BOOK OF BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES

A

...their wages from my house. Take the ten beasts of burden, and bring the men themselves to me, and bring their wages with the beasts into the mountains, and sustain them there. Know that if anyone learns what I have said to you, I will burn you with fire. And the men departed and did all that their prince commanded them. And they brought the men from his house by night, and taking the wages, they placed them on the beasts of burden and led them into the mountains just as he had commanded them. And the prince called those twelve men to himself and said to them: "Be confident and do not fear, for you will not die. For the God in whom you trust is strong, and therefore be steadfast in Him, for He will deliver and save you. And behold, I have now commanded fifty men to lead you, with the wages taken from my house. Go ahead into the mountains and sustain yourselves in the valley, and I will give you fifty other men to guide you all the way there. And as you go, hide yourselves there in the valley, having water to drink flowing from the rocks, and keep yourselves there for thirty days, until the anger of the people of the land subsides, and until God sends His wrath upon them and breaks them. For I know that the counsel of iniquity which they have resolved to do will not stand, because their thought is vain. And when seven days have passed, and they search for you, I will say to them: 'They went out, and having broken the door of the prison in which they were enclosed, they fled by night, and I sent one hundred men to seek them.' And I will call them away from their present fury." And the eleven men answered him, saying: "Your servants have found grace before your eyes, because we are being released from the hands of these proud men." But Abram alone remained silent. And the leader said to him: "Why do you not answer me, Abram, servant of God?" Abram answered and said: "Behold, I am fleeing today into the mountains, and if I escape the fire, wild beasts will come out of the mountains and eat us, or our provisions will fail us, and we
B

will die of famine, and we will be found fleeing before the people of the land, falling into our own sins. And now, He in whom I trust lives; I will not move from the place where they have put me. And if there is any sin of mine, so that I should be consumed by being consumed, let the will of God be done." And the leader said to him: "Your blood be upon your own head if you do not wish to depart with these men. But if you wish, you will be delivered. For if you wish to remain, remain according to what you desire." And Abram said: "I will not depart, but I will be here." And the leader took those eleven men and fifty others, and he sent them with them, and he commanded them, saying: "You also wait in the mountains for fifteen days with those fifty who were sent ahead, and afterwards return and say: 'We did not find them,' just as I told those others. And know that if anyone deviates from all these words which I have spoken to you, he will be burned by fire." And the men having departed, the leader took Abram alone and shut him where he had been enclosed. And seven days having passed, the people gathered and said to their leader: "Give us the men who did not want to counsel with us, and we will burn them with fire." And the leaders sent men to bring them, but they found no one except Abram alone. And all having gathered to their leaders, they said: "The men whom you enclosed have fled, escaping our counsel." And Phenech and Nebroth said to Iectam: "Where are the men whom you enclosed?" But he said: "Breaking, they broke out by night. But I sent one hundred men who would seek them, and I commanded that if they found them, they should not only burn them with fire, but also give their bodies to the birds of the sky, and thus destroy them." And then they said to him: "Let us therefore gather this one who was found alone." And they took Abram and brought him to their leaders, and they said to him: "Where are they who were with you?" And he said: "I was sleeping by night, and when I awoke, I did not find them." And taking him, they built a furnace and ignited it with fire, and they threw stones burned by fire into the furnace. And then Iectam the leader, moved in his mind, took Abram and sent him...