Lost Books of the Bible (94 page)

CHAPTER 24

1 The life of Sarah was one hundred and twenty-seven years, and Sarah died; and Abraham rose up from before his dead to seek a burial place to bury his wife Sarah.  He went and spoke to the children of Heth, the inhabitants of the land, saying,

2 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you in your land; give me possession of a burial place in your land, that I may bury my dead from before me.

3 And the children of Heth said to Abraham, Behold the land is before you, in the choice of our sepulchers bury your dead, for no man shall withhold you from burying your dead.

4  Abraham said to them, If you are agreeable to this, go and entreat Ephron the son of
Zochar for me, requesting that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which is in the end of his field, and I will purchase it of him for whatever he desires for it.

5 And Ephron lived among the children of Heth, and they went and called for him, and he came before Abraham. Ephron said to Abraham, Behold all you require your servant will do; Abraham said, No, but I will buy the cave and the field which you have for value, in order that it may be for  possession of a burial place forever.

6 And Ephron answered and said, Behold the field and the cave are before you, give whatever you desire.   Abraham said, Only at full value will I buy it from your hand, and from the hands of those that go in at the gate of your city, and from the hand of your descendants forever.

7 Ephron and all his brothers heard this, and Abraham weighed to Ephron four hundred shekels of silver in the hands of Ephron and in the hands of all his brothers.  Abraham wrote this transaction;  he wrote it and testified it with four witnesses.

8 And these are the names of the witnesses: Amigal son of Abishna the Hittite, Adichorom son of Ashunach the Hivite, Abdon son of Achiram the Gomerite, Bakdil the son of Abudish the Zidonite.

9 Abraham took the book of the purchase and placed it in his treasures, and these are the words that Abraham wrote in the book, namely:

10 That the cave and the field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite and from his descendants, and from those that go out of his city, and from their descendants forever, are to be a purchase to Abraham and to his descendants and to those that go forth from his loins, for a possession of a burial place forever.  And he put a signet to it and testified it with witnesses.

11 The field and the cave that was in it and all that place were made sure to belong to Abraham and to his descendants after him, from the children of Heth; behold it is before Mamre in Hebron which is in the land of Canaan.

12 After this Abraham buried his wife Sarah there, and that place and all its boundary became to Abraham and to his descendants for a possession of a burial place.

13 And Abraham buried Sarah with pomp as observed at the interment of kings, and she was buried in very fine and beautiful garments.

14 At her bier was Shem, his sons Eber and Abimelech, together with Anar, Ashcol and Mamre, and all the grandees of the land followed her bier.

15 The days of Sarah were one hundred and twenty-seven years and she died, and Abraham made a great and heavy mourning, and he performed the rites of mourning for seven days.

16 And all the inhabitants of the land comforted Abraham and Isaac his son on account of Sarah.

17 When the days of their mourning passed by Abraham sent away his son Isaac.  He went to the house of Shem and Eber, to learn the ways of the Lord and his instructions, and Abraham remained there three years.

18 At that time Abraham rose up with all his servants, and they went and returned homeward to Beersheba, and Abraham and all his servants remained in Beersheba.

19 At the revolution of the year
Abimelech king of the Philistines died in that year; he was one hundred and ninety-three years old at his death.  Abraham went with his people to the land of the Philistines, and they comforted the whole household and all his servants, and then he turned and went home.

20 It was after the death of Abimelech that the people of Gerar took Benmalich his son, and he was only twelve years old, and they made him  lay the place of his father.

21 And they called his name Abimelech after the name of his father, for thus it was their custom to do in Gerar.   Abimelech reigned instead of Abimelech his father, and he sat on his throne.

22 And Lot the son of Haran also died in those days, in the thirty-ninth year of the life of Isaac;  all the days that Lot lived were one hundred and forty years and he died.

23 And these are the children of Lot, that were born to him by his daughters;  the name of the first born was Moab, and the name of the second was Benami.

24 The two sons of Lot went and took themselves wives from the land of Canaan, and they gave birth to children to them.  The children of Moab were Ed, Mayon, Tarsus, and Kanvil, four sons;  these are fathers to the children of Moab to this day.

25 And all the families of the children of Lot went to dwell wherever they should light on, for they were prolific and increased abundantly.

26 And they went and built themselves cities in the land where they lived, and they called the names of the cities which they built after their own names.

27 Nahor the son of Terah, brother to Abraham, died in those days in the fortieth year of the life of Isaac.  All the days of Nahor were one hundred and seventy-two years; he died and was buried in Haran.

28 And when Abraham heard that his brother was dead he grieved sadly, and he mourned over his brother many days.

29 Abraham called for Eliezer his head servant to give him orders concerning his house, and he came and stood before him.

30 And Abraham said to him, Behold I am old, I do not know the day of my death; for I am advanced in days; now therefore rise up, go forth and do not take a wife for my son from this place and from this land, from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom we dwell.

31 But go to my land and to my birthplace, and take from there a wife for my son.  The Lord God of Heaven and earth who took me from my father's house and brought me to this place, and said to me, To your offspring will I give this land for an inheritance forever, he will send his angel before you and prosper your way, that you may obtain a wife for my son from my family and from my father's house.

32 The servant answered his master Abraham and said, Behold I go to your birthplace and to your father's house, and take a wife for your son from there; but if the woman be not willing to follow me to this land, shall I take your son back to the land of your birthplace?

33 And Abraham said to him, See that you do not bring my son here again, for the Lord before whom I have walked will send his angel before you and prosper your way.

34 Eliezer did as Abraham ordered him, and Eliezer swore to
Abraham his master on this matter; and Eliezer rose up and took ten camels of the camels of his master, and ten men from his master's servants with him, and they rose up and went to Haran, the city of Abraham and Nahor, in order to fetch a wife for Isaac the son of Abraham.  While they were gone Abraham sent to the house of Shem and Eber, and they brought from there his son Isaac.

35 Isaac came home to his father's house to Beersheba, while Eliezer and his men came to Haran; and they stopped in the city by the watering place, and he made his camels to kneel down by the water and they remained there.

36 Eliezer, Abraham's servant, prayed and said, O God of Abraham my master; send me I pray you good speed this day and show kindness to my master, that you shall appoint this day a wife for my master's son from his family.

37 And the Lord listened to the voice of Eliezer, for the sake of his servant Abraham, and he happened to meet with the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, brother to Abraham, and Eliezer came to her house.

38 Eliezer related to them all his concerns, and that he was Abraham's servant; they greatly rejoiced at him.

39 And they all blessed the Lord who brought this thing about; they gave him Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, for a wife for Isaac.

40 The young woman was of a beautiful appearance; she was a virgin, and Rebecca was ten years old in those days.

41 And Bethuel and Laban and his children made a feast on that night, and Eliezer and his men came and ate and drank and rejoiced there on that night.

42 Eliezer rose up in the morning, he and the men that were with him, and he called to the whole household of Bethuel, saying, Send me away that I may go to my master;  they rose up and sent away Rebecca and her nurse Deborah, the daughter of Uz, and they gave her silver and gold, men servants and maid servants, and they blessed her.

43 And they sent Eliezer away with his men and the servants took Rebecca; he went and returned to his master to the land of Canaan.

44  Isaac took Rebecca and she became his wife, and he brought her into the tent.

45 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebecca, the daughter of his uncle Bethuel, for a wife.

CHAPTER 25

1 It was at that time that Abraham again took a wife in his old age, and her name was Keturah, from the land of Canaan.

2 She gave birth to, to him: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuach, being six sons. And the children of Zimran were Abihen, Molich and Narim.

3 The sons of Jokshan were Sheba and Dedan, and the sons of Medan were Amida, Joab, Gochi, Elisha and Nothach; and the sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Chanoch, Abida and Eldaah.

4 The sons of Ishbak were Makiro, Beyodua and Tator.

5 The sons of Shuach were Bildad, Mamdad, Munan and Meban; all these are the families of the children of Keturah the Canaanitish
woman which she gave birth to, to Abraham the Hebrew.

6 And Abraham sent all these away, and he gave them gifts; they went away from his son Isaac to dwell wherever they would find a place.

7 And all these went to the mountain at the east, and they built themselves six cities in which they lived to this day.

8 But the children of Sheba and Dedan, children of Jokshan, with their children, did not dwell with their brothers in their cities; they journeyed and encamped in the countries and wildernesses to this day.

9 And the children of Midian, son of Abraham, went to the east of the land of Cush.  There they found a large valley in the eastern country, and remained there and built a city.  They lived therein; that is the land of Midian to this day.

10 Midian lived in the city which he built, he and his five sons and all belonging to him.

11 And these are the names of the sons of Midian according to their names in their cities: Ephah, Epher, Chanoch, Abida and Eldaah.

12 And the sons of Ephah were Methach, Meshar, Avi and Tzanua, and the sons of Epher were Ephron, Zur, Alirun and Medin; the sons of Chanoch were Reuel, Rekem, Azi, Alyoshub and Alad.

13 The sons of Abida were Chur, Melud, Kerury, Molchi; and the sons of Eldaah were Miker, and Reba, and Malchiyah and Gabol.  These are the names of the Midianites according to their families, and afterward the families of Midian spread throughout the land of Midian.

14 These are the generations of Ishmael the son of Abraham, whom Hagar, Sarah's handmaid, gave birth to, to Abraham.

15 And Ishmael took a wife from the land of Egypt, and her name was Ribah, the same is Meribah.

16 And Ribah gave birth to, to Ishmael:  Nebayoth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam and their sister Bosmath.

17 And Ishmael cast away his wife Ribah, and she went from him and returned to Egypt to the house of her father.  She lived there, for she had been very bad in the sight of Ishmael, and in the sight of his father Abraham.