B.C. 1896.

promised and fulfilled what He had spoken. And she conceived and bore a son in her old age, at the time that God had foretold her. And Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sara bore him, Isaac. And he circumcised him the eighth day, as God had commanded him, when he was a hundred years old: for at this age of his father was Isaac born. And Sara said: God hath made a laughter for me: whosoever shall hear of it will laugh with me. And again she said: Who would believe that Abraham should hear that Sara gave suck to a son, whom she bore to him in his old age? And the child grew and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day of his weaning.

And when Sara had seen the son of Agar the Egyptian playing with Isaac her son, she said to Abraham: Cast out this bond-woman, and her son for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. Abraham took this grievously for his son. And God said to him: Let it not seem grievous to thee for the boy, and for thy bond-woman in all that Sara hath said to thee hearken to her voice for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. But I will make the son also of the bondwoman a great nation, because he is thy seed.

:

So Abraham rose up in the morning, and taking bread and a bottle of water, put it upon her shoulder, and delivered the boy, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in

the wilderness of Bersabee. And when the water in the bottle was spent, she cast the boy under one of the trees that were there. And she went her way, and sat over-against him a great way off as far as a bow can carry, for she said: I will not see the boy die and sitting over-against, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy and an angel of God called to Agar from heaven, saying: What art thou doing, Agar? fear not : for God hath heard the voice of the boy, from the place wherein he is. Arise, take up the boy, and hold him by the hand: for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, and went and filled the bottle, and gave the boy to drink. And God was with him and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became a young man an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Pharan, and his mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

Gen. XXII. 1-19.

SECT. XI. ABRAHAM'S TRIAL. THE DEATH OF SARA.

The Trial of Abraham.-After these things, God tried Abraham, and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And B.C. 1871. he answered: Here I am. He said to him: Take thy only-begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision,* and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will show thee.

So Abraham rising up in the night, saddled his ass: and took with him two young men, and Isaac his son: and when he had cut wood for the holocaust, he went his way to the place which God had commanded him. And on the third day, lifting up his eyes, he saw the place afar off. And he said to his young men Stay you here with the ass: I and the boy will go yonder, and after we have worshipped, we will return to you. And he took the wood for the holocaust, and laid it upon Isaac his son: and he himself carried in his hands fire and a sword.

And as they two went on together, Isaac said to his father: My father. And he answered: What wilt thou, son? Behold, saith he, fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust? And Abraham said: God will provide Himself a victim for an holocaust, my son. So they went on together. And they came to the place which God had shown him, where he built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it: and when he had bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood. And he put forth his hand, and took the sword, to sacrifice his son.ተ

And behold an angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am. And he said to him: Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou any thing to him: now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy only-begotten son for My sake.

Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw behind his back a ram amongst the briers sticking fast by the horns, which he took and offered for a holocaust instead of his son. And he called the name of that place, The Lord seeth. Whereupon even to this day it is said: In the mountain the Lord will see.

Moriah. Perhaps the name was given to it afterwards from this event. † Abraham's obedience was a striking proof of his great faith, since God had promised that He would make of Isaac a great nation. So S. Paul says in the Epistle to the Hebrews: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son. (To whom it was said: In Isaac shall thy seed be called.) Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Whence also he received him for a parable.

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying: By My own self have I sworn, saith the Lord because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only-begotten son for My sake: I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore: thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed My voice. Abraham returned to his young men, and they went to Bersabee together, and he dwelt there.

Death of Sara.—And Sara lived a hundred and twenty-seven Gen. XXIII. years. And she died in the city of Arbee which is Hebron, in 1-20. the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn and weep for her. And after he rose up from the funeral obsequies, he spoke to the children of Heth, saying: I am a stranger and sojourner among you give me the right of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead. The children of Heth answered, saying My lord, hear us, thou art a prince of God among us: bury thy dead in our principal sepulchres and no man shall have power to hinder thee from burying thy dead in his sepulchre.

Abraham rose up, and bowed down* to the people of the land, to wit the children of Heth: and said to them: If it please your soul that I should bury my dead, hear me, and intercede for me to Ephron the son of Seor. That he may give me the double cave, which he hath in the end of his field: for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me before you, for a possession of a burying place.

Now Ephron dwelt in the midst of the children of Heth. And Ephron made answer to Abraham in the hearing of all that went in at the gate of the city, saying: Let it not be so, my lord, but do thou rather hearken to what I say: The field I deliver to thee, and the cave that is therein, in the presence of the children of my people; bury thy dead. Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. And he spoke to Ephron, in the presence of the people: I beseech thee to hear me: I will give money for the field: take it, and so I will bury my dead in it.

And Ephron answered: My lord, hear me. The ground which thou desirest is worth four hundred shekels† of silver: this is the price between me and thee: but what is this? bury thy dead.

* Literally adored. But this word here, as well as in many other places in the Latin Scriptures, is used to signify only an inferior honour and reverence paid to men, expressed by a bowing down of the body. DOUAY BIBLE.

The shekel here spoken of was probably not a coin, but so much weight of silver. The coin called a shekel was equal to about 2s. 4d.

And when Abraham had heard this, he weighed out the money that Ephron had asked, in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver of common current money. And the field that before was Ephron's, wherein was the double cave, looking towards Mambre, both it and the cave, and all the trees thereof in all its limits round about, was made sure to Abraham for a possession, in the sight of the children of Heth, and of all that went in at the gate of his city.

And so Abraham buried Sara his wife, in a double cave of the field, that looked towards Mambre, this is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And the field was made sure to Abraham, and the cave that was in it, for a possession to bury in, by the children of Heth.

SECT. XII. THE MARRIAGE OF ISAAC. ESAU AND JACOB.

B.C. 1856.

Marriage of Isaac.-Now Abraham was old, and advanced in age and the Lord had blessed him in all things. And he said to the elder servant of his house, who was ruler over all he had : Put thy hand under my thigh, that I may make thee swear by the Lord the God of heaven and earth, that thou take not a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: but that thou go to my own country and kindred, and take a wife from thence for my son Isaac. The servant answered: If the woman will not come with me into this land, must I bring thy son back again to the place from whence thou camest out? And Abraham said: Beware thou never bring my son back again thither. The Lord God of Heaven, who took me out of my father's house, and out of my native country, who spoke to me, and swore to me, saying: To thy seed will I give this land: He will send His angel before thee, and thou shalt take from thence a wife for my son. But if the woman will not follow thee, thou shalt not be bound by the oath; only bring not my son back thither again.

The servant therefore put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his lord, and swore to him upon this word. And he took ten camels of his master's herd, and departed, carrying something of all his goods with him, and he set forward and went on to Mesopotamia to the city of Nachor. And when he had made the camels lie down without the town near a well of water in the evening, at the time when women are wont to come out to draw water, he said: O Lord the God of my master Abraham, meet me to-day, I beseech Thee, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold I stand nigh the spring of water, and the daughters of the inhabitants of this city will come out to draw

water.

Now, therefore, the maid to whom I shall say: Let down thy pitcher that I may drink and she shall answer, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let it be the same whom Thou hast provided for Thy servant Isaac: and by this I shall understand that Thou hast shown kindness to my master.

He had not yet ended these words within himself, and behold Rebecca came out, the daughter of Bathuel, son of Melcha, wife to Nachor the brother of Abraham, having a pitcher on her shoulder; an exceeding comely maid, and a most beautiful virgin, and not known to man, and she went down to the spring, and filled her pitcher and was coming back.

And the servant ran to meet her, and said: Give me a little water to drink of thy pitcher. And she answered: Drink, my lord. And quickly she let down the pitcher upon her arm, and gave him drink. And when he had drunk, she said: I will draw water for thy camels also, till they all drink. And pouring out the pitcher into the troughs, she ran back to the well to draw water: and having drawn she gave to all the camels.

But he musing beheld her with silence, desirous to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. And after that the camels had drunk, the man took out golden earrings, weighing two shekels: and as many bracelets of ten shekels weight. And he said to her : Whose daughter art thou? tell me : is there any place in thy father's house to lodge? And she answered: I am the daughter of Bathuel, the son of Melcha, whom she bore to Nachor. And she said moreover to him: We have good store of both straw and hay, and a large place to lodge in. The man bowed himself down, and adored the Lord, saying: Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not taken away His mercy and truth from my master, and hath brought me the straight way into the house of my master's brother.

Then the maid ran, and told in her mother's house all that she had heard. And Rebecca had a brother named Laban, who went out in haste to the man, to the well. And when he had seen the ear-rings and bracelets in his sister's hands, and had heard all that she related saying, Thus and thus the man spoke to me he came to the man who stood by the camels, and near to the spring of water, and said to him: Come in, thou blessed of the Lord: why standest thou without? I have prepared the house, and a place for the camels. And he brought him in into his lodging and he unharnessed the camels and gave straw and hay, and water to wash his feet, and the feet of the men that were come with him. And bread was set before him. But he