred sesterces to Ephron,

While he rejoiced to consign his companion to a twofold sepulcher.

The age of the ancients had told the name of the place, Mambre.

Straightway he bids a certain one of his servants, whom life and faith

Had made distinguished, to speak with words conceived,

And to swear, while he places his friendly right hand beneath,

And joins it to his thigh, that no woman of the Canaanite race

Should be joined to his son, since a wife must be led rather from the stock of his forebears;

And if by chance she should refuse,

One must be sent from heaven, who might soften the easy anger.

He, eager, loads his gifts upon the swollen camels,

And seeks Assyria, now beholding the dwellings of Nachor.

And while silently he turns over with himself the commands of the Lord,

He beholds excellent Rebecca coming from the spring,

Who, not slow, offers cool waters to the man,

And invites him home. Whose daughter she is, she declares.

The young man is joined in hospitality, soon he brings forth gifts.

When all things are settled, she goes forth to be married to her husband.

And now Isaac beholds close at hand those who had completed the journey,

Whom Rebecca, seeing, turned aside from the high back of her mount,

And hides her bowed head with a light veil.

They are joined in silence, and rejoice, the Lord being the author of it.

But after the old man had passed beyond a hundred years,

And seventy more, having bestowed gifts on all,

He departed, granted the place of a twin sepulcher.

Meanwhile the son, having obtained his father's house,

Dwelt by the well, which had the name Vision.

And now he had spent there forty years,

When he had enriched his ancestral hall with the wife spoken of:

Who, though she shone with an outstanding star of beauty,

Being long barren, knew not the joys of a mother.

But when with holy mouth he besought the Lord,

That his pregnant wife might create an heir close beside him,

He is heard; Rebecca swells, teeming with twins.

Who, marveling long at the growing weight of her womb,

Consults as a suppliant the responses of the heavenly Thunderer,

And recognizes that in her own breast two peoples,

Of unequal merits, are rising to the light of life.

For he who holds the first beginnings of the light he merited

Is driven, subjected to the commands, to serve the younger.

Therefore when now the offspring are born in an easy birth,

The elder presents himself to the air with a ruddy body,

With blackish bristles matted over his whole body,

Whom his father Esau named by a fitting name.

Afterward, holding his brother's heel pressed in his hands,

Jacob is born, rich in outstanding mind.

The elder roamed the empty fields in hunting,

While the horn fills the rocks with hoarse-sounding tremor.

But the other, keeping to the pursuits of a gentle heart,

Rejoiced to live unharmed in his native lands.

The father caressed the elder with tender love.

But the mother cherished the other with her whole heart.

Who, when he had now dissolved nothing tough in water,

Compelled his laughing brother to take prepared food,

That he might convey to himself the first honors.

Amid these things ill-persuading hunger,

and the first of evils

Compelled the prophet to depart from his ancestral lands,

He seeks the Philistine countryside, then passes through Gerar,

Which Abimelech then held under his own rule.

Dwelling there, he saw the Lord with a clear light,

Urging him with words, not to approach the kingdoms of Egypt,

But to hold the land which the Lord had granted.

For although you seem to sojourn among strangers,

Yet, as father, remaining in an immense world,

You shall rejoice to grow into nations through manifold seed,

Which shall take up the greatest testaments of my word.

Straightway, dwelling in Gerar with his companion wife,

He rather declared his deeds as of a paternal sister,

Lest the crowd of the Philistines, stirred by light desire,

Should snatch away the marriage by seized arms.

But the king, while he surveys secret things through an open window,

Sees the prophet playing with his snow-white wife,

And seeing the marriage, restrains all under law,

Lest anyone attempt to seize by force what belongs to the prophet.

And now he who had long fled famine from his ancestral altars,

While he scatters seed entrusted to the softened earth,

Gathered a hundredfold harvest from the broad turf.

No less meanwhile he grows rich in peaceful conduct,

Among manifold flocks, and fruitful land.

Straightway, while unhappy envy twists their hearts,

It disturbs the watered wells, and fills them with a mound,

That the possessor, departing far off, might leave the fields.

Therefore, avoiding the perils of a swelling quarrel,

He departed, and remained long in the valley of Gerar,

And when, with anxious effort, a well gave forth its yield,

He found cold waters from a bubbling source.

And, received with deceit, he leaves behind the shepherds' wrath,

And marks the untried places with the name of Strife.

Thence he moves his step, and again, earth having been dug out from the deep,

Brought forth cold streams into the light from a hollow.

And because he had been pressed in a biting contest,

He addresses with fitting words the envious hearts.

And after golden peace had broken the harsh quarrels,

He took care to inscribe the name of the Land of Abundance.

And while, keen, he changes new pastures with swift step,

He comes to the hills, which have the name of Oath.

There he beholds the Lord with clear light,

At the time when the stars turn their midmost course,

Warned to drive sad emotions from his breast,

Jacob being protected by God through wars, through enemies.

After sleep he gathers his cold limbs from the outcome,

And worshipping, having built an altar, straightway entreats the Lord.

Meanwhile the kings Abimelech and Ozas come,

Ficolus accompanying at the same time, and bearing iron,

That, since he wished to join himself to the peaceful seer,

Concord might bind treaties with joined right hands.

He is received peacefully, and having been satisfied at the same table,

He carries back the desired peace, the danger now set aside.

This discord arises in the midst of the brothers.

For the father, now for a long time heavier with age,

Bearing with a calm mind the day lost along with the sun, and his eyes buried,

And recalling that death was near,

Urges his elder son, whom only piety regarded,

To take up quiver and swift arrows,

And to prepare for him meats of the wild after the custom,

That he might straightway receive the gifts of his father's tongue.

Rebecca, seeing this, makes it known to her dear Jacob,

Urging him promptly to bring two kids,

And to be eager to slaughter them for his father in place of the wandering brother.

And lest by chance he should reveal the deceit by his smooth body,

She covers him with skins, which would make him seem hairy,

And veiling his breast and limbs with his brother's garment,

She offered them as though they were food gotten by hunting.

Yet he did not wholly conceal his foreboding heart.

For while the old man's right hand explores the whole youth,

He recognizes Esau by the bristles, but Jacob by the voice.

And after his hunger was satisfied, and the table removed,

He bids him come nearer and place himself close.

When he had come under the descending head of the right hand,

He received the shining words of his holy-speaking father,

While he tastes the sweet kisses with pressed lips,

For after the desired exchanges of long life,

The elder brother is bidden to serve the younger.

Meanwhile Esau, driven by long wanderings,

Was already bringing the captured entrails to his sated father.

And although he had pleased him much by his service and deed,

Yet he could not receive the gifts, already intercepted.

Thence anger, and tears, and a scheme sought to do harm:

Which Rebecca, seeing it, betrays in her brotherly heart,

And she warns Jacob to visit the kindred at Haran,

And to seek Laban, the brother of his own mother,

Until length of days should send away the wrath conceived.

And the sentence of the seer's mother is joined to her counsels,

While teaching things peaceful, they both entreat their son:

Do not, young man, seek marriage from the Canaanite race,

But mindful of the words of your dear father, cleave to them.

There is a place among the Assyrians, which is submerged by a twin river,

Here is the father of your mother, Bethuel, our friend.

And Laban his son-in-law, who holds joyful estates

Over all the fields, and cherishes his daughters in their budding years.

That wife, I advise, be sought for you from that stock,

Which draws its noble lineage from our blood.

But the young man, rejoicing to obey his father's counsels,

Goes forth, leaving his homeland, and wearied with much toil,

Closes his eyes in sweet sleep.

And while he spreads the rocks as a very cold bed,

He places a very hard stone beneath his weary head,

And while his limbs are refreshed by untroubled sleep,

He beholds, undaunted, with the whole light of his mind,

A ladder clinging purely to the sky across the clouds,

From whose steps a lofty throng was rushing down.

But another was climbing from the earth to the heights above.

And while their bodies were being turned in headlong fall,

The Almighty was watching those rushing down with bowed countenance,

Adding this above: I am the great king of Olympus,

Long since your Lord, and the Lord of your father:

Cast off fear, the land to which you have given your limbs shall be

A sure seat for you, and with all your descendants you as leader,

Go now, mindful, either fulfill or abandon the task begun.

With me as leader, you will return again to the cities you have left.

Great terror breaks his sleep, and shakes his whole frame,

Drenching his limbs with moist sweat.

And besides this he recalls: This is the great house of the Thunderer,

And the gate, which on twin hinges opens heaven.

Soon he anoints the stone, which had been placed beneath his head,

And calling it the House of the Lord, with the stone as witness,

He promises that he will give tithes of his fruits.

And now hastening the journey begun, wherever the path led,

He arrives at a well, which alone in the vast wilderness

Had always caressed the gentle flock with watered streams.

These, shepherds from three flocks, in the hot sun

Were sipping thin water, and easing the heat,

And having greeted them, he inquires into each thing of the seer,

And sees all safe, whom he sought in his mind.

Meanwhile, Rachel, walking with a snow-white figure,

Was driving her father's sheep to the accustomed drinking-places.

Whom the young man, seen at once with a brother's eye,

Joins in chaste embraces to his kindred breast,

Loosening the stone which had covered the mouth of the well,

And at the same time reveals himself as kinsman by joined blood.

Whom Laban, seeing from afar with rejoicing feeling,

Runs to meet, and sets the youth in his accustomed hall.

Nor does he allow the seer, his kinsman, to serve for nothing,

But for the man's labor betroths his daughter to the lover.

Therefore when he had drawn out the wage for seven years,

He demands that his betrothed be joined to him in the bond of the bridal chamber,

And without delay, by a feigned gift, Leah is given to him,

With heavy eyes, but brought forth at the first birth.

But Jacob, grieving at the deceit thus contrived,

Sings his complaint to his father-in-law, cheated of the promised maiden.

Again, for another wage set apart in payment,

Jacob endures the duties of a long life,

Receiving the deserved Rachel, the deceit now driven off.

But God, the greatest ruler of the heavenly hall,

By manifold offspring took away the loss of beauty.

For Leah bears Reuben, then next Simeon,

The third born with outstanding heart for the Levites.

This one possesses the consecrated altars of our Lord.

Now Judah follows, soon appointed founder of a tribe.

But the other offspring, whom Bilhah's womb created,

It is right now to name as the notable sons known to us.

After these Issachar is born, the fifth in lineage.

The sixth offspring follows, having received the name of Zebulun,

And a daughter is born, Dinah, fitting for her brothers.

At length God grants late gifts to Rachel.

She bears tender Joseph to the airs of heaven.

Therefore when offspring had now been born of both wives,

He asks for departure from his father-in-law, and for what he had sought:

Who, wishing to pay a wage according to merit,

Lay aside their intentions, being asked by the son-in-law's request:

Who, desiring nothing foreign, testified that he clung

To the gifts of the Lord alone, and departed,

Content only with having received both wives.

Striving to secure for himself lasting advantages,

He cuts rods from the broken bodies of the mother-trees.

The mystic one was first, then another was taken from the storax-tree.

The third was plucked from the walnut, so that gradually the wool

Might seize its varied colors, smeared with the sap of the rods.

For as the bleating flock hastened to be dipped in the pools,

He marked them, stained with the varied distinction of the sap,

On account of envy, various envy, because his father-in-law

Had said the wealth was his, which for many years he had scorned.

Since he furnished, without buying, flocks enriched with wealth,

He stirred the envy of the grieving with baleful ill-will.

And while the fierce father-in-law was shearing the fleece of the wool,

Freedom was granted to the man, that he might carry off all

His goods, and the household gods baked in the roasted furnace,

Which the Syrian believed to be divinities in his ancestral Carrae.

These, however, Rachel wrapped up and hid with care,

Lest her father, having found them, should punish the crimes of the offense.

Having set out, he crossed the river and climbed the hill,

Which the natives call Galaad in their ancestral speech.

And now on the third day the departure of the son-in-law,

And equally of the daughters, reached the ears of the father-in-law.

At once he demanded help from his brotherly band,

And Nangus, sought long for, on the sixth day now,

Is forbidden by the holy fear of the Lord to do harm,

And the gentler man asks his own, whom he believes to be divinities,

And, having sought them in every place, grieves not to find them recognized.

After, with complaints laid aside, sure peace returned,

A heap is built up of growing stones,

So that the place might remain, erected as a witness by its fortification,

And the boundary set there might mark the limit between the fields.

Behold, in the middle of the way the seer saw a lofty camp,

Which God, the star-bearing ruler, leads with his governance,

And gave it a name, testifying: This God fulfills.

Meanwhile he ordered chosen young men to go ahead,

Laden with gifts, which he bids to be given to his brother,

That he, peaceful, may grant a return; and to the one seeking peace

He willingly assents; attended by companions and a great band,

He goes out against his brother, in no way troubled,

And though he is terrified by a crowd of four hundred men,

The appearance troubles the servants more than weapons harm, with armed men in attendance.

Therefore, having separated the flocks, he placed this one first,

Which he might deign to take as a gift given to him by his brother,

And at the same time, bending his neck, he besought the Lord:

O God, hope and substance of the immense kingdom,

Who alone are God forever of my father and my grandfather,

By whose command I am made to return from exile,

Having granted great advantages to your enriched servant,

You commanded me to cross the river with a slender rod,

And straightway to cross your Jordan on foot.

And now you see me living in divided camps,

That I might guard against various mischances with a twofold defense.

Snatch me, unconquered one, from these evils, and the darts of my brother,

Blunted, graciously shake off as soon as possible from his iron,

Lest he swiftly strike my breast with a harsh weapon.

Therefore when he had settled his companions, and sought sleep,

He struggled through the night to overcome God who wrestled with him.

For his thigh being pressed, that part of his body grew numb.

And when for a long time he wished to loosen the joining of his limbs,

He who had struck the seer in the mighty contest,

The Lord, having granted his gifts, then let him go, dismissed.

His name changed, he ceases to be Jacob,

And is called by the mouth of all, "Seeing the Lord";

He even dared to learn the name of the Lord,

But could not, for it is the right of the Thunderer alone to know it.

He himself calls the place by the name of the Lord seen there,

Whose lofty countenance he had happened to behold.

And when the Lord, night now driven away, had withdrawn himself,

He goes out, supporting his steps with a long spear-shaft.

Hence mindful Judea avoids eating the sinew,

Which supported the thigh, bound with its rigid support.

And now seeing his brother surrounded with a troop and his flock,

Bowed down, with bent neck, he salutes the Lord.

Having come together, they join their breasts with much weeping.

And now more and more with varied speech he inquires

Who they are that come accompanying him, what crowd follows.

He tells by what father the brides were born,

And with what payment the diverse flocks were procured,

And straightway the daughters-in-law, prostrate with bent knee,

Brought their tender children close for kindred kisses.

But while the elder piously declines the offered gifts,

The gentle one soothes the tokens of the harmonious seer,

And gladly, with his brother likewise accompanying, hastens back,

That in turn of speech they might gradually relate their own deeds.

But because the pregnant ones crept along in a slow-paced train,

The seer settled down, to manage the flocks and servants,

And set up small huts under a leafy roof,

Which, once named, he chose to call Tabernacles.

He came to Sichem, which is in the region of Canaan,

Having bought at a price fields bordering the land,

And, hastening, prays to God with altars built.

There more shamefully Correus defiled beloved Dinah,

And plucked away the use of the tender virgin,

And wishing to be joined to her kin, he removed the disgrace,

Bringing great gifts for the seer in exchange for the ravished bride;

He is overwhelmed and slain together with all his people.

Jacob grieved at these deeds done by the sword of his sons,

Having spoken of the broken covenant with the allied people.

At once the Almighty warned the seer to depart,

And to set his faithful house in the seat of Bethel;

He hastens, and obeys God, and begs his sons

That they crush the idols, hardened with rigid metal,

And put on garments beneath a snow-white covering.

He himself hides the idols in the cave of Terebinth, though they are nothing,

And sees the mighty Lord, as was his custom, bring forth

Words to him, and that he would be a prophet of the high divinity

In the rich lands which the Lord had vowed to Abraham.

He himself gave a name to the place, and consecrated the stone,

Which, venerating, he entirely drenched with flowing oil,

And built a house under the roof of the tower of Cadera.

Meanwhile Rachel, worn out with heavy sorrow,

Having become a mother by her death, brought forth Benjamin from her womb.

For besides the offspring known from lawful mothers,

On the third day thence, when the wounds of May grow fierce,

He begot pledges by the seer's mother substituted.

And gladly he acknowledged, from Balla's kindred stock,

The notable Dan, whom Nephtalim presses close behind.

But others soon Zelpha creates, and Gad, and Aser.

He obtains also by merits what he knew would otherwise fail,

That he might see his father's face amid so great offspring;

So that he who had already been begotten of an aged mother

Might rejoice, distinguished, in twice six grandsons.

Therefore when now at last, through twice ninety years,

The elder's life had been, and drawn out through a long age,

He is released, and bright he goes forth from his wearied body,

About to see the holy seats which prudence grants,

In which, reclining forever amid the beautiful starry realm,

He invites the snow-white just to secure joys.

And now it is fitting to tell how the brothers divided their measured-out dwellings.

For since they could not, within the narrow bound of land,

Contain their many settlers, growing with their flocks,

The elder took the Syrian mountain, after the fields of Chanaan,

And received rich, happy pastures in abundance.

Jacob, following, does not abandon the Chanaanite realms,

That his pious mind might ever rejoice in ancestral custom.

There Joseph undertakes conspicuous deeds, shining among his brothers amid so great a difference,

As much as the small moon shines among the stars of heaven.

When now he was attaining his seventeenth year,

He kept his father's flocks, grown fat on grassy pasture,

Walking as the youngest of all whom the father had begotten

In noble marriage-beds, or by a servant concubine.

And because he flourished conspicuous among his own kindred class,

He stirred his brothers' feelings with the chill of envy.

Him the father, embracing out of the whole stock of his sons,

Cherished tenderly among the sturdy bodies of his brothers,

And that he might be more conspicuous among them all,

He clothed him in a flowing robe dyed with varied color.

When now from his tender years he was serving the Lord,

By chance, lulled in peaceful sleep, he sees before his eyes

That, mixed among his brothers, he binds sheaves,

While in the midst they gather the grain from the new-plowed fields,

And that his own sheaf rises upright on a straight cone,

Near which his brothers' sheaves fell down with bowed neck.

After the youth unfolded this in a peaceful telling,

He stirred their fearful hearts with trembling tumult

By the terrifying murmur, speaking of him as king and lord;

They showed that nothing was lacking for their secret crime.

And that anger, twofold, might tear apart the sorrowful ones the more,

He unfolds the dreams he had seen to his wise-speaking father,

With all present who are bound by the line of blood.

For it seemed to him that he beheld the dewy sun,

And the moon joined together with it in trembling light,

And ten stars besides, and one more rising joined together,

And bending their curved necks to him as to a lord.

After the father had learned these things with a sidelong look,

Having confessed that he must soon be adored by his trembling brothers,

Straightway the young men depart, and through their father's flocks

They search out happy valleys through the flowering grass;

To whom he is sent and goes, wandering through the silent thickets,

Taught, by some old man pointing the way, the retreat

To which the band of brothers had moved with changed pasture;

Whom, when from afar it was possible to recognize by his varied garment,

They fit an ill-omened plan with discordant tongues.

The decision stands, hateful to them all, to destroy their brother,

And to report him slain by the bite of wild beasts,

While among themselves, greedy, they mutter with windy murmur:

Let us see whether his dreams will be able to drive off death.

Ruben, gentler, rejects this with peaceful words,

And warns them, gnashing their teeth, to sheathe the too-hard sword,

Recalling that it is better to drown him in the standing marsh.

Straightway he is stripped, and, naked, wrapped in sedge.

Meanwhile a Syrian merchant of Saba, exchanging wares,

Was driving Ismaelite camels under heavy load,

Hastening to bring the harvests of the Arabs to Canopus.

Therefore the hope of the younger brother is afflicted for the city,

Judas says, it is better to sell Joseph for money.

The father is deceived, and seeing the garment dyed in blood,

He believes, through no fraud of his own, that he was slain.

Ruben tears the garment with his crooked hands;

And wraps himself in a garment of black sackcloth,

The father, afflicted with grief, seeks the one lost.

Whom, long since received, a eunuch of Pharaoh had;

Accustomed to load the tyrant's gilded tables

With dishes, and to rejoice in the din of the great kitchen.

Meanwhile Thamar gives birth, while the joys of the sin,

Delighting her, please, and her womb is filled with a twin pledge,

Of whom the first—the boy who earned the light of life—

Put forth and thrust out his hand first, which the clever woman

Binds with a scarlet thread, then it is hidden again in the womb,

And, the order changed, at once the other is born,

Holding the foremost place, who had been by lot the second.

This one, since he had once been marked apart by a boundary,

Bears the name Zara; the other they called Phares.

The Lord's faithful guardianship kept watch over Joseph,

Not permitting him to live subject to harsh law.

For the master aforementioned gave all things to his servant,

Nor indeed in vain hope; for the Lord, gentle from on high,

More abundantly increased all things which the young man kept.

Yet his gentleness did not win Petephres over with love.

For since his eyes shone with a conspicuous countenance,

The mistress, wickedly wounded, begs union with the servant.

But the boy already shuns the foul deed, and refuses himself

To press the marriage-bed defiled by such immoderate guilt.

But the woman, ruined in vain by forbidden flames,

Searches out soft approaches, and watches for opportunities.

By chance, finding the house empty, and him alone, she presses on,

And, seizing his hand, forces him to lie down with her.

He springs up briskly, and strips the garment from his body,

And slips away from the mistress's twin arms.

The woman cries out, and draws strength from the crime,

Shouting that the young man, trusting in his beauty,

Has defiled the sweet honor of her modesty, while, slippery with youth,

He burns, and strives to climb into his master's bed.

Indeed she even addresses her husband with a sorrowful voice,

And wishes to subject the innocent accused to the punishment she has decided.

Believing this as true, he shuts Joseph in prison,

In which already the king's punishment held his ministers.

The keeper of the prison soon soothes him with a kindly heart,

And, seeing him innocent, entrusts him with the charge of the cells.

There by chance two men, whom the grim tyrant, moved by black bile, had shut up in the lofty hall, being imprisoned, feared punishment with trembling heart, and while they stole sleep for their anxious cares, they saw dreams that were messengers of things to come.

When he had gazed upon these sad men with clear-sighted eye, he inquired the causes, and compelled them to confess their hidden thoughts.

At once he who used to give the customary wine to the tyrant declared what had been seen under drowsy night:

I beheld a vine flourishing with green tendril, while it crept, and hung entwined by its own coiling, and among the winding vine-shoots three clusters were present, and a yellow grape hung in a nectar-sweet bunch.

Then the king's cup, from which he tastes his gentle draughts, foamed with tender must, which my right hand had pressed, and the master, taking it up, held it with ready palm.

Then the young man reveals plainly all that was hidden: that the three clusters are three days, after which he shall again be restored to his lost place, and shall regain favor, mixing cups for the peaceful king, which he saw. "Only grant me this in return for such merits," he said, "that when confidence to speak has been granted you, you remove our punishment, which is for no crime. I am called a Hebrew by race. For, sold by my brother's crime, I went into a nobler servitude." After these things, the chief of the bakers, seeming to himself, begins:

I seemed to carry three baskets on my head, filled with royal delicacies and sumptuous preparation, which countless birds snatched away and carried off in their claws. When these things were told, true enough indeed, but told harshly, he declared that he would soon be slain by hard iron, and his severed head fixed upon a lofty stake, which the birds would forthwith tear apart with curved beak. The one was restored to his place, the other was slain, his body maimed.

Meanwhile, when now two full years had passed by,

Again the stars turned back their course toward the East, when the Nile's ruler saw these dreams. For it seemed, while he gazed upon the pleasant river, that he beheld seven sleek-bodied heifers grazing the budding grass upon the green bank. To these other foul, wasted ones joined their steps, and while they scarcely clung, wondrous to say, to their own bones, they devoured the fine heifers with gaping mouth. Dreams of like kind are joined together in matching cause; behold, he sees seven ears of grain from a fruitful stalk,

and other thin ones, empty of the seed of grain—dreadful to tell!—devouring the swollen grains. This vision, sorrowful, he by no means kept within his mind, but troubled, he ordered all who were skilled to be brought before him, inquiring what meaning the hidden things might hold. And when the Memphian augur, consulted, kept silence, he who had lately been released from prison, who had furnished the wine, the young man spoke, saying that he himself, when Joseph interpreted, had returned to his former place, and that his companion had been slain. Swiftly they are sent, who should take the seer, freed from all charge,

from the foul dungeon, and, cutting his unkempt cheeks and hair fed in prison, restore him to his former appearance. So the good man, being consulted, gives such reply, and teaches that the cows are messengers of years, and explains that the slender ears signify seven cycles.

For thus, from the forms shown, things to come are signified: that the land will be fruitful enough for seven years, and will bring forth in like time a dire famine, in which the earth, utterly dry in its thirsting veins, shall consume the pale grasses in a dusty furrow. For dreams are joined in double visions, God commands, in conjunction with the thunderer, that certain things stand fast. Rather, while there is time, while there is care for remedy, choose from all a chief man, who, foreknowing these things, with judges appointed, being set on high, may govern all Egypt,

and may demand a fifth part from every harvest. So that the abundance first given to the fruitful lands may hold right over the barren years when the crops are spent. The seer's counsel is received with the applause of the nobles. The ruler himself also at last, his heart calmed, exalts to lofty honor the man who told him the truth, and orders him to be borne as prefect through all the cities; then he crowns the seer's finger with a gleaming ring, soon wraps him in linen robes with a saffron mantle, a pliant circlet of gold is placed about his neck,

and the new ruler stands lofty upon a chariot. And the loud herald increases the terror of the judge. Moreover, a wife is chosen for him, whose name is Asenneth, whom Petephres, a seer of illustrious lineage, had begotten, from whom the father straightway is blessed with a twofold pledge. The elder is called Manasses, the younger Ephraim. The seer of Egypt, exalted upon his lofty seat, holding full granaries of whatever the barren time had scarcely been able to gather, so that when need should demand use, he might bring forth to all who asked the hidden grain.

Afterward, when the dire famine, spread through the whole world, compelled the trembling people to eat whatever could be chewed, the people cried out together, and demanded food of the king. He bids the noble Joseph give grain to the sorrowing, obedient to his father's counsel, and he satisfied all the rejoicing throng.

Meanwhile Jacob, having now wept for the death of his son,

sends ten young men from his numerous offspring, that they might procure grain from afar at a price for himself. But he does not allow Benjamin, the youngest of all, to go, lest, being weak, he be unable to bear the harsh labor. And when they had now arrived at the walls of the land of Pharaoh, they came humbly and sought the ground, and greeted their brother, marveling at him seated aloft in his lofty seat, yet they do not recognize him, seen after so long a time. When the prophet had gazed upon them, remembering in his mindful heart, he rebukes them, and with many words terrifies them as they tremble,

claiming that they had come to spy out what abundance of grain there was, or what men held sway in governance of the rich lands.

They declare they know no deceit, and confess that they were once twelve brothers under one father, holding a distinguished household, that of all these one, the youngest by birth, kept watch over his father's toils, but another had long since perished by notorious death. They say they flee dire famine, and, hating the land of Canaan, which grants seed but poor nourishment, seek to buy provisions, and grain offered for sale. The seer declares, swearing by the name of the ruler, that the young men must be shut up under harsh guard, until...

Let them show forth the brother, whom the gentle father held.

Three are bound together alike under the care of the watchers,

And loosed thereafter, they left one to be held.

Nor less, their hearts breaking with hidden grief,

They recall how just the perils rising for them,

Because, having pledged in vain the peace for the undeserving brother,

They pay too late the penalties of their crime beneath a judge.

Ruben aggravates these things, retelling the truth in words,

And the immense crime committed, though he had not willed it.

The seer is moved by these things, learning of the brothers' quarrel,

Turning away with silent eyes, he laments tearfully.

Meanwhile among these things Simeon is received into the brothers' company,

A faithful hostage for all as they return.

Then the young men take up the grain sought for themselves,

And the mules, laden, are pressed by immense weight,

And now in the middle of the way, while one loosens the bindings of his sack,

Someone gives to see the coins found there for the brothers.

All do this, and then the price soon being found,

Marveling, they praise the noble man with the greatest contention.

And now indeed, entering the threshold of their native home,

The father rejoices at their return, and asks for the one missing.

Learning all things, he takes the coins and the gifts,

Lamenting gravely that now another son is lacking.

When then the diminished food, and the grain brought back,

Compelled them again to procure provisions at a price,

But the mind of none was to retrace the step to Memphis,

Unless the father should bid the youngest brother go with them.

Whom, though lamenting much, he was unwilling to send anywhere,

Ruben with faithful mouth asks for his brother,

Confidently entrusting to the father his own two pledges.

Judas follows, and declares that he cannot return,

Bearing witness to the words of the stern Joseph.

When the aged father, now more gentle, had heard these things, He gives up the youth, bathing his face with a copious stream.

They depart, and carry with them lightly-scented frankincense,

Incense, and a drop joined with terebinth,

Bearing honey among the fragrant vapors,

And a double payment, lest error be committed,

Because the coins had been hidden in the closed sacks.

When Joseph saw them in the splendid hall,

He commands that they celebrate joyful feasts with him.

Yet they came murmuring, and in trembling guilt

They surmise that they had been summoned by a contrived fraud,

Because they had not been able to return the sesterces

counted out before and given to the seer, placed in their own bags,

Yet that they would report everything, having no share in it,

And that they had not been accustomed to live on hidden treasure before.

Saying such things, the steward restrains them with speech,

And teaches them that he knows of no coin taken by fraud,

But that if any advantage brought profit to the men,

No one could say it was his own, nor the seer's, nor the king's.

Simeon runs to meet them all, and presents himself,

And while water is given to the men, while fodder is given to the mules,

The seer enters, thronged with many soldiers,

At whose sight the brothers bring forth pious gifts.

When he had run through all with gentle speech,

He asks whether their father still stood firm in strength.

When they said he was unharmed, and lived well,

Joseph declares that the seer clings to God as the giver of life,

And always insists upon right things.

And as if Benjamin were not known to him,

He questions the young men, and eagerly asks, then

Prays for whatever advantages God may grant, for the boy's praise.

Nor can he restrain his groans, nor stop his tears,

But with tender affection he hides himself in his chambers,

Anxious, and seeks solace for his excessive grief.

Afterward, when he had reclined, the servants set out the food.

He eats, and entices their hearts with an easy fortune,

And rejoices to set forth the divided courses one by one,

And offers and dedicates a portion to the elder brother alone.

And when now, being sated, the desire for eating was checked,

As before they loaded and pressed down the mules with weight,

The given talent is hidden again in the accustomed manner

By Joseph's command, and the shining cup is concealed

Among your belongings, Benjamin, more precious in its craft.

And now, having set out on the way, they are not far off by many miles,

When suddenly a royal crowd surrounds the unwary,

And, having seized them, holds them, demanding the gleaming cup,

Reproaching him who will be bound by the crime as a future slave.

It is agreed, and all at once display their own burdens,

And the sought-for cup is uncovered, and they leave the brother,

And they seek Joseph, and telling what had been done,

They forthwith unfold the commands of their dear father.

Moved by their prayers, the seer commands all to depart

And declares himself to be the brother of the brothers.

Fixed, they grew rigid with fear, and in silent guilt

Condemning themselves, they restrain their voices with dread.

Soon he encourages the guilty, and having called them nearer,

Requires that they carry words pleasing to their father,

What things are, what things have been, what things shall soon come to pass:

Urging that the family migrate, and, the flocks gathered,

Offers the neighboring hills of the Arabs to them as they come.

Since for a continuous five-year span the land would be dry,

He would feed all his kinsfolk with gathered provisions.

The king learns of these declarations of the man with joyful heart,

And asks Joseph to take up the crowd of his dear ones,

And commands that grain be given freely to the brothers.

Wagons are given to the men, grain, cups, bread,

And the mules, bearing great burdens, sweat under them.

Five robes are given to Benjamin, and five to the father,

And three hundred coins marked with struck anvil.

But the other young men, with a lesser reward of praise,

Receive two garments each of snowy cloth.

When the father learned these things, taking the gifts given,

He breathes again, eager to leave his native land.

And he seeks Egypt, which borders the lands of the Arabs, Leading forth young men under his paternal guidance, five

Times seven, and ten, as the formula of Genesis has determined.

And while the crowds hasten with eager effort,

Judas runs ahead, and flies before the column of brothers.

And he tells Joseph that the father stands not far off.

He eagerly mounts his chariot, and goes forth to meet him,

Receiving the longed-for company upon seeing his father.

And swiftly he returns, and hastens to the king's hall,

Bringing word that the shepherds should make haste, that the throng of loved ones

Might dwell, their lands set apart, upon the fruitful grass.

The Memphian ruler himself also urges the prophet on,

And bids him settle his brothers in fertile fields.

Then the aged old man, at the tyrant's asking,

Slowly declares with how many years he is endowed,

What his household is, and what the cause of coming to Canopus;

And he adorns the illustrious leader with much praise.

Nor meanwhile does Joseph send gifts

Worthy of his own, and he gives the leader a great talent to bear away,

By which the court was enriched from the corn sold off.

And there already the trading peoples lacked money,

The Memphian crowd, vying to bring forth their flocks,

Bought corn though destitute, Joseph setting the price.

Of these too they were stripped, and they hand over themselves and their estates,

Since seed was granted that the harvests might afterward grow green.

Only the possession of the priests was not taken away,

To whom it pleased the leader to sell no grain, but freely give it.

Hence upon the people is laid a tribute of a fifth of the crops,

A rule which remains, kept fixed by law.

Meanwhile, weighing the completed span of his life,

Jacob adjures his son, turning over things to come,

That he should lay his limbs to rest in the tombs of his forefathers.

He, granting the request, places his right hand beneath the thigh,

Touches it, pledging with the tip of the pliant rod.

And the old man, with his grandsons set one on either side,

Caresses them with words, while slowly he takes his kisses.

But wondrous thing! The right hand, the palm, is consecrated to Manasses,

The elder by birth is touched by the left hand, to Ephraim.

By the prescient mind of the old man, the elder is compelled to serve the younger,

And the first hope yields its place to the second.

However much Joseph wished obliquely to draw back the hands,

Yet he could not recall the pious words.

But after the prophet had ratified the fixed benefits for the boys,

He gives Shechem, and gives the sword and darts to his own son,

That, more illustrious than all, he might climb to lofty honor.

Then he calls his sons, and gave gifts to all,

And sets down twice six things, each in their own name.

When all was unfolded, now caught in blindness in both eyes,

He adjudges to the pledges—things destined to remain long, and to the offspring of his sons—

things not granted before, and to endure for a long age.

The prophet departed in body alone from earthly things.

And he gave to mourning seventy days'

Lights, while the throng venerated the tomb of the departed.

Indeed his sons too mourned seven days

With abundant tears, Joseph restoring peace

To his innocent brothers, while he set aside the old anger.

He himself also, after he had now worn away a hundred years

And ten, having measured out the time of joined death,

Declares to his brothers what order was to come,

By which they might be able to retrace their steps, and leave the Nile—

Provided they gather together his ashes, composed, and his bones,

And carry them with them to be laid in the tombs of the ancients.

So at last, after the span of a long and bright life,

He departed, and sought God, and left his body behind.