(13) And they took captive Sodom and Adam • and Zeboim, and they took cap- tive Lot also, the son of Abram's brother, and all his possessions, and they went to Dan.

(13) AnbTTn this year came Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, >and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of S&l'asar, and Tfirgal,* king of nations, and slew the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Sodom fled, and many fell through wounds in the vale of Siddim, by the Salt Sea.

(42) And Judah came near and said : " Send him with me, and if I do not bring him back to thee, let me bear the blame before thee all the days of my life." 20. And he sent him with them in the second year of this 2172 a.m. week on the first day of the month, and they came to the land of Egypt with all those who went, and (they had) presents in their hands, stacte and almonds and terebinth nuts and pure honey.

(13) And it came 1 Corrupt. Read probably Canaan. that He should be with him and not forsake him all the days of his life.

(44) And the sons of Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, whom she 1 i.e. a native of the Canaanite city Zephath ; cf. Judg. i. 17. bare to Jacob, were Dan and Naphtali.

King David purposed to build a temple at Jerusalem, but was forbidden to do so by a divine voice, because he had been a man of blood. But, it was added, the work should be accomplished by his son Solomon, and Solomon's work would be reckoned the same as David's, in accordance with the texts, "The faithful are brethren," and "Sages are as a single soul," and "We make no distinction between any of the apostles." Accordingly, when Solomon came to the throne, he set about the building, which was attended with many miraculous circumstances, e.g., the stones in the quarry crying out and moving of themselves to the site of the temple. Bilqis, Queen of Saba, sent Solomon a present of forty camels laden with ingots of gold; but Solomon would not receive them, and sent her messengers back with a letter commanding her to abandon the worship of the sun and embrace Islam. At the same time he charged the messengers to report fully to the Queen all they had seen in his kingdom, and to urge her to comply with his commands to renounce her sovereignty and present herself in all humility at his court. As she delayed to come, Solomon again sent to assure her that he had no sinister views regarding her, and desired her attendance at his court solely for her own spiritual benefit. At last Bilqis renounced her royal state and cast away all care for worldly things, and, impelled by earnest desire to learn the true faith, presented herself at the court of King Solomon. Then Solomon commanded that the throne of Bilqis should be brought from Saba, and an 'Afrit offered to fetch it, but Asaf, the vizier anticipated him. Afterwards Solomon proceeded with the building of the temple, wherein he was assisted by devils and fairies. Then God tried Solomon by placing on his throne a false counterpart of him. His miracle working signet was stolen by a devil named Sakhar who thereupon assumed his shape and personated him for forty days, during which Solomon had to wander about and beg his bread. After this he regained his throne, and having completed the temple, began to worship therein. One day he observed that a tuft of coarse grass had sprung up in a corner of the temple, and he was greatly distressed because he thought it portended the ruin of the building, but he took comfort from the thought that while he himself lived the temple would not be allowed to fall into ruin; so long as he lived, at least, he would root up all evil weeds that threatened the safety of the temple, as well the temple built with hands as the spiritual temple in his heart. In the course of this story, which is told at great length, there occur anecdotes of the beginning of the reign of 'Othman, of the miracles of 'Abdullah Moghrabi, and others, of which abstracts are given below.

(8) And in the thirtieth jubilee, in the second week, in the 429 a.m. first year thereof, he took to himself a wife, and her name was MSlka^ the daughter of Madai. the son of 1432 a.m. Japheth, and in the tourth year he begat a son, and called his name Shelah ; for he said : " Truly I have been sent."

(41) For in singleness of eye he had gone and sought for punishment, namely, according to the judgment of Abraham, which he had commanded his sons, Judah had sought to burn her with fire.

(30) And he besought his father and her brothers that she might be given to him to wife. And Jacob and his sons were wroth because of the men of Shechem; 1 Cl. Gen. xxviii. , xxxvi. ,

(34) And Simeon repented, and took a second wife from Mesopotamia as his brothers. Rebecca's Last Admonitions and Death (xxxv. -).

(30) And there they carried off Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, into the house of Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite, the prince of the land, and he lay with her and defiled her, and she was a little girl, a child of twelve years.

(24) And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that the Lord blessed Isaac his son, and he arose from Hebron and went and dwelt at the Well of the Vision in the first year of the third week of this jubilee, seven years.

(28) And Jacob went in again unto her, and she conceived, and bare two (children), a son and a daughter, and she called the name of the son Zebulon, and the name of the daughter Dinah, in the seventh of the seventh month, in the sixth year of the fourth v»cek.

(10) Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidom, unto a woman that was a widow.

(38) Eliezer xxxix. (towards end). Judah went forth in front, and Naphtali and Gad" with him and fifty servants with him on the south side of the tower, and they slew all they found before them, and not one individual of them escaped.

(28) And again Jacob went in unto her, and she conceived, and bare him a fourth son, and he called his name Judah, on the fifteenth of the third month, in the |first| year of the jfourthf week.

(4) When we were there, where it is hollowed out Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged, The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike The vision of those others evil-born, Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces, Because together with us they have gone." From the old bridge we looked upon the train Which tow'rds us came upon the other border, And which the scourges in like manner smite. And the good Master, without my inquiring, Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming, And for his pain seems not to shed a tear; Still what a royal aspect he retains! That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning The Colchians of the Ram made destitute. He by the isle of Lemnos passed along After the daring women pitiless Had unto death devoted all their males. There with his tokens and with ornate words Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived. There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn; Such sin unto such punishment condemns him, And also for Medea is vengeance done.

(33) And in the third year of this sixth week Jacob and all his sons went and dwelt in the house of Abra- 1 " Where there is no law there is no transgression " (Horn. iv. ). ham, near Isaac his father and Rebecca his mother.

(19) forty-second jubilee, Abraham returned and dwelt opposite Hebron, that is Kirjath Arba, two weeks of years.

(41) And unto Judah we said that his two sons had not lain with her, and for this reason his seed was established for a second generation, and would not be rooted out.