Hebrew Myths (22 page)

(
b
) The Egyptians were indeed astonished at Sarai’s beauty; and when King Pharaoh heard of it he resolved to make her his concubine, paying Abram a huge price in oxen, cattle, sheep and slaves. God, however, afflicted the palace with so many plagues that at last Pharaoh, discovering their cause, sent for Abram and reproached his withholding the full truth. ‘What if I had taken your wife into my bed?’ he asked angrily; and expelled Abram from Egypt, restoring Sarai to him, and not even taking back the gifts won by his deception.
²⁴²

(
c
) Some say that when Abram came to the Torrent of Egypt which separates Egypt from Canaan, Sarai went down to wash her face. Abram who, because of his austerity, had never performed the act of love with Sarai, nor so much as lifted her veil, saw so lovely a face reflected in the water that, knowing the Egyptians for shameless fornicators, he took her across the border shut in a chest and dressed in all her finery. The officer of customs, dissatisfied with Abram’s evasive answers, made him open the chest. When he saw Sarai lying inside it, he said: ‘This woman is far too beautiful to be enjoyed by anyone but Pharaoh!’ A prince of Pharaoh’s household, named Hyrcanus, hastened to inform his master; who rewarded him richly and sent an armed escort for Sarai.
²⁴³

(
d
) This is the song that Hyrcanus sang in Sarai’s praise:

(
e
) Assured by Sarai that she was Abram’s sister, Pharaoh sent him valuable gifts and led her into the royal bed chamber. Abram wept all night, and so did Lot, praying that Sarai would keep her virginity. God therefore sent down an angel; and Pharaoh, when he tried to embrace Sarai, was dealt a blow by an unseen hand. When he tried to remove her sandals, another blow fell; when he tried to touch her garments, the angel buffeted him harder. Sarai, however, saw the angel, and slyly moved her lips to form words of instruction: either ‘Wait!’ or ‘Strike now!’, as the case might be. A whole night went by in this manner, and Pharaoh accomplished nothing. At dawn, he saw signs of leprosy on the walls, beams and pillars of his bed chamber, and on the faces of his eunuchs. Sarai then confessed: ‘Abram is not only my brother, but my husband,’ and Pharaoh made no more attempts to enjoy her. He placated Abram with even richer gifts than before; and gave Sarai a bond-maid named Hagar, his own daughter by a concubine. Thereupon the leprosy faded.
²⁴⁵

(
f
) Others say that a pestilential wind invaded the palace; and that Pharaoh promised Sarai the Land of Goshen; and all the silver and gold she desired, in payment for the night he would spend with her.
²⁴⁶

(
g
) But before leaving Egypt, Abram taught Pharaoh’s court mathematics and astronomy, which he had learned from the Chaldeans.
²⁴⁷

***

1
. The historical fact underlying
Genesis
XII seems to be the movement of Hebrew-speaking tribes southward through Palestine into Egypt, among a mixed horde of Hittites, Mitannians from Harran, Syrians and Palestinians. Their leaders, the Hyksos Kings, ruled Egypt from 1730(?) to 1570
B.C.
and their empire extended over a great part of Syria. Very little is known about these Shepherd Kings because, when their viceroys in Upper Egypt rebelled against Pharaoh Apopy II (1603–1570
B.C.
), and dethroned him after a long war, the Egyptian scribes—for whom the sheep was an unclean animal (
Genesis
XLVIII. 34)—suppressed the dynastic records.

2
. Abram’s short stay in Canaan ‘because of the famine’, is consonant with the destructive Hyksos march through Palestine. He paused only to raise an altar at Shechem, which was to become an important Israelite sanctuary. His somewhat hasty return suggests that certain Hebrew tribes, finding Egypt a country unsuitable for nomads, wandered back to Palestine where, some generations later, they were joined by their compatriots under Joshua.

3
. The myth of Abram, Sarai and the King who desired her, occurs twice again: in the story of Abram, Sarai and Abimelech of Gerar (see 30); and in that of Isaac, Rebekah and the same Abimelech (see 37). It has been borrowed from the Egyptian
Tale of the Two Brothers
, which also provides that of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. Abram’s locking of Sarai in a chest is paralleled by the opening tale of the
Arabian Nights.
His mistrust of the Egyptians as fornicators is based on the bad reputation of Ham’s descendants: for Mizraim (Egypt) figures in
Genesis
X. 6 as a son of Ham.

4
. Pharaoh’s gift of Goshen and all the silver and gold Sarai desired was a retrospective midrashic charter permitting the Israelites to occupy Goshen in Joseph’s day, and to despoil the Egyptians during the Exodus (
Exodus
XI. 2 and XII. 35–36). Pharaoh’s further gift of Hagar is intended to account for her Egyptian nationality. The poem in praise of Sarai’s beauty comes from the
Genesis Apocryphon
discovered in 1947 among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

5
. Leprosy, to the Israelites, meant such skin diseases as ringworm, scald-head and vitiligo (
Leviticus
XII. 29–46); not leprosy proper. The term (
‘sara‘at’
) was further applied to mould or mildew in buildings (
Leviticus
XIV. 33–57), or on garments (
Leviticus
XIII. 47–59). That the Israelites themselves suffered from ‘leprosy’ is reported by the Egyptian priest Manetho (fourth century
B.C.
), who alleges that this was the cause of eighty thousand scabby Israelites being quarantined in a separate city, and afterwards either drowned or driven into the wilderness under Moses.

6
. Jacob’s vision of the ladder occurred at Bethel (see 43.
c
). Haai (‘ruin’), or Ai, a royal Canaanite city sacked by Joshua (
Joshua
VII and VIII), was standing again in Isaiah’s time (
Isaiah
X. 28). It has been identified with modern el-Tell, one mile south-east of Bethel.

(
a
) From Egypt, Abram led his flocks and herds back to the place where he had pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai; and then on again to Shechem, where he had built God’s altar. His nephew Lot accompanied him, but their shepherds quarrelled so hotly about pasturage that the two kinsmen thought it best to divide the land between them. Lot chose the eastern side, making his home at Sodom, a city of the Plain; Abram took the western side, making his home at Hebron.

(
b
) Meanwhile, King Chedorlaomer of Elam persuaded three Kings, namely Amraphel of Shinear, Arioch of Ellasar and Tidal of Goyim, to march against five other Kings—Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah, Shinab of Admah, Shemeber of Zeboyim and Bela of Zoar—who had jointly rebelled after twelve years of vassalage. On their march from Elam, Chedorlaomer and his allies defeated three tribes of giants: the Rephaim at Ashteroth-Karnaim, the Zuzim at Ham, and the Emim at Shaveh-Kiriathaim; they also drove the Horites from Mount Seir to El-Paran. Turning about, they stormed En-Mishpat, an Amalekite stronghold now known as Kadesh, and the city of Hazezon-Tamar. Then they met the King of Sodom and his allies in the Vale of Siddim, which was full of slime pits, and won a further victory. The Vale of Siddim is now the Dead Sea.

(
c
) Abram, while encamped at Hebron in the terebinth grove of Mamre the Amorite, heard from a fugitive that Lot and his family had been captured at Sodom. At once he led three hundred and eighteen retainers to the rescue, and followed Chedorlaomer’s army northward. Coming up with the enemy at Dan, Abram attacked them by night on both flanks, slaughtered some, pursued the rest as far as Hobah near Damascus, and recovered all the booty; at the same time liberating Lot, his family and numerous other prisoners-of-war.

(
d
) Upon Abram’s triumphal return, the King of Sodom welcomed him in the royal Vale of Shaveh, by Salem; where Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of the Most High God, gave him bread, wine and this benediction:

In acknowledgement of Melchizedek’s kindness, Abram presented him with a tenth part of his spoils. The King of Sodom then said: ‘Pray, my lord Abram, restore me my subjects, but keep their flocks, herds and treasure.’ He answered: ‘I have sworn to the Most High God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, that I shall not take so much as a thread or a shoe-latchet from you, lest word go about: “Abram was enriched by the King of Sodom!” Repay only what my servants, my ally Mamre, and his sons Aner and Eshcol, have cost me in food and drink.’
²⁴⁸

(
e
) Some say that Chedorlaomer had previously rebelled against King Nimrod and made him his vassal. And that, when Abram mustered his retainers against Chedorlaomer, he said: ‘We are about to do battle. No man who has committed a sin and suffers from guilt should come with me!’ But when they reached Dan—which is now called Paneas—Abram’s strength suddenly drained away: a prophetic voice had told him that here, many generations later, the idolatrous King Jeroboam would set up a golden calf for Israel to worship. Nevertheless, Abram’s servant Eliezer fought valiantly that day, and caused the enemy as much loss as did all his three hundred and seventeen comrades.
²⁴⁹

(
f
) Others again say that the planet Zedek (Jupiter) shed a mysterious light around Abram as he fought, so that he saw his enemies clearly despite the gloom; Layla, the Angel of Night, also assisted him. Moreover, all his enemies’ swords turned to dust, and their arrows into chaff; contrariwise, Abram only needed to hurl dust and it became javelins; a handful of straw, and it became a volley of arrows.
²⁵⁰

(
g
) Others again say that Melchizedek (also known as Adoni-Zedek), was Abram’s ancestor Shem, and that he now taught Abram the duties of priesthood, particularly the rules governing shew-bread, wine-libations and burned offerings. He also gave Abram the garments of skin made by God for Adam and Eve, stolen by Ham, but now restored to him. All this Shem did because God had appointed Abram his successor. For when Shem said: ‘Abram, be you blessed by the Most High God, Maker of Heaven and Earth; and blessed be the Most High God Himself, who has delivered your enemies to you!’, Abram at once cried: ‘Is it seemly to bless the servant before
the Master?’—a reproof which convinced God that Abram was the fitter to be His priest.
²⁵¹

***

1
. Shinear, over which King Amraphel reigned, has been identified with Akkadian Shankhar (see 22.
5
); and Tidal with Tudkhalya, the name of several Hittite kings. Goyim, Tidal’s kingdom, may be a proper name or may simply mean ‘peoples’. Ellasar seems to be Ilansra, mentioned in eighteenth-century
B.C.
Mari inscriptions, and later Hittite documents, as a royal city between Carchemish and Harran. The name Arioch seems to mean ‘Honoured One’ (
Ariaka
) in Old Iranian. Elam was an ancient and powerful kingdom at the head of the Persian Gulf. Chedorlaomer may have been one of several Elamite kings whose names, extant in cuneiform inscriptions, resemble his.

2
. It was for long doubted that
Genesis
XIV contained any historical kernel. Nevertheless, some scholars now regard it as an ancient historical tradition, first recorded, probably in the Akkadian or Canaanite language, soon after the war described in it took place, and much later translated into Hebrew. The date of this war is variously placed as early as the twentieth and as late as the seventeenth century
B.C.
However, in its extant form, the chapter serves as a charter for possession of Canaan. Canaan was conquered from Kadesh and El-Paran (or Elath) on the Red Sea gulf in the south, to Dan in the north, by four invaders; but immediately afterwards, Abram defeated them, recovered all the booty they had taken and, by the right of succession, also acquired all the land overrun by them. Thus Abram’s children, when they emerged from Egypt and conquered Canaan, were taking possession of a country the title to which was theirs by inheritance.

3
. The names of five Cities of the Plain and their kings still present numerous problems. What the name of Bera, King of Sodom means, is uncertain. Some see in it an abridged form of a theophoric name, such as Bera-Baal, found in Lihyānite (North Arabian) inscriptions, which may mean ‘Splendour of Baal’. Birsha, the name of the King of Gomorrah, has not been satisfactorily explained, although some connect it with an old Semitic word meaning ‘flea’ which, in Akkadian, has the form of
Burshu‘u
, and is used to this day in Arabic as a personal name.

Admah
has been identified with
Adamah
(Psalm LXXXIII. 11) and
Adam
(
Joshua
III. 16), today Tell Adamiya, on the eastern bank of Jordan, near the mouth of the Jabbok River. If so, Admah was the most northerly
frontier outpost of this confederation of five cities. Its king, Shinab, carried a royal name which recurred centuries later as that of an Ammonite king, Sanibu, mentioned in the time of Tiglath Pileser III (745–727
B.C.
). Shemeber’s city, Zeboyim, has been located tentatively in the Lisan peninsula of the Dead Sea, where there is a Wadi Sebaiye. Others, however, hold that these four cities stood in an area now covered by the southern part of the Dead Sea. Bela appears as the name of an Edomite king whose city was Dinhabah (
Genesis
XXXVI. 32–33). This name was also current among the Hebrews (
Genesis
XLVI. 21; 1
Chronicles
V. 8) and the South Arabians, where it meant ‘gourmand’. Bela’s royal city, Zoar (meaning ‘little’), seems to be identical with Zukhr, mentioned in the Tell Amarna letters and called ‘Zoara’ by Josephus and ‘Segor’ by Eusebius and the Crusaders. It lay north-east of the Dead Sea, probably at modern Tell el-Zara. Zoar figures prominently in the Lot myth as the only place, a ‘small’ one (
miz‘ar
), that escaped God’s destruction of the Cities of the Plain (
Genesis
XIX. 20–23; see 32.
a
).