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dal. These kings had laid waste all Syria, and overthrown the offspring of the giants. And when they were come over against Sodom, they pitched their camp at the vale, called the Slimepits; for at that time there were many pits in that place; but upon the destruction of the city of Sodom, that vale became the lake Asphaltites, as it is called: however, concerning this lake, we shall speak more presently. Now when the Sodomites joined battle with the Assyrians, and the fight was very obstinate, many of them were killed, and the rest were carried captive; among which captives were Lot, who had come to assist the Sodomites.

CHAP. X.

OF ABRAM'S SUCCESSFUL ENGAGEMENT WITH THE ASSYRIANS, AND
HIS RESCUE OF THE SODOMITE PRISONERS.

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taken by the Assyrians, and Lot, also, his kinsman, returned home in peace.

Now the king of Sodom met him at a certain place, which they called the King's Dale, where Melchisedec, king of the city of Salem, received him. That name signifies, the righteous king: and such he was without dispute, insomuch, that on his account, he was made the priest of God. However, they afterwards called Salem, Jerusalem Now this Melchisedec supplied Abram's army in a hospitable manner, and gave them provisions in abun dance: and as they were feasting, he began to praise him, and to bless God for subduing his enemies under him. But when Abram gave him the tenth part of his prey, he accepted of the gift. But the king of Sodom desired Abram to take the prey; but entreated that he might have those men restored to him whom Abram had saved from the Assyrians, because they belonged WHEN Abram heard of their calamity, he was to him. But Abram would not do so; nor would at once afraid for Lot, his kinsman, and pitied the make any other advantage of that prey, than what Sodomites, his friends and neighbours; and think- his servants had eaten; but still insisted that he ing it proper to afford them assistance, he did not should afford a part to his friends who had assistdelay it, but marched hastily, and the fifth nighted him in the battle. The first of them was called fell upon the Assyrians near Dan; for that is the Eschol, and the others Enner and Mambre. name of the other spring of Jordan; and before they could arm themselves he slew them as they were in their beds; and others, who were not yet gone to sleep, but were so intoxicated they could not fight, ran away. Abram pursued after them till, on the second day, he drove them in a body unto Hoba,† a place belonging to Damascus ; and thereby demonstrated that victory does not depend on multitude, and the number of hands, but that the alacrity and courage of soldiers overcome the most numerous bodies of men: while he got the victory over so great an army with no more than three hundred and eighteen of his servants, and three of his friends. But all those that fled returned home ingloriously. So Abram, when he had saved the captive Sodomites, who had been since it is observable, from what Isaiah hinted afterwards, chap. x. 8, that the Assyrian boasted his deputy princes to be equal to royal governors. Are not my princes altogether kings? Shackford's Connection, Vol. II. I. 6. B.

God commended his virtue, and said, "Thou shalt not, however, lose the rewards thou hast deserved to receive by such glorious actions." He answered, "And what advantage will it be to me to have such rewards, when I have none to enjoy them after me?" for he was hitherto childless. And God promised that he should have a son, and that his posterity should be very numerous; insomuch that their number should be like the stars. When he heard that, he offered a sacrifice to God, as he commanded him. The manner of the sacrifice was this: He took an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram in like manner, of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a pigeon; and as he was enjoined, he divided the three former,§ but the birds bolically staking their hopes of purification and salvation on their performance of the conditions on which it was offered. This remarkable practice may be clearly traced in the Greek and Latin writers. Homer has the following expression: Opxia TISα TEμLOVES. Il. ii. 124. Having cut faithful oaths. Eustathias explains the passage by saying, they were oaths relating to important matters, and were made by the division of the victim. See also Virgil, Æn. viii. ver. 640. The editor to the Fragments, supplementary to Calmet, No. 129, is of opinion that what is yet practised of this ceremony may eluci§ It was a customary thing to cut the victim, which was to be date that passage in Isaiah, xxviii. 15. We have made a coveoffered as a sacrifice upon the occasion, into two parts, and so plac- nant with death, and with hell are we at agreement: when the ing each half upon two different altars, to cause those who con- overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, tracted the covenant to pass between both. This rite was practised for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we both by believers and heathens at their solemn leagues; at first,hid ourselves. That is, we have cut off a covenant sacrifice, a doubtless, with a view to the great sacrifice, who was to purge our sins in his own blood; and the offering of these sacrifices, and passing between the parts of the divided victim, was sym

*Gen. xiv. 1.

† Gen. xvi. 15.

It is worthy of remark, that God required no other sacrifices under the law of Moses, than what were taken from these five kinds of animals which he here required of Abram. Nor did the Jews feed upon any other domestic animals than the three here named, as Reland observes on Antiq. iv. 4.

purification offering with death, and with the grave we have settled, so that the scourge shall not injure us. May not such a custom have been the origin of the following superstition re

he did not divide. After which, before he built | Ismael,† which may be interpreted Heard of God: his altar, where the birds of prey flew about as because God heard his mother's prayer. desirous of blood, a divine voice came to him declaring that their neighbours would be grievous to his posterity, when they should be in Egypt, for four hundred years:* during which time they should be afflicted, but afterwards should overcome their enemies, should conquer the Canaanites in war, and possess themselves of their land, and of their cities.

Now Abram dwelt near the oak called Ogyges; the place belongs to Canaan, not far from the city of Hebron. But being uneasy at his wife's barrenness, he entreated God to grant that he might have male issue: and God required of him to be of good courage, and said, that he would add to all the rest of the benefits he had bestowed upon him, ever since he led him out of Mesopotamia, the gift of children. Accordingly Sarai, at God's command, brought to his bed one of her handmaidens, a woman of Egyptian descent, in order to obtain children by her: and when this handmaid was pregnant, she triumphed, and ventured to affront Sarai, as if the dominion were to come to a son to be born of her. But when Abram resigned her into the hands of Sarai, to punish her, she contrived to flee away, as not able to bear the instances of Sarai's severity to her: and she en"treated God to have compassion on her. Now a divine angel met her as she was going forward in the wilderness, and bid her return to her master and mistress, for if she would submit to that wise advice, she should live better hereafter: for that the reason of her being in such a miserable case was, that she had been ungrateful and arrogant towards her mistress. He also told her, that if she disobeyed God, and went on still on her way, she should perish: but if she would return back, she should become the mother of a son, who should reign over that country. These admonitions she obeyed, and returned to her master and mistress, and obtained forgiveness.

A little while afterwards, she gave birth to

lated by Pitts: "If they (the Algerine Corsairs) at any time happen to be in a very great strait or distress, as being chased, or in a storm, they will gather money, light up candles in remembrance of some dead Marrabot (saint) or other, calling upon him with heavy sighs and groans. If they find no succour from their before-mentioned rites and superstitions, but that the danger rather increases, then they go to sacrificing a sheep, (or two or three upon occasion as they think needful) which is done after this manner: having cut off the head with a knife, they immediately take out the entrails, and throw them and the head overboard; and then, with all the speed they can (without skinning) they cut the body into two parts by the middle, and throw one part over the right side of the ship, and the other over the left, into the sea, as a kind of propitiation. Thus those blind in

This son was born to Abram when he was eighty-six years old. But when he was ninetynine, God appeared to him, and promised that he should have a son by Sarai, and commanded that his name should be Isaac; and showed him that from this son should spring great nations and kings; and that they should obtain the land of Canaan by war from Sidon to Egypt. But he charged, in order to keep his posterity unmixed with others, that they should be circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin, and that this should be done on the eighth day after they were born. The reason of which circumcision I will explain in another place. And Abram inquiring also concerning Ismael, whether he should live or not; God signified to him that he should live to be very old, and should be the father of great nations. Abram therefore gave thanks to God for these blessings; and then he, with his son Ismael, and all his family, were circumcised immediately the son being that day thirteen years of age, and Abram ninety-nine.

CHAP. XI.

OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SODOMITE NATION, ON ACCOUNT OF
THEIR SINS.

ABOUT this time the Sodomites grew proud on account of their riches and great wealth: they became unjust towards men, and impious towards God; insomuch that they did not call to mind the advantages they received from him: they hated strangers and abused themselves with unnatural practices. God was therefore much displeased at them, and determined, as a punishment for their pride, to overthrow their city, and lay waste their country, till there should neither plant nor fruit grow out of it.

When God had thus resolved concerning the
Sodomites, Abraham, as he sat by the oak of
Mambre, at the door of his tent, saw three an-
gels ;§ and thinking them to be strangers, he rose

fidels apply themselves to imaginary intercessors, instead of the
living and true God." Travels, p. 18. In the case here re-
ferred to, the ship passes between the parts thus thrown on each
side of it. This behaviour of the Algerines may be taken as a
pretty accurate counterpart to that of making a covenant with
death, and with imminent danger of destruction, by appeasing
the angry gods. Festivities always accompanied the ceremonies
attending oaths. Isaac and Abimelech feasted at making their
covenant, Gen. xxvi. 30. and xxxi. 54. This practice was also
usual among the heathen nations. Oriental Customs, Vol. I.
294. B.
* As to this affliction of Abraham's posterity for four hundred
years, see II. 9.
† An. 1956. + Gen. xvi. 16. § Gen. xxviii. 2.

up, and saluted them, and desired they would accept of an entertainment, and abide with him: to which when they agreed, he ordered cakes of meal to be made, and when he had slain a calf, he roasted it, and brought it to them as they sat under the oak. Now they made a show of eating; and besides they asked him about his wife Sarah, where she was, and when he said she was within, they said they should come again hereafter, and find her become a mother. Upon which the woman laughed, and said, that it was impossible she should bear children, since she was ninety years of age, and her husband was an hundred. Then they concealed themselves no longer, but declared that they were angels of God; and that one of them was sent to inform them about the child, and two for the overthrow of Sodom.

When Abraham heard this, he was grieved for the Sodomites; and he rose up, and besought God for them, and entreated him that he would not destroy the righteous with the wicked. But when God had replied that there was no good man among the Sodomites, for if there were but ten such men among them he would not punish any of them for their sins, Abraham held his peace. And the angels came to the city of the Sodomites, and Lot entreated them to accept a lodging with him ;* for he was a very generous and hospitable man, and one that had learned to imitate the goodness of Abraham. Now when the Sodomites saw the young men to be of beautiful countenances and this to an extraordinary degree; and that they took up their lodgings with Lot, they resolved to possess those beautiful boys by force; and when Lot exhorted them to sobriety, and not to offer any thing immodest to the strangers, but to have regard to their lodging in his house, and promised that if their inclinations could not be governed, he would expose his daughters to their lust, instead of these strangers; neither thus were they made ashamed.

But God was much displeased at their impudent behaviour, so that he both smote those men with blindness,† and condemned the Sodomites to

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universal destruction; but Lot, upon God's informing him of the future destruction of the Sodomites, went away, taking with him his wife and two daughters, who were still virgins, for those that were betrothed to them were above the thoughts of going, and deemed Lot's words trifling. God then cast a thunderbolt upon the city, and set it on fire, with its inhabitants, and laid waste the country with the like burning, as I formerly said when I wrote the Jewish war;§ but Lot's wife continually turning back to view the city, as she went from it, and being too inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her so to do, was changed into a pillar|| of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day. Now he and his daughters fled to a certain small place, encompassed with the fire, and settled in it. It is to this day called Zoar, for that is the word which the Hebrews use for a small thing. There it was that he lived a miserable life, on account of his having no company, and his want of provisions.

But his daughters thinking that all mankind were destroyed, approached to their father, though taking care not to be perceived. This they did, that the human race might not utterly fail; and they bare sons; the son of the elder was called Moab, which denotes one derived from his father: the younger bare Ammon, which name denotes one derived from a kinsman. The former was the father of the Moabites, which is even still a great nation; the latter was the father of the Ammonites, and both of them are inhabitants of Celesyria. And such was the departure of Lot from among the Sodomites.

CHAP. XIL

OF ABIMELECH'S CONDUCT TOWARDS ABRAHAM:-OF ISMAEL THE SON OF ABRAHAM;-AND THE ARABIANS, HIS POSTERITY.

ABRAHAM now removed to Gerar of Palestine, leading Sarah along with him, under the name of his sister, using the like dissimulation that he had used before: for he was afraid of Abimelech, the

know. Its remote situation, at the utmost southern point of the sea of Sodom, in the wild and dangerous deserts of Arabia, makes it exceeding difficult for inquisitive travellers to examine the place, and for common reports of country people at a distance, they are not very satisfactory.

I see no wicked intention of these daughters of Lot, in a case which appeared to them as an unavoidable necessity. Incest is certainly a horrid crime; but whether in such a case of necessity as they apprehended this to be, according to Josephus, it was any such crime, I am not satisfied. In the mean time, their making their father inebriated, and their solicitous concealment of what they did from him, showed that they despaired of persuading him to an action, which, at the best, could not but be very shocking to so good a man.

king of that country; who actually fell in love with Sarah, and was disposed to corrupt her, but he was restrained from satisfying his desires by a dangerous distemper, which befell him from God. Now when his physicians despaired of curing him, he fell asleep, and was warned in a dream not to abuse the stranger's wife; and when he recovered he told his friends, that God had inflicted that disease upon him, by way of punishment for his injury to the stranger, and in order to preserve the chastity of his wife; for that she did not accompany him as his sister, but as his legitimate wife; and that God had promised to be gracious to him for the time to come, if this person were once secure of his wife's chastity. When he had said this, by the advice of his friends he sent for Abraham, and told him not to be in the least concerned about his wife, for that God took care of him; and that it was by his providence he received his wife again, without suffering any abuse; and he appealed to God, and to his wife's conscience, and said he had not any inclination at first to possess her, if he had known she was a wife; "But since," said he, "she accompanied thee in the character of thy sister, I was guilty of no offence." He also entreated him to be at peace with him, and to make God propitious to him; and that if he thought fit to continue with him, he should have what he wanted in abundance; but that if he designed to go away, he should be honourably conducted, and have whatever supply he wanted when he came thither. Upon his saying this, Abraham told him, that his pretence of kindred to his wife was not a falsehood, because she was his brother's daughter, and that he did not think himself safe in his travels abroad without this sort of dissimulation, and that he was not the cause of his distemper, but was only solicitous for his own safety. He said also that he was ready to stay with him, whereupon Abimelech assigned him land and money; and they covenanted to live together without guile, and took an oath at a cer

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It is well worth observation that Josephus here calls that principal angel who appeared to Abraham, and foretold the birth of Isaac, directly God; which as he had done it before in his coherence, c. 11, and does it afterward, c. 13 and v. 8, is not very strange in a great reader and admirer of Philo, who does it so often; which language of Josephus's here, prepares us to believe those other expressions of his, that Jesus was a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, XVIII. 3, and of God the Word, in his last homily concerning Hades, may be both genuine; nor is the other expression of divine angel, used presently, and before, also of any other signification.

The circumcision is not after, but on the eighth day: as it is elsewhere expressed by Josephus. The like construction to which we meet with in the New Testament, Matthew xxvii. 63. Luke ii. 21. John xx. 26. This is Reland's observation.

tain well, called Beersheba,* which may be interpreted the well of the oath, and so it is named by the people of the country unto this day. Now in a little time Abrahám† had a son by Sarah, as God had foretold to him, whom he named Isaac, which signifies laughter; and indeed they so called him because Sarah laughed when God said that she should bear a son, she not expecting such a thing, as being past the age of child-bearing, for she was ninety years old, and Abraham a hundred, so that his son was born to them both in the last year of each of those decimal numbers; and they circumcised him§ upon the eighth day; and from that time the Jews continue the custom of circumcising their sons within that number of days; but as for the Arabians, they circumcise after the thirteenth year, because Ismael, the founder of their nation, who was born to Abraham of the concubine, was circumcised at that age, concerning whom I will hereafter give a particular account.

As for Sarah, she at first loved Ismael, who was born of her handmaid Hagar, with an affection not inferior to that of a mother, for he was brought up in order to succeed in the government; but when she herself had borne Isaac, she was not willing that Ismael should be brought up with him, as being too low for him, and able to do him injuries when their father should be dead. She therefore persuaded Abraham to send him and his mother to some distant country. Now at first he did not agree to what Sarah was zealous for, and thought it an instance of the greatest barbarity to send away a young child,|| and a woman unprovided of necessaries; but at length he agreed to it, because God was pleased with what Sarah had determined; so he delivered Ismael to his mother, as not yet able to go by himself, and commanded her to take a bottle of water, and a loaf of bread, and so to depart, and to take necessity for her guide. But as soon as her necessary provisions failed, she found herself in an evil

Josephus here calls Ismael uniov, a young child, or infant, though he were above 13 years of age, as Judas calls himself and his brethren vέss, young men, when he was 47, when he had two children; and they were of much the same age as is a damsel of 12 years old called radiov, or little child, Mark v. 39-42, five several times. Herod is also said by Josephus to be, ve Tavráradiv, a very young man at 25; and Aristobulus is styled raidíov, ravlárativ, a very little child, at 16 years of age. Antiq. XV. 2. Domitian is also called by him avlamaσivéov, a very young child, when he went on his German expedition, at about 18 years of age. Of the war, VII. 4. Samson's wife, and Ruth, when she was a widow, are called waïdes children, Antiq. V. 8 and 9. Accordingly in Xenophon, we have waïdes for children, till 16 or 17 years of age Kúgs Haid. Edit. Hutch. page 12.

¶ Gen. xxi. 14.

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OF THE NATIVITY AND EDUCATION OF ESAU AND JACOB.

purchasing security to himself by a rational and prudent conduct. At length the king gave him permission to dig a well, which he named Rehoboth; denoting a large space. But of the former wells, one was called Escon, which denotes strife; the other Sitenna, which name signifies enmity.

Isaac's affairs were now in a flourishing condition; and his power increased from his great riches. ISAAC's wife proved with child,† after the death But Abimelech thinking Isaac throve in opposition of Abraham; and when she was far advanced in to him, while their living together made them suspiher pregnancy, Isaac was very anxious, and in- cious of each other; and Isaac's retiring showed a quired of God; who answered, that Rebeka should secret enmity also, the king was afraid that his bear twins, and that two nations should take the former friendship would not secure him, if Isaac names of those sons: and that he who appeared should endeavour to revenge the injuries he had forthe second, should excel the elder. Accordingly merly received: he therefore renewed his friendship she in a little time, as God foretold, gave birth to with him, in the presence of Philoc,|| one of his twins; the elder of whom, from his head to his generals; and when he had obtained every thing he feet, was very rough and hairy; but the younger desired, by reason of Isaac's good-nature, who pretook hold of his heel as they were in the birth. ferred the earlier friendship Abimelech had showed Now the father loved the elder, who was called to himself and his father, to alter his wrath against 1 Esau a name agreeable to his roughness, for the him, he returned home. T Hebrews call such a hairy roughness Esau§ for Seir; but Jacob the younger was best beloved by his mother.

When there was a famine in the land, Isaac resolved to go into Egypt, the land there.being good; but he went to Gerar, as God commanded him. Here Abimelech, the king, received him kindly, because Abraham had formerly lived with him, and had been his friend; but when he saw that God was with Isaac, and took such great care with him, he became envious, and drove him away. Perceiving this change in Abimelech's temper, Isaac retired to a place called the Valley, not far from Gerar: and as he was digging a well, the shepherds fell upon him, and began to fight, in order to hinder the work; and because he did not desire to contend, the shepherds seemed to get the better of him. So he still retired, and dug another well: and when certain other shepherds, in the service of Abimelech, began to offer him violence, he left that also, and still retired: thus

*Gen. xxv. 7.

Now when Esau, one of the sons of Isaac, whom the father principally loved, was come to the age of forty years, he married Adah,** the daughter of Helon; and Aholibamah, the daughter of Esebeon, which Helon and Esebeon were great lords among the Canaanites; thereby taking upon himself the authority, and pretending to have dominion over his own marriages, without so much as asking the advice of his father. For had Isaac been the arbitrator, he would not have given him leave to marry thus, for he was not pleased with contracting any alliance with the people of that country; but not wishing to act harshly by his son, in commanding him to put away these wives, he resolved to be silent.

But when he was old, and could not see at all, he called Esau to him, and told him, that besides his blindness, and the disorder in his eyes, his very old age hindered him from his worship of God, by sacrifice: he bade him, therefore, to go out a-hunting, and when he had caught as much venison as he could, to prepare him a supper; that after this he by Josephus,) but this conjectural reading is too uncertain to ¶ Gen. xxvi. 31. ** An. 1817.

†The birth of Jacob and Esau is here said to be after Abra-be depended on. ham's death; it should have been after Sarah's death. The chronology here certainly shows the other to be a mistake. The order of the narration in Genesis, not always exactly according to the order of time, seems to have led Josephus into it, as Dr. Bernard observes here.

Gen. xxv. 23.

For Sir, 20 Josephus, the coherence requires that we For Seir, in Josephus, the coherence requires that we read Esau or Seir; which signifies the same thing.

tt This supper of savoury meat, as we call it, Gen. xxvii. 4, to be caught by hunting, was evidently intended for a festival on a sacrifice; and upon the prayers that were frequent at sacrifices Isaac expected, as was then usual in such eminent cases, that a divine impulse would come upon him, in order to the solemn blessing of his son there present, and his foretelling his future behaviour and fortune. Whence it must be, that when Isaac had blessed Jacob, and was afterwards made sensible of his mistake, he did not attempt to alter it; because he knew that this blessing came not from himself, but from God; and that an alteration was out of his power. A second afflatus then came upon him, and enabled him to foretell Esau's future be

While Josephus's copies, both Greek and Latin, mention this Philoc as one of Abimelech's generals, that accompanied him when he renewed the old league with Isaac, which had been made long before with Abraham, our new edition calls him Phicol by the same name with the general at the league made with Abraham, (which old league is not so distinctly mentionedhaviour and fortune also.

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