Lost Books of the Bible (88 page)

12 Adonizedek blessed Abram, and Abram gave him a tenth from all that he had brought from the spoil of his enemies, for Adonizedek was a priest before God.

13 And all the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah who were there, with their servants, approached Abram and begged him to return their servants whom he had made captive, and to take to himself all the property.

14 Abram answered the kings of Sodom, saying, As the Lord lives who created heaven and earth, and who redeemed my soul from all affliction, and who delivered me this day from my enemies and gave them into my hand, I will not take anything belonging to you, that you may not boast tomorrow, saying, Abram became rich from our property that he saved.

15 For the Lord my God in whom I trust said to me, You shall lack nothing, for I will bless you in all the works of your hands.

16 Now here is all belonging to you, take it and go; as the Lord lives I will not take from a living soul down to a shoetie or thread, excepting the expense of the food of those who went out with me to battle, as also the portions of the men who went with me, Anar, Ashcol, and Mamre, they and their men, as well as those also who had remained to watch the baggage, they shall take their portion of the spoil.

17 And the kings of Sodom gave Abram according to all that he had said; they pressed him to take of whatever he chose, but he would not.

18 He sent away the kings of Sodom and the remainder of their men, and he gave them orders about Lot, and they went to their respective places.

19 And Lot, his brother's son, he also sent away with his property, and he went with them, and Lot returned to his home, to Sodom, and Abram and his people returned to their home to the plains of Mamre, which is in Hebron.

20 At that time the Lord again appeared to Abram in Hebron, and he said to him, Do not fear, your reward is very great before me, for I will not leave you until I shall have multiplied you and blessed you and made your offspring like the stars in heaven, which cannot be measured nor numbered.

21 And I will give to your descendants all these lands that you see with your eyes, I will give them for an inheritance forever, only be strong and do not fear, walk before me and be perfect.

22 In the seventy-eighth year of the life of Abram, in that year Reu died, the son of Peleg, and all the days of Reu were two hundred and thirty-nine years, and he died.

23 And Sarai, the daughter of Haran, Abram's wife, was still unable to conceive in those days; she did not bear to Abram either son or daughter.

24 When she saw that she gave birth to no children she took her handmaid Hagar, whom Pharaoh had given her, and she gave her to Abram her husband for a wife.

25 For Hagar learned all the ways of Sarai as Sarai taught her; she was not in any way deficient in following her good ways.

26 Sarai said to Abram, Behold here is my handmaid Hagar, go to her that she may bring forth on my knees, that I may also obtain children through her.

27 At the end of ten years of Abram's dwelling in the land of Canaan, which is the eighty-fifth year of Abram's life, Sarai gave Hagar to him.

28 And Abram listened to the voice of his wife Sarai; he took his handmaid Hagar and Abram came to her and she conceived.

29 When Hagar saw that she had conceived she rejoiced greatly, and her mistress was despised in her eyes; she said within herself, This can only be that I am better before God than Sarai my mistress, for all the days that my mistress has been with my lord, she did not conceive, but me the Lord has caused in so short a time to conceive by him.

30 And when Sarai saw that Hagar had conceived by Abram, Sarai was jealous of her handmaid, and Sarai said within herself, This is certainly nothing else but that she must be better than I am.

31 Sarai said to Abram, My wrong be on you, for at the time when you prayed before the Lord for children why did you not pray on my account, that the Lord should give me offspring from you?

32 When  I speak to Hagar in your presence  she hates my word because she has conceived so you will say nothing to her; may the Lord judge between me and you for what you have done to me.

33 And Abram said to Sarai, Behold your handmaid is in your hand, do to her as it may seem good in your eyes; and
Sarai afflicted her, and Hagar fled from her to the wilderness.

34 An angel of the Lord found her in the place where she had fled, by a well, and he said to her, Do not fear, for I will reproduce your offspring, for you shall bear a son and you shall call his name Ishmael; now then return to Sarai your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands.

35 And Hagar called the place of that well Beer-lahai-roi;  it is between Kadesh and the wilderness of Bered.

36 And Hagar at that time returned to her master's house, and at the end of days Hagar gave birth to a son to Abram, and Abram called his name Ishmael; and Abram was eighty-six years old when he had him.

CHAPTER 17

1 In those days, in the ninety-first year of the life of Abram, the children of Chittim made war with the children of Tubal, for when the Lord had scattered the sons of men on the face of the earth, the children of Chittim went and settled in the plain of Canopia, and they built themselves cities there and lived by the river Tibreu.

2 The children of Tubal lived in Tuscanah, and their boundaries reached the river Tibreu, and the children of Tubal built a city in Tuscanan, and they called the name Sabinah, after the name of Sabinah son of Tubal their father, and they lived there to this day.

3 It was at that time the children of Chittim made war with the children of Tubal, and the children of Tubal were smitten before the children of Chittim; the children of Chittim caused three hundred and seventy men to fall from the children of Tubal.

4 At that time the children of Tubal swore to the children of Chittim, saying, You shall not intermarry among us, and no man shall give his daughter to any of the sons of Chittim.

5 For all the daughters of Tubal were in those days fair, for no women were then found in the whole earth so fair as the daughters of Tubal.

6 And all who delighted in the beauty of women went to the daughters of Tubal and took wives from them, and the sons of men, kings and princes, who greatly delighted in the beauty of women, took wives in those days from the daughters of Tubal.

7 At the end of three years after the children of Tubal had sworn to the children of Chittim not to give them their daughters for wives, about twenty men of the children of Chittim went to take some of the daughters of Tubal, but they found none.

8 For the children of Tubal kept their oaths not to intermarry with them, and they would not break their oaths.

9 In the days of harvest the children of Tubal went into their fields to get in their harvest, when the young men of Chittim assembled and went to the city of Sabinah, and each man took a young woman from the daughters of Tubal, and they came to their cities.

10 And the children of Tubal heard of it and they went to make war with them;  they could not prevail over them, for the mountain was very high; when they saw they could not prevail over them they returned to their land.

11 And at the revolution of the year the children of Tubal went and hired about ten thousand men from those cities that were near them, and they went to war with the children of Chittim.

12 And the children of Tubal went to
war with the children of Chittim, to destroy their land and to distress them.  In this engagement the children of Tubal prevailed over the children of Chittim, and the children of Chittim, seeing that they were greatly distressed, lifted up the children which they had had by the daughters of Tubal, on the wall which had been built, to be before the eyes of the children of Tubal.

13 And the children of Chittim said to them, Have you come to make war with your own sons and daughters, and have we not been considered your flesh and bones from that time till now?

14 When the children of Tubal heard this they ceased to make war with the children of Chittim, and they went away.

15 They returned to their cities and the children of Chittim at that time assembled and built two cities by the sea;  they called one Purtu and the other Ariza.

16 And Abram the son of Terah was then ninety-nine years old.

17 At that time the Lord appeared to him and said, I will make my covenant between me and you, and I will greatly reproduce your offspring, and this is the covenant which I make between me and you, that every male child be circumcised, you and your descendants after you.

18 At eight days old shall it be circumcised, and this covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

19 And now therefore your name shall no more be called Abram but Abraham, and your wife shall no more be called Sarai but Sarah.

20 For I will bless you both, and I will reproduce your descendants, that you shall become a great nation, and kings shall come forth from you.

CHAPTER 18

1 Abraham rose and did all that God had ordered him; he took the men of his household and those bought with his money, and he circumcised them as the Lord had commanded him.

2 There was not one left whom he did not circumcise, and Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin; Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

3 And in the third day Abraham went out of his tent and sat at the door to enjoy the heat of the sun, during the pain of his flesh.

4 The Lord appeared to him in the plain of Mamre and sent three of his ministering angels to visit him, and he was sitting at the door of the tent.  He lifted his eyes and saw three men were coming from a distance; he rose up and ran to meet them, and he bowed down to them and brought them into his house.

5 And he said to them, If now I have found favor in your sight, turn in and eat a morsel of bread.  He urged them, they turned in and he gave them water and they washed their feet, and he placed them under a tree at the door of the tent.

6 Abraham ran and took a calf, tender and good, and he hurried to kill it, and gave it to his servant Eliezer to dress.

7 And Abraham came to Sarah into the tent, and said to her, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes to cover the pot containing the meat, and she did so.

8 Abraham hurried and brought before them butter and milk, beef and mutton, and put it before
them to eat, before the flesh of the calf was sufficiently done, and they ate.

9 When they were done eating one of them said to him, I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.

10 And the men afterward departed and went their ways, to the places to which they were sent.

11 In those days all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the whole five cities, were greatly wicked and sinful against the Lord.  They provoked the Lord with their abominations, and they grew worse as they aged abominably and scornfully before the Lord, and their wickedness and crimes were in those days great before the Lord.

12 They had in their land a very extensive valley, about half a day's walk, and in it there were fountains of water and a great deal of herbage surrounding the water.

13 All the people of Sodom and Gomorrah went there four times a year, with their wives and children and all belonging to them, and they rejoiced there with timbrels and dances.

14 In the time of rejoicing they would all rise and lay hold of their neighbor's wives, and some, the virgin daughters of their neighbors, and they enjoyed them; each man saw his wife and daughter in the hands of his neighbor and did not say a word.