CHAP. VII.

Of Abram's removal from the country of the Chaldeans, to the land then called Canaan, but now Judea.

A

:

BRAM having no sons of his own, adopted Lot, his brother Haran's son, and his wife Sarai's brother; he left the land of Chaldea, when he was seventy-five years old; and at the command of God went into Canaan, and therein he dwelt himself, and left it to his posterity. He was a person of great sagacity, both for understanding all things, and persuading his hearers; and not mistaken in his opinions, for which reason he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had; and he determined to reform and change the opinion all men happened then to have concerning God; for he was the first who ventured to publish this notion that there was but one God, the creator of the universe and that as to other gods, if they contributed to the happiness of men, that each of them afforded it only according to his appointment, and not by their own power. This opinion was derived. from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea; as well as those that happened to the sun and moon, and all the heavenly bodies, thus: "If," said he, "these bodies had power of their own they would certainly take care of their own regular motions but since they do not preserve such regularity, they make it plain that so far as they operate to our advantage, they do it of their own abilities but as they are subservient to him that commands them; to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honor and thanksgiving." For which doctrines when the Chaldeans and other people of Mesopotamia raised a tumult against him, he thought fit to leave that country; and at the command and by the assistance of God, he came and lived in the land of Canaan. And when he was there settled, he built an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God. Berosus mentions our father Abram without naming him, when he says, "In the tenth generation after the flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man, righteous and great, and skilful in the celestial science." But Hecateus does more than barely mention him; for he composed, and left behind him a book concerning him. And Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his history, says, "Abram reigned at Damascus; being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans. But after a long time he removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea; and this when his posterity were become

amultitude; as to which posterity of his we related their history in another work. Now the name of Abram is even still famous in the country of Damascus; and there is shewn a village named from him, The Habitation of Abram."

CHAP. VII.

Of Abram's departure into Egypt in consequence of a famine; and of his subsequent return.

NOW after this, when a famine had invaded

the land of Canaan, and Abram had discovered that the Egyptians were in a flourishing condition he was disposed to go down to them; both to partake of the plenty they enjoyed, and to learn what their priests asserted concerning the gods; designing either to follow them, if they had better notions than he; or to convert them into a better way, if his own notions proved the truest. Now as he was to take Sarai with him, and was afraid of the madness of the Egyptians with regard to women, lest the king should kill him on occasion of his wife's great beauty, he contrived this device; He pretended to be her brother, and directed her in a dissembling way to pretend the same: for he said, it would be for their benefit. Now as soon as they came into Egypt, it happened to Abram as he supFor the fame of his wife's beauty was posed. greatly talked of; for which reason Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, would not be satisfied with what was reported of her, but would needs see her himself. But God put a stop to his unjust inclinations, by sending upon him a distemper, and a sedition against his government. And when he enquired of his priests, how he might be freed from those calamities, they told him, that his miserable condition was derived from the wrath of God, upon account of his inclination to abuse the stranger's wife. He then, out of fear, asked Sarai, who she was, and who it was that she had brought along with her ? And when he had discovered the truth, he excused himself to Abram, that supposing the woman to be his sister, and not his wife, he set his affections on her, as desiring an affinity with him by marrying her, but not as incited by lust to abuse her. He also made him a large present in money; and gave him leave to enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians. From which conversation, his virtue and reputation became more conspicuous than they had before.

For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised each other's sacred and accustomed rites, and were angry one with another on that account: Abram conferred with

Gen. xii. 10.

each

each of them, and confuting the reasonings they made use of for their respective practices, he demonstrated that such reasonings were vain, and void of truth. Whereupon he was admired by them in those conferences as a very wise man, and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy. For before Abram came into Egypt they were unacquainted with those parts of learning; for that Science came from the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from thence to the Greeks also..

As soon as Abram returned into Canaan, he parted the land between him and Lot, upon account of the tumultuous behaviour of their shepherds,* concerning the pastures wherein they should feed their flocks. However, he gave Lot his option, or leave to chuse which lands he would take; and he

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 Asphalites, 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 captives; among which captives was Lot, who had come to assist the Sodomites,

CHAP. X.

Of Abram's successful engagement with the As syrians and his rescue of the Sodomite pri

soners.

CHAP. IX.

at once afraid for Lot, his kinsman, and pitied the Sodomites, his friends and neighbours; and thinking it proper to afford them assistance, he did not delay it, but marched hastily, and the fifth night fell upon the Assyrians near Dan; for that is the name of the other spring of Jordan; and before they could arm themselves he slew some 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

A

rian War.

T this time when the Assyrians had the dominion over Asia, the people of Sodom were in a flourishing condition; both as to riches and the number of their youth. There were five kings that managed the affairs of this country: Ballas, Barsas, Senabir, and Sumobor, with the king of Bela; and each king led on his own troops. And the Assyrians made war upon them, and dividing their army into four parts, fought against them. Now every part of the army had its own commander, and when the battle was joined, the Assyrians were conquerors, and imposed a tribute upon the kings of the Sodomites, who submitted to this slavery twelve years; and so long they continued to pay their tribute; but on the thirteenth year they rebelled; and then the army of the Assyrians came upon them, under their commanders, Amraphel, Arioch, Chedorlaomer, and Tidal. These kings had laid waste all Syria, and overthrown the offof the giants. spring And when they were come

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 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 aftewards called Salem, Jerusalem. Now this Milchisadec supplied Abram's army in a hospitable manner, and gave them provisions in abundance: 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

But the

of his prey, he accepted of the gift. King of Sodom desired Abram to take the prey ; but intreated that he might have those men restored to him whom Abram had saved from the Assyrians, because they belonged to him. But Abram would not do so; nor would make any other advantage of that prey, than what his servants had eaten; but still insisted that he should afford a part to his friends who had assisted him in the battle. The first of them was called Eschol, and the others Enner and Mambre.

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 he did not divide. After which, before he built his altar, where the birds of prey flew about as desirous of blood, a divine voice came to him, declaring that their neighbours would he grievous to his posterity, when they should be in Egypt, for four hundred years; during which time they should be afflicted, but afterward should overcoine 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 Ogygest the place belongs to Canaan, not far from the city of Hebron. But being uneasy at his wife's barrenness, he intreated God to grant that he might have male issue; and God required 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 hand-maidens, a woman of Egyptian descent, in order to obtain children by her; and when this hand-maid 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

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

VOL. I.NO. 11.

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severity to her; and she intreated God to have compassion on her. Now a divine angel met her as she was going forward in the wilderness, and bid her 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 in 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 Ismael, which may be intreated Heard of God: because God had heard his mother's prayer.

This son was born to Abram when he was eightysix years old. But when he was ninety-nine, God appeared to him, and promised that he should have a son by Sarai, and commanded that his name should be Isaac ; and shewed him that from this son should spring great nations and kings; and that they should obtain all the land of Canaan by war, from Sidon to Egypt. But he charged, in order to keep his posterity unmixt with others, that they should be circumcised in the flesh of their fore-skin, 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 enquiring also concerning Ismael, whether he should live or not; God signifind 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.

pride, to overthrow their city, and lay waste their country, till their 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 angels: * and thinking them to be strangers, he rose 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 shew 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 that 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 intreated 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 intreated 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

This pillar of salt was, we see here, standing in the days of Josephus, and he had seen it. That it was standing then is also attested by Clement of Rome, contemporary with Josephus; as also that it was so in the next century, is attested by Irenæus, with the addition of an hypothesis, how it came to last so long, with all its members intire. Whether the account that some modern travellers give be true that it is still standing, I do not know. Its

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 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 deened 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 named 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 were inhabitants of Celesyria. And such was the departure of Lot from among the Sodom

ites.

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 seee no wicked intention in 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 rime, their making their father inebriated, and their solicitous concealment of what they did from him, shews that they despaired of persuading him to an action which, at the best, could not but be very shocking to so good a man.

CHAP.

CHAP. XII.

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 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 befel 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 her suffering any abuse; and he appealed to God, and to his wife's conscience, and said that 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 intreated 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 honorably 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,

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.

This 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,

8

because she was his brother's daughter, and that he did not think himself safe in his travels abroad without this sost 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 certain 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 Abraham † 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 custoin 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 old 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 so zealous for, and thought it an instance of the utmost barbarity to send away a young child, and a woman unprovided of necessaries but at length agreed to it, because God

Matth. xxvii. 63. Luke, ii. 21. John, xx. 26. This is Reland's observation.

Josephus here calls Ismael, vov, a young child, or infant, though he were above 13 years of age, as Judas calls himself and his brethren viss, 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 also is said by Josephus to be vé avтáяασiv, a very young man at 25; and Aristobalus is styled audiov navlanaσiv, a very little child, at 16 yers of age. Antiq. XV. 2. Domitian is also calied by him zavlaπαoivέov, a very young child, when he went on his German expedi tion, at about 18 years of age. Of the War, VII. 4. Samson's wife, and Rath, when she was a widow, are called

was