The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Old Testament — Part 1

Project Guten­berg Holy Bible, Douay-​Rheims Ver­sion, O.T. Part 1

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The Holy Bible

Douay-​Rheims Ver­sion, Chal­lon­er Re­vi­sion

Vol­ume I: The First Part of the Old Tes­ta­ment (Gen­esis - Job)

Jan­uary, 1999 [Etext #1609]

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This etext was pre­pared by Den­nis Mc­Carthy, At­lanta, Geor­gia and Tad Book, stu­dent, Pon­tif­ical North Amer­ican Col­lege, Rome.

THE HOLY BIBLE

Trans­lat­ed from the Latin Vul­gate

Dili­gent­ly Com­pared with the He­brew, Greek, and Oth­er Edi­tions in Divers Lan­guages

THE OLD TES­TA­MENT First Pub­lished by the En­glish Col­lege at Douay A.D. 1609 & 1610

and

THE NEW TES­TA­MENT First Pub­lished by the En­glish Col­lege at Rheims A.D. 1582

With An­no­ta­tions

The Whole Re­vised and Dili­gent­ly Com­pared with the Latin Vul­gate by Bish­op Richard Chal­lon­er A.D. 1749-1752

VOL­UME I: THE FIRST PART OF THE OLD TES­TA­MENT

CRED­ITS

With­out the as­sis­tance of many in­di­vid­uals and groups, this text of the Douay-​Rheims Ver­sion of the Holy Bible would not be avail­able for the Project Guten­berg col­lec­tion. Our most grate­ful and sin­cere thanks goes to those at ‘Catholic Soft­ware’ who have pro­vid­ed the elec­tron­ic plain texts of the 73 books of the Bible. ‘Catholic Soft­ware’ al­so pro­duces a Douay Bible pro­gram on CD-​ROM that fea­tures a ful­ly search­able Douay- Rheims Bible, foot­notes, Latin text and dic­tio­nary, top­ical in­dex, maps, Bib­li­cal art gallery, and oth­er fea­tures. For more in­for­ma­tion of this and many oth­er prod­ucts con­tact:

Catholic Soft­ware Box 1914 Mur­ray, KY 42071 (502) 753-8198 http://www.catholic­ity.com/mar­ket/CSoft­ware/ waubrey@aol.com

Ad­di­tion­al pro­duc­tion as­sis­tance has been pro­vid­ed by vol­un­teers from the At­lanta Coun­cil of the Knights of Colum­bus. Tad Book com­piled and re­for­mat­ted the texts to Project Guten­berg stan­dards. Den­nis Mc­Carthy as­sist­ed Mr. Book and tran­scribed se­lec­tions from the first edi­tions in­clud­ed as ap­pen­dices.

HIS­TO­RY

This three vol­ume e-​text set comes from mul­ti­ple edi­tions of Chal­lon­er’s re­vised Douay-​Rheims Ver­sion of the Holy Bible. The di­vi­sion of the Old Tes­ta­ments in­to two parts fol­lows the two tome for­mat of the 1609/1610 print­ing of the Old Tes­ta­ment. In 1568 En­glish ex­iles, many from Ox­ford, es­tab­lished the En­glish Col­lege of Douay (Douai/Doway), Flan­ders, un­der William (lat­er Car­di­nal) Allen. In Oc­to­ber, 1578, Gre­go­ry Mar­tin be­gan the work of prepar­ing an En­glish trans­la­tion of the Bible for Catholic read­ers, the first such trans­la­tion in­to Mod­ern En­glish. As­sist­ing were William Allen, Richard Bris­tow, Thomas Wor­thing­ton, and William Reynolds who re­vised, crit­icized, and cor­rect­ed Dr. Mar­tin’s work. The col­lege pub­lished the New Tes­ta­ment at Rheims (Reims/Rhemes), France, in 1582 through John Fogny with a pref­ace and ex­plana­to­ry notes, au­thored chiefly by Bris­tol, Allen, and Wor­thing­ton. Lat­er the Old Tes­ta­ment was pub­lished at Douay in two parts (1609 and 1610) by Lau­rence Kel­lam through the ef­forts of Dr. Wor­thing­ton, then su­pe­ri­or of the sem­inary. The trans­la­tion had been pre­pared be­fore the ap­pear­ance of the New Tes­ta­ment, but the pub­li­ca­tion was de­layed due to fi­nan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties. The re­li­gious and schol­ar­ly ad­her­ence to the Latin Vul­gate text led to the less el­egant and id­iomat­ic words and phras­es of­ten found in the trans­la­tion. In some in­stances where no En­glish word con­veyed the full mean­ing of the Latin, a Latin word was An­gli­cized and its mean­ing de­fined in a glos­sary. Al­though ridiculed by crit­ics, many of these words lat­er found com­mon us­age in the En­glish lan­guage. Spellings of prop­er names and the num­ber­ing of the Psalms are adopt­ed from the Latin Vul­gate.

In 1749 Dr. Richard Chal­lon­er be­gan a ma­jor re­vi­sion of the Douay and Rheims texts, the spellings and phras­ing of which had be­come in­creas­ing­ly ar­cha­ic in the al­most two cen­turies since the trans­la­tions were first pro­duced. He mod­ern­ized the dic­tion and in­tro­duced a more flu­id style, while faith­ful­ly main­tain­ing the ac­cu­ra­cy of Dr. Mar­tin’s texts. This re­vi­sion be­came the ‘de fac­to’ stan­dard text for En­glish speak­ing Catholics un­til the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. It is still high­ly re­gard­ed by many for its style, al­though it is now rarely used for litur­gi­cal pur­pos­es. The notes in­clud­ed in this elec­tron­ic edi­tion are gen­er­al­ly at­tribut­ed to Bish­op Chal­lon­er.

The 1610 print­ing of the sec­ond tome of the Old Tes­ta­ment in­cludes an ap­pendix con­tain­ing the non-​canon­ical books ‘Prayer of Man­ass­es,’ ‘Third Booke of Es­dras,’ and ‘Fourth Booke of Es­dras.’ While not part of Chal­lon­er’s re­vi­sion, the 1610 texts are placed in the ap­pen­dices of Vol. II of this e-​text set. Al­so in­clud­ed are the orig­inal texts of two short books, ‘The Prophe­cie of Ab­dias’ (Vol. II) and ‘The Catho­like Epis­tle of Iude the Apos­tle’ (Vol. III), to give the read­er a sense of the lan­guage of the first edi­tions in com­par­ison to the Chal­lon­er re­vi­sion. Fur­ther back­ground on the Douay-​Rheims ver­sion may be found in a se­lec­tion from the pref­ace to the 1582 edi­tion and the orig­inal glos­sary in­clud­ed in the ap­pen­dices of Vol. III.

CON­TENTS

The First Part of the Old Tes­ta­ment

Book of Gen­esis Book of Ex­odus Book of Leviti­cus Book of Num­bers Book of Deuteron­omy Book of Jo­sue Book of Judges Book of Ruth First Book of Samuel, alias 1 Kings Sec­ond Book of Samuel, alias 2 Kings Third Book of Kings Fourth Book of Kings First Book of Par­alipomenon Sec­ond Book of Par­alipomenon First Book of Es­dras Book of Ne­hemias, alias 2 Es­dras Book of To­bias Book of Ju­dith Book of Es­ther Book of Job

THE BOOK OF GEN­ESIS

This book is so called from its treat­ing of the GEN­ER­ATION, that is, of the cre­ation and the be­gin­ning of the world. The He­brews call it BERE­SITH, from the Word with which it be­gins. It con­tains not on­ly the his­to­ry of the Cre­ation of the world; but al­so an ac­count of its progress dur­ing the space of 2369 years, that is, un­til the death of JOSEPH.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 1

God cre­ateth Heav­en and Earth, and all things there­in, in six days.

1:1. In the be­gin­ning God cre­at­ed heav­en, and earth.

1:2. And the earth was void and emp­ty, and dark­ness was up­on the face of the deep; and the spir­it of God moved over the wa­ters.

1:3. And God said: Be light made. And light was made.

1:4. And God saw the light that it was good; and he di­vid­ed the light from the dark­ness.

1:5. And he called the light Day, and the dark­ness Night; and there was evening and morn­ing one day.

1:6. And God said: Let there be a fir­ma­ment made amidst the wa­ters: and let it di­vide the wa­ters from the wa­ters.

A fir­ma­ment. . .By this name is here un­der­stood the whole space be­tween the earth, and the high­est stars. The low­er part of which di­videth the wa­ters that are up­on the earth, from those that are above in the clouds.

1:7. And God made a fir­ma­ment, and di­vid­ed the wa­ters that were un­der the fir­ma­ment, from those that were above the fir­ma­ment, and it was so.

1:8. And God called the fir­ma­ment, Heav­en; and the evening and morn­ing were the sec­ond day.

1:9. God al­so said; Let the wa­ters that are un­der the heav­en, be gath­ered to­geth­er in­to one place: and let the dry land ap­pear. And it was so done.

1:10. And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gath­er­ing to­geth­er of the wa­ters, he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

1:11. And he said: let the earth bring forth green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yield­ing fruit af­ter its kind, which may have seed in it­self up­on the earth. And it was so done.

1:12. And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yield­eth seed ac­cord­ing to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, hav­ing seed each one ac­cord­ing to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

1:13. And the evening and the morn­ing were the third day.

1:14. And God said: Let there be lights made in the fir­ma­ment of heav­en, to di­vide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for sea­sons, and for days and years:

1:15. To shine in the fir­ma­ment of heav­en, and to give light up­on the earth, and it was so done.

1:16. And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a less­er light to rule the night: and the stars.

Two great lights. . .God cre­at­ed on the first day, light, which be­ing moved from east to west, by its ris­ing and set­ting, made morn­ing and evening. But on the fourth day he or­dered and dis­tribut­ed this light, and made the sun, moon, and stars. The moon, though much less than the stars, is here called a great light, from its giv­ing a far greater light to the earth than any of them.

1:17. And he set them in the fir­ma­ment of heav­en to shine up­on the earth.

1:18. And to rule the day and the night, and to di­vide the light and the dark­ness. And God saw that it was good.

1:19. And the evening and morn­ing were the fourth day.

1:20. God al­so said: let the wa­ters bring forth the creep­ing crea­ture hav­ing life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth un­der the fir­ma­ment of heav­en.

1:21. And God cre­at­ed the great whales, and ev­ery liv­ing and mov­ing crea­ture, which the wa­ters brought forth, ac­cord­ing to their kinds, and ev­ery winged fowl ac­cord­ing to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

1:22. And he blessed them, say­ing: In­crease and mul­ti­ply, and fill the wa­ters of the sea: and let the birds be mul­ti­plied up­on the earth.

1:23. And the evening and morn­ing were the fifth day.

1:24. And God said: Let the earth bring forth the liv­ing crea­ture in its kind, cat­tle and creep­ing things, and beasts of the earth, ac­cord­ing to their kinds. And it was so done.

1:25. And God made the beasts of the earth ac­cord­ing to their kinds, and cat­tle, and ev­ery thing that creep­eth on the earth af­ter its kind. And God saw that it was good.

1:26. And he said: Let us make man to our im­age and like­ness: and let him have do­min­ion over the fish­es of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and ev­ery creep­ing crea­ture that moveth up­on the earth.

Let us make man to our im­age. . .This im­age of God in man, is not in the body, but in the soul; which is a spir­itu­al sub­stance, en­dued with un­der­stand­ing and free will. God speaketh here in the plu­ral num­ber, to in­sin­uate the plu­ral­ity of per­sons in the De­ity.

1:27. And God cre­at­ed man to his own im­age: to the im­age of God he cre­at­ed him: male and fe­male he cre­at­ed them.

1:28. And God blessed them, say­ing: In­crease and mul­ti­ply, and fill the earth, and sub­due it, and rule over the fish­es of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all liv­ing crea­tures that move up­on the earth.

In­crease and mul­ti­ply. . .This is not a pre­cept, as some Protes­tant con­tro­vertists would have it, but a bless­ing, ren­der­ing them fruit­ful; for God had said the same words to the fish­es, and birds, (ver. 22) who were in­ca­pable of re­ceiv­ing a pre­cept.

1:29. And God said: Be­hold I have giv­en you ev­ery herb bear­ing seed up­on the earth, and all trees that have in them­selves seed of their own kind, to be your meat:

1:30. And to all beasts of the earth, and to ev­ery fowl of the air, and to all that move up­on the earth, and where­in there is life, that they may have to feed up­on. And it was so done.

1:31. And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morn­ing were the sixth day.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 2

God resteth on the sev­enth day and bles­seth it. The earth­ly par­adise, in which God placeth man. He com­man­deth him not to eat of the tree of knowl­edge. And formeth a wom­an of his rib.

2:1. So the heav­ens and the earth were fin­ished, and all the fur­ni­ture of them.

2:2. And on the sev­enth day God end­ed his work which he had made: and he rest­ed on the sev­enth day from all his work which he had done.

He rest­ed, etc. . .That is, he ceased to make or cre­ate any new kinds of things. Though, as our Lord tells us, John 5.17, “He still wor­keth”, viz., by con­serv­ing and gov­ern­ing all things, and cre­at­ing souls.

2:3. And he blessed the sev­enth day, and sanc­ti­fied it: be­cause in it he had rest­ed from all his work which God cre­at­ed and made.

2:4. These are the gen­er­ations of the heav­en and the earth, when they were cre­at­ed, in the day that the Lord God made the heav­en and the earth:

2:5. And ev­ery plant of the field be­fore it sprung up in the earth, and ev­ery herb of the ground be­fore it grew: for the Lord God had not rained up­on the earth; and there was not a man to till the earth.

2:6. But a spring rose out of the earth, wa­ter­ing all the sur­face of the earth.

2:7. And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed in­to his face the breath of life, and man be­came a liv­ing soul.

2:8. And the Lord God had plant­ed a par­adise of plea­sure from the be­gin­ning: where­in he placed man whom he had formed.

2:9. And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all man­ner of trees, fair to be­hold, and pleas­ant to eat of: the tree of life al­so in the midst of par­adise: and the tree of knowl­edge of good and evil.

The tree of life. . .So called be­cause it had that qual­ity, that by eat­ing of the fruit of it, man would have been pre­served in a con­stant state of health, vigour, and strength, and would not have died at all. The tree of knowl­edge. . .To which the de­ceit­ful ser­pent false­ly at­tribut­ed the pow­er of im­part­ing a su­pe­ri­or kind of knowl­edge, be­yond that which God was pleased to give.

2:10. And a riv­er went out of the place of plea­sure to wa­ter par­adise, which from thence is di­vid­ed in­to four heads.

2:11. The name of the one is Phi­son: that is it which com­pas­seth all the land of Hevilath, where gold groweth.

2:12. And the gold of that land is very good: there is found bdel­li­um, and the onyx stone.

2:13. And the name of the sec­ond riv­er is Gehon: the same is it that com­pas­seth all the land of Ethiopia.

2:14. And the name of the third riv­er is Tigris: the same pas­seth along by the As­syr­ians. And the fourth riv­er is Eu­phrates.

2:15. And the Lord God took man, and put him in­to the par­adise of plea­sure, to dress it, and to keep it.

2:16. And he com­mand­ed him, say­ing: Of ev­ery tree of par­adise thou shalt eat:

2:17. But of the tree of knowl­edge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day so­ev­er thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.

2:18. And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like un­to him­self.

2:19. And the Lord God hav­ing formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: for what­so­ev­er Adam called any liv­ing crea­ture the same is its name.

2:20. And Adam called all the beasts by their names, and all the fowls of the air, and all the cat­tle of the field: but for Adam there was not found a helper like him­self.

2:21. Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep up­on Adam: and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it.

2:22. And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam in­to a wom­an: and brought her to Adam.

2:23. And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called wom­an, be­cause she was tak­en out of man.

2:24. Where­fore a man shall leave fa­ther and moth­er, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh.

2:25. And they were both naked: to wit, Adam and his wife: and were not ashamed.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 3

The ser­pent’s craft. The fall of our first par­ents. Their pun­ish­ment. The promise of a Re­deemer.

3:1. Now the ser­pent was more sub­tle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the wom­an: Why hath God com­mand­ed you, that you should not eat of ev­ery tree of par­adise?

3:2. And the wom­an an­swered him, say­ing: Of the fruit of the trees that are in par­adise we do eat:

3:3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of par­adise, God hath com­mand­ed us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest per­haps we die.

3:4. And the ser­pent said to the wom­an: No, you shall not die the death.

3:5. For God doth know that in what day so­ev­er you shall eat there­of, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, know­ing good and evil.

3:6. And the wom­an saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and de­light­ful to be­hold: and she took of the fruit there­of, and did eat, and gave to her hus­band, who did eat.

3:7. And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they per­ceived them­selves to be naked, they sewed to­geth­er fig leaves, and made them­selves aprons.

And the eyes, etc. . .Not that they were blind be­fore, (for the wom­an saw that the tree was fair to the eyes, ver. 6.) nor yet that their eyes were opened to any more per­fect knowl­edge of good; but on­ly to the un­hap­py ex­pe­ri­ence of hav­ing lost the good of orig­inal grace and in­no­cence, and in­curred the dread­ful evil of sin. From whence fol­lowed a shame of their be­ing naked; which they mind­ed not be­fore; be­cause be­ing now stript of orig­inal grace, they quick­ly be­gan to be sub­ject to the shame­ful re­bel­lions of the flesh.

3:8. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walk­ing in par­adise at the af­ter­noon air, Adam and his wife hid them­selves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of par­adise.

3:9. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou?

3:10. And he said: I heard thy voice in par­adise; and I was afraid, be­cause I was naked, and I hid my­self.

3:11. And he said to him: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eat­en of the tree where­of I com­mand­ed thee that thou shouldst not eat?

3:12. And Adam said: The wom­an, whom thou gavest me to be my com­pan­ion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

3:13. And the Lord God said to the wom­an: Why hast thou done this? And she an­swered: The ser­pent de­ceived me, and I did eat.

3:14. And the Lord God said to the ser­pent: Be­cause thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cat­tle, and beasts of the earth: up­on thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

3:15. I will put en­mi­ties be­tween thee and the wom­an, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

She shall crush. . .Ip­sa, the wom­an; so divers of the fa­thers read this place, con­formably to the Latin: oth­ers read it ip­sum, viz., the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Je­sus Christ, that the wom­an crush­es the ser­pent’s head.

3:16. To the wom­an al­so he said: I will mul­ti­ply thy sor­rows, and thy con­cep­tions: in sor­row shalt thou bring forth chil­dren, and thou shalt be un­der thy hus­band’s pow­er, and he shall have do­min­ion over thee.

3:17. And to Adam he said: Be­cause thou hast hear­kened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eat­en of the tree, where­of I com­mand­ed thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat there­of all the days of thy life.

3:18. Thorns and this­tles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth.

3:19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou re­turn to the earth out of which thou wast tak­en: for dust thou art, and in­to dust thou shalt re­turn.

3:20. And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: be­cause she was the moth­er of all the liv­ing.

3:21. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife gar­ments of skins, and clothed them.

3:22. And he said: Be­hold Adam is be­come as one of us, know­ing good and evil: now there­fore lest per­haps he put forth his hand and take al­so of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ev­er.

Be­hold Adam, etc. . .This was spo­ken by way of re­proach­ing him with his pride, in af­fect­ing a knowl­edge that might make him like to God.

3:23. And the Lord God sent him out of the par­adise of plea­sure, to till the earth from which he was tak­en.

3:24. And he cast out Adam: and placed be­fore the par­adise of plea­sure Cheru­bims, and a flam­ing sword, turn­ing ev­ery way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 4

The his­to­ry of Cain and Abel.

4:1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; who con­ceived and brought forth Cain, say­ing: I have got­ten a man through God.

4:2. And again she brought forth his broth­er Abel. And Abel was a shep­herd, and Cain a hus­band­man.

4:3. And it came to pass af­ter many days, that Cain of­fered, of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord.

4:4. Abel al­so of­fered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat: and the Lord had re­spect to Abel, and to his of­fer­ings.

Had re­spect. . .That is, shewed his ac­cep­tance of his sac­ri­fice (as com­ing from a heart full of de­vo­tion): and that, as we may sup­pose, by some vis­ible to­ken, such as send­ing fire from heav­en up­on his of­fer­ings.

4:5. But to Cain and his of­fer­ings he had no re­spect: and Cain was ex­ceed­ing an­gry, and his coun­te­nance fell.

4:6. And the Lord said to him: Why art thou an­gry? and why is thy coun­te­nance fall­en?

4:7. If thou do well, shalt thou not re­ceive? but if ill, shall not sin forth­with be present at the door? but the lust there­of shall be un­der thee, and thou shalt have do­min­ion over it.

4:8. And Cain said to Abel his broth­er: Let us go forth abroad. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his broth­er Abel, and slew him.

4:9. And the Lord said to Cain: Where is thy broth­er Abel? And he an­swered: I know not: am I my broth­er’s keep­er?

4:10. And he said to him: What hast thou done? the voice of thy broth­er’s blood cri­eth to me from the earth.

4:11. Now there­fore cursed shalt thou be up­on the earth, which hath opened her mouth and re­ceived the blood of thy broth­er at thy hand.

4:12. When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit: a fugi­tive and a vagabond shalt thou be up­on the earth.

4:13. And Cain said to the Lord: My in­iq­ui­ty is greater than that I may de­serve par­don.

4:14. Be­hold thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face I shall be hid, and I shall be a vagabond and a fugi­tive on the earth: ev­ery one there­fore that find­eth me, shall kill me.

Ev­ery one that find­eth me shall kill me. . .His guilty con­science made him fear his own broth­ers and nephews; of whom, by this time, there might be a good num­ber up­on the earth; which had now en­dured near 130 years; as may be gath­ered from Gen. 5.3, com­pared with chap. 4.25, though in the com­pen­dious ac­count giv­en in the scrip­tures, on­ly Cain and Abel are men­tioned.

4:15. And the Lord said to him: No, it shall not so be: but whoso­ev­er shall kill Cain, shall be pun­ished sev­en­fold. And the Lord set a mark up­on Cain, that whoso­ev­er found him should not kill him.

Set a mark, etc. . .The more com­mon opin­ion of the in­ter­preters of holy writ sup­pos­es this mark to have been a trem­bling of the body; or a hor­ror and con­ster­na­tion in his coun­te­nance.

4:16. And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugi­tive on the earth at the east side of Eden.

4:17. And Cain knew his wife, and she con­ceived, and brought forth Henoch: and he built a city, and called the name there­of by the name of his son Henoch.

His wife. . .She was a daugh­ter of Adam, and Cain’s own sis­ter; God dis­pens­ing with such mar­riages in the be­gin­ning of the world, as mankind could not oth­er­wise be prop­agat­ed. He built a city, viz. . .In pro­cess of time, when his race was mul­ti­plied, so as to be nu­mer­ous enough to peo­ple it. For in the many hun­dred years he lived, his race might be mul­ti­plied even to mil­lions.

4:18. And Henoch be­got Irad, and Irad be­got Mavi­ael, and Mavi­ael be­got Math­usael, and Math­usael be­got Lamech,

4:19. Who took two wives: the name of the one was Ada, and the name of the oth­er Sel­la.

4:20. And Ada brought forth Ja­bel: who was the fa­ther of such as dwell in tents, and of herds­men.

4:21. And his broth­er’s name was Jubal: he was the fa­ther of them that play up­on the harp and the or­gans.

4:22. Sel­la al­so brought forth Tubal­cain, who was a ham­mer­er and ar­ti­fi­cer in ev­ery work of brass and iron. And the sis­ter of Tubal­cain was Noe­ma.

4:23. And Lamech said to his wives Ada and Sel­la: Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hear­ken to my speech: for I have slain a man to the wound­ing of my­self, and a stripling to my own bruis­ing.

I have slain a man, etc. . .It is the tra­di­tion of the He­brews, that Lamech in hunt­ing slew Cain, mis­tak­ing him for a wild beast; and that hav­ing dis­cov­ered what he had done, he beat so un­mer­ci­ful­ly the youth, by whom he was led in­to that mis­take, that he died of the blows.

4:24. Sev­en­fold vengeance shall be tak­en for Cain: but for Lamech sev­en­ty times sev­en­fold.

4:25. Adam al­so knew his wife again: and she brought forth a son, and called his name Seth, say­ing: God hath giv­en me an­oth­er seed for Abel, whom Cain slew.

4:26. But to Seth al­so was born a son, whom he called Enos: this man be­gan to call up­on the name of the Lord.

Be­gan to call up­on, etc. . .Not that Adam and Seth had not called up­on God, be­fore the birth of Enos; but that Enos used more solem­ni­ty in the wor­ship and in­vo­ca­tion of God.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 5

The ge­neal­ogy, age, and death of the Pa­tri­archs, from Adam to Noe. The trans­la­tion of Henoch.

5:1. This is the book of the gen­er­ation of Adam. In the day that God cre­at­ed man, he made him to the like­ness of God.

5:2. He cre­at­ed them male and fe­male; and blessed them: and called their name Adam, in the day when they were cre­at­ed.

5:3. And Adam lived a hun­dred and thir­ty years, and be­got a son to his own im­age and like­ness, and called his name Seth.

5:4. And the days of Adam, af­ter he be­got Seth, were eight hun­dred years: and he be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:5. And all the time that Adam lived, came to nine hun­dred and thir­ty years, and he died.

5:6. Seth al­so lived a hun­dred and five years, and be­got Enos.

5:7. And Seth lived af­ter he be­got Enos, eight hun­dred and sev­en years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:8. And all the days of Seth were nine hun­dred and twelve years, and he died.

5:9. And Enos lived nine­ty years, and be­got Cainan.

5:10. Af­ter whose birth he lived eight hun­dred and fif­teen years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:11. And all the days of Enos were nine hun­dred and five years, and he died.

5:12. And Cainan lived sev­en­ty years, and be­got Malaleel.

5:13. And Cainan lived af­ter he be­got Malaleel, eight hun­dred and forty years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:14. And all the days of Cainan were nine hun­dred and ten years, and he died.

5:15. And Malaleel lived six­ty-​five years and be­got Jared.

5:16. And Malaleel lived af­ter he be­got Jared, eight hun­dred and thir­ty years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:17. And all the days of Malaleel were eight hun­dred and nine­ty-​five years, and he died.

5:18. And Jared lived a hun­dred and six­ty-​two years, and be­got Henoch.

5:19. And Jared lived af­ter he be­got Henoch, eight hun­dred years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:20. And all the days of Jared were nine hun­dred and six­ty-​two years, and he died.

5:21. And Henoch lived six­ty-​five years, and be­got Math­usala.

5:22. And Henoch walked with God: and lived af­ter he be­got Math­usala, three hun­dred years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:23. And all the days of Henoch were three hun­dred and six­ty-​five years.

5:24. And he walked with God, and was seen no more: be­cause God took him.

5:25. And Math­usala lived a hun­dred and eighty-​sev­en years, and be­got Lamech.

5:26. And Math­lusala lived af­ter he be­got Lamech, sev­en hun­dred and eighty-​two years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:27. And all the days of Math­usala were nine hun­dred and six­ty-​nine years, and he died.

5:28. And Lamech lived a hun­dred and eighty-​two years, and be­got a son.

5:29. And he called his name Noe, say­ing: This same shall com­fort us from the works and labours of our hands on the earth, which the Lord hath cursed.

5:30. And Lamech lived af­ter he be­got Noe, five hun­dred and nine­ty-​five years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

5:31. And all the days of Lamech came to sev­en hun­dred and sev­en­ty-​sev­en years, and he died. And Noe, when he was five hun­dred years old, be­got Sem, Cham, and Japheth.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 6

Man’s sin is the cause of the del­uge. Noe is com­mand­ed to build the ark.

6:1. And af­ter that men be­gan to be mul­ti­plied up­on the earth, and daugh­ters were born to them,

6:2. The sons of God see­ing the daugh­ters of men, that they were fair, took to them­selves wives of all which they chose.

The sons of God. . .The de­scen­dants of Seth and Enos are here called sons of God from their re­li­gion and piety: where­as the un­god­ly race of Cain, who by their car­nal af­fec­tions lay grov­el­ling up­on the earth, are called the chil­dren of men. The un­hap­py con­se­quence of the for­mer mar­ry­ing with the lat­ter, ought to be a warn­ing to Chris­tians to be very cir­cum­spect in their mar­riages; and not to suf­fer them­selves to be de­ter­mined in their choice by their car­nal pas­sion, to the prej­udice of virtue or re­li­gion.

6:3. And God said: My spir­it shall not re­main in man for ev­er, be­cause he is flesh, and his days shall be a hun­dred and twen­ty years.

His days shall be, etc. . .The mean­ing is, that man’s days, which be­fore the flood were usu­al­ly 900 years, should now be re­duced to 120 years. Or rather, that God would al­low men this term of 120 years, for their re­pen­tance and con­ver­sion, be­fore he would send the del­uge.

6:4. Now gi­ants were up­on the earth in those days. For af­ter the sons of God went in to the daugh­ters of men, and they brought forth chil­dren, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown.

Gi­ants. . .It is like­ly the gen­er­al­ity of men be­fore the flood were of a gi­gan­tic stature in com­par­ison with what men now are. But these here spo­ken of are called gi­ants, as be­ing not on­ly tall in stature, but vi­olent and sav­age in their dis­po­si­tions, and mere mon­sters of cru­el­ty and lust.

6:5. And God see­ing that the wicked­ness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent up­on evil at all times,

6:6. It re­pent­ed him that he had made man on the earth. And be­ing touched in­ward­ly with sor­row of heart,

It re­pent­ed him, etc. . .God, who is un­change­able, is not ca­pa­ble of re­pen­tance, grief, or any oth­er pas­sion. But these ex­pres­sions are used to de­clare the enor­mi­ty of the sins of men, which was so pro­vok­ing as to de­ter­mine their Cre­ator to de­stroy these his crea­tures, whom be­fore he had so much favoured.

6:7. He said: I will de­stroy man, whom I have cre­at­ed, from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creep­ing thing even to the fowls of the air, for it re­pen­teth me that I have made them.

6:8. But Noe found grace be­fore the Lord.

6:9. These are the gen­er­ations of Noe: Noe was a just and per­fect man in his gen­er­ations, he walked with God.

6:10. And he be­got three sons, Sem, Cham, and Japheth.

6:11. And the earth was cor­rupt­ed be­fore God, and was filled with in­iq­ui­ty.

6:12. And when God had seen that the earth was cor­rupt­ed (for all flesh had cor­rupt­ed its way up­on the earth),

6:13. He said to Noe: The end of all flesh is come be­fore me, the earth is filled with in­iq­ui­ty through them, and I will de­stroy them with the earth.

6:14. Make thee an ark of tim­ber planks: thou shalt make lit­tle rooms in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it with­in and with­out.

6:15. And thus shalt thou make it. The length of the ark shall be three hun­dred cu­bits: the breadth of it fifty cu­bits, and the height of it thir­ty cu­bits.

Three hun­dred cu­bits, etc. . .The ark, ac­cord­ing to the di­men­sions here set down, con­tained four hun­dred and fifty thou­sand square cu­bits; which was more than enough to con­tain all the kinds of liv­ing crea­tures, with all nec­es­sary pro­vi­sions: even sup­pos­ing the cu­bits here spo­ken of to have been on­ly a foot and a half each, which was the least kind of cu­bits.

6:16. Thou shalt make a win­dow in the ark, and in a cu­bit shalt thou fin­ish the top of it: and the door of the ark thou shalt set in the side: with low­er, mid­dle cham­bers, and third sto­ries shalt thou make it.

6:17. Be­hold, I will bring the wa­ters of a great flood up­on the earth, to de­stroy all flesh, where­in is the breath of life un­der heav­en. All things that are in the earth shall be con­sumed.

6:18. And I will es­tab­lish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt en­ter in­to the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and the wives of thy sons with thee.

6:19. And of ev­ery liv­ing crea­ture of all flesh, thou shalt bring two of a sort in­to the ark, that they may live with thee: of the male sex, and the fe­male.

6:20. Of fowls ac­cord­ing to their kind, and of beasts in their kind, and of ev­ery thing that creep­eth on the earth ac­cord­ing to its kind: two of ev­ery sort shall go in with thee, that they may live.

6:21. Thou shalt take un­to thee of all food that may be eat­en, and thou shalt lay it up with thee: and it shall be food for thee and them.

6:22. And Noe did all things which God com­mand­ed him.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 7

Noe with his fam­ily go in­to the ark. The del­uge over­flows the earth.

7:1. And the Lord said to him: Go in, thou and all thy house, in­to the ark: for thee I have seen just be­fore me in this gen­er­ation.

7:2. Of all clean beasts take sev­en and sev­en, the male and the fe­male.

Of all clean. . .The dis­tinc­tion of clean and un­clean beasts ap­pears to have been made be­fore the law of Moses, which was not pro­mul­gat­ed till the year of the world 2514.

7:3. But of the beasts that are un­clean two and two, the male and the fe­male. Of the fowls al­so of the air sev­en and sev­en, the male and the fe­male: that seed may be saved up­on the face of the whole earth.

7:4. For yet a while, and af­ter sev­en days, I will rain up­on the earth forty days and forty nights: and I will de­stroy ev­ery sub­stance that I have made, from the face of the earth.

7:5. And Noe did all things which the Lord had com­mand­ed him.

7:6. And he was six hun­dred years old, when the wa­ters of the flood over­flowed the earth.

7:7. And Noe went in and his sons, his wife and the wives of his sons with him in­to the ark, be­cause of the wa­ters of the flood.

7:8. And of beasts clean and un­clean, and of fowls, and of ev­ery thing that moveth up­on the earth,

7:9. Two and two went in to Noe in­to the ark, male and fe­male, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Noe.

7:10. And af­ter the sev­en days were passed, the wa­ters of the flood over­flowed the earth.

7:11. In the six hun­dredth year of the life of Noe, in the sec­ond month, in the sev­en­teenth day of the month, all the foun­tains of the great deep were bro­ken up, and the flood­gates of heav­en were opened:

7:12. And the rain fell up­on the earth forty days and forty nights.

7:13. In the self­same day Noe, and Sem, and Cham, and Japheth, his sons: his wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went in­to the ark.

7:14. They and ev­ery beast ac­cord­ing to its kind, and all the cat­tle in their kind, and ev­ery thing that moveth up­on the earth, ac­cord­ing to its kind, and ev­ery fowl ac­cord­ing to its kind, all birds, and all that fly,

7:15. Went in to Noe in­to the ark, two and two of all flesh, where­in was the breath of life.

7:16. And they that went in, went in male and fe­male of all flesh, as God had com­mand­ed him: and the Lord shut him in on the out­side.

7:17. And the flood was forty days up­on the earth: and the wa­ters in­creased, and lift­ed up the ark on high from the earth.

7:18. For they over­flowed ex­ceed­ing­ly: and filled all on the face of the earth: and the ark was car­ried up­on the wa­ters.

7:19. And the wa­ters pre­vailed be­yond mea­sure up­on the earth: and all the high moun­tains un­der the whole heav­en were cov­ered.

7:20. The wa­ter was fif­teen cu­bits high­er than the moun­tains which it cov­ered.

7:21. And all flesh was de­stroyed that moved up­on the earth, both of fowl and of cat­tle, and of beasts, and of all creep­ing things that creep up­on the earth: and all men.

7:22. And all things where­in there is the breath of life on the earth, died.

7:23. And he de­stroyed all the sub­stance that was up­on the earth, from man even to beast, and the creep­ing things and fowls of the air: and they were de­stroyed from the earth: and Noe on­ly re­mained, and they that were with him in the ark.

7:24. And the wa­ters pre­vailed up­on the earth a hun­dred and fifty days.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 8

The del­uge ceaseth. Noe goeth out of the ark, and of­fer­eth a sac­ri­fice. God’s covenant to him.

8:1. And God re­mem­bered Noe, and all the liv­ing crea­tures, and all the cat­tle which were with him in the ark, and brought a wind up­on the earth, and the wa­ters were abat­ed:

8:2. The foun­tains al­so of the deep, and the flood­gates of heav­en, were shut up, and the rain from heav­en was re­strained.

8:3. And the wa­ters re­turned from off the earth go­ing and com­ing: and they be­gan to be abat­ed af­ter a hun­dred and fifty days.

8:4. And the ark rest­ed in the sev­enth month, the sev­en and twen­ti­eth day of the month, up­on the moun­tains of Ar­me­nia.

8:5. And the wa­ters were go­ing and de­creas­ing un­til the tenth month: for in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the moun­tains ap­peared.

8:6. And af­ter that forty days were passed, Noe open­ing the win­dow of the ark, which he had made, sent forth a raven:

8:7. Which went forth and did not re­turn, till the wa­ters were dried up up­on the earth.

Did not re­turn. . .The raven did not re­turn in­to the ark; but (as it may be gath­ered from the He­brew) went to and fro; some­times go­ing to the moun­tains, where it found car­cass­es to feed on: and oth­er times re­turn­ing, to rest up­on the top of the ark.

8:8. He sent forth al­so a dove af­ter him, to see if the wa­ters had now ceased up­on the face of the earth.

8:9. But she not find­ing where her foot might rest, re­turned to him in­to the ark: for the wa­ters were up­on the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her in­to the ark.

8:10. And hav­ing wait­ed yet sev­en oth­er days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark.

8:11. And she came to him in the evening car­ry­ing a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe there­fore un­der­stood that the wa­ters were ceased up­on the earth.

8:12. And he stayed yet oth­er sev­en days: and he sent forth the dove, which re­turned not any more un­to him.

8:13. There­fore in the six hun­dredth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the wa­ters were less­ened up­on the earth, and Noe open­ing the cov­er­ing of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried.

8:14. In the sec­ond month, the sev­en and twen­ti­eth day of the month, the earth was dried.

8:15. And God spoke to Noe, say­ing:

8:16. Go out of the ark, thou and thy wife, thy sons and the wives of thy sons with thee.

8:17. All liv­ing things that are with thee of all flesh, as well in fowls as in beasts, and all creep­ing things that creep up­on the earth, bring out with thee, and go ye up­on the earth: in­crease and mul­ti­ply up­on it.

8:18. So Noe went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him.

8:19. And all liv­ing things, and cat­tle, and creep­ing things that creep up­on the earth, ac­cord­ing to their kinds went out of the ark.

8:20. And Noe built an al­tar un­to the Lord: and tak­ing of all cat­tle and fowls that were clean, of­fered holo­causts up­on the al­tar.

Holo­causts,. . .or whole burnt of­fer­ings. In which the whole vic­tim was con­sumed by fire up­on God’s al­tar, and no part was re­served for the use of priest or peo­ple.

8:21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imag­ina­tion and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: there­fore I will no more de­stroy ev­ery liv­ing soul as I have done.

Smelled, etc. . .A fig­ura­tive ex­pres­sion, de­not­ing that God was well pleased with the sac­ri­fices which his ser­vant of­fered.

8:22. All the days of the earth, seed­time and har­vest, cold and heat, sum­mer and win­ter, night and day, shall not cease.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 9

God bles­seth Noe: for­bid­deth blood, and promiseth nev­er more to de­stroy the world by wa­ter. The bless­ing of Sem and Japheth.

9:1. And God blessed Noe and his sons. And he said to them: In­crease, and mul­ti­ply, and fill the earth.

9:2. And let the fear and dread of you be up­on all the beasts of the earth, and up­on all the fowls of the air, and all that move up­on the earth: all the fish­es of the sea are de­liv­ered in­to your hand.

9:3. And ev­ery thing that moveth, and liveth shall be meat for you: even as the green herbs have I de­liv­ered them all to you:

9:4. Sav­ing that flesh with blood you shall not eat.

9:5. For I will re­quire the blood of your lives at the hand of ev­ery beast, and at the hand of man, at the hand of ev­ery man, and of his broth­er, will I re­quire the life of man.

9:6. Whoso­ev­er shall shed man’s blood, his blood shall be shed: for man was made to the im­age of God.

9:7. But in­crease you and mul­ti­ply, and go up­on the earth and fill it.

9:8. Thus al­so said God to Noe, and to his sons with him:

9:9. Be­hold I will es­tab­lish my covenant with you, and with your seed af­ter you:

9:10. And with ev­ery liv­ing soul that is with you, as well in all birds, as in cat­tle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark, and in all the beasts of the earth.

9:11. I will es­tab­lish my covenant with you, and all flesh shall be no more de­stroyed with the wa­ters of a flood, nei­ther shall there be from hence­forth a flood to waste the earth.

9:12. And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I give be­tween me and you, and to ev­ery liv­ing soul that is with you, for per­pet­ual gen­er­ations.

9:13. I will set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be the sign of a covenant be­tween me and be­tween the earth.

9:14. And when I shall cov­er the sky with clouds, my bow shall ap­pear in the clouds:

9:15. And I will re­mem­ber my covenant with you, and with ev­ery liv­ing soul that beareth flesh: and there shall no more be wa­ters of a flood to de­stroy all flesh.

9:16. And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and shall re­mem­ber the ev­er­last­ing covenant, that was made be­tween God and ev­ery liv­ing soul of all flesh which is up­on the earth.

9:17. And God said to Noe: This shall be the sign of the covenant, which I have es­tab­lished, be­tween me and all flesh up­on the earth.

9:18. And the sons of Noe, who came out of the ark, were Sem, Cham, and Japheth: and Cham is the fa­ther of Chanaan.

9:19. These three are the sons of Noe: and from these was all mankind spread over the whole earth.

9:20. And Noe a hus­band­man be­gan to till the ground, and plant­ed a vine­yard.

9:21. And drink­ing of the wine was made drunk, and was un­cov­ered in his tent.

Drunk. . .Noe by the judg­ment of the fa­thers was not guilty of sin, in be­ing over­come by wine: be­cause he knew not the strength of it.

9:22. Which when Cham the fa­ther of Chanaan had seen, to wit, that his fa­ther’s naked­ness was un­cov­ered, he told it to his two brethren with­out.

9:23. But Sem and Japheth put a cloak up­on their shoul­ders, and go­ing back­ward, cov­ered the naked­ness of their fa­ther: and their faces were turned away, and they saw not their fa­ther’s naked­ness.

Cov­ered the naked­ness. . .Thus, as St. Gre­go­ry takes no­tice L. 35; Moral. c. 22, we ought to cov­er the naked­ness, that is, the sins, of our spir­itu­al par­ents and su­pe­ri­ors.

9:24. And Noe awak­ing from the wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him,

9:25. He said: Cursed be Chanaan, a ser­vant of ser­vants shall he be un­to his brethren.

Cursed be Chanaan. . .The curs­es, as well as the bless­ings, of the pa­tri­archs, were prophet­ical: And this in par­tic­ular is here record­ed by Moses, for the chil­dren of Is­rael, who were to pos­sess the land of Chanaan. But why should Chanaan be cursed for his fa­ther’s faults? The He­brews an­swer, that he be­ing then a boy, was the first that saw his grand­fa­ther’s naked­ness, and told his fa­ther Cham of it; and joined with him in laugh­ing at it: which drew up­on him, rather than up­on the rest of the chil­dren of Cham, this prophet­ical curse.

9:26. And he said: Blessed be the Lord God of Sem, be Chanaan his ser­vant.

9:27. May God en­large Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem, and Chanaan be his ser­vant.

9:28. And Noe lived af­ter the flood three hun­dred and fifty years.

9:29. And all his days were in the whole nine hun­dred and fifty years: and he died.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 10

The ge­neal­ogy of the chil­dren of Noe, by whom the world was peo­pled af­ter the flood.

10:1. These are the gen­er­ations of the sons of Noe: Sem, Cham, and Japheth: and un­to them sons were born af­ter the flood.

10:2. The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Ma­gog, and Madai, and Ja­van, and Thubal, and Mosoch, and Thi­ras.

10:3. And the sons of Gomer: As­cenez and Riphath and Thogor­ma.

10:4. And the sons of Ja­van: Elisa and Thar­sis, Cetthim and Do­dan­im.

10:5. By these were di­vid­ed the is­lands of the Gen­tiles in their lands, ev­ery one ac­cord­ing to his tongue and their fam­ilies in their na­tions.

The is­lands. . .So the He­brews called all the re­mote coun­tries, to which they went by ships from Judea, to Greece, Italy, Spain, etc.

10:6. And the Sons of Cham: Chus, and Mes­ram, and Phuth, and Chanaan.

10:7. And the sons of Chus: Sa­ba, and Hevila, and Sabatha, and Reg­ma, and Sabat­acha. The sons of Reg­ma: Sa­ba, and Dadan.

10:8. Now Chus be­got Nem­rod: he be­gan to be mighty on the earth.

10:9. And he was a stout hunter be­fore the Lord. Hence came a proverb: Even as Nem­rod the stout hunter be­fore the Lord.

A stout hunter. . .Not of beasts but of men: whom by vi­olence and tyran­ny he brought un­der his do­min­ion. And such he was, not on­ly in the opin­ion of men, but be­fore the Lord, that is, in his sight who can­not be de­ceived.

10:10. And the be­gin­ning of his king­dom was Baby­lon, and Arach, and Achad, and Cha­lanne in the land of Sen­naar.

10:11. Out of that land came forth As­sur, and built Ninive, and the streets of the city, and Chale.

10:12. Re­sen al­so be­tween Ninive and Chale: this is the great city.

10:13. And Mes­raim be­got Ludim, and Anamim and Laabim, Neph­thuim.

10:14. And Phetrusim, and Chasluim; of whom came forth the Philistines, and the Capthorim.

10:15. And Chanaan be­got Sidon his first­born, the Het­hite,

10:16. And the Je­busite, and the Am­or­rhite, and the Ger­ge­site.

10:17. The Hevite and Aracite: the Si­nite,

10:18. And the Ara­di­an, the Samarite, and the Hamath­ite: and af­ter­wards the fam­ilies of the Chanaan­ites were spread abroad.

10:19. And the lim­its of Chanaan were from Sidon as one comes to Ger­ara even to Gaza, un­til thou en­ter Sodom and Go­mor­rha, and Adama, and Se­boim even to Lesa.

10:20. These are the chil­dren of Cham in their kin­dreds and tongues, and gen­er­ations, and lands, and na­tions.

10:21. Of Sem al­so the fa­ther of all the chil­dren of Heber, the el­der broth­er of Japheth, sons were born.

10:22. The sons of Sem: Elam and As­sur, and Arphax­ad, and Lud, and Aram.

10:23. The sons of Aram: Us, and Hull, and Geth­er; and Mes.

10:24. But Arphax­ad be­got Sale, of whom was born Heber.

10:25. And to Heber were born two sons: the name of the one was Pha­leg, be­cause in his days was the earth di­vid­ed: and his broth­er’s name Jectan.

10:26. Which Jectan be­got Elmodad, and Saleph, and Asar­moth, Jare,

10:27. And Adu­ram, and Uzal, and De­cla,

10:28. And Ebal, and Abi­mael, Sa­ba,

10:29. And Ophir, and Hevila, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Jectan.

10:30. And their dwelling was from Mes­sa as we go on as far as Sephar, a moun­tain in the east.

10:31. These are the chil­dren of Sem ac­cord­ing to their kin­dreds and tongues, and coun­tries in their na­tions.

10:32. These are the fam­ilies of Noe, ac­cord­ing to their peo­ple and na­tions. By these were the na­tions di­vid­ed on the earth af­ter the flood.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 11

The tow­er of Ba­bel. The con­fu­sion of tongues. The ge­neal­ogy of Sem down to Abram.

11:1. And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.

11:2. And when they re­moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sen­naar, and dwelt in it.

11:3. And each one said to his neigh­bour: Come let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick in­stead of stones, and slime in­stead of mor­tar:

11:4. And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tow­er, the top where­of may reach to heav­en; and let us make our name fa­mous be­fore we be scat­tered abroad in­to all lands.

11:5. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tow­er, which the chil­dren of Adam were build­ing.

11:6. And he said: Be­hold, it is one peo­ple, and all have one tongue: and they have be­gun to do this, nei­ther will they leave off from their de­signs, till they ac­com­plish them in deed.

11:7. Come ye, there­fore, let us go down, and there con­found their tongue, that they may not un­der­stand one an­oth­er’s speech.

11:8. And so the Lord scat­tered them from that place in­to all lands, and they ceased to build the city.

11:9. And there­fore the name there­of was called Ba­bel, be­cause there the lan­guage of the whole earth was con­found­ed: and from thence the Lord scat­tered them abroad up­on the face of all coun­tries.

Ba­bel. . .That is, con­fu­sion.

11:10. These are the gen­er­ations of Sem: Sem was a hun­dred years old when he be­got Arphax­ad, two years af­ter the flood.

11:11. And Sem lived af­ter he be­got Arphax­ad, five hun­dred years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

11:12. And Arphax­ad lived thir­ty-​five years, and be­got Sale.

11:13. And Arphax­ad lived af­ter he be­got Sale, three hun­dred and three years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

11:14. Sale al­so lived thir­ty years, and be­got Heber.

11:15. And Sale lived af­ter he be­got Heber, four hun­dred and three years: and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

11:16. And Heber lived thir­ty-​four years, and be­got Pha­leg.

11:17. And Heber lived af­ter he be­got Pha­leg, four hun­dred and thir­ty years: and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

11:18. Pha­leg al­so lived thir­ty years, and be­got Reu.

11:19. And Pha­leg lived af­ter he be­got Reu, two hun­dred and nine years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

11:20. And Reu lived thir­ty-​two years, and be­got Sarug.

11:21. And Reu lived af­ter he be­got Sarug, two hun­dred and sev­en years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

11:22. And Sarug lived thir­ty years, and be­got Na­chor.

11:23. And Sarug lived af­ter he be­got Na­chor, two hun­dred years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

11:24. And Na­chor lived nine and twen­ty years, and be­got Thare.

11:25. And Na­chor lived af­ter he be­got Thare, a hun­dred and nine­teen years, and be­got sons and daugh­ters.

11:26. And Thare lived sev­en­ty years, and be­got Abram, and Na­chor, and Aran.

11:27. And these are the gen­er­ations of Thare: Thare be­got Abram, Na­chor, and Aran. And Aran be­got Lot.

11:28. And Aran died be­fore Thare his fa­ther, in the land of his na­tiv­ity in Ur of the Chaldees.

11:29. And Abram and Na­chor mar­ried wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai: and the name of Na­chor’s wife, Melcha, the daugh­ter of Aran, fa­ther of Melcha and fa­ther of Jescha.

11:30. And Sarai was bar­ren, and had no chil­dren.

11:31. And Thare took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Aran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daugh­ter in law, the wife of Abram his son, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldees, to go in­to the land of Chanaan: and they came as far as Ha­ran, and dwelt there.

11:32. And the days of Thare were two hun­dred and five years, and he died in Ha­ran.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 12

The call of Abram, and the promise made to him. He so­jour­neth in Chanaan, and then by oc­ca­sion of a famine, goeth down to Egypt.

12:1. And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy coun­try, and from thy kin­dred, and out of thy fa­ther’s house, and come in­to the land which I shall shew thee.

12:2. And I will make of thee a great na­tion, and I will bless thee, and mag­ni­fy thy name, and thou shalt be blessed.

12:3. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and IN THEE shall all the kin­dreds of the earth be blessed.

12:4. So Abram went out as the Lord had com­mand­ed him, and Lot went with him: Abram was sev­en­ty-​five years old when he went forth from Ha­ran.

12:5. And he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his broth­er’s son, and all the sub­stance which they had gath­ered, and the souls which they had got­ten in Ha­ran: and they went out to go in­to the land of Chanaan. And when they were come in­to it,

12:6. Abram passed through the coun­try un­to the place of Sichem, as far as the no­ble vale: now the Chanaan­ite was at that time in the land.

12:7. And the Lord ap­peared to Abram, and said to him: To thy seed will I give this land. And he built there an al­tar to the Lord, who had ap­peared to him.

12:8. And pass­ing on from thence to a moun­tain, that was on the east side of Bethel, he there pitched his tent, hav­ing Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: he built there al­so an al­tar to the Lord, and called up­on his name.

12:9. And Abram went for­ward, go­ing and pro­ceed­ing on to the south.

12:10. And there came a famine in the coun­try: and Abram went down in­to Egypt, to so­journ there: for the famine was very grievous in the land.

12:11. And when he was near to en­ter in­to Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife: I know that thou art a beau­ti­ful wom­an:

12:12. And that when the Egyp­tians shall see thee, they will say: She is his wife: and they will kill me, and keep thee.

12:13. Say, there­fore, I pray thee, that thou art my sis­ter: that I may be well used for thee, and that my soul may live for thy sake.

My sis­ter. . .This was no lie; be­cause she was his niece, be­ing daugh­ter to his broth­er Aran, and there­fore, in the style of the He­brews, she might tru­ly be called his sis­ter, as Lot is called Abram’s broth­er, Gen. 14.14. See Gen. 20.12.

12:14. And when Abram was come in­to Egypt, the Egyp­tians saw the wom­an that she was very beau­ti­ful.

12:15. And the princes told Pharao, and praised her be­fore him: and the wom­an was tak­en in­to the house of Pharao.

12:16. And they used Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and ox­en and he ass­es, and men ser­vants, and maid ser­vants, and she ass­es, and camels.

12:17. But the Lord scourged Pharao and his house with most grievous stripes for Sarai, Abram’s wife.

12:18. And Pharao called Abram, and said to him: What is this that thou hast done to me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

12:19. For what cause didst thou say, she was thy sis­ter, that I might take her to my wife? Now there­fore there is thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

12:20. And Pharao gave his men or­ders con­cern­ing Abram: and they led him away and his wife, and all that he had.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 13

Abram and Lot part from each oth­er. God’s promise to Abram.

13:1. And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him in­to the south.

13:2. And he was very rich in pos­ses­sion of gold and sil­ver.

13:3. And he re­turned by the way, that he came, from the south to Bethel, to the place where be­fore he had pitched his tent be­tween Bethel and Hai,

13:4. In the place of the al­tar which he had made be­fore, and there he called up­on the name of the Lord.

13:5. But Lot al­so, who was with Abram, had flocks of sheep, and herds of beasts, and tents.

13:6. Nei­ther was the land able to bear them, that they might dwell to­geth­er: for their sub­stance was great, and they could not dwell to­geth­er.

13:7. Where­upon al­so there arose a strife be­tween the herds­men of Abram and of Lot. And at that time the Chanaan­ite and the Pherezite dwelled in that coun­try.

13:8. Abram there­fore said to Lot: Let there be no quar­rel, I be­seech thee, be­tween me and thee, and be­tween my herds­men and thy herds­men: for we are brethren.

13:9. Be­hold the whole land is be­fore thee: de­part from me, I pray thee: if thou wilt go to the left hand, I will take the right: if thou choose the right hand, I will pass to the left.

13:10. And Lot lift­ing up his eyes, saw all the coun­try about the Jor­dan, which was wa­tered through­out, be­fore the Lord de­stroyed Sodom and Go­mor­rha, as the par­adise of the Lord, and like Egypt as one comes to Segor.

13:11. And Lot chose to him­self the coun­try about the Jor­dan, and he de­part­ed from the east: and they were sep­arat­ed one broth­er from the oth­er.

13:12. Abram dwelt in the land of Chanaan: and Lot abode in the towns, that were about the Jor­dan, and dwelt in Sodom.

13:13. And the men of Sodom were very wicked, and sin­ners be­fore the face of the Lord be­yond mea­sure.

13:14. And the Lord said to Abram, af­ter Lot was sep­arat­ed from him: Lift up thy eyes, and look from the place where­in thou now art, to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west.

13:15. All the land which thou seest, I will give to thee, and to thy seed for ev­er.

13:16. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: if any man be able to num­ber the dust of the earth, he shall be able to num­ber thy seed al­so.

13:17. Arise and walk through the land in the length, and the breadth there­of: for I will give it to thee.

13:18. So Abram re­mov­ing his tent, came, and dwelt by the vale of Mam­bre, which is in He­bron: and he built there an al­tar to the Lord.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 14

The ex­pe­di­tion of the four kings; the vic­to­ry of Abram; he is blessed by Melchisedech.

14:1. And it came to pass at that time, that Am­raphel, king of Sen­naar, and Ar­ioch, king of Pon­tus, and Chodor­la­ho­mor, king of the Elamites, and Thadal, king of na­tions,

14:2. Made war against Bara, king of Sodom, and against Bersa, king of Go­mor­rha, and against Sen­naab, king of Adama, and against Se­me­ber, king of Se­boim, and against the king of Bala, which is Segor.

14:3. All these came to­geth­er in­to the wood­land vale, which now is the salt sea.

14:4. For they had served Chodor­la­ho­mor twelve years, and in the thir­teenth year they re­volt­ed from him.

14:5. And in the four­teenth year came Chodor­la­ho­mor, and the kings that were with him: and they smote the Raphaim in As­taroth­car­naim, and the Zuz­im with them, and the Emim in Save of Cariathaim.

14:6. And the Chor­re­ans in the moun­tains of Seir, even to the plains of Pha­ran, which is in the wilder­ness.

14:7. And they re­turned, and came to the foun­tain of Mis­phat, the same is Cades: and they smote all the coun­try of the Amale­cites, and the Am­or­rhean that dwelt in Asason­thamar.

14:8. And the king of Sodom, and the king of Go­mor­rha, and the king of Adama, and the king of Se­boim, and the king of Bala, which is Segor, went out: and they set them­selves against them in bat­tle ar­ray, in the wood­land vale:

14:9. To wit, against Chodor­la­ho­mor king of the Elamites, and Thadal king of na­tions, and Am­raphel king of Sen­naar, and Ar­ioch king of Pon­tus: four kings against five.

14:10. Now the wood­land vale had many pits of slime. And the king of Sodom, and the king of Go­mor­rha turned their backs, and were over­thrown there: and they that re­mained, fled to the moun­tain.

Of slime. Bi­tu­mi­nis. . .This was a kind of pitch, which served for mor­tar in the build­ing of Ba­bel, Gen. 11.3, and was used by Noe in pitch­ing the ark.

14:11. And they took all the sub­stance of the Sodomites, and Go­mor­rhites, and all their vict­uals, and went their way:

14:12. And Lot al­so, the son of Abram’s broth­er, who dwelt in Sodom, and his sub­stance.

14:13. And be­hold one, that had es­caped, told Abram the He­brew, who dwelt in the vale of Mam­bre the Am­or­rhite, the broth­er of Es­col, and the broth­er of An­er: for these had made a league with Abram.

14:14. Which when Abram had heard, to wit, that his broth­er Lot was tak­en, he num­bered of the ser­vants born in his house, three hun­dred and eigh­teen, well ap­point­ed: and pur­sued them to Dan.

14:15. And di­vid­ing his com­pa­ny, he rushed up­on them in the night, and de­feat­ed them: and pur­sued them as far as Ho­ba, which is on the left hand of Dam­as­cus.

14:16. And he brought back all the sub­stance, and Lot his broth­er, with his sub­stance, the wom­en al­so, and the peo­ple.

14:17. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, af­ter he re­turned from the slaugh­ter of Chodor­la­ho­mor, and of the kings that were with him in the vale of Save, which is the king’s vale.

14:18. But Melchisedech, the king of Salem, bring­ing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God,

14:19. Blessed him, and said: Blessed be Abram by the most high God, who cre­at­ed heav­en and earth.

14:20. And blessed be the most high God, by whose pro­tec­tion, the en­emies are in thy hands. And he gave him the tithes of all.

14:21. And the king of Sodom said to Abram: Give me the per­sons, and the rest take to thy­self.

14:22. And he an­swered him: I lift up my hand to the Lord God the most high, the pos­ses­sor of heav­en and earth,

14:23. That from the very woof thread un­to the shoe latch­et, I will not take of any things that are thine, lest thou say: I have en­riched Abram.

14:24. Ex­cept such things as the young men have eat­en, and the shares of the men that came with me, An­er, Es­col, and Mam­bre: these shall take their shares.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 15

God promiseth seed to Abram. His faith, sac­ri­fice and vi­sion.

15:1. Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vi­sion, say­ing: Fear not, Abram, I am thy pro­tec­tor, and thy re­ward ex­ceed­ing great.

15:2. And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go with­out chil­dren: and the son of the stew­ard of my house is this Dam­as­cus Eliez­er.

15:3. And Abram added: But to me thou hast not giv­en seed: and lo my ser­vant born in my house, shall be my heir.

15:4. And im­me­di­ate­ly the word of the Lord came to him, say­ing : He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bow­els, him shalt thou have for thy heir.

15:5. And he brought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heav­en and num­ber the stars if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.

15:6. Abram be­lieved God, and it was re­put­ed to him un­to jus­tice.

15:7. And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land, and that thou might­est pos­sess it.

15:8. But he said: Lord God, where­by may I know that I shall pos­sess it?

15:9. And the Lord an­swered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a she-​goat of three years. and a ram of three years, a tur­tle al­so, and a pi­geon.

15:10. And he took all these, and di­vid­ed them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the oth­er: but the birds he di­vid­ed not.

15:11. And the fowls came down up­on the car­cass­es, and Abram drove them away.

15:12. And when the sun was set­ting, a deep sleep fell up­on Abram, and a great and dark­some hor­ror seized up­on him.

15:13. And it was said un­to him: Know thou be­fore­hand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them un­der bondage, and af­flict them four hun­dred years.

15:14. But I will judge the na­tion which they shall serve, and af­ter this they shall come out with great sub­stance.

15:15. And thou shalt go to thy fa­thers in peace, and be buried in a good old age.

15:16. But in the fourth gen­er­ation they shall re­turn hith­er: for as yet the in­iq­ui­ties of the Am­or­rhites are not at the full un­til this present time.

15:17. And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there ap­peared a smok­ing fur­nace, and a lamp of fire pass­ing be­tween those di­vi­sions.

15:18. That day God made a covenant with Abram, say­ing: To thy seed will I give this land, from the riv­er to Egypt even to the great riv­er Eu­phrates.

15:19. The Cineans, and Cenezites, the Ced­monites,

15:20. And the Het­hites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim al­so,

15:21. And the Am­or­rhites, and the Chanaan­ites, and the Ger­ge­sites, and the Je­busites.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 16

Abram mar­ri­eth Agar, who bringeth forth Is­mael.

16:1. Now Sarai, the wife of Abram, had brought forth no chil­dren: but hav­ing a hand­maid, an Egyp­tian, named Agar,

16:2. She said to her hus­band: Be­hold, the Lord hath re­strained me from bear­ing: go in un­to my hand­maid, it may be I may have chil­dren of her at least. And when he agreed to her re­quest,

16:3. She took Agar the Egyp­tian her hand­maid, ten years af­ter they first dwelt in the land of Chanaan, and gave her to her hus­band to wife.

To wife. . .Plu­ral­ity of wives, though con­trary to the prim­itive in­sti­tu­tion of mar­riage, Gen. 2.24, was by di­vine dis­pen­sa­tion al­lowed to the pa­tri­archs: which al­lowance seems to have con­tin­ued dur­ing the time of the law of Moses. But Christ our Lord re­duced mar­riage to its prim­itive in­sti­tu­tion. Matt. 19.

16:4. And he went in to her. But she per­ceiv­ing that she was with child, de­spised her mis­tress.

16:5. And Sarai said to Abram: Thou dost un­just­ly with me: I gave my hand­maid in­to thy bo­som, and she per­ceiv­ing her­self to be with child, de­spiseth me. The Lord judge be­tween me and thee.

16:6. And Abram made an­swer, and said to her: Be­hold thy hand­maid is in thy own hand, use her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai af­flict­ed her, she ran away.

16:7. And the an­gel of the Lord hav­ing found her, by a foun­tain of wa­ter in the wilder­ness, which is in the way to Sur in the desert,

16:8. He said to her: Agar, hand­maid of Sarai, whence comest thou? and whith­er goest thou? And she an­swered: I flee from the face of Sarai, my mis­tress.

16:9. And the an­gel of the Lord said to her: Re­turn to thy mis­tress, and hum­ble thy­self un­der her hand.

16:10. And again he said: I will mul­ti­ply thy seed ex­ceed­ing­ly, and it shall not be num­bered for mul­ti­tude.

16:11. And again: Be­hold, said he, thou art with child, and thou shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Is­mael, be­cause the Lord hath heard thy af­flic­tion.

16:12. He shall be a wild man: his hand will be against all men, and all men’s hands against him: and he shall pitch his tents over against all his brethren.

16:13. And she called the name of the Lord that spoke un­to her: Thou the God who hast seen me. For she said: Ver­ily, here have I seen the hin­der parts of him that seeth me.

16:14. There­fore she called that well, the well of him that liveth and seeth me. The same is be­tween Cades and Barad.

16:15. And Agar brought forth a son to Abram: who called his name Is­mael.

16:16. Abram was four score and six years old when Agar brought him forth Is­mael.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 17

The Covenant of cir­cum­ci­sion.

17:1. And af­ter he be­gan to be nine­ty and nine years old, the Lord ap­peared to him: and said un­to him: I am the Almighty God: walk be­fore me, and be per­fect.

17:2. And I will make my covenant be­tween me and thee: and I will mul­ti­ply thee ex­ceed­ing­ly.

17:3. Abram fell flat on his face.

17:4. And God said to him: I am, and my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a fa­ther of many na­tions.

17:5. Nei­ther shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt be called Abra­ham: be­cause I have made thee a fa­ther of many na­tions.

Abram. . .in the He­brew, sig­ni­fies a high fa­ther: but Abra­ham, the fa­ther of the mul­ti­tude; Sarai sig­ni­fies my La­dy, but Sara ab­so­lute­ly La­dy.

17:6. And I will make thee in­crease ex­ceed­ing­ly, and I will make na­tions of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

17:7. And I will es­tab­lish my covenant be­tween me and thee, and be­tween thy seed af­ter thee in their gen­er­ations, by a per­pet­ual covenant: to be a God to thee, and to thy seed af­ter thee.

17:8. And I will give to thee, and to thy seed, the land of thy so­journ­ment, all the land of Chanaan, for a per­pet­ual pos­ses­sion, and I will be their God.

17:9. Again God said to Abra­ham: And thou there­fore shalt keep my covenant, and thy seed af­ter thee in their gen­er­ations.

17:10. This is my covenant which you shall ob­serve be­tween me and you, and thy seed af­ter thee: All the male-​kind of you shall be cir­cum­cised.

17:11. And you shall cir­cum­cise the flesh of your fore­skin, that it may be for a sign of the covenant be­tween me and you.

17:12. An in­fant of eight days old shall be cir­cum­cised among you, ev­ery man­child in your gen­er­ations: he that is born in the house, as well as the bought ser­vant, shall be cir­cum­cised, and whoso­ev­er is not of your stock:

17:13. And my covenant shall be in your flesh for a per­pet­ual covenant.

17:14. The male whose flesh of his fore­skin shall not be cir­cum­cised, that soul shall be de­stroyed out of his peo­ple: be­cause he hath bro­ken my covenant.

17:15. God said al­so to Abra­ham: Sarai thy wife thou shalt not call Sarai, but Sara.

17:16. And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I will bless, and he shall be­come na­tions, and kings of peo­ple shall spring from him.

17:17. Abra­ham fell up­on his face, and laughed, say­ing in his heart: Shall a son, think­est thou, be born to him that is a hun­dred years old? and shall Sara that is nine­ty years old bring forth?

17:18. And he said to God: O that Is­mael may live be­fore thee.

17:19. And God said to Abra­ham: Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will es­tab­lish my covenant with him for a per­pet­ual covenant, and with his seed af­ter him.

17:20. And as for Is­mael I have al­so heard thee. Be­hold, I will bless him, and in­crease, and mul­ti­ply him ex­ceed­ing­ly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great na­tion.

17:21. But my covenant I will es­tab­lish with Isaac, whom Sara shall bring forth to thee at this time in the next year.

17:22. And when he had left off speak­ing with him, God went up from Abra­ham.

17:23. And Abra­ham took Is­mael his son, and all that were born in his house: and all whom he had bought, ev­ery male among the men of his house: and he cir­cum­cised the flesh of their fore­skin forth­with the very same day, as God had com­mand­ed him.

17:24. Abra­ham was nine­ty and nine years old, when he cir­cum­cised the flesh of his fore­skin.

17:25. And Is­mael his son was full thir­teen years old at the time of his cir­cum­ci­sion.

17:26. The self-​same day was Abra­ham cir­cum­cised and Is­mael his son.

17:27. And all the men of his house, as well they that were born in his house, as the bought ser­vants and strangers, were cir­cum­cised with him.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 18

An­gels are en­ter­tained by Abra­ham. They fore­tell the birth of Isaac. Abra­ham’s prayer for the men of Sodom.

18:1. And the Lord ap­peared to him in the vale of Mam­bre as he was sit­ting at the door of his tent, in the very heat of the day.

18:2. And when he had lift­ed up his eyes, there ap­peared to him three men stand­ing near to him: and as soon as he saw them, he ran to meet them from the door of his tent, and adored down to the ground.

18:3. And he said: Lord, if I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away from thy ser­vant.

18:4. But I will fetch a lit­tle wa­ter, and wash ye your feet, and rest ye un­der the tree.

18:5. And I will set a morsel of bread, and strength­en ye your heart, af­ter­wards you shall pass on: for there­fore are you come aside to your ser­vant. And they said: Do as thou hast spo­ken.

18:6. Abra­ham made haste in­to the tent to Sara, and said to her: Make haste, tem­per to­geth­er three mea­sures of flour, and make cakes up­on the hearth.

18:7. And he him­self ran to the herd, and took from thence a calf, very ten­der and very good, and gave it to a young man, who made haste and boiled it.

18:8. He took al­so but­ter and milk, and the calf which he had boiled, and set be­fore them: but he stood by them un­der the tree.

18:9. And when they had eat­en, they said to him: Where is Sara thy wife? He an­swered: Lo she is in the tent.

18:10. And he said to him: I will re­turn and come to thee at this time, life ac­com­pa­ny­ing, and Sara, thy wife, shall have a son. Which when Sara heard, she laughed be­hind the door of the tent.

18:11. Now they were both old, and far ad­vanced in years, and it had ceased to be with Sara af­ter the man­ner of wom­en.

18:12. And she laughed se­cret­ly, say­ing: Af­ter I am grown old, and my lord is an old man, shall I give my­self to plea­sure?

18:13. And the Lord said to Abra­ham: Why did Sara laugh, say­ing: Shall I, who am an old wom­an, bear a child in­deed?

18:14. Is there any thing hard to God? Ac­cord­ing to ap­point­ment I will re­turn to thee at this same time, life ac­com­pa­ny­ing, and Sara shall have a son.

18:15. Sara de­nied, say­ing: I did not laugh: for she was afraid. But the Lord said: Nay; but thou didst laugh.

18:16. And when the men rose up from thence, they turned their eyes to­wards Sodom: and Abra­ham walked with them, bring­ing them on the way.

18:17. And the Lord said: Can I hide from Abra­ham what I am about to do:

18:18. See­ing he shall be­come a great and mighty na­tion, and in him all the na­tions of the earth shall be blessed?

18:19. For I know that he will com­mand his chil­dren, and his house­hold af­ter him, to keep the way of the Lord, and do judg­ment and jus­tice: that for Abra­ham’s sake, the Lord may bring to ef­fect all the things he hath spo­ken un­to him.

18:20. And the Lord said: The cry of Sodom and Go­mor­rha is mul­ti­plied, and their sin is be­come ex­ceed­ing­ly grievous.

18:21. I will go down and see whether they have done ac­cord­ing to the cry that is come to me; or whether it be not so, that I may know.

I will go down, etc. . .The Lord here ac­com­mo­dates his dis­course to the way of speak­ing and act­ing amongst men; for he knoweth all things, and needeth not to go any­where for in­for­ma­tion. Note here, that two of the three an­gels went away im­me­di­ate­ly for Sodom; whilst the third, who rep­re­sent­ed the Lord, re­mained with Abra­ham.

18:22. And they turned them­selves from thence, and went their way to Sodom: but Abra­ham as yet stood be­fore the Lord.

18:23. And draw­ing nigh, he said: Wilt thou de­stroy the just with the wicked?

18:24. If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they per­ish with­al? and wilt thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be there­in?

18:25. Far be it from thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked; this is not be­seem­ing thee: thou who judgest all the earth, wilt not make this judg­ment.

18:26. And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just with­in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

18:27. And Abra­ham an­swered, and said: See­ing I have once be­gun, I will speak to my Lord, where­as I am dust and ash­es.

18:28. What if there be five less than fifty just per­sons? wilt thou for five and forty de­stroy the whole city: And he said: I will not de­stroy it, if I find five and forty.

18:29. And again he said to him: But if forty be found there, what wilt thou do? He said: I will not de­stroy it for the sake of forty.

18:30. Lord, saith he, be not an­gry, I be­seech thee, if I speak: What if thir­ty shall be found there? He an­swered: I will not do it, if I find thir­ty there.

18:31. See­ing, saith he, I have once be­gun, I will speak to my Lord: What if twen­ty be found there? He said: I will not de­stroy it for the sake of twen­ty.

18:32. I be­seech thee, saith he, be not an­gry, Lord, if I speak yet once more: What if ten shall be found there? And he said: I will not de­stroy it for the sake of ten.

18:33. And the Lord de­part­ed, af­ter he had left speak­ing to Abra­ham: and Abra­ham re­turned to his place.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 19

Lot, en­ter­tain­ing An­gels in his house, is de­liv­ered from Sodom, which is de­stroyed: his wife for look­ing back is turned in­to a stat­ue of salt.

19:1. And the two an­gels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sit­ting in the gate of the city. And see­ing them, he rose up and went to meet them: and wor­shipped pros­trate to the ground.

19:2. And said: I be­seech you, my lords, turn in to the house of your ser­vant, and lodge there: wash your feet, and in the morn­ing you shall go on your way. And they said: No, but we will abide in the street.

19:3. He pressed them very much to turn in un­to him: and when they were come in­to his house, he made them a feast, and baked un­leav­ened bread, and they ate:

19:4. But be­fore they went to bed, the men of the city be­set the house, both young and old, all the peo­ple to­geth­er.

19:5. And they called Lot, and said to him: Where are the men that came in to thee at night? bring them out hith­er, that we may know them:

19:6. Lot went out to them, and shut the door af­ter him, and said:

19:7. Do not so, I be­seech you, my brethren, do not com­mit this evil.

19:8. I have two daugh­ters who, as yet, have not known man; I will bring them out to you, and abuse you them as it shall please you, so that you do no evil to these men, be­cause they are come in un­der the shad­ow of my roof.

19:9. But they said: Get thee back thith­er. And again: Thou camest in, said they, as a stranger, was it to be a judge? there­fore we will af­flict thee more than them. And they pressed very vi­olent­ly up­on Lot: and they were even at the point of break­ing open the doors.

19:10. And be­hold the men put out their hand, and drew in Lot un­to them, and shut the door.

19:11. And them, that were with­out, they struck with blind­ness from the least to the great­est, so that they could not find the door.

19:12. And they said to Lot: Hast thou here any of thine? son in law, or sons, or daugh­ters, all that are thine bring them out of this city:

19:13. For we will de­stroy this place, be­cause their cry is grown loud be­fore the Lord, who hath sent us to de­stroy them.

19:14. So Lot went out, and spoke to his sons in law that were to have his daugh­ters, and said: Arise: get you out of this place, be­cause the Lord will de­stroy this city. And he seemed to them to speak as it were in jest.

19:15. And when it was morn­ing, the an­gels pressed him, say­ing: Arise, take thy wife, and the two daugh­ters that thou hast: lest thou al­so per­ish in the wicked­ness of the city.

19:16. And as he lin­gered, they took his hand, and the hand of his wife, and of his two daugh­ters, be­cause the Lord spared him.

19:17. And they brought him forth, and set him with­out the city: and there they spoke to him, say­ing: Save thy life: look not back, nei­ther stay thou in all the coun­try about: but save thy self in the moun­tain, lest thou be al­so con­sumed.

19:18. And Lot said to them: I be­seech thee, my Lord,

19:19. Be­cause thy ser­vant hath found grace be­fore thee, and thou hast mag­ni­fied thy mer­cy, which thou hast shewn to me, in sav­ing my life, and I can­not es­cape to the moun­tain, lest some evil seize me, and I die.

19:20. There is this city here at hand, to which I may flee, it is a lit­tle one, and I shall be saved in it: is it not a lit­tle one, and my soul shall live?

19:21. And he said to him: Be­hold al­so in this, I have heard thy prayers, not to de­stroy the city for which thou hast spo­ken.

19:22. Make haste, and be saved there: be­cause I can­not do any thing till thou go in thith­er. There­fore the name of that city was called Segor.

Segor. . .That is, a lit­tle one.

19:23. The sun was risen up­on the earth, and Lot en­tered in­to Segor.

19:24. And the Lord rained up­on Sodom and Go­mor­rha brim­stone and fire from the Lord out of heav­en.

19:25. And he de­stroyed these cities, and all the coun­try about, all the in­hab­itants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth.

19:26. And his wife look­ing be­hind her, was turned in­to a stat­ue of salt.

And his wife. . .As a stand­ing memo­ri­al to the ser­vants of God to pro­ceed in virtue, and not to look back to vice or its al­lure­ments.

19:27. And Abra­ham got up ear­ly in the morn­ing, and in the place where he had stood be­fore with the Lord:

19:28. He looked to­wards Sodom and Go­mor­rha, and the whole land of that coun­try: and he saw the ash­es rise up from the earth as the smoke of a fur­nace.

19:29. Now when God de­stroyed the cities of that coun­try, re­mem­ber­ing Abra­ham, he de­liv­ered Lot out of the de­struc­tion of the cities where­in he had dwelt.

19:30. And Lot went up out of Segor, and abode in the moun­tain, and his two daugh­ters with him (for he was afraid to stay in Segor) and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daugh­ters with him.

19:31. And the el­der said to the younger: Our fa­ther is old, and there is no man left on the earth, to come in un­to us af­ter the man­ner of the whole earth.

19:32. Come, let us make him drunk with wine, and let us lie with him, that we may pre­serve seed of our fa­ther.

19:33. And they made their fa­ther drink wine that night: and the el­der went in, and lay with her fa­ther: but he per­ceived not, nei­ther when his daugh­ter lay down, nor when she rose up.

19:34. And the next day the el­der said to the younger: Be­hold I lay last night with my fa­ther, let us make him drink wine al­so to night, and thou shalt lie with him, that we may save seed of our fa­ther.

19:35. They made their fa­ther drink wine that night al­so, and the younger daugh­ter went in, and lay with him: and nei­ther then did he per­ceive when she lay down, nor when she rose up.

19:36. So the two daugh­ters of Lot were with child by their fa­ther.

19:37. And the el­der bore a son, and she called his name Moab: he is the fa­ther of the Moabites un­to this day.

19:38. The younger al­so bore a son, and she called his name Am­mon; that is, the son of my peo­ple: he is the fa­ther of the Am­monites un­to this day.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 20

Abra­ham so­journed in Ger­ara: Sara is tak­en in­to king Abim­elech’s house, but by God’s com­mand­ment is re­stored un­touched.

20:1. Abra­ham re­moved from thence to the south coun­try, and dwelt be­tween Cades and Sur, and so­journed in Ger­ara.

20:2. And he said of Sara his wife: She is my sis­ter. So Abim­elech the king of Ger­ara sent, and took her.

20:3. And God came to Abim­elech in a dream by night, and he said to him: Lo thou shalt die for the wom­an that thou hast tak­en: for she hath a hus­band.

20:4. Now Abim­elech had not touched her, and he said: Lord, wilt thou slay a na­tion that is ig­no­rant and just?

20:5. Did not he say to me: She is my sis­ter: and she say, He is my broth­er? in the sim­plic­ity of my heart, and clean­ness of my hands have I done this.

20:6. And God said to him: And I know that thou didst it with a sin­cere heart: and there­fore I with­held thee from sin­ning against me, and I suf­fered thee not to touch her.

20:7. Now there­fore re­store the man his wife, for he is a prophet: and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: but if thou wilt not re­store her, know that thou shalt sure­ly die, thou and all that are thine.

20:8. And Abim­elech forth­with ris­ing up in the night, called all his ser­vants: and spoke all these words in their hear­ing, and all the men were ex­ceed­ing­ly afraid.

20:9. And Abim­elech called al­so for Abra­ham, and said to him: What hast thou done to us? what have we of­fend­ed thee in, that thou hast brought up­on me and up­on my king­dom a great sin? thou hast done to us what thou ought­est not to do.

20:10. And again he ex­pos­tu­lat­ed with him, and said: What sawest thou, that thou hast done this?

20:11. Abra­ham an­swered: I thought with my­self, say­ing: Per­haps there is not the fear of God in this place: and they will kill me for the sake of my wife:

20:12. How­beit, oth­er­wise al­so she is tru­ly my sis­ter, the daugh­ter of my fa­ther, and not the daugh­ter of my moth­er, and I took her to wife.

20:13. And af­ter God brought me out of my fa­ther’s house, I said to her: Thou shalt do me this kind­ness: In ev­ery place, to which we shall come, thou shalt say that I am thy broth­er.

20:14. And Abim­elech took sheep and ox­en, and ser­vants and hand­maids, and gave to Abra­ham: and re­stored to him Sara his wife,

20:15. And said: The land is be­fore you, dwell where­so­ev­er it shall please thee.

20:16. And to Sara he said: Be­hold I have giv­en thy broth­er a thou­sand pieces of sil­ver, this shall serve thee for a cov­er­ing of thy eyes to all that are with thee, and whith­er­so­ev­er thou shalt go: and re­mem­ber thou wast tak­en.

20:17. And when Abra­ham prayed, God healed Abim­elech and his wife, and his hand­maids, and they bore chil­dren:

20:18. For the Lord had closed up ev­ery womb of the house of Abim­elech, on ac­count of Sara, Abra­ham’s wife.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 21

Isaac is born. Agar and Is­mael are cast forth.

21:1. And the Lord vis­it­ed Sara, as he had promised: and ful­filled what he had spo­ken.

21:2. And she con­ceived and bore a son in her old age, at the time that God had fore­told her.

21:3. And Abra­ham called the name of his son, whom Sara bore him, Isaac.

Isaac. . .This word sig­ni­fies laugh­ter.

21:4. And he cir­cum­cised him the eighth day, as God had com­mand­ed him,

21:5. When he was a hun­dred years old: for at this age of his fa­ther, was Isaac born.

21:6. And Sara said: God hath made a laugh­ter for me: whoso­ev­er shall hear of it will laugh with me.

21:7. 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?

21:8. And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abra­ham made a great feast on the day of his wean­ing.

21:9. And when Sara had seen the son of Agar, the Egyp­tian, play­ing with Isaac, her son, she said to Abra­ham:

21:10. Cast out this bond­wom­an and her son; for the son of the bond­wom­an shall not be heir with my son Isaac.

21:11. Abra­ham took this grievous­ly for his son.

21:12. And God said to him: Let it not seem grievous to thee for the boy, and for thy bond­wom­an: in all that Sara hath said to thee, hear­ken to her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

21:13. But I will make the son al­so of the bond­wom­an a great na­tion, be­cause he is thy seed.

21:14. 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.

21:15. And when the wa­ter in the bot­tle was spent, she cast the boy un­der one of the trees that were there.

21:16. 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.

21:17. 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.

21:18. Arise, take up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make him a great na­tion.

21:19. And God opened her eyes: and she saw a well of wa­ter, and went and filled the bot­tle, and gave the boy to drink.

21:20. And God was with him: and he grew, and dwelt in the wilder­ness, and be­came a young man, an archer.

21:21. And he dwelt in the wilder­ness of Pha­ran, and his moth­er took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

21:22. At the same time Abim­elech, and Ph­icol the gen­er­al of his army, said to Abra­ham: God is with thee in all that thou dost.

21:23. Swear there­fore by God, that thou wilt not hurt me, nor my pos­ter­ity, nor my stock: but ac­cord­ing to the kind­ness that I have done to thee, thou shalt do to me, and to the land where­in thou hast lived a stranger.

21:24. And Abra­ham said: I will swear.

21:25. And he re­proved Abim­elech for a well of wa­ter, which his ser­vants had tak­en away by force.

21:26. And Abim­elech an­swered: I knew not who did this thing: and thou didst not tell me, and I heard not of it till to­day.

21:27. Then Abra­ham took sheep and ox­en, and gave them to Abim­elech: and both of them made a league.

21:28. And Abra­ham set apart sev­en ewe­lambs of the flock.

21:29. And Abim­elech said to him: What mean these sev­en ewe­lambs which thou hast set apart?

21:30. But he said: Thou shalt take sev­en ewe­lambs at my hand: that they may be a tes­ti­mo­ny for me, that I dug this well.

21:31. There­fore that place was called Bersabee; be­cause there both of them did swear.

Bersabee. . .That is, the well of oath.

21:32. And they made a league for the well of oath.

21:33. And Abim­elech and Ph­icol, the gen­er­al of his army, arose and re­turned to the land of the Palestines. But Abra­ham plant­ed a grove in Bersabee, and there called up­on the name of the Lord God eter­nal.

21:34. And he was a so­journ­er in the land of the Palestines many days.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 22

The faith and obe­di­ence of Abra­ham is proved in his readi­ness to sac­ri­fice his son Isaac. He is stayed from the act by an an­gel. For­mer promis­es are re­newed to him. His broth­er Na­chor’s is­sue.

22:1. Af­ter these things, God tempt­ed Abra­ham, and said to him: Abra­ham, Abra­ham. And he an­swered: Here I am.

God tempt­ed, etc. . .God tempteth no man to evil, James 1.13; but by tri­al and ex­per­iment maketh known to the world, and to our­selves, what we are, as here by this tri­al the sin­gu­lar faith and obe­di­ence of Abra­ham was made man­ifest.

22:2. 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 shew thee.

22:3. 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.

22:4. And on the third day, lift­ing up his eyes, he saw the place afar off.

22:5. And he said to his young men: Stay you here with the ass; I and the boy will go with speed as far as yon­der, and af­ter we have wor­shipped, will re­turn to you.

22:6. 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,

22:7. 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?

22:8. And Abra­ham said: God will pro­vide him­self a vic­tim for an holo­caust, my son. So they went on to­geth­er.

22:9. And they came to the place which God had shewn 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.

22:10. And he put forth his hand, and took the sword, to sac­ri­fice his son.

22:11. And be­hold, an an­gel of the Lord from heav­en called to him, say­ing: Abra­ham, Abra­ham. And he an­swered: Here I am.

22:12. 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.

22:13. 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.

22:14. 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.

22:15. And the an­gel of the Lord called to Abra­ham a sec­ond time from heav­en, say­ing:

22:16. 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:

22:17. 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.

22:18. And in thy seed shall all the na­tions of the earth be blessed, be­cause thou hast obeyed my voice.

22:19. Abra­ham re­turned to his young men, and they went to Bersabee to­geth­er, and he dwelt there.

22:20. Af­ter these things, it was told Abra­ham, that Melcha al­so had borne chil­dren to Na­chor his broth­er.

22:21. Hus, the first­born, and Buz, his broth­er, and Ca­muel the fa­ther of the Syr­ians,

22:22. And Cased, and Azau, and Phel­das, and Jed­laph,

22:23. And Bathuel, of whom was born Re­bec­ca: these eight did Melcha bear to Na­chor, Abra­ham’s broth­er.

22:24. And his con­cu­bine, named Ro­ma, bore Tabee, and Ga­ham, and Tahas, and Maacha.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 23

Sara’s death and buri­al in the field bought of Ephron.

23:1. And Sara lived a hun­dred and twen­ty-​sev­en years.

23:2. And she died in the city of Ar­bee which is He­bron, in the land of Chanaan: and Abra­ham came to mourn and weep for her.

23:3. And af­ter he rose up from the fu­ner­al ob­se­quies, he spoke to the chil­dren of Heth, say­ing:

23:4. I am a stranger and so­journ­er among you: give me the right of a bury­ing place with you, that I may bury my dead.

23:5. The chil­dren of Heth an­swered, say­ing:

23:6. 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.

23:7. Abra­ham rose up, and bowed down to the peo­ple of the land, to wit, the chil­dren of Heth:

Bowed down to the peo­ple. . .Ado­rav­it, 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.

23:8. 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.

23:9. 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.

23:10. 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:

23:11. 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.

23:12. Abra­ham bowed down be­fore the peo­ple of the land.

23:13. 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 will I bury my dead in it.

23:14. And Ephron an­swered:

23:15. My lord, hear me. The ground which thou de­sirest, is worth four hun­dred sicles of sil­ver: this is the price be­tween me and thee: but what is this? bury thy dead.

23:16. 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 sicles of sil­ver, of com­mon cur­rent mon­ey.

23:17. 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,

23:18. 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.

23:19. And so Abra­ham buried Sara, his wife, in the dou­ble cave of the field, that looked to­wards Mam­bre, this is He­bron in the land of Chanaan.

23:20. 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.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 24

Abra­ham’s ser­vant, sent by him in­to Mesopotamia, bringeth from thence Re­bec­ca, who is mar­ried to Isaac.

24:1. Now Abra­ham was old, and ad­vanced in age; and the Lord had blessed him in all things.

24:2. And he said to the el­der ser­vant of his house, who was ruler over all he had: Put thy hand un­der my thigh,

24:3. 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 Chanaan­ites, among whom I dwell:

24:4. But that thou go to my own coun­try and kin­dred, and take a wife from thence for my son Isaac.

24:5. 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?

24:6. And Abra­ham said: Be­ware thou nev­er bring my son back again thith­er.

24:7. 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.

He will send his an­gel be­fore thee. . .This shows that the He­brews be­lieved that God gave them guardian an­gels for their pro­tec­tion.

24:8. But if the wom­an will not fol­low thee, thou shalt not be bound by the oath: on­ly bring not my son back thith­er again.

24:9. The ser­vant, there­fore, put his hand un­der the thigh of Abra­ham, his lord, and swore to him up­on his word.

24:10. 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.

24:11. 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:

24:12. O Lord, the God of my mas­ter, Abra­ham, meet me to­day, I be­seech thee, and shew kind­ness to my mas­ter, Abra­ham.

24:13. Be­hold, I stand nigh the spring of wa­ter, and the daugh­ters of the in­hab­itants of this city will come out to draw wa­ter:

24:14. 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 shewn kind­ness to my mas­ter.

24:15. 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:

24:16. 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.

24:17. And the ser­vant ran to meet her, and said: Give me a lit­tle wa­ter to drink of thy pitch­er.

24:18. And she an­swered: Drink, my lord. And quick­ly she let down the pitch­er up­on her arm, and gave him drink.

24:19. And when he had drunk, she said: I will draw wa­ter for thy camels al­so, till they all drink.

24:20. 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.

24:21. But he mus­ing, be­held her with si­lence, de­sirous to know whether the Lord had made his jour­ney pros­per­ous or not.

24:22. And af­ter that the camels had drunk, the man took out gold­en ear­rings, weigh­ing two sicles; and as many bracelets, of ten sicles weight.

24:23. And he said to her: Whose daugh­ter art thou? tell me: is there any place in thy fa­ther’s house to lodge?

24:24. And she an­swered: I am the daugh­ter of Bathuel, the son of Melcha, whom she bore to Na­chor.

24:25. And she said, more­over, to him: We have good store of both straw and hay, and a large place to lodge in.

24:26. The man bowed him­self down, and adored the Lord,

24:27. 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.

24:28. Then the maid ran, and told in her moth­er’s house all that she had heard.

24:29. And Re­bec­ca had a broth­er, named La­ban, who went out in haste to the man, to the well.

24:30. And when he had seen the ear­rings 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,

24:31. 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.

24:32. And he brought him 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.

24:33. And bread was set be­fore him. But he said: I will not eat, till I tell my mes­sage. He an­swered him: Speak.

24:34. And he said: I am the ser­vant of Abra­ham:

24:35. And the Lord hath blessed my mas­ter won­der­ful­ly, and he is be­come great: and he hath giv­en him sheep and ox­en, sil­ver and gold, men ser­vants and wom­en ser­vants, camels and ass­es.

24:36. And Sara, my mas­ter’s wife, hath borne my mas­ter a son in her old age, and he hath giv­en him all that he had.

24:37. And my mas­ter made me swear, say­ing: Thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the Chanaan­ites, in whose land I dwell:

24:38. But thou shalt go to my fa­ther’s house, and shalt take a wife of my own kin­dred for my son:

24:39. But I an­swered my mas­ter: What if the wom­an will not come with me?

24:40. The Lord, said he, in whose sight I walk, will send his an­gel with thee, and will di­rect thy way: and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my own kin­dred, and of my fa­ther’s house.

24:41. But thou shalt be clear from my curse, when thou shalt come to my kin­dred, if they will not give thee one.

24:42. And I came to­day to the well of wa­ter, and said: O Lord God of my mas­ter, Abra­ham, if thou hast pros­pered my way, where­in I now walk,

24:43. Be­hold, I stand by the well of wa­ter, and the vir­gin, that shall come out to draw wa­ter, who shall hear me say: Give me a lit­tle wa­ter to drink of thy pitch­er:

24:44. And shall say to me: Both drink thou, and I will al­so draw for thy camels: let the same be the wom­an, whom the Lord hath pre­pared for my mas­ter’s son.

24:45. And whilst I pon­dered these things se­cret­ly with my­self, Re­bec­ca ap­peared, com­ing with a pitch­er, which she car­ried on her shoul­der: and she went down to the well and drew wa­ter. And I said to her: Give me a lit­tle to drink.

24:46. And she speed­ily let down the pitch­er from her shoul­der, and said to me: Both drink thou, and to thy camels I will give drink. I drank, and she wa­tered the camels.

24:47. And I asked her, and said: Whose daugh­ter art thou? And she an­swered: I am the daugh­ter of Bathuel, the son of Na­chor, whom Melcha bore to him. So I put ear­rings on her to adorn her face, and I put bracelets on her hands.

24:48. And falling down, I adored the Lord, bless­ing the Lord God of my mas­ter, Abra­ham, who hath brought me the straight way to take the daugh­ter of my mas­ter’s broth­er for his son.

24:49. Where­fore, if you do ac­cord­ing to mer­cy and truth with my mas­ter, tell me: but if it please you oth­er­wise, tell me that al­so, that I may go to the right hand, or to the left.

24:50. And La­ban and Bathuel an­swered: The word hath pro­ceed­ed from the Lord: we can­not speak any oth­er thing to thee but his plea­sure.

24:51. Be­hold, Re­bec­ca is be­fore thee, take her and go thy way, and let her be the wife of thy mas­ter’s son, as the Lord hath spo­ken.

24:52. Which when Abra­ham’s ser­vant heard, falling down to the ground, he adored the Lord.

24:53. And bring­ing forth ves­sels of sil­ver and gold, and gar­ments, he gave them to Re­bec­ca, for a present. He of­fered gifts al­so to her broth­ers, and to her moth­er.

24:54. And a ban­quet was made, and they ate and drank to­geth­er, and lodged there. And in the morn­ing, the ser­vant arose, and said: Let me de­part, that I may go to my mas­ter.

24:55. And her broth­er and moth­er an­swered: Let the maid stay, at least, ten days with us, and af­ter­wards she shall de­part.

24:56. Stay me not, said he, be­cause the Lord hath pros­pered my way: send me away, that I may go to my mas­ter.

24:57. And they said: Let us call the maid, and ask her will.

Let us call the maid, and ask her will. . .Not as to her mar­riage, as she had al­ready con­sent­ed, but of her quit­ting her par­ents and go­ing to her hus­band.

24:58. And they called her, and when she was come, they asked: Wilt thou go with this man? She said: I will go.

24:59. So they sent her away, and her nurse, and Abra­ham’s ser­vant, and his com­pa­ny.

24:60. Wish­ing pros­per­ity to their sis­ter, and say­ing: Thou art our sis­ter, mayst thou in­crease to thou­sands of thou­sands; and may thy seed pos­sess the gates of their en­emies.

24:61. So Re­bec­ca and her maids, be­ing set up­on camels, fol­lowed the man: who with speed re­turned to his mas­ter.

24:62. At the same time, Isaac was walk­ing along the way to the well which is called Of the liv­ing and the see­ing: for he dwelt in the south coun­try:

24:63. And he was gone forth to med­itate in the field, the day be­ing now well spent: and when he had lift­ed up his eyes, he saw camels com­ing afar off.

24:64. Re­bec­ca al­so, when she saw Isaac, light­ed off the camel,

24:65. And said to the ser­vant: Who is that man who cometh to­wards us along the field? And he said to her: That man is my mas­ter. But she quick­ly took her cloak, and cov­ered her­self.

24:66. And the ser­vant told Isaac all that he had done.

24:67. Who brought her in­to the tent of Sara his moth­er, and took her to wife: and he loved her so much, that it mod­er­at­ed the sor­row which was oc­ca­sioned by his moth­er’s death.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 25

Abra­ham’s chil­dren by Ce­tu­ra; his death and that of Is­mael. Isaac hath Esau and Ja­cob twins. Esau sel­leth his first birthright to Ja­cob.

25:1. And Abra­ham mar­ried an­oth­er wife named Ce­tu­ra:

25:2. Who bore him Zam­ram, and Jec­san, and Madan, and Ma­di­an, and Jes­boc, and Sue.

25:3. Jec­san al­so be­got Sa­ba, and Dadan. The chil­dren of Dadan were As­surim, and La­tusim, and Loomim.

25:4. But of Ma­di­an was born Epha, and Opher, and Henoch, and Abi­da, and El­daa: all these were the chil­dren of Ce­tu­ra.

25:5. And Abra­ham gave all his pos­ses­sions to Isaac:

25:6. And to the chil­dren of the con­cu­bines he gave gifts, and sep­arat­ed them from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, to the east coun­try.

Con­cu­bines. . .Agar and Ce­tu­ra are here called con­cu­bines, (though they were law­ful wives, and in oth­er places are so called,) be­cause they were of an in­fe­ri­or de­gree, and such in scrip­ture are usu­al­ly called con­cu­bines.

25:7. And the days of Abra­ham’s life were a hun­dred and sev­en­ty-​five years.

25:8. And de­cay­ing he died in a good old age, and hav­ing lived a long time, and be­ing full of days: and was gath­ered to his peo­ple.

25:9. And Isaac and Is­mael his sons buried him in the dou­ble cave, which was sit­uat­ed in the field of Ephron the son of Se­or the Het­hite, over against Mam­bre,

25:10. Which he had bought of the chil­dren of Heth: there was he buried, and Sara his wife.

25:11. And af­ter his death, God blessed Isaac his son, who dwelt by the well named Of the liv­ing and see­ing.

25:12. These are the gen­er­ations of Is­mael the son of Abra­ham, whom Agar the Egyp­tian, Sara’s ser­vant, bore un­to him:

25:13. And these are the names of his chil­dren ac­cord­ing to their call­ing and gen­er­ations. The first­born of Is­mael was Naba­joth, then Cedar, and Ad­beel, and Mab­sam,

25:14. And Mas­ma, and Du­ma, and Mas­sa,

25:15. Hadar, and The­ma, and Jethur, and Naphis, and Ced­ma.

25:16. These are the sons of Is­mael: and these are their names by their cas­tles and towns, twelve princes of their tribes.

25:17. And the years of Is­mael’s life were a hun­dred and thir­ty-​sev­en, and de­cay­ing he died, and was gath­ered un­to his peo­ple.

25:18. And he dwelt from Hevila as far as Sur, which looketh to­wards Egypt, to them that go to­wards the As­syr­ians. He died in the pres­ence of all his brethren.

25:19. These al­so are the gen­er­ations of Isaac the son of Abra­ham: Abra­ham be­got Isaac:

25:20. Who when he was forty years old, took to wife Re­bec­ca the daugh­ter of Bathuel the Syr­ian of Mesopotamia, sis­ter to La­ban.

25:21. And Isaac be­sought the Lord for his wife, be­cause she was bar­ren: and he heard him, and made Re­bec­ca to con­ceive.

25:22. But the chil­dren strug­gled in her womb, and she said: If it were to be so with me, what need was there to con­ceive? And she went to con­sult the Lord.

25:23. And he an­swer­ing, said: Two na­tions are in thy womb, and two peo­ples shall be di­vid­ed out of thy womb, and one peo­ple shall over­come the oth­er, and the el­der shall serve the younger.

25:24. And when her time was come to be de­liv­ered, be­hold twins were found in her womb.

25:25. He that came forth first was red, and hairy like a skin: and his name was called Esau. Im­me­di­ate­ly the oth­er com­ing forth, held his broth­er’s foot in his hand: and there­fore he was called Ja­cob.

25:26. Isaac was three­score years old when the chil­dren were born un­to him.

25:27. And when they were grown up, Esau be­came a skil­ful hunter, and a hus­band­man: but Ja­cob, a plain man, dwelt in tents.

25:28. Isaac loved Esau, be­cause he ate of his hunt­ing: and Re­bec­ca loved Ja­cob.

25:29. And Ja­cob boiled pot­tage: to whom Esau, com­ing faint out of the field,

25:30. Said: Give me of this red pot­tage, for I am ex­ceed­ing faint. For which rea­son his name was called Edom.

25:31. And Ja­cob said to him: Sell me thy first birthright.

25:32. He an­swered: Lo I die, what will the first birthright avail me?

25:33. Ja­cob said: Swear there­fore to me. Esau swore to him, and sold his first birthright.

25:34. And so tak­ing bread and the pot­tage of lentils, he ate, and drank, and went on his way; mak­ing lit­tle ac­count of hav­ing sold his first birthright.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 26

Isaac so­jour­neth in Ger­ara, where God re­neweth to him the promise made to Abra­ham. King Abim­elech maketh league with him.

26:1. And when a famine came in the land, af­ter that bar­ren­ness which had hap­pened in the days of Abra­ham, Isaac went to Abim­elech, king of the Palestines, to Ger­ara.

26:2. And the Lord ap­peared to him, and said: Go not down in­to Egypt, but stay in the land that I shall tell thee.

26:3. And so­journ in it, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for to thee and to thy seed I will give all these coun­tries, to ful­fil the oath which I swore to Abra­ham thy fa­ther.

26:4. And I will mul­ti­ply thy seed like the stars of heav­en: and I will give to thy pos­ter­ity all these coun­tries: and in thy seed shall all the na­tions of the earth be blessed.

26:5. Be­cause Abra­ham obeyed my voice, and kept my pre­cepts and com­mand­ments, and ob­served my cer­emonies and laws.

26:6. So Isaac abode in Ger­ara.

26:7. And when he was asked by the men of that place, con­cern­ing his wife, he an­swered: She is my sis­ter: for he was afraid to con­fess that she was his wife, think­ing lest per­haps they would kill him be­cause of her beau­ty.

26:8. And when very many days were passed, and he abode there, Abim­elech, king of the Palestines, look­ing out through a win­dow, saw him play­ing with Re­bec­ca, his wife.

26:9. And call­ing for him, he said: It is ev­ident she is thy wife: why didst thou feign her to be thy sis­ter? He an­swered: I feared lest I should die for her sake.

26:10. And Abim­elech said: Why hast thou de­ceived us? Some man of the peo­ple might have lain with thy wife, and thou hadst brought up­on us a great sin. And he com­mand­ed all the peo­ple, say­ing:

26:11. He that shall touch this man’s wife, shall sure­ly be put to death.

26:12. And Isaac sowed in that land, and he found that same year a hun­dred­fold: and the Lord blessed him.

26:13. And the man was en­riched, and he went on pros­per­ing and in­creas­ing, till he be­came ex­ceed­ing great.

26:14. And he had pos­ses­sions of sheep and of herds, and a very great fam­ily. Where­fore the Palestines en­vy­ing him,

26:15. Stopped up at that time all the wells, that the ser­vants of his fa­ther, Abra­ham, had digged, fill­ing them up with earth:

26:16. In­so­much that Abim­elech him­self said to Isaac: De­part from us, for thou art be­come much might­ier than we.

26:17. So he de­part­ed, and came to the tor­rent of Ger­ara, to dwell there:

26:18. And he digged again oth­er wells, which the ser­vants of his fa­ther, Abra­ham, had digged, and which, af­ter his death, the Philistines had of old stopped up: and he called them by the same names, by which his fa­ther be­fore had called them.

26:19. And they digged in the tor­rent, and found liv­ing wa­ter:

Tor­rent. . .That is, a chan­nel where some­times a tor­rent or vi­olent stream had run.

26:20. But there al­so the herds­men of Ger­ara strove against the herds­men of Isaac, say­ing: It is our wa­ter. Where­fore he called the name of the well, on oc­ca­sion of that which had hap­pened, Calum­ny.

26:21. And they digged al­so an­oth­er; and for that they quar­relled like­wise, and he called the name of it, En­mi­ty.

26:22. Go­ing for­ward from thence, he digged an­oth­er well, for which they con­tend­ed not; there­fore he called the name there­of, Lat­itude, say­ing: Now hath the Lord giv­en us room, and made us to in­crease up­on the earth.

Lat­itude. . .That is, wide­ness, or room.

26:23. And he went up from that place to Bersabee,

26:24. Where the Lord ap­peared to him that same night, say­ing: I am the God of Abra­ham thy fa­ther, do not fear, for I am with thee: I will bless thee, and mul­ti­ply thy seed for my ser­vant Abra­ham’s sake.

26:25. And he built there an al­tar: and called up­on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent; and com­mand­ed his ser­vants to dig a well.

26:26. To which place when Abim­elech, and Ochozath his friend, and Ph­icol chief cap­tain of his sol­diers, came from Ger­ara,

26:27. Isaac said to them: Why are ye come to me, a man whom you hate, and have thrust out from you?

26:28. And they an­swered: We saw that the Lord is with thee, and there­fore we said: Let there be an oath be­tween us, and let us make a covenant,

26:29. That thou do us no harm, as we on our part have touched noth­ing of thine, nor have done any thing to hurt thee; but with peace have sent thee away, in­creased with the bless­ing of the Lord.

26:30. And he made them a feast, and af­ter they had eat­en and drunk:

26:31. Aris­ing in the morn­ing, they swore one to an­oth­er: and Isaac sent them away peace­ably to their own home.

26:32. And be­hold, the same day the ser­vants of Isaac came, telling him of a well which they had digged, and say­ing: We have found wa­ter.

26:33. Where­upon he called it Abun­dance: and the name of the city was called Bersabee, even to this day.

26:34. And Esau be­ing forty years old, mar­ried wives, Ju­dith, the daugh­ter of Beeri, the Het­hite, and Base­math, the daugh­ter of Elon, of the same place.

26:35. And they both of­fend­ed the mind of Isaac and Re­bec­ca.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 27

Ja­cob, by him moth­er’s coun­sel, ob­taineth his fa­ther’s bless­ing in­stead of Esau. And by her is ad­vised to fly to his un­cle La­ban.

27:1. Now Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, and he could not see: and he called Esau, his el­der son, and said to him: My son? And he an­swered: Here I am.

27:2. And his fa­ther said to him, Thou seest that I am old, and know not the day of my death.

27:3. Take thy arms, thy quiver, and bow, and go abroad; and when thou hast tak­en some­thing by hunt­ing,

27:4. Make me a savoury meat there­of, as thou know­est I like, and bring it that I may eat: and my soul may bless thee, be­fore I die.

27:5. And when Re­bec­ca had heard this, and he was gone in­to the field to ful­fil his fa­ther’s com­mand­ment,

27:6. She said to her son Ja­cob: I heard thy fa­ther talk­ing with Esau, thy broth­er, and say­ing to him:

27:7. Bring me of thy hunt­ing, and make me meats that I may eat, and bless thee in the sight of the Lord, be­fore I die.

27:8. Now there­fore, my son, fol­low my coun­sel:

27:9. And go thy way to the flock, bring me two kids of the best, that I may make of them meat for thy fa­ther, such as he glad­ly eateth.

27:10. Which when thou hast brought in, and he hath eat­en, he may bless thee be­fore he die.

27:11. And he an­swered her: Thou know­est that Esau, my broth­er, is a hairy man, and I am smooth:

27:12. If my fa­ther should feel me, and per­ceive it, I fear lest he will think I would have mocked him, and I shall bring up­on me a curse in­stead of a bless­ing.

27:13. And his moth­er said to him: Up­on me be this curse, my son: on­ly hear thou my voice, and go, fetch me the things which I have said.

27:14. He went, and brought, and gave them to his moth­er. She dressed meats, such as she knew his fa­ther liked.

27:15. And she put on him very good gar­ments of Esau, which she had at home with her:

27:16. And the lit­tle skins of the kids she put about his hands, and cov­ered the bare of his neck.

27:17. And she gave him the savoury meat, and de­liv­ered him bread that she had baked.

27:18. Which when he had car­ried in, he said: My fa­ther? But he an­swered: I hear. Who art thou, my son?

27:19. And Ja­cob said: I am Esau, thy first­born: I have done as thou didst com­mand me: arise, sit and eat of my veni­son, that thy soul may bless me.

I am Esau thy first­born. . .St. Au­gus­tine (L. Con­tra men­daci­um, c. 10), treat­ing at large up­on this place, ex­cuseth Ja­cob from a lie, be­cause this whole pas­sage was mys­te­ri­ous, as re­lat­ing to the pref­er­ence which was af­ter­wards to be giv­en to the Gen­tiles be­fore the car­nal Jews, which Ja­cob by prophet­ic light might un­der­stand. So far is cer­tain, that the first birthright, both by di­vine elec­tion and by Esau’s free ces­sion be­longed to Ja­cob: so that if there were any lie in the case, it could be no more than an of­fi­cious and ve­nial one.

27:20. And Isaac said to his son: How couldst thou find it so quick­ly, my son? He an­swered: It was the will of God, that what I sought came quick­ly in my way:

27:21. And Isaac said: Come hith­er, that I may feel thee, my son, and may prove whether thou be my son Esau, or no.

27:22. He came near to his fa­ther, and when he had felt him, Isaac said: The voice in­deed is the voice of Ja­cob; but the hands, are the hands of Esau.

27:23. And he knew him not, be­cause his hairy hands made him like to the el­der. Then bless­ing him,

27:24. He said: Art thou my son Esau? He an­swered: I am.

27:25. Then he said: Bring me the meats of thy hunt­ing, my son, that my soul may bless thee. And when they were brought, and he had eat­en, he of­fered him wine al­so, which af­ter he had drunk,

27:26. He said to him: Come near me, and give me a kiss, my son.

27:27. He came near, and kissed him. And im­me­di­ate­ly as he smelled the fra­grant smell of his gar­ments, bless­ing him, he said: Be­hold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a plen­ti­ful field, which the Lord hath blessed.

27:28. God give thee of the dew of heav­en, and of the fat­ness of the earth, abun­dance of corn and wine.

27:29. And let peo­ples serve thee, and tribes wor­ship thee: be thou lord of thy brethren, and let thy moth­er’s chil­dren bow down be­fore thee. Cursed be he that curseth thee: and let him that bles­seth thee be filled with bless­ings.

27:30. Isaac had scarce end­ed his words, when, Ja­cob be­ing now gone out abroad, Esau came,

27:31. And brought in to his fa­ther meats, made of what he had tak­en in hunt­ing, say­ing: Arise, my fa­ther, and eat of thy son’s veni­son; that thy soul may bless me.

27:32. And Isaac said to him: Why! who art thou? He an­swered: I am thy first­born son, Esau.

27:33. Isaac was struck with fear, and as­ton­ished ex­ceed­ing­ly; and won­der­ing be­yond what can be be­lieved, said: Who is he then that even now brought me veni­son that he had tak­en, and I ate of all be­fore thou camest? and I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed.

27:34. Esau hav­ing heard his fa­ther’s words, roared out with a great cry; and, be­ing in a con­ster­na­tion, said: Bless me al­so, my fa­ther.

27:35. And he said: Thy broth­er came de­ceit­ful­ly and got thy bless­ing.

27:36. But he said again: Right­ly is his name called Ja­cob; for he hath sup­plant­ed me lo this sec­ond time: My birthright he took away be­fore, and now this sec­ond time he hath stolen away my bless­ing. And again he said to his fa­ther: Hast thou not re­served me al­so a bless­ing?

Ja­cob. . .That is, a sup­planter.

27:37. Isaac an­swered: I have ap­point­ed him thy lord, and have made all his brethren his ser­vants: I have es­tab­lished him with corn and wine, and af­ter this, what shall I do more for thee, my son?

27:38. And Esau said to him: Hast thou on­ly one bless­ing, fa­ther? I be­seech thee bless me al­so. And when he wept with a loud cry,

27:39. Isaac be­ing moved, said to him: In the fat of the earth, and in the dew of heav­en from above,

27:40. Shall thy bless­ing be. Thou shalt live by the sword, and shalt serve thy broth­er: and the time shall come, when thou shalt shake off and loose his yoke from thy neck.

27:41. Esau there­fore al­ways hat­ed Ja­cob, for the bless­ing where­with his fa­ther had blessed him; and he said in his heart: The days will come of the mourn­ing for my fa­ther, and I will kill my broth­er Ja­cob.

27:42. These things were told to Re­bec­ca: and she sent and called Ja­cob, her son, and said to him: Be­hold Esau, thy broth­er, threat­eneth to kill thee.

27:43. Now there­fore, my son, hear my voice, arise and flee to La­ban, my broth­er, to Ha­ran:

27:44. And thou shalt dwell with him a few days, till the wrath of thy broth­er be as­suaged,

27:45. And his in­dig­na­tion cease, and he for­get the things thou hast done to him: af­ter­wards I will send, and bring thee from thence hith­er. Why shall I be de­prived of both my sons in one day?

27:46. And Re­bec­ca said to Isaac: I am weary of my life, be­cause of the daugh­ters of Heth: if Ja­cob take a wife of the stock of this land, I choose not to live.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 28

Ja­cob’s jour­ney to Mesopotamia: his vi­sion and vow.

28:1. And Isaac called Ja­cob, and blessed him, and charged him, say­ing: Take not a wife of the stock of Chanaan:

28:2. But go, and take a jour­ney to Mesopotamia of Syr­ia, to the house of Bathuel, thy moth­er’s fa­ther, and take thee a wife thence of the daugh­ters of La­ban, thy un­cle.

28:3. And God almighty bless thee, and make thee to in­crease and mul­ti­ply thee: that thou mayst be a mul­ti­tude of peo­ple.

28:4. And give the bless­ings of Ara­ham to thee, and to thy seed af­ter thee: that thou mayst pos­sess the land of thy so­journ­ment, which he promised to thy grand­fa­ther.

28:5. And when Isaac had sent him away, he took his jour­ney and went to Mesopotamia of Syr­ia, to La­ban, the son of Bathuel, the Syr­ian, broth­er to Re­bec­ca, his moth­er.

28:6. And Esau see­ing that his fa­ther had blessed Ja­cob, and had sent him in­to Mesopotamia of Syr­ia, to mar­ry a wife thence; and that af­ter the bless­ing he had charged him, say­ing: Thou shalt not take a wife of the daugh­ters of Chanaan:

28:7. And that Ja­cob obey­ing his par­ents, was gone in­to Syr­ia:

28:8. Ex­pe­ri­enc­ing al­so, that his fa­ther was not well pleased with the daugh­ters of Chanaan:

28:9. He went to Is­mael, and took to wife, be­sides them he had be­fore, Ma­heleth, the daugh­ter of Is­mael, Abra­ham’s son, the sis­ter of Naba­joth.

28:10. But Ja­cob be­ing de­part­ed from Bersabee, went on to Ha­ran.

28:11. And when he was come to a cer­tain place, and would rest in it af­ter sun­set, he took of the stones that lay there, and putting un­der his head, slept in the same place.

28:12. And he saw in his sleep a lad­der stand­ing up­on the earth, and the top there­of touch­ing heav­en: the an­gels al­so of God as­cend­ing and de­scend­ing by it.

28:13. And the Lord lean­ing up­on the lad­der say­ing to him: I am the Lord God of Abra­ham thy fa­ther, and the God of Isaac: The land, where­in thou sleep­est, I will give to thee and to thy seed.

28:14. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth: thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and IN THEE and thy seed, all the tribes of the earth SHALL BE BLESSED.

28:15. And I will be thy keep­er whith­er­so­ev­er thou goest, and will bring thee back in­to this land: nei­ther will I leave thee, till I shall have ac­com­plished all that I have said.

28:16. And when Ja­cob awaked out of sleep, he said: In­deed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.

28:17. And trem­bling, he said: How ter­ri­ble is this place? this is no oth­er but the house of God, and the gate of heav­en.

28:18. And Ja­cob aris­ing in the morn­ing, took the stone which he had laid un­der his head, and set it up for a ti­tle, pour­ing oil up­on the top of it.

28:19. And he called the name of the city Bethel, which be­fore was called Luza.

Bethel. . .This name sig­ni­fies the house of God.

28:20. And he made a vow, say­ing: If God shall be with me, and shall keep me in the way, by which I walk, and shall give me bread to eat, and rai­ment to put on,

28:21. And I shall re­turn pros­per­ous­ly to my fa­ther’s house: the Lord shall be my God:

28:22. And this stone, which I have set up for a ti­tle, shall be called the house of God: and of all things that thou shalt give to me, I will of­fer tithes to thee.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 29

Ja­cob serveth La­ban sev­en years for Rachel: but is de­ceived with Lia: he af­ter­wards mar­ri­eth Rachel. Lia bears him four sons.

29:1. Then Ja­cob went on in his jour­ney, and came in­to the east coun­try.

29:2. And he saw a well in the field, and three flocks of sheep ly­ing by it: for the beasts were wa­tered out of it, and the mouth there­of was closed with a great stone.

29:3. And the cus­tom was, when all the sheep were gath­ered to­geth­er, to roll away the stone, and af­ter the sheep were wa­tered, to put it on the mouth of the well again.

29:4. And he said to the shep­herds: Brethren, whence are you? They an­swered: Of Ha­ran.

29:5. And he asked them, say­ing: Know you La­ban, the son of Na­chor? They said: We know him.

29:6. He said: Is he in health? He is in health, say they: and be­hold, Rachel, his daugh­ter, cometh with his flock.

29:7. And Ja­cob said: There is yet much day re­main­ing, nei­ther is it time to bring the flocks in­to the folds again: first give the sheep drink, and so lead them back to feed.

29:8. They an­swered: We can­not, till all the cat­tle be gath­ered to­geth­er, and we re­move the stone from the well’s mouth, that we may wa­ter the flocks.

29:9. They were yet speak­ing, and be­hold Rachel came with her fa­ther’s sheep; for she fed the flock.

29:10. And when Ja­cob saw her, and knew her to be his cousin ger­man, and that they were the sheep of La­ban, his un­cle: he re­moved the stone where­with the well was closed.

29:11. And hav­ing wa­tered the flock, he kissed her: and lift­ing up his voice wept.

29:12. And he told her that he was her fa­ther’s broth­er, and the son of Re­bec­ca: but she went in haste and told her fa­ther.

29:13. Who, when he heard that Ja­cob his sis­ter’s son was come, ran forth to meet him: and em­brac­ing him, and hearti­ly kiss­ing him, brought him in­to his house. And when he had heard the caus­es of his jour­ney,

29:14. He an­swered: Thou art my bone and my flesh. And af­ter the days of one month were ex­pired,

29:15. He said to him: Be­cause thou art my broth­er, shalt thou serve me with­out wages? Tell me what wages thou wilt have.

29:16. Now he had two daugh­ters, the name of the el­der was Lia; and the younger was called Rachel.

29:17. But Lia was blear-​eyed: Rachel was well favoured, and of a beau­ti­ful coun­te­nance.

29:18. And Ja­cob be­ing in love with her, said: I will serve thee sev­en years for Rachel, thy younger daugh­ter.

29:19. La­ban an­swered: It is bet­ter that I give her to thee than to an­oth­er man; stay with me.

29:20. So Ja­cob served sev­en years for Rachel: and they seemed but a few days, be­cause of the great­ness of his love.

29:21. And he said to La­ban: Give me my wife; for now the time is ful­filled, that I may go in un­to her.

29:22. And he, hav­ing in­vit­ed a great num­ber of his friends to the feast, made the mar­riage.

29:23. And at night he brought in Lia, his daugh­ter, to him,

29:24. Giv­ing his daugh­ter a hand­maid, named Zel­pha. Now when Ja­cob had gone in to her ac­cord­ing to cus­tom, when morn­ing was come he saw it was Lia.

29:25. And he said to his fa­ther-​in-​law: What is it that thou didst mean to do? did not I serve thee for Rachel? why hast thou de­ceived me?

29:26. La­ban an­swered: It is not the cus­tom in this place, to give the younger in mar­riage first.

29:27. Make up the week of days of this match: and I will give thee her al­so, for the ser­vice that thou shalt ren­der me oth­er sev­en years.

29:28. He yield­ed to his plea­sure: and af­ter the week was past, he mar­ried Rachel:

29:29. To whom her fa­ther gave Bala, for her ser­vant.

29:30. And hav­ing at length ob­tained the mar­riage he wished for, he pre­ferred the love of the lat­ter be­fore the for­mer, and served with him oth­er sev­en years.

29:31. And the Lord see­ing that he de­spised Lia, opened her womb, but her sis­ter re­mained bar­ren.

29:32. And she con­ceived and bore a son, and called his name Ruben, say­ing: The Lord saw my af­flic­tion: now my hus­band will love me.

29:33. And again she con­ceived and bore a son, and said: Be­cause the Lord heard that I was de­spised, he hath giv­en this al­so to me: and she called his name Sime­on.

29:34. And she con­ceived the third time, and bore an­oth­er son, and said: Now al­so my hus­band will be joined to me, be­cause I have borne him three sons: and there­fore she called his name Levi.

29:35. The fourth time she con­ceived and bore a son, and said: Now will I praise the Lord: and for this she called him Ju­da. And she left bear­ing.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 30

Rachel, be­ing bar­ren, de­liv­ereth her hand­maid to Ja­cob; she beareth two sons. Lia ceas­ing to bear, giveth al­so her hand­maid, and she beareth two more. Then Lia beareth oth­er two sons and one daugh­ter. Rachel beareth Joseph. Ja­cob, de­sirous to re­turn home, is hired to stay for a cer­tain part of the flock’s in­crease, where­by he be­cometh ex­ceed­ing rich.

30:1. And Rachel see­ing her­self with­out chil­dren, en­vied her sis­ter, and said to her hus­band: Give me chil­dren, oth­er­wise I shall die.

30:2. And Ja­cob be­ing an­gry with her, an­swered: Am I as God, who hath de­prived thee of the fruit of thy womb?

30:3. But she said: I have here my ser­vant Bala: go in un­to her, that she may bear up­on my knees, and I may have chil­dren by her.

30:4. And she gave him Bala in mar­riage: who,

30:5. When her hus­band had gone in un­to her, con­ceived and bore a son.

30:6. And Rachel said: The Lord hath judged for me, and hath heard my voice, giv­ing me a son; and there­fore she called his name Dan.

30:7. And again Bala con­ceived, and bore an­oth­er,

30:8. For whom Rachel said: God hath com­pared me with my sis­ter, and I have pre­vailed: and she called him Neph­thali.

30:9. Lia per­ceiv­ing that she had left of bear­ing, gave Zel­pha, her hand­maid, to her hus­band.

30:10. And when she had con­ceived, and brought forth a son,

30:11. She said: Hap­pi­ly. And there­fore called his name Gad.

30:12. Zel­pha al­so bore an­oth­er.

30:13. And Lia said: This is for my hap­pi­ness: for wom­en will call me blessed. There­fore she called him As­er.

30:14. And Ruben go­ing out in the time of the wheat har­vest in­to the field, found man­drakes: which he brought to his moth­er Lia. And Rachel said: Give me part of thy son’s man­drakes.

30:15. She an­swered: Dost thou think it a small mat­ter, that thou hast tak­en my hus­band from me, un­less thou take al­so my son’s man­drakes? Rachel said: He shall sleep with thee this night, for thy son’s man­drakes.

30:16. And when Ja­cob re­turned at even from the field, Lia went out to meet him, and said: Thou shalt come in un­to me, be­cause I have hired thee for my son’s man­drakes. And he slept with her that night.

30:17. And God heard her prayers; and she con­ceived: and bore a fifth son:

30:18. And said: God hath giv­en me a re­ward, be­cause I gave my hand­maid to my hus­band. And she called his name Is­sachar.

30:19. And Lia con­ceived again, and bore the sixth son,

30:20. And said: God hath en­dowed me with a good dowry; this turn al­so my hus­band will be with me, be­cause I have borne him six sons: and there­fore she called his name Zab­ulon.

30:21. Af­ter whom she bore a daugh­ter, named Di­na.

30:22. The Lord al­so re­mem­ber­ing Rachel, heard her, and opened her womb.

30:23. And she con­ceived, and bore a son, say­ing: God hath tak­en away my re­proach.

30:24. And she called his name Joseph: say­ing: The Lord give me al­so an­oth­er son.

30:25. And when Joseph was born, Ja­cob said to his fa­ther-​in-​law: Send me away, that I may re­turn in­to my coun­try, and to my land.

30:26. Give me my wives, and my chil­dren, for whom I have served thee, that I may de­part: thou know­est the ser­vice that I have ren­dered thee.

30:27. La­ban said to him: Let me find favour in thy sight: I have learned, by ex­pe­ri­ence, that God hath blessed me for thy sake.

30:28. Ap­point thy wages which I shall give thee.

30:29. But he an­swered: Thou know­est how I have served thee, and how great thy pos­ses­sion hath been in my hands.

30:30. Thou hadst but lit­tle be­fore I came to thee, and now thou art be­come rich: and the Lord hath blessed thee at my com­ing. It is rea­son­able, there­fore, that I should now pro­vide al­so for my own house.

30:31. And La­ban said: What shall I give thee? But he said: I re­quire noth­ing; but if thou wilt do what I de­mand, I will feed and keep thy sheep again.

30:32. Go round through all thy flocks, and sep­arate all the sheep of divers colours, and speck­led; and all that is brown and spot­ted, and of divers colours, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall be my wages.

30:33. And my jus­tice shall an­swer for me to­mor­row be­fore thee, when the time of the bar­gain shall come; and all that is not of divers colours, and spot­ted, and brown, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall ac­cuse me of theft.

30:34. And La­ban said: I like well what thou de­man­dest.

30:35. And he sep­arat­ed the same day the she-​goats, and the sheep, and the he-​goats, and the rams of divers colours, and spot­ted; and all the flock of one colour, that is, of white and black fleece, he de­liv­ered in­to the hands of his sons.

30:36. And he set the space of three days jour­ney be­twixt him­self and his son-​in-​law, who fed the rest of his flock.

30:37. And Ja­cob took green rods of poplar, and of al­mond, and of plane-​trees, and pilled them in part: so when the bark was tak­en off, in the parts that were pilled, there ap­peared white­ness: but the parts that were whole, re­mained green: and by this means the colour was divers.

30:38. And he put them in the troughs, where the wa­ter was poured out; that when the flocks should come to drink, they might have the rods be­fore their eyes, and in the sight of them might con­ceive.

30:39. And it came to pass, that in the very heat of coition, the sheep be­held the rods, and brought forth spot­ted, and of divers colours, and speck­led.

30:40. And Ja­cob sep­arat­ed the flock, and put the rods in the troughs be­fore the eyes of the rams; and all the white and the black were La­ban’s, and the rest were Ja­cob’s, when the flocks were sep­arat­ed one from the oth­er.

30:41. So when the ewes went first to ram, Ja­cob put the rods in the troughs of wa­ter be­fore the eyes of the rams, and of the ewes, that they might con­ceive while they were look­ing up­on them.

30:42. But when the lat­er com­ing was, and the last con­ceiv­ing, he did not put them. And those that were late­ward, be­came La­ban’s; and they of the first time, Ja­cob’s.

30:43. And the man was en­riched ex­ceed­ing­ly, and he had many flocks, maid-​ser­vants and men-​ser­vants, camels and ass­es.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 31

Ja­cob’s de­par­ture: he is pur­sued and over­tak­en by La­ban. They make a covenant.

31:1. But af­ter that he had heard the words of the sons of La­ban, say­ing: Ja­cob hath tak­en away all that was our fa­ther’s, and be­ing en­riched by his sub­stance is be­come great.

31:2. And per­ceiv­ing al­so, that La­ban’s coun­te­nance was not to­wards him as yes­ter­day and the oth­er day.

31:3. Es­pe­cial­ly the Lord say­ing to him: Re­turn in­to the land of thy fa­thers and to thy kin­dred, and I will be with thee.

31:4. He sent, and called Rachel and Lia in­to the field, where he fed the flocks,

31:5. And said to them: I see your fa­ther’s coun­te­nance is not to­wards me as yes­ter­day and the oth­er day: but the God of my fa­ther hath been with me.

31:6. And you know that I have served your fa­ther to the ut­ter­most of my pow­er.

31:7. Yea your fa­ther hath al­so over­reached me, and hath changed my wages ten times: and yet God hath not suf­fered him to hurt me.

31:8. If at any time, he said: The speck­led shall be thy wages: all the sheep brought forth speck­led: but when he said on the con­trary: Thou shalt take all the white one for thy wages: all the flocks brought forth white ones.

31:9. And God hath tak­en your fa­ther’s sub­stance, and giv­en it to me.

31:10. For af­ter the time came of the ewes con­ceiv­ing, I lift­ed up my eyes, and saw in my sleep, that the males which leaped up­on the fe­males were of divers colours, and spot­ted, and speck­led.

31:11. And the an­gel of God said to me in my sleep: Ja­cob. And I an­swered: Here I am.

31:12. And he said: Lift up thy eyes, and see that all the males leap­ing up­on the fe­males, are of divers colours, spot­ted and speck­led. For I have seen all that La­ban hath done to thee.

31:13. I am the God of Bethel, where thou didst anoint the stone, and make a vow to me. Now there­fore arise, and go out of this land, and re­turn in­to thy na­tive coun­try.

31:14. And Rachel and Lia an­swered: Have we any thing left among the goods and in­her­itance of our fa­ther’s house?

31:15. Hath he not count­ed us as strangers, and sold us, and eat­en up the price of us?

31:16. But God hath tak­en our fa­ther’s rich­es, and de­liv­ered them to us, and to our chil­dren: where­fore, do all that God hath com­mand­ed thee.

31:17. Then Ja­cob rose up, and hav­ing set his chil­dren and wives up­on camels, went his way.

31:18. And he took all his sub­stance, and flocks, and what­so­ev­er he had got­ten in Mesopotamia, and went for­ward to Isaac, his fa­ther, to the land of Chanaan.

31:19. At that time La­ban was gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole away her fa­ther’s idols.

Her fa­ther’s idols. . .By this it ap­pears that La­ban was an idol­ater; and some of the fa­thers are of opin­ion that Rachel stole away these idols to with­draw him from idol­atry, re­mov­ing the oc­ca­sion of his sin.

31:20. And Ja­cob would not con­fess to his fa­ther-​in-​law that he was fly­ing away.

31:21. And when he was gone, to­geth­er with all that be­longed to him, and hav­ing passed the riv­er, was go­ing on to­wards mount Galaad,

31:22. It was told La­ban on the third day, that Ja­cob fled.

31:23. And he took his brethren with him, and pur­sued af­ter him sev­en days; and over­took him in the mount of Galaad.

31:24. And he saw in a dream God, say­ing to him: Take heed thou speak not any thing harsh­ly against Ja­cob.

31:25. Now Ja­cob had pitched his tent in the moun­tain: and when he, with his brethren, had over­tak­en him, he pitched his tent in the same mount of Galaad.

31:26. And he said to Ja­cob: Why hast thou done thus, to car­ry away, with­out my knowl­edge, my daugh­ters as cap­tives tak­en with the sword?

31:27. Why wouldst thou run away pri­vate­ly, and not ac­quaint me, that I might have brought thee on the way with joy, and with songs, and with tim­brels, and with harps?

31:28. Thou hast not suf­fered me to kiss my sons and daugh­ters; thou hast done fool­ish­ly; and now in­deed,

31:29. It is in my pow­er to re­turn thee evil; but the God of your fa­ther said to me yes­ter­day: Take heed thou speak not any thing harsh­ly against Ja­cob.

31:30. Sup­pose thou didst de­sire to go to thy friends, and hadst a long­ing af­ter thy fa­ther’s house: why hast thou stolen away my gods?

31:31. Ja­cob an­swered: That I de­part­ed un­known to thee, it was for fear lest thou wouldst take away thy daugh­ters by force.

31:32. But, where­as, thou chargest me with theft: with whom­so­ev­er thou shalt find thy gods, let him be slain be­fore our brethren. Search, and if thou find any of thy things with me, take them away. Now when he said this, he knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.

31:33. So La­ban went in­to the tent of Ja­cob, and of Lia, and of both the hand­maids, and found them not. And when he was en­tered in­to Rachel’s tent,

31:34. She, in haste, hid the idols un­der the camel’s fur­ni­ture, and sat up­on them: and when he had searched all the tent, and found noth­ing,

31:35. She said: Let not my lord be an­gry that I can­not rise up be­fore thee, be­cause it has now hap­pened to me ac­cord­ing to the cus­tom of wom­en. So his care­ful search was in vain.

31:36. And Ja­cob be­ing an­gry, said in a chid­ing man­ner: For what fault of mine, and for what of­fence on my part hast thou so hot­ly pur­sued me,

31:37. And searched all my house­hold stuff? What hast thou found of all the sub­stance of thy house? lay it here be­fore my brethren, and thy brethren, and let them judge be­tween me and thee.

31:38. Have I, there­fore, been with thee twen­ty years? thy ewes and goats were not bar­ren, the rams of thy flocks I did not eat:

31:39. Nei­ther did I shew thee that which the beast had torn; I made good all the dam­age: what­so­ev­er was lost by theft, thou didst ex­act it of me:

31:40. Day and night was I parched with heat, and with frost, and sleep de­part­ed from my eyes.

31:41. And in this man­ner have I served thee in thy house twen­ty years, four­teen for thy daugh­ters, and six for thy flocks: thou hast changed al­so my wages ten times.

31:42. Un­less the God of my fa­ther, Abra­ham, and the fear of Isaac, had stood by me, per­ad­ven­ture now thou hadst sent me away naked: God be­held my af­flic­tion and the labour of my hands, and re­buked thee yes­ter­day.

31:43. La­ban an­swered him: The daugh­ters are mine, and the chil­dren, and thy flocks, and all things that thou seest are mine: what can I do to my chil­dren, and grand­chil­dren?

31:44. Come, there­fore, let us en­ter in­to a league; that it may be for a tes­ti­mo­ny be­tween me and thee.

31:45. And Ja­cob took a stone, and set it up for a ti­tle.

31:46. And he said to his brethren: Bring hith­er stones. And they, gath­er­ing stones to­geth­er, made a heap, and they ate up­on it.

31:47. And La­ban called it, The wit­ness heap; and Ja­cob, The hillock of tes­ti­mo­ny: each of them ac­cord­ing to the pro­pri­ety of his lan­guage.

31:48. And La­ban said: This heap shall be a wit­ness be­tween me and thee this day, and there­fore the name there­of was called Galaad, that is, The wit­ness heap.

31:49. The Lord be­hold and judge be­tween us, when we shall be gone one from the oth­er.

31:50. If thou af­flict my daugh­ters, and if thou bring in oth­er wives over them: none is wit­ness of our speech but God, who is present and be­hold­eth.

31:51. And he said again to Ja­cob: Be­hold this heap, and the stone which I have set up be­tween me and thee,

31:52. Shall be a wit­ness: this heap, I say, and the stone, be they for a tes­ti­mo­ny, if ei­ther I shall pass be­yond it go­ing to­wards thee, or thou shalt pass be­yond it think­ing harm to me.

31:53. The God of Abra­ham, and the God of Na­chor, the God of their fa­ther, judge be­tween us. And Ja­cob swore by the fear of his fa­ther Isaac:

31:54. And af­ter he had of­fered sac­ri­fices in the moun­tain, he called his brethren to eat bread. And when they had eat­en, they lodged there:

31:55. But La­ban arose in the night, and kissed his sons and daugh­ters, and blessed them: and re­turned to his place.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 32

Ja­cob’s vi­sion of an­gels; his mes­sage and presents to Esau; his wrestling with an an­gel.

32:1. Ja­cob al­so went on the jour­ney he had be­gun: and the an­gels of God met him.

32:2. And when he saw them, he said: These are the camps of God, and he called the name of that place Ma­hanaim, that is, Camps.

32:3. And he sent mes­sen­gers be­fore him to Esau, his broth­er, to the land of Seir, to the coun­try of Edom:

32:4. And he com­mand­ed them, say­ing: Thus shall ye speak to my lord Esau: Thus saith thy broth­er Ja­cob: I have so­journed with La­ban, and have been with him un­til this day:

32:5. I have ox­en, and ass­es, and sheep, and menser­vants, and wom­enser­vants: and now I send a mes­sage to my lord, that I may find favour in thy sight.

32:6. And the mes­sen­gers re­turned to Ja­cob, say­ing: We came to Esau, thy broth­er, and be­hold he cometh with speed to meet thee with four hun­dred men.

32:7. Then Ja­cob was great­ly afraid; and in his fear di­vid­ed the peo­ple that was with him, and the flocks, and the sheep, and the ox­en, and the camels, in­to two com­pa­nies,

32:8. Say­ing: If Esau come to one com­pa­ny, and de­stroy it, the oth­er com­pa­ny that is left, shall es­cape.

32:9. And Ja­cob said: O God of my fa­ther Abra­ham, and God of my fa­ther Isaac: O Lord who saidst to me, Re­turn to thy land, and to the place of thy birth, and I will do well for thee.

32:10. I am not wor­thy of the least of all thy mer­cies, and of thy truth which thou hast ful­filled to thy ser­vant. With my staff I passed over this Jor­dan; and now I re­turn with two com­pa­nies.

32:11. De­liv­er me from the hand of my broth­er Esau, for I am great­ly afraid of him; lest per­haps he come, and kill the moth­er with the chil­dren.

32:12. Thou didst say, that thou wouldst do well by me, and mul­ti­ply my seed like the sand of the sea, which can­not be num­bered for mul­ti­tude.

32:13. And when he had slept there that night, he set apart, of the things which he had, presents for his broth­er Esau,

32:14. Two hun­dred she-​goats, twen­ty he-​goats, two hun­dred ewes, and twen­ty rams,

32:15. Thir­ty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and twen­ty bulls, twen­ty she-​ass­es, and ten of their foals.

32:16. And he sent them by the hands of his ser­vants, ev­ery drove by it­self, and he said to his ser­vants: Go be­fore me, and let there be a space be­tween drove and drove.

32:17. And he com­mand­ed the first, say­ing: If thou meet my broth­er Esau, and he ask thee: Whose art thou? or whith­er goest thou? or whose are these be­fore thee?

32:18. Thou shalt an­swer: Thy ser­vant Ja­cob’s: he hath sent them as a present to my lord Esau; and he cometh af­ter us.

32:19. In like man­ner he com­mand­ed the sec­ond, and the third, and all that fol­lowed the droves, say­ing: Speak ye the same words to Esau, when ye find him.

32:20. And ye shall add: Thy ser­vant Ja­cob him­self al­so fol­loweth af­ter us; for he said: I will ap­pease him with the presents that go be­fore, and af­ter­wards I will see him, per­haps he will be gra­cious to me.

32:21. So the presents went be­fore him, but him­self lodged that night in the camp.

32:22. And ris­ing ear­ly, he took his two wives and his two hand­maids, with his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of Jaboc.

32:23. And when all things were brought over that be­longed to him,

32:24. He re­mained alone; and be­hold, a man wres­tled with him till morn­ing.

A man, etc. . .This was an an­gel in hu­man shape, as we learn from Os­ee 12.4. He is called God, ver. 28 and 30, be­cause he rep­re­sent­ed the per­son of the Son of God. This wrestling, in which Ja­cob, as­sist­ed by God, was a match for an an­gel, was so or­dered (ver. 28,) that he might learn by this ex­per­iment of the di­vine as­sis­tance, that nei­ther Esau, nor any oth­er man, should have pow­er to hurt him.–It was al­so spir­itu­al, as ap­peareth by his earnest prayer, urg­ing and at last ob­tain­ing the an­gel’s bless­ing.

32:25. And when he saw that he could not over­come him, he touched the sinew of his thigh, and forth­with it shrank.

32:26. And he said to him: Let me go, for it is break of day. He an­swered: I will not let thee go, ex­cept thou bless me.

32:27. And he said: What is thy name? He an­swered: Ja­cob.

32:28. But he said: Thy name shall not be called Ja­cob, but Is­rael; for if thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou pre­vail against men?

32:29. Ja­cob asked him: Tell me by what name art thou called? He an­swered: Why dost thou ask my name? And he blessed him in the same place.

32:30. And Ja­cob called the name of the place Phanuel, say­ing: I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.

Phanuel. . .This word sig­ni­fies the face of God, or the sight, or see­ing of God.

32:31. And im­me­di­ate­ly the sun rose up­on him, af­ter he was past Phanuel; but he halt­ed on his foot.

32:32. There­fore the chil­dren of Is­rael, un­to this day, eat not the sinew, that shrank in Ja­cob’s thigh: be­cause he touched the sinew of his thigh and it shrank.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 33

Ja­cob and Esau meet: Ja­cob goeth to Salem, where he raiseth an al­tar.

33:1. And Ja­cob lift­ing up his eyes, saw Esau com­ing, and with him four hun­dred men: and he di­vid­ed the chil­dren of Lia and of Rachel, and of the two hand­maids.

33:2. And he put both the hand­maids and their chil­dren fore­most: and Lia and her chil­dren in the sec­ond place: and Rachel and Joseph last.

33:3. And he went for­ward and bowed down with his face to the ground sev­en times, un­til his broth­er came near.

33:4. Then Esau ran to meet his broth­er, and em­braced him: and clasp­ing him fast about the neck, and kiss­ing him, wept.

33:5. And lift­ing up his eyes, he saw the wom­en and their chil­dren, and said: What mean these? And do they be­long to thee? He an­swered: They are the chil­dren which God hath giv­en to me, thy ser­vant.

33:6. Then the hand­maids and their chil­dren came near and bowed them­selves.

33:7. Lia al­so, with her chil­dren, came near and bowed down in like man­ner; and last of all, Joseph and Rachel bowed down.

33:8. And Esau said: What are the droves that I met? He an­swered: That I might find favour be­fore my lord.

33:9. But he said: I have plen­ty, my broth­er, keep what is thine for thy­self.

33:10. And Ja­cob said: Do not so I be­seech thee, but if I have found favour in thy eyes, re­ceive a lit­tle present at my hands: for I have seen thy face, as if I should have seen the coun­te­nance of God: be gra­cious to me,

33:11. And take the bless­ing which I have brought thee, and which God hath giv­en me, who giveth all things. He took it with much ado at his broth­er’s earnest press­ing him,

33:12. And said: Let us go on to­geth­er, and I will ac­com­pa­ny thee in thy jour­ney.

33:13. And Ja­cob said: My lord, thou know­est that I have with me ten­der chil­dren, and sheep, and kine with young: which if I should cause to be over­driv­en, in one day all the flocks will die.

33:14. May it please my lord to go be­fore his ser­vant: and I will fol­low soft­ly af­ter him, as I shall see my chil­dren to be able, un­til I come to my lord in Seir.

33:15. Esau an­swered: I be­seech thee, that some of the peo­ple, at least, who are with me, may stay to ac­com­pa­ny thee in the way. And he said: There is no ne­ces­si­ty: I want noth­ing else but on­ly to find favour, my lord, in thy sight.

33:16. So Esau re­turned that day, the way that he came, to Seir.

33:17. And Ja­cob came to So­coth: where hav­ing built a house, and pitched tents, he called the name of the place So­coth, that is, Tents.

33:18. And he passed over to Salem, a city of the Si­chemites, which is in the land of Chanaan, af­ter he re­turned from Mesopotamia of Syr­ia: and he dwelt by the town.

33:19. And he bought that part of the field, in which he pitched his tents, of the chil­dren of Hemor, the fa­ther of Sichem, for a hun­dred lambs.

33:20. And rais­ing an al­tar there, he in­voked up­on it the most mighty God of Is­rael.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 34

Di­na is rav­ished, for which the Si­chemites are de­stroyed.

34:1. And Di­na the daugh­ter of Lia went out to see the wom­en of that coun­try.

34:2. And when Sichem the son of Hemor the Hevite, the prince of that land, saw her, he was in love with her: and took her away, and lay with her, rav­ish­ing the vir­gin.

34:3. And his soul was fast knit un­to her; and where­as she was sad, he com­fort­ed her with sweet words.

34:4. And go­ing to Hemor his fa­ther, he said: Get me this damsel to wife.

34:5. But when Ja­cob had heard this, his sons be­ing ab­sent, and em­ployed in feed­ing the cat­tle, he held his peace till they came back.

34:6. And when Hemor the fa­ther of Sichem was come out to speak to Ja­cob,

34:7. Be­hold his sons came from the field: and hear­ing what had passed, they were ex­ceed­ing an­gry, be­cause he had done a foul thing in Is­rael, and com­mit­ted an un­law­ful act, in rav­ish­ing Ja­cob’s daugh­ter.

34:8. And Hemor spoke to them: The soul of my son Sichem has a long­ing for your daugh­ter: give her him to wife:

34:9. And let us con­tract mar­riages one with an­oth­er: give us your daugh­ters, and take you our daugh­ters.

34:10. And dwell with us: the land is at your com­mand, till, trade, and pos­sess it.

34:11. Sichem al­so said to her fa­ther and to her brethren: Let me find favour in your sight, and what­so­ev­er you shall ap­point I will give:

34:12. Raise the dowry, and ask gifts, and I will glad­ly give what you shall de­mand: on­ly give me this damsel to wife.

34:13. The sons of Ja­cob an­swered Sichem and his fa­ther de­ceit­ful­ly, be­ing en­raged at the de­flow­er­ing of their sis­ter:

De­ceit­ful­ly. . .The sons of Ja­cob, on this oc­ca­sion, were guilty of a grievous sin, as well by false­ly pre­tend­ing re­li­gion, as by ex­cess of re­venge: though oth­er­wise their zeal against so foul a crime was com­mend­able.

34:14. We can­not do what you de­mand, nor give our sis­ter to one that is un­cir­cum­cised; which with us is un­law­ful and abom­inable.

34:15. But in this we may be al­lied with you, if you will be like us, and all the male sex among you be cir­cum­cised:

34:16. Then will we mu­tu­al­ly give and take your daugh­ters, and ours; and we will dwell with you, and will be one peo­ple:

34:17. But if you will not be cir­cum­cised, we will take our daugh­ter and de­part.

34:18. Their of­fer pleased Hemor, and Sichem, his son:

34:19. And the young man made no de­lay, but forth­with ful­filled what was re­quired: for he loved the damsel ex­ceed­ing­ly, and he was the great­est man in all his fa­ther’s house.

34:20. And go­ing in­to the gate of the city, they spoke to the peo­ple:

34:21. These men are peace­able, and are will­ing to dwell with us: let them trade in the land, and till it, which be­ing large and wide wan­teth men to till it: we shall take their daugh­ters for wives, and we will give them ours.

34:22. One thing there is for which so great a good is de­ferred: We must cir­cum­cise ev­ery male among us, fol­low­ing the man­ner of the na­tion.

34:23. And their sub­stance, and cat­tle, and all that they pos­sess, shall be ours; on­ly in this let us con­de­scend, and by dwelling to­geth­er, we shall make one peo­ple.

34:24. And they all agreed, and cir­cum­cised all the males.

34:25. And be­hold the third day, when the pain of the wound was great­est: two of the sons of Ja­cob, Sime­on and Levi, the broth­ers of Di­na, tak­ing their swords, en­tered bold­ly in­to the city and slew all the men.

34:26. And they killed al­so Hemor and Sichem, and took away their sis­ter Di­na out of Sichem’s house.

34:27. And when they were gone out, the oth­er sons of Ja­cob came up­on the slain; and plun­dered the city in re­venge of the rape.

34:28. And they took their sheep, and their herds, and their ass­es, wast­ing all they had in their hous­es and in their fields.

34:29. And their chil­dren and wives they took cap­tive.

34:30. And when they had bold­ly per­pe­trat­ed these things, Ja­cob said to Sime­on and Levi: You have trou­bled me, and made me hate­ful to the Chanaan­ites and Pherezites, the in­hab­itants of this land. We are few: they will gath­er them­selves to­geth­er and kill me; and both I, and my house shall be de­stroyed.

34:31. They an­swered: Should they abuse our sis­ter as a strum­pet?

Gen­esis Chap­ter 35

Ja­cob pur­geth his fam­ily from idols: goeth by God’s com­mand­ment to Bethel, and there buildeth an al­tar. God ap­pear­ing again to Ja­cob bles­seth him, and changeth his name in­to Is­rael. Rachel di­eth in child­birth. Isaac al­so di­eth.

35:1. In the mean time God said to Ja­cob: Arise and go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an al­tar to God, who ap­peared to thee when thou didst flee from Esau, thy broth­er.

35:2. And Ja­cob hav­ing called to­geth­er all his house­hold, said: Cast away the strange gods that are among you, and be cleansed, and change your gar­ments.

35:3. Arise, and let us go up to Bethel, that we may make there an al­tar to God; who heard me in the day of my af­flic­tion, and ac­com­pa­ined me in my jour­ney.

35:4. So they gave him all the strange gods they had, and the ear­rings which were in their ears: and he buried them un­der the tur­pen­tine tree, that is be­hind the city of Sichem.

35:5. And when they were de­part­ed, the ter­ror of God fell up­on all the cities round about, and they durst not pur­sue af­ter them as they went away.

35:6. And Ja­cob came to Luza, which is in the land of Chanaan, sur­named Bethel: he and all the peo­ple that were with him.

35:7. And he built there an al­tar, and called the name of that place, The house of God: for there God ap­peared to him when he fled from his broth­er.

35:8. At the same time Deb­ora, the nurse of Re­bec­ca, died, and was buried at the foot of Bethel, un­der an oak, and the name of that place was called, The oak of weep­ing.

35:9. And God ap­peared again to Ja­cob, af­ter he re­turned from Mesopotamia of Syr­ia, and he blessed him,

35:10. Say­ing: Thou shalt not be called any more Ja­cob, but Is­rael shall be thy name. And he called him Is­rael.

Is­rael. . .This name sig­ni­fi­eth one that pre­vaileth with God.

35:11. And said to him: I am God almighty, in­crease thou and be mul­ti­plied. Na­tions and peo­ples of na­tions shall be from thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins.

35:12. And the land which I gave to Abra­ham and Isaac, I will give to thee, and to thy seed af­ter thee.

35:13. And he de­part­ed from him.

35:14. But he set up a mon­ument of stone, in the place where God had spo­ken to him: pour­ing drink-​of­fer­ings up­on it, and pour­ing oil there­on:

35:15. And call­ing the name of that place Bethel.

35:16. And go­ing forth from thence, he came in the spring time to the land which lead­eth to Ephra­ta: where­in when Rachel was in tra­vail,

35:17. By rea­son of her hard labour, she be­gan to be in dan­ger, and the mid­wife said to her: Fear not, for thou shalt have this son al­so.

35:18. And when her soul was de­part­ing for pain, and death was now at hand, she called the name of her son Benoni, that is, the son of my pain: but his fa­ther called him Ben­jamin, that is, the son of the right hand.

35:19. So Rachel died, and was buried in the high­way that lead­eth to Ephra­ta, this is Beth­le­hem.

35:20. And Ja­cob erect­ed a pil­lar over her sepul­chre: this is the pil­lar of Rachel’s mon­ument, to this day.

35:21. De­part­ing thence, he pitched his tent be­yond the Flock tow­er.

35:22. And when he dwelt in that coun­try, Ruben went, and slept with Bala the con­cu­bine of his fa­ther: which he was not ig­no­rant of. Now the sons of Ja­cob were twelve.

The con­cu­bine. . .She was his law­ful wife; but, ac­cord­ing to the style of the He­brews, is called con­cu­bine, be­cause of her servile ex­trac­tion.

35:23. The sons of Lia: Ruben the first born, and Sime­on, and Levi, and Ju­da, and Is­sachar, and Zab­ulon.

35:24. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Ben­jamin.

35:25. The sons of Bala, Rachel’s hand­maid: Dan and Neph­thali.

35:26. The sons of Zel­pha, Lia’s hand­maid: Gad and As­er: these are the sons of Ja­cob, that were born to him in Mesopotamia of Syr­ia.

35:27. And he came to Isaac his fa­ther in Mam­bre, the city of Ar­bee, this is He­bron: where­in Abra­ham and Isaac so­journed.

35:28. And the days of Isaac were a hun­dred and eighty years.

35:29. And be­ing spent with age he died, and was gath­ered to his peo­ple, be­ing old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Ja­cob buried him.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 36

Esau with his wives and chil­dren parteth from Ja­cob. An ac­count of his de­scen­dants, and of the first kings of Edom.

36:1. And these are the gen­er­ations of Esau, the same is Edom.

36:2. Esau took wives of the daugh­ters of Chanaan: Ada the daugh­ter of Elon the Het­hite, and Ooliba­ma the daugh­ter of Ana, the daugh­ter of Se­beon the Hevite:

Ada. . .These wives of Esau are called by oth­er names, Gen. 26. But it was very com­mon amongst the an­cients for the same per­sons to have two names, as Esau him­self was al­so called Edom.

36:3. And Base­math, the daugh­ter of Is­mael, sis­ter of Naba­joth.

36:4. And Ada bore Elip­haz: Base­math bore Rahuel.

36:5. Ooliba­ma bore Je­hus, and Ih­elon, and Core. These are the sons of Esau, that were born to him in the land of Chanaan.

36:6. And Esau took his wives, and his sons and daugh­ters, and ev­ery soul of his house, and his sub­stance, and cat­tle, and all that he was able to ac­quire in the land of Chanaan: and went in­to an­oth­er coun­try, and de­part­ed from his broth­er Ja­cob.

36:7. For they were ex­ceed­ing rich, and could not dwell to­geth­er: nei­ther was the land in which they so­journed able to bear them, for the mul­ti­tude of their flocks.

36:8. And Esau dwelt in mount Seir: he is Edom.

36:9. And these are the gen­er­ations of Esau, the fa­ther of Edom, in mount Seir.

36:10. And these the names of his sons: Elip­haz the son of Ada, the wife of Esau: and Rahuel, the son of Base­math, his wife.

36:11. And Elip­haz had sons: The­man, Omar, Sepho, and Gath­am and Cenez.

36:12. And Tham­na was the con­cu­bine of Elip­haz, the son of Esau: and she bore him Amalech. These are the sons of Ada, the wife of Esau.

36:13. And the sons of Rahuel were Na­hath and Zara, Sam­ma and Meza. These were the sons of Base­math, the wife of Esau.

36:14. And these were the sons of Ooliba­ma, the daugh­ter of Ana, the daugh­ter of Se­beon, the wife of Esau, whom she bore to him, Je­hus, and Ih­elon, and Core.

36:15. These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Elip­haz, the first­born of Esau: duke The­man, duke Omar, duke Sepho, duke Cenez,

36:16. Duke Core, duke Gath­am, duke Amalech: these are the sons of Elip­haz, in the land of Edom, and these the sons of Ada.

36:17. And these were the sons of Rahuel, the son of Esau: duke Na­hath, duke Zara, duke Sam­ma, duke Meza. And these are the dukes of Rahuel, in the land of Edom: these the sons of Base­math, the wife of Esau.

36:18. And these the sons of Ooliba­ma, the wife of Esau: duke Je­hus, duke Ih­elon, duke Core. These are the dukes of Ooliba­ma, the daugh­ter of Ana, and wife of Esau.

36:19. These are the sons of Esau, and these the dukes of them: the same is Edom.

36:20. These are the sons of Seir, the Hor­rite, the in­hab­itants of the land: Lotan, and Sobal, and Se­beon, and Ana,

36:21. And Di­son, and Es­er, and Dis­an. These are dukes of the Hor­rites, the sons of Seir, in the land of Edom.

36:22. And Lotan had sons: Hori and He­man. And the sis­ter of Lotan was Tham­na.

36:23. And these the sons of Sobal: Al­van, and Man­ahat, and Ebal, and Sepho, and On­am.

36:24. And these the sons of Se­beon: Aia and Ana. This is Ana that found the hot wa­ters in the wilder­ness, when he fed the ass­es of Se­beon, his fa­ther:

36:25. And he had a son Di­son, and a daugh­ter Ooliba­ma.

36:26. And these were the sons of Di­son: Ham­dan, and Es­eban, and Jethram, and Cha­ran.

36:27. These al­so were the sons of Es­er: Bal­aan, and Za­van, and Acan.

36:28. And Di­son had sons: Hus and Aram.

36:29. These were dukes of the Hor­rites: duke Lotan, duke Sobal, duke Se­beon, duke Ana,

36:30. Duke Di­son, duke Es­er, duke Dis­an: these were dukes of the Hor­rites that ruled in the land of Seir.

36:31. And the kings that ruled in the land of Edom, be­fore the chil­dren of Is­rael had a king, were these:

36:32. Bela the son of Be­or, and the name of his city Den­aba.

36:33. And Bela died, and Jobab, the son of Zara, of Bosra, reigned in his stead.

36:34. And when Jobab was dead, Husam, of the land of the The­man­ites, reigned in his stead.

36:35. And af­ter his death, Adad, the son of Badad, reigned in his stead, who de­feat­ed the Ma­di­an­ites in the coun­try of Boab; and the name of his city was Avith.

36:36. And when Adad was dead, there reigned in his stead, Sem­la, of Mas­re­ca.

36:37. And he be­ing dead, Saul, of the riv­er Ro­hoboth, reigned in his stead.

36:38. And when he al­so was dead, Bal­anan, the son of Acho­bor, suc­ceed­ed to the king­dom.

36:39. This man al­so be­ing dead, Adar reigned in his place; and the name of his city was Phau: and his wife was called Meetabel, the daugh­ter of Ma­tred, daugh­ter of Mezaab.

36:40. And these are the names of the dukes of Esau in their kin­dreds, and places, and call­ings: duke Tham­na, duke Al­va, duke Je­theth,

36:41. Duke Ooliba­ma, duke Ela, duke Phi­non,

36:42. Duke Cenez, duke The­man, duke Mab­sar,

36:43. Duke Magdiel, duke Hi­ram: these are the dukes of Edom dwelling in the land of their gov­ern­ment; the same is Esau, the fa­ther of the Edomites.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 37

Joseph’s dreams: he is sold by his brethren, and car­ried in­to Egypt.

37:1. And Ja­cob dwelt in the land of Chanaan, where­in his fa­ther so­journed.

37:2. And these are his gen­er­ations: Joseph, when he was six­teen years old, was feed­ing the flock with his brethren, be­ing but a boy: and he was with the sons of Bala and of Zel­pha his fa­ther’s wives: and he ac­cused his brethren to his fa­ther of a most wicked crime.

37:3. Now Is­rael loved Joseph above all his sons, be­cause he had him in his old age: and he made him a coat of divers colours.

37:4. And his brethren see­ing that he was loved by his fa­ther, more than all his sons, hat­ed hem, and could not speak peace­ably to him.

37:5. Now it fell out al­so that he told his brethren a dream, that he had dreamed: which oc­ca­sioned them to hate him the more.

A dream. . .These dreams of Joseph were prophet­ical, and sent from God; as were al­so those which he in­ter­pret­ed, Gen. 40. and 41.; oth­er­wise gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, the ob­serv­ing of dreams is con­demned in the Scrip­ture, as su­per­sti­tious and sin­ful. See Deut. 18.10; Ec­cli. 34.2,3.

37:6. And he said to them: Hear my dream which I dreamed.

37:7. I thought we were bind­ing sheaves in the field: and my sheaf arose as it were, and stood, and your sheaves stand­ing about bowed down be­fore my sheaf.

37:8. His brethren an­swered: Shalt thou be our king? or shall we be sub­ject to thy do­min­ion? There­fore this mat­ter of his dreams and words min­is­tered nour­ish­ment to their en­vy and ha­tred.

37:9. He dreamed al­so an­oth­er dream, which he told his brethren, say­ing: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars wor­ship­ping me.

37:10. And when he had told this to his fa­ther, and brethren, his fa­ther re­buked him and said: What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed? shall I and thy moth­er, and thy brethren wor­ship thee up­on the earth?

Wor­ship. . .This word is not used here to sig­ni­fy di­vine wor­ship, but an in­fe­ri­or ven­er­ation, ex­pressed by the bow­ing of the body, and that, ac­cord­ing to the man­ner of the east­ern na­tions, down to the ground.

37:11. His brethren there­fore en­vied him: but his fa­ther con­sid­ered the thing with him­self.

37:12. And when his brethren abode in Sechem, feed­ing their fa­ther’s flocks,

37:13. Is­rael said to him: Thy brethren feed the sheep in Sichem: come, I will send thee to them. And when he an­swered:

37:14. I am ready: he said to him: Go, and see if all things be well with thy brethren, and the cat­tle: and bring me word again what is do­ing. So be­ing sent from the vale of He­bron, he came to Sichem:

37:15. And a man found him there wan­der­ing in the field, and asked what he sought.

37:16. But he an­swered: I seek my brethren, tell me where they feed the flocks.

37:17. And the man said to him: They are de­part­ed from this place: for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothain. And Joseph went for­ward af­ter his brethren, and found them in Dothain.

37:18. And when they saw him afar off, be­fore he came nigh them, they thought to kill him:

37:19. And said one to an­oth­er: Be­hold the dream­er cometh.

37:20. Come, let us kill him, and cast him in­to some old pit: and we will say: Some evil beast hath de­voured him: and then it shall ap­pear what his dreams avail him:

37:21. And Ruben hear­ing this, en­deav­oured to de­liv­er him out of their hands, and said:

37:22. Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood: but cast him in­to this pit, that is in the wilder­ness, and keep your hands harm­less: now he said this, be­ing de­sirous to de­liv­er him out of their hands and to re­store him to his fa­ther.

37:23. And as soon as he came to his brethren, they forth­with stript him of his out­side coat, that was of divers colours:

37:24. And cast him in­to an old pit where there was not wa­ter.

37:25. And sit­ting down to eat bread, they saw some Is­maelites on their way com­ing from Galaad, with their camels, car­ry­ing spices, and balm, and myrrh to Egypt.

37:26. And Ju­da said to his brethren: What will it prof­it us to kill our broth­er, and con­ceal his blood?

37:27. It is bet­ter that he be sold to the Is­maelites, and that our hands be not de­filed: for he is our broth­er and our flesh. His brethren agreed to his words.

37:28. And when the Ma­di­an­ite mer­chants passed by, they drew him out of the pit, and sold him to the Is­maelites, for twen­ty pieces of sil­ver: and they led him in­to Egypt.

37:29. And Ruben re­turn­ing to the pit, found not the boy:

37:30. And rend­ing his gar­ments he went to his brethren, and said: The boy doth not ap­pear, and whith­er shall I go?

37:31. And they took his coat, and dipped it in the blood of a kid, which they had killed:

37:32. Send­ing some to car­ry it to their fa­ther, and to say: This we have found: see whether it be thy son’s coat, or not.

37:33. And the fa­ther ac­knowl­edg­ing it, said: It is my son’s coat, an evil wild beast hath eat­en him, a beast hath de­voured Joseph.

37:34. And tear­ing his gar­ments, he put on sack­cloth, mourn­ing for his son a long time.

37:35. And all his chil­dren be­ing gath­ered to­geth­er to com­fort their fa­ther in his sor­row, he would not re­ceive com­fort, but said: I will go down to my son in­to hell, mourn­ing. And whilst he con­tin­ued weep­ing,

In­to hell. . .That is, in­to lim­bo, the place where the souls of the just were re­ceived be­fore the death of our Re­deemer. For al­low­ing that the word hell some­times is tak­en for the grave, it can­not be so tak­en in this place; since Ja­cob did not be­lieve his son to be in the grave, (whom he sup­posed to be de­voured by a wild beast,) and there­fore could not mean to go down to him thith­er: but cer­tain­ly meant the place of rest where he be­lieved his soul to be.

37:36. The Ma­di­an­ites sold Joseph in Egypt to Putiphar, an eu­nuch of Pharao, cap­tain of the sol­diers.

An eu­nuch. . .This word some­times sig­ni­fies a cham­ber­lain, courtier, or of­fi­cer of the king: and so it is tak­en in this place.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 38

The sons of Ju­da: the death of Her and Onan: the birth of Phares and Zara.

38:1. At that time Ju­da went down from his brethren, and turned in to a cer­tain Odol­lamite, named Hi­ras.

38:2. And he saw there the daugh­ter of a man of Chanaan, called Sue: and tak­ing her to wife, he went in un­to her.

38:3. And she con­ceived, and bore a son, and called his name Her.

38:4. And con­ceiv­ing again, she bore a son, and called him Onan.

38:5. She bore al­so a third: whom she called Sela. Af­ter whose birth, she ceased to bear any more.

38:6. And Ju­da took a wife for Her, his first born, whose name was Thamar.

38:7. And Her, the first born of Ju­da, was wicked in the sight of the Lord: and was slain by him.

38:8. Ju­da, there­fore, said to Onan his son: Go in to thy broth­er’s wife and mar­ry her, that thou mayst raise seed to thy broth­er.

38:9. He know­ing that the chil­dren should not be his, when he went in to his broth­er’s wife, he spilled his seed up­on the ground, lest chil­dren should be born in his broth­er’s name.

38:10. And there­fore the Lord slew him, be­cause he did a de­testable thing:

38:11. Where­fore Ju­da said to Thamar his daugh­ter-​in-​law: Re­main a wid­ow in thy fa­ther’s house, till Sela my son grow up: for he was afraid lest he al­so might die, as his brethren did. She went her way, and dwelt in her fa­ther’s house.

38:12. And af­ter many days were past: the daugh­ter of Sue the wife of Ju­da died: and when he had tak­en com­fort af­ter his mourn­ing, he went up to Tham­nas, to the shear­ers of his sheep, he and Hi­ras the Odol­lamite, the shep­herd of his flock.

38:13. And it was told Thamar that her fa­ther-​in-​law was come up to Tham­nas to shear his sheep.

38:14. And she put off the gar­ments of her wid­ow­hood, and took a veil: and chang­ing her dress, sat in the cross way, that lead­eth to Tham­nas: be­cause Sela was grown up, and she had not been mar­ried to him.

38:15. When Ju­da saw her, he thought she was a har­lot: for she had cov­ered her face, lest she should be known.

38:16. And go­ing to her, he said: Suf­fer me to lie with thee: for he knew her not to be his daugh­ter-​in-​law. And she an­swered: What wilt thou give me to en­joy my com­pa­ny?

38:17. He said: I will send thee a kid out of the flock. And when she said again: I will suf­fer what thou wilt, if thou give me a pledge, till thou send what thou promis­est.

38:18. Ju­da said: What wilt thou have for a pledge? She an­swered: Thy ring and bracelet, and the staff which thou hold­est in thy hand. The wom­an there­fore at one cop­ula­tion con­ceived.

38:19. And she arose and went her way: and putting off the ap­par­el which she had tak­en, put on the gar­ments of her wid­ow­hood.

38:20. And Ju­da sent a kid by his shep­herd, the Odol­lamite, that he might re­ceive the pledge again, which he had giv­en to the wom­an: but he, not find­ing her,

38:21. Asked the men of that place: Where is the wom­an that sat in the cross way? And when they all made an­swer: There was no har­lot in this place,

38:22. He re­turned to Ju­da, and said to him: I have not found her; more­over, the men of that place said to me, that there nev­er sat a har­lot there.

38:23. Ju­da said: Let her take it to her­self, sure­ly she can­not charge us with a lie, I sent the kid which I promised: and thou didst not find her.

38:24. And be­hold, af­ter three months, they told Ju­da, say­ing: Thamar, thy daugh­ter-​in-​law, hath played the har­lot, and she ap­peareth to have a big bel­ly. And Ju­da said: Bring her out that she may be burnt.

38:25. But when she was led to ex­ecu­tion, she sent to her fa­ther in law, say­ing: By the man, to whom these things be­long, I am with child. See whose ring, and bracelet, and staff this is.

38:26. But he ac­knowl­edg­ing the gifts, said: She is juster than I: be­cause I did not give her to Sela, my son. How­ev­er he knew her no more.

38:27. And when she was ready to be brought to bed, there ap­peared twins in her womb: and in the very de­liv­ery of the in­fants, one put forth a hand, where­on the mid­wife tied a scar­let thread, say­ing:

38:28. This shall come forth the first.

38:29. But he draw­ing back his hand, the oth­er came forth: and the wom­an said: Why is the par­ti­tion di­vid­ed for thee? and there­fore called his name Phares.

Phares. . .That is, a breach or di­vi­sion.

38:30. Af­ter­wards his broth­er came out, on whose hand was the scar­let thread: and she called his name Zara.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 39

Joseph hath charge of his mas­ter’s house: re­jecteth his mis­tress’s so­lic­ita­tions: is false­ly ac­cused by her, and cast in­to prison, where he hath the charge of all the pris­on­ers.

39:1. And Joseph was brought in­to Egypt, and Putiphar, an eu­nuch of Pharao, chief cap­tain of the army, an Egyp­tian, bought him of the Is­maelites, by whom he was brought.

39:2. And the Lord was with him, and he was a pros­per­ous man in all things: and he dwelt in his mas­ter’s house:

39:3. Who knew very well that the Lord was with him, and made all that he did to pros­per in his hand.

39:4. And Joseph found favour in the sight of his mas­ter, and min­is­tered to him: and be­ing set over all by him, he gov­erned the house com­mit­ted to him, and all things that were de­liv­ered to him:

39:5. And the Lord blessed the house of the Egyp­tian for Joseph’s sake, and mul­ti­plied all his sub­stance, both at home and in the fields.

39:6. Nei­ther knew he any oth­er thing, but the bread which he ate. And Joseph was of a beau­ti­ful coun­te­nance, and come­ly to be­hold.

39:7. And af­ter many days, his mis­tress cast her eyes on Joseph, and said: Lie with me.

39:8. But he in no wise con­sent­ing to that wicked act said to her: Be­hold, my mas­ter hath de­liv­ered all things to me, and knoweth not what he hath in his own house:

39:9. Nei­ther is there any thing which is not in my pow­er, or that he hath not de­liv­ered to me, but thee, who art his wife; how then can I do this wicked thing, and sin against my God?

39:10. With such words as these day by day, both the wom­an was im­por­tu­nate with the young man, and he re­fused the adul­tery.

39:11. Now it hap­pened on a cer­tain day, that Joseph went in­to the house, and was do­ing some busi­ness, with­out any man with him:

39:12. And she catch­ing the skirt of his gar­ment, said: Lie with me. But he leav­ing the gar­ment in her hand, fled, and went out.

39:13. And when the wom­an saw the gar­ment in her hands, and her­self dis­re­gard­ed,

39:14. She called to her the men of her house, and said to them: See, he hath brought in a He­brew, to abuse us: he came in to me, to lie with me; and when I cried out,

39:15. And he heard my voice, he left the gar­ment that I held, and got him out.

39:16. For a proof there­fore of her fi­deli­ty, she kept the gar­ment, and shewed it to her hus­band when he re­turned home:

A proof of her fi­deli­ty. . .or an ar­gu­ment to gain cred­it, ar­gu­men­tum fidei.

39:17. And said: The He­brew ser­vant, whom thou hast brought, came to me to abuse me.

39:18. And when he heard me cry, he left the gar­ment which I held, and fled out.

39:19. His mas­ter hear­ing these things, and giv­ing too much cred­it to his wife’s words, was very an­gry,

39:20. And cast Joseph in­to the prison, where the king’s pris­on­ers were kept, and he was there shut up.

39:21. But the Lord was with Joseph, and hav­ing mer­cy up­on him gave him favour in the sight of the chief keep­er of the prison:

39:22. Who de­liv­ered in­to his hand all the pris­on­ers that were kept in cus­tody: and what­so­ev­er was done, was un­der him.

39:23. Nei­ther did he him­self know any thing, hav­ing com­mit­ted all things to him: for the Lord was with him, and made all that he did to pros­per.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 40

Joseph in­ter­preteth the dreams of two of Pharao’s ser­vants in prison: the event de­clareth the in­ter­pre­ta­tions to be true, but Joseph is for­got­ten.

40:1. Af­ter this, it came to pass, that two eu­nuchs, the but­ler and the bak­er of the king of Egypt, of­fend­ed their lord.

40:2. And Pharao be­ing an­gry with them, (now the one was chief but­ler, the oth­er chief bak­er,)

40:3. He sent them to the prison of the com­man­der of the sol­diers, in which Joseph al­so was pris­on­er.

40:4. But the keep­er of the prison de­liv­ered them to Joseph, and he served them. Some lit­tle time passed, and they were kept in cus­tody.

40:5. And they both dreamed a dream the same night, ac­cord­ing to the in­ter­pre­ta­tion agree­ing to them­selves:

40:6. And when Joseph was come in­to them in the morn­ing, and saw them sad,

40:7. He asked them, say­ing: Why is your coun­te­nance sad­der to­day than usu­al?

40:8. They an­swered: We have dreamed a dream, and there is no­body to in­ter­pret it to us. And Joseph said to them: Doth not in­ter­pre­ta­tion be­long to God? Tell me what you have dreamed:

Doth not in­ter­pre­ta­tion be­long to God?. . .When dreams are from God, as these were, the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of them is a gift of God. But the gen­er­al­ity of dreams are not of this sort; but ei­ther pro­ceed from the nat­ural com­plex­ions and dis­po­si­tions of per­sons, or the rov­ing of their imag­ina­tions in the day on such ob­jects as they are much af­fect­ed with, or from their mind be­ing dis­turbed with cares and trou­bles, and op­pressed with bod­ily in­fir­mi­ties: or they are sug­gest­ed by evil spir­its, to flat­ter, or to ter­ri­fy weak minds, in or­der to gain be­lief, and so draw them in­to er­ror or su­per­sti­tion; or at least to trou­ble them in their sleep, whom they can­not move when they are awake: so that the gen­er­al rule, with re­gard to dreams, is not to ob­serve them, nor to give any cred­it to them.

40:9. The chief but­ler first told his dream: I saw be­fore me a vine,

40:10. On which were three branch­es, which by lit­tle and lit­tle sent out buds, and af­ter the blos­soms brought forth ripe grapes:

40:11. And the cup of Pharao was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them in­to the cup which I held, and I gave the cup to Pharao.

40:12. Joseph an­swered: This is the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the dream: The three branch­es, are yet three days:

40:13. Af­ter which Pharao will re­mem­ber thy ser­vice, and will re­store thee to thy for­mer place: and thou shalt present him the cup ac­cord­ing to thy of­fice, as be­fore thou was wont to do.

40:14. On­ly re­mem­ber me when it shall be well with thee, and do me this kind­ness: to put Pharao in mind to take me out of this prison:

40:15. For I was stolen away out of the land of the He­brews, and here with­out any fault was cast in­to the dun­geon.

40:16. The chief bak­er see­ing that he had wise­ly in­ter­pret­ed the dream, said: I al­so dreamed a dream, That I had three bas­kets of meal up­on my head:

40:17. And that in one bas­ket which was up­per­most, I car­ried all meats that are made by the art of bak­ing, and that the birds ate out of it.

40:18. Joseph an­swered: This is the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the dream: The three bas­kets, are yet three days:

40:19. Af­ter which Pharao will take thy head from thee, and hang thee on a cross, and the birds shall tear thy flesh.

40:20. The third day af­ter this was the birth­day of Pharao: and he made a great feast for his ser­vants, and at the ban­quet re­mem­bered the chief but­ler, and the chief bak­er.

40:21. And he re­stored the one to his place, to present him the cup:

40:22. The oth­er he hanged on a gib­bet, that the truth of the in­ter­preter might be shewn.

40:23. But the chief but­ler, when things pros­pered with him, for­got his in­ter­preter.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 41

Joseph in­ter­preteth the two dreams of Pharao: he is made ruler over all Egypt.

41:1. Af­ter two years Pharao had a dream. He thought he stood by the riv­er,

41:2. Out of which came up sev­en kine, very beau­ti­ful and fat: and they fed in marshy places.

41:3. Oth­er sev­en al­so came up out of the riv­er, ill-​favoured, and lean fleshed: and they fed on the very bank of the riv­er, in green places:

41:4. And they de­voured them, whose bod­ies were very beau­ti­ful and well con­di­tioned. So Pharao awoke.

41:5. He slept again, and dreamed an­oth­er dream: Sev­en ears of corn came up up­on one stalk full and fair:

41:6. Then sev­en oth­er ears sprung up thin and blast­ed,

41:7. And de­voured all the beau­ty of the for­mer. Pharao awaked af­ter his rest:

41:8. And when morn­ing was come, be­ing struck with fear, he sent to all the in­ter­preters of Egypt, and to all the wise men: and they be­ing called for, he told them his dream, and there was not any one that could in­ter­pret it.

41:9. Then at length the chief but­ler re­mem­ber­ing, said: I con­fess my sin:

41:10. The king be­ing an­gry with his ser­vants, com­mand­ed me and the chief bak­er to be cast in­to the prison of the cap­tain of the sol­diers.

41:11. Where in one night both of us dreamed a dream fore­bod­ing things to come.

41:12. There was there a young man a He­brew, ser­vant to the same cap­tain of the sol­diers: to whom we told our dreams,

41:13. And we heard what af­ter­wards the event of the thing proved to be so. For I was re­stored to my of­fice: and he was hanged up­on a gib­bet.

41:14. Forth­with at the king’s com­mand Joseph was brought out of the prison, and they shaved him: and chang­ing his ap­par­el brought him in to him.

41:15. And he said to him: I have dreamed dreams, and there is no one that can ex­pound them: Now I have heard that thou art very wise at in­ter­pret­ing them:

41:16. Joseph an­swered: With­out me, God shall give Pharao a pros­per­ous an­swer.

41:17. So Pharao told what he had dreamed: Methought I stood up­on the bank of the riv­er,

41:18. And sev­en kine came up out of the riv­er, ex­ceed­ing beau­ti­ful and full of flesh: and they grazed on green places in a marshy pas­ture.

41:19. And be­hold, there fol­lowed these, oth­er sev­en kine, so very ill-​favoured and lean, that I nev­er saw the like in the land of Egypt:

41:20. And they de­voured and con­sumed the for­mer,

41:21. And yet gave no mark of their be­ing full: but were as lean and ill-​favoured as be­fore. I awoke, and then fell asleep again,

41:22. And dreamed a dream: Sev­en ears of corn grew up up­on one stalk, full and very fair.

41:23. Oth­er sev­en al­so thin and blast­ed, sprung of the stalk:

41:24. And they de­voured the beau­ty of the for­mer: I told this dream to the con­jec­tur­ers, and there is no man that can ex­pound it.

41:25. Joseph an­swered: The king’s dream is one: God hath shewn to Pharao what he is about to do.

41:26. The sev­en beau­ti­ful kine, and the sev­en full ears, are sev­en years of plen­ty: and both con­tain the same mean­ing of the dream.

41:27. And the sev­en lean and thin kine that came up af­ter them, and the sev­en thin ears that were blast­ed with the burn­ing wind, are sev­en years of famine to come:

41:28. Which shall be ful­filled in this or­der.

41:29. Be­hold, there shall come sev­en years of great plen­ty in the whole land of Egypt:

41:30. Af­ter which shall fol­low oth­er sev­en years of so great scarci­ty, that all the abun­dance be­fore shall be for­got­ten: for the famine shall con­sume all the land,

41:31. And the great­ness of the scarci­ty shall de­stroy the great­ness of the plen­ty.

41:32. And for that thou didst see the sec­ond time a dream per­tain­ing to the same thing: it is a to­ken of the cer­tain­ty, and that the word of God cometh to pass, and is ful­filled speed­ily.

41:33. Now there­fore let the king pro­vide a wise and in­dus­tri­ous man, and make him ruler over the land of Egypt:

41:34. That he may ap­point over­seers over all the coun­tries: and gath­er in­to barns the fifth part of the fruits, dur­ing the sev­en fruit­ful years,

41:35. That shall now present­ly en­sue: and let all the corn be laid up, un­der Pharao’s hands, and be re­served in the cities.

41:36. And let it be in readi­ness, against the famine of sev­en years to come, which shall op­press Egypt, and the land shall not be con­sumed with scarci­ty.

41:37. The coun­sel pleased Pharao, and all his ser­vants.

41:38. And he said to them: Can we find such an­oth­er man, that is full of the spir­it of God?

41:39. He said there­fore to Joseph: See­ing God hath shewn thee all that thou hast said, can I find one wis­er and one like un­to thee?

41:40. Thou shalt be over my house, and at the com­mand­ment of thy mouth all the peo­ple shall obey: on­ly in the king­ly throne will I be above thee.

41:41. And again Pharao said to Joseph: Be­hold, I have ap­point­ed thee over the whole land of Egypt.

41:42. And he took his ring from his own hand, and gave it in­to his hand: and he put up­on him a robe of silk, and put a chain of gold about his neck.

41:43. And he made him go up in­to his sec­ond char­iot, the crier pro­claim­ing that all should bow their knee be­fore him, and that they should know he was made gov­er­nor over the whole land of Egypt.

41:44. And the king said to Joseph: I am Pharao: with­out thy com­mand­ment no man shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

41:45. And he turned his name, and called him in the Egyp­tian tongue the saviour of the world. And he gave him to wife Aseneth, the daugh­ter of Putiphare, priest of He­liopo­lis. Then Joseph went out to the land of Egypt.

The saviour of the world. . .Za­ph­nah paaneah.

41:46. (Now he was thir­ty years old when he stood be­fore king Pharao), and he went round all the coun­tries of Egypt.

41:47. And the fruit­ful­ness of the sev­en years came: and the corn be­ing bound up in­to sheaves, was gath­ered to­geth­er in­to the barns of Egypt.

41:48. And all the abun­dance of grain was laid up in ev­ery city.

41:49. And there was so great abun­dance of wheat, that it was equal to the sand of the sea, and the plen­ty ex­ceed­ed mea­sure.

41:50. And be­fore the famine came, Joseph had two sons born: whom Aseneth, the daugh­ter of Putiphare, priest of He­liopo­lis, bore un­to him.

41:51. And he called the name of the first­born Man­ass­es, say­ing: God hath made me to for­get all my labours, and my fa­ther’s house.

Man­ass­es. . .That is, obliv­ion, or for­get­ting.

41:52. And he named the sec­ond Ephraim, say­ing: God hath made me to grow in the land of my pover­ty.

Ephraim. . .That is, fruit­ful, or grow­ing.

41:53. Now when the sev­en years of plen­ty that had been in Egypt were passed:

41:54. The sev­en years of scarci­ty, which Joseph had fore­told, be­gan to come: and the famine pre­vailed in the whole world, but there was bread in all the land of Egypt.

41:55. And when there al­so they be­gan to be fam­ished, the peo­ple cried to Pharao, for food. And he said to them: Go to Joseph: and do all that he shall say to you.

41:56. And the famine in­creased dai­ly in all the land: and Joseph opened all the barns, and sold to the Egyp­tians: for the famine had op­pressed them al­so.

41:57. And all provinces came in­to Egypt, to buy food, and to seek some re­lief of their want.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 42

Ja­cob sendeth his ten sons to buy corn in Egypt. Their treat­ment by Joseph.

42:1. And Ja­cob hear­ing that food was sold in Egypt, said to his sons: Why are ye care­less?

42:2. I have heard that wheat is sold in Egypt: Go ye down, and buy us nec­es­saries, that we may live, and not be con­sumed with want.

42:3. So the ten brethren of Joseph went down, to buy corn in Egypt:

42:4. Whilst Ben­jamin was kept at home by Ja­cob, who said to his brethren: Lest per­haps he take any harm in the jour­ney.

42:5. And they en­tered in­to the land of Egypt with oth­ers that went to buy. For the famine was in the land of Chanaan.

42:6. And Joseph was gov­er­nor in the land of Egypt, and corn was sold by his di­rec­tion to the peo­ple. And when his brethren had bowed down to him,

42:7. And he knew them, he spoke as it were to strangers, some­what rough­ly, ask­ing them: Whence came you? They an­swered: From the land of Chanaan, to buy nec­es­saries of life.

42:8. And though he knew his brethren, he was not known by them.

42:9. And re­mem­ber­ing the dreams, which for­mer­ly he had dreamed, he said to them: You are spies. You are come to view the weak­er parts of the land.

You are spies. . .This he said by way of ex­am­in­ing them, to see what they would an­swer.

42:10. But they said: It is not so, my lord; but thy ser­vants are come to buy food.

42:11. We are all the sons of one man: we are come as peace­able men, nei­ther do thy ser­vants go about any evil.

42:12. And he an­swered them: It is oth­er­wise: you are come to con­sid­er the un­fenced parts of this land.

42:13. But they said: We thy ser­vants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Chanaan: the youngest is with our fa­ther, the oth­er is not liv­ing.

42:14. He saith, This is it that I said: You are spies.

42:15. I shall now present­ly try what you are: by the health of Pharao, you shall not de­part hence, un­til your youngest broth­er come.

42:16. Send one of you to fetch him: and you shall be in prison, till what you have said be proved, whether it be true or false: or else by the health of Pharao you are spies.

Or else by the health of Pharao you are spies. . .That is, if these things you say be proved false, you are to be held for spies for your ly­ing, and shall be treat­ed as such. Joseph dealt in this man­ner with his brethren, to bring them by the means of af­flic­tion to a sense of their for­mer sin, and a sin­cere re­pen­tance for it.

42:17. So he put them in prison three days.

42:18. And the third day he brought them out of prison, and said: Do as I have said, and you shall live: for I fear God.

42:19. If you be peace­able men, let one of your brethren be bound in prison: and go ye your ways, and car­ry the corn that you have bought, un­to your hous­es.

42:20. And bring your youngest broth­er to me, that I may find your words to be true, and you may not die. They did as he had said.

42:21. And they talked one to an­oth­er: We de­serve to suf­fer these things, be­cause we have sinned against our broth­er, see­ing the an­guish of his soul, when he be­sought us, and we would not hear: there­fore is this af­flic­tion come up­on us.

42:22. And Ruben, one of them, said: Did not I say to you: Do not sin against the boy; and you would not hear me? Be­hold his blood is re­quired.

42:23. And they knew not that Joseph un­der­stood, be­cause he spoke to them by an in­ter­preter.

42:24. And he turned him­self away a lit­tle while, and wept: and re­turn­ing, he spoke to them.

42:25. And tak­ing Sime­on, and bind­ing him in their pres­ence, he com­mand­ed his ser­vants to fill their sacks with wheat, and to put ev­ery man’s mon­ey again in their sacks, and to give them be­sides pro­vi­sions for the way: and they did so.

42:26. But they hav­ing load­ed their ass­es with the corn went their way.

42:27. And one of them open­ing his sack, to give his beast proven­der in the inn, saw the mon­ey in the sack’s mouth,

42:28. And said to his brethren: My mon­ey is giv­en me again; be­hold it is in the sack. And they were as­ton­ished, and trou­bled, and said to one an­oth­er: What is this that God hath done un­to us?

42:29. And they came to Ja­cob their fa­ther in the land of Chanaan, and they told him all things that had be­fall­en them, say­ing:

42:30. The lord of the land spoke rough­ly to us, and took us to be spies of the coun­try.

42:31. And we an­swered him: We are peace­able men, and we mean no plot.

42:32. We are twelve brethren born of one fa­ther: one is not liv­ing, the youngest is with our fa­ther in the land of Chanaan.

42:33. And he said to us: Here­by shall I know that you are peace­able men: Leave one of your brethren with me, and take ye nec­es­sary pro­vi­sion for your hous­es, and go your ways,

42:34. And bring your youngest broth­er to me, that I may know you are not spies: and you may re­ceive this man again, that is kept in prison: and af­ter­wards may have leave to buy what you will.

42:35. When they had told this, they poured out their corn, and ev­ery man found his mon­ey tied in the mouth of his sack: and all be­ing as­ton­ished to­geth­er,

42:36. Their fa­ther Ja­cob said: You have made me to be with­out chil­dren: Joseph is not liv­ing, Sime­on is kept in bonds, and Ben­jamin you will take away: all these evils are fall­en up­on me.

42:37. And Ruben an­swered him: Kill my two sons, if I bring him not again to thee: de­liv­er him in­to my hand, and I will re­store him to thee.

42:38. But he said: My son shall not go down with you: his broth­er is dead, and he is left alone: if any mis­chief be­fall him in the land to which you go, you will bring down my grey hairs with sor­row to hell.

To hell. . .That is, to that place, where the souls then re­mained, as above, chap­ter 37. ver. 35.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 43

The sons of Ja­cob go again in­to Egypt with Ben­jamin. They are en­ter­tained by Joseph.

43:1. In the mean time the famine was heavy up­on all the land.

43:2. And when they had eat­en up all the corn, which they had brought out of Egypt, Ja­cob said to his sons: Go again, and buy us a lit­tle food.

43:3. Ju­da an­swered: The man de­clared un­to us with the at­tes­ta­tion of an oath, say­ing: You shall not see my face, un­less you bring your youngest broth­er with you.

43:4. If there­fore thou wilt send him with us, we will set out to­geth­er, and will buy nec­es­saries for thee.

43:5. But if thou wilt not, we will not go: for the man, as we have of­ten said, de­clared un­to us, say­ing: You shall not see my face with­out your youngest broth­er.

43:6. Is­rael said to them: You have done this for my mis­ery, in that you told him you had al­so an­oth­er broth­er.

43:7. But they an­swered: The man asked us in or­der con­cern­ing our kin­dred: if our fa­ther lived: if we had a broth­er: and we an­swered him reg­ular­ly, ac­cord­ing to what he de­mand­ed: could we know that he would say: Bring hith­er your broth­er with you?

43:8. And Ju­da said to his fa­ther: Send the boy with me, that we may set for­ward, and may live: lest both we and our chil­dren per­ish.

43:9. I take the boy up­on me, re­quire him at my hand: un­less I bring him again, and re­store him to thee, I will be guilty of sin against thee for ev­er.

43:10. If de­lay had not been made, we had been here again the sec­ond time.

43:11. Then Is­rael said to them: If it must needs be so, do what you will: take of the best fruits of the land in your ves­sels, and car­ry down presents to the man, a lit­tle balm, and hon­ey, and storax, myrrh, tur­pen­tine, and al­monds.

Balm. . .Lit­er­al­ly rosin, resinae; but here by that name is meant balm.

43:12. And take with you dou­ble mon­ey, and car­ry back what you found in your sacks, lest per­haps it was done by mis­take.

43:13. And take al­so your broth­er, and go to the man.

43:14. And may my almighty God make him favourable to you: and send back with you your broth­er, whom he keep­eth, and this Ben­jamin: and as for me I shall be des­olate with­out chil­dren.

43:15. So the men took the presents, and dou­ble mon­ey, and Ben­jamin: and went down in­to Egypt, and stood be­fore Joseph.

43:16. And when he had seen them, and Ben­jamin with them, he com­mand­ed the stew­ard of his house, say­ing: Bring in the men in­to the house, and kill vic­tims, and pre­pare a feast: be­cause they shall eat with me at noon.

43:17. He did as he was com­mand­ed, and brought the men in­to the house.

43:18. And they be­ing much afraid, said there one to an­oth­er: Be­cause of the mon­ey, which we car­ried back the first time in our sacks, we are brought in: that he may bring up­on us a false ac­cu­sa­tion, and by vi­olence make slaves of us and our ass­es.

43:19. Where­fore, go­ing up to the stew­ard of the house, at the door,

43:20. They said: Sir, we de­sire thee to hear us. We came down once be­fore to buy food:

43:21. And when we had bought, and were come to the inn, we opened our sacks, and found our mon­ey in the mouths of the sacks: which we have now brought again in the same weight.

43:22. And we have brought oth­er mon­ey be­sides, to buy what we want: we can­not tell who put it in our bags.

43:23. But he an­swered: Peace be with you, fear not: your God, and the God of your fa­ther, hath giv­en you trea­sure in your sacks. For the mon­ey, which you gave me, I have for good. And he brought Sime­on out to them.

43:24. And hav­ing brought them in­to the house, he fetched wa­ter, and they washed their feet, and he gave proven­der to their ass­es.

43:25. But they made ready the presents, against Joseph came at noon: for they had heard that they should eat bread there.

43:26. Then Joseph came in to his house, and they of­fered him the presents, hold­ing them in their hands; and they bowed down with their face to the ground.

43:27. But he cour­te­ous­ly salut­ing them again, asked them, say­ing: Is the old man your fa­ther in health, of whom you told me? Is he yet liv­ing?

43:28. And they an­swered: Thy ser­vant our fa­ther, is in health; he is yet liv­ing. And bow­ing them­selves, they made obei­sance to him.

43:29. And Joseph lift­ing up his eyes, saw Ben­jamin, his broth­er by the same moth­er, and said: Is this your young broth­er, of whom you told me? And he said: God be gra­cious to thee, my son.

43:30. And he made haste, be­cause his heart was moved up­on his broth­er, and tears gushed out: and go­ing in­to his cham­ber, he wept.

43:31. And when he had washed his face, com­ing out again, he re­frained him­self, and said: Set bread on the ta­ble.

43:32. And when it was set on, for Joseph apart, and for his brethren apart, for the Egyp­tians al­so that ate with him apart, (for it is un­law­ful for the Egyp­tians to eat with the He­brews, and they think such a feast pro­fane):

43:33. They sat be­fore him, the first­born ac­cord­ing to his birthright, and the youngest ac­cord­ing to his age. And they won­dered very much;

43:34. Tak­ing the mess­es which they re­ceived of him: and the greater mess came to Ben­jamin, so that it ex­ceed­ed by five parts. And they drank, and were mer­ry with him.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 44

Joseph’s con­trivance to stop his brethren. The hum­ble sup­pli­ca­tion of Ju­da.

44:1. And Joseph com­mand­ed the stew­ard of his house, say­ing: Fill their sacks with corn, as much as they can hold: and put the mon­ey of ev­ery one in the top of his sack.

44:2. And in the mouth of the younger’s sack put my sil­ver cup, and the price which he gave for the wheat. And it was so done.

44:3. And when the morn­ing arose, they were sent away with their ass­es.

44:4. And when they were now de­part­ed out of the city, and had gone for­ward a lit­tle way: Joseph send­ing for the stew­ard of his house, said: Arise, and pur­sue af­ter the men: and when thou hast over­tak­en them, say to them: Why have you re­turned evil for good?

44:5. The cup which you have stolen, is that in which my lord drin­keth, and in which he is wont to di­vine: you have done a very evil thing.

44:6. He did as he had com­mand­ed him. And hav­ing over­tak­en them, he spoke to them the same words.

44:7. And they an­swered: Why doth our lord speak so, as though thy ser­vants had com­mit­ted so heinous a fact?

44:8. The mon­ey, that we found in the top of our sacks, we brought back to thee from the land of Chanaan: how then should it be that we should steal out of thy lord’s house, gold or sil­ver?

44:9. With whom­so­ev­er of thy ser­vants shall be found that which thou seek­est, let him die, and we will be the bond­men of my lord.

44:10. And he said to them: Let it be ac­cord­ing to your sen­tence: with whom­so­ev­er it shall be found, let him be my ser­vant, and you shall be blame­less.

44:11. Then they speed­ily took down their sacks to the ground, and ev­ery man opened his sack.

44:12. Which when he had searched, be­gin­ning at the el­dest, and end­ing at the youngest, he found the cup in Ben­jamin’s sack.

44:13. Then they rent their gar­ments, and load­ing their ass­es again, re­turned in­to the town.

44:14. And Ju­da at the head of his brethren went in to Joseph (for he was not yet gone out of the place) and they all to­geth­er fell down be­fore him on the ground.

44:15. And he said to them: Why would you do so? know you not that there is no one like me in the sci­ence of di­vin­ing.

The sci­ence of di­vin­ing. . .He speaks of him­self ac­cord­ing to what he was es­teemed in that king­dom. And in­deed, he be­ing tru­ly a prophet, knew more with­out com­par­ison than any of the Egyp­tian sor­cer­ers.

44:16. And Ju­da said to him: What shall we an­swer my lord? or what shall we say, or be able just­ly to al­lege? God hath found out the in­iq­ui­ty of thy ser­vants: be­hold, we are all bond­men to my lord, both we, and he with whom the cup was found.

44:17. Joseph an­swered: God for­bid that I should do so: he that stole the cup, he shall be my bond­man: and go you away free to your fa­ther.

44:18. Then Ju­da com­ing near­er, said bold­ly: I be­seech thee, my lord, let thy ser­vant speak a word in thy ears, and be not an­gry with thy ser­vant: for af­ter Pharao thou art.

44:19. My lord. Thou didst ask thy ser­vants the first time: Have you a fa­ther or a broth­er.

44:20. And we an­swered thee, my lord: We have a fa­ther an old man, and a young boy, that was born in his old age; whose broth­er by the moth­er is dead; and he alone is left of his moth­er, and his fa­ther loveth him ten­der­ly.

44:21. And thou saidst to thy ser­vants: Bring him hith­er to me, and I will set my eyes on him.

44:22. We sug­gest­ed to my lord: The boy can­not leave his fa­ther: for if he leave him, he will die.

44:23. And thou saidst to thy ser­vants: Ex­cept your youngest broth­er come with you, you shall see my face no more.

44:24. There­fore when we were gone up to thy ser­vant our fa­ther, we told him all that my lord had said.

44:25. And our fa­ther said: Go again, and buy us a lit­tle wheat.

44:26. And we said to him: We can­not go: if our youngest broth­er go down with us, we will set out to­geth­er: oth­er­wise, with­out him we dare not see the man’s face.

44:27. Where­un­to he an­swered: You know that my wife bore me two.

44:28. One went out, and you said: A beast de­voured him; and hith­er­to he ap­peareth not.

44:29. If you take this al­so, and any thing be­fall him in the way, you will bring down my grey hairs with sor­row un­to hell.

44:30. There­fore, if I shall go to thy ser­vant, our fa­ther, and the boy be want­ing, (where­as his life de­pen­deth up­on the life of him,)

44:31. And he shall see that he is not with us, he will die, and thy ser­vants shall bring down his grey hairs with sor­row un­to hell.

His gray hairs. . .That is, his per­son, now far ad­vanced in years.–With sor­row un­to hell. . .The He­brew word for hell is here she­ol, the Greek hades: it is not tak­en for the hell of the damned; but for that place of souls be­low where the ser­vants of God were kept be­fore the com­ing of Christ. Which place, both in the Scrip­ture and in the creed, is named hell.

44:32. Let me be thy prop­er ser­vant, who took him in­to my trust, and promised, say­ing: If I bring him not again, I will be guilty of sin against my fa­ther for ev­er.

44:33. There­fore I, thy ser­vant, will stay in­stead of the boy in the ser­vice of my lord, and let the boy go up with his brethren.

44:34. For I can­not re­turn to my fa­ther with­out the boy, lest I be a wit­ness of the calami­ty that will op­press my fa­ther.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 45

Joseph maketh him­self known to his brethren: and sendeth for his fa­ther.

45:1. Joseph could no longer re­frain him­self be­fore many that stood by: where­upon he com­mand­ed that all should go out, and no stranger be present at their know­ing one an­oth­er.

45:2. And he lift­ed up his voice with weep­ing, which the Egyp­tians, and all the house of Pharao heard.

45:3. And he said to his brethren: I am Joseph: Is my fa­ther yet liv­ing? His brethren could not an­swer him, be­ing struck with ex­ceed­ing great fear.

45:4. And he said mild­ly to them: Come near­er to me. And when they were come near him, he said: I am Joseph, your broth­er, whom you sold in­to Egypt.

45:5. Be not afraid, and let it not seem to you a hard case that you sold me in­to these coun­tries: for God sent me be­fore you in­to Egypt for your preser­va­tion.

45:6. For it is two years since the famine be­gan to be up­on the land, and five years more re­main, where­in there can be nei­ther plough­ing nor reap­ing.

45:7. And God sent me be­fore, that you may be pre­served up­on the earth, and may have food to live.

45:8. Not by your coun­sel was I sent hith­er, but by the will of God: who hath made me as it were a fa­ther to Pharao, and lord of his whole house, and gov­er­nor in all the land of Egypt.

45:9. Make haste, and go ye up to my fa­ther, and say to him: Thus saith thy son Joseph: God hath made me lord of the whole land of Egypt; come down to me, linger not.

45:10. And thou shalt dwell in the land of Gessen: and thou shalt be near me, thou and thy sons, and thy sons’ sons, thy sheep, and thy herds, and all things that thou hast.

45:11. And there I will feed thee, (for there are yet five years of famine re­main­ing) lest both thou per­ish, and thy house, and all things that thou hast.

45:12. Be­hold, your eyes, and the eyes of my broth­er Ben­jamin, see that it is my mouth that speaketh to you.

45:13. You shall tell my fa­ther of all my glo­ry, and all things that you have seen in Egypt: make haste and bring him to me.

45:14. And falling up­on the neck of his broth­er Ben­jamin, he em­braced him and wept: and Ben­jamin in like man­ner wept al­so on his neck.

45:15. And Joseph kissed all his brethren, and wept up­on ev­ery one of them: af­ter which they were em­bold­ened to speak to him.

45:16. And it was heard, and the fame was spread abroad in the king’s court: The brethren of Joseph are come; and Pharao with all his fam­ily was glad.

45:17. And he spoke to Joseph that he should give or­ders to his brethren, say­ing: Load your beasts, and go in­to the land of Chanaan,

45:18. And bring away from thence your fa­ther and kin­dred, and come to me; and I will give you all the good things of Egypt, that you may eat the mar­row of the land.

45:19. Give or­ders al­so that they take wag­ons out of the land of Egypt, for the car­riage of their chil­dren and their wives; and say: Take up your fa­ther, and make haste to come with all speed:

45:20. And leave noth­ing of your house­hold stuff; for all the rich­es of Egypt shall be yours.

45:21. And the sons of Is­rael did as they were bid. And Joseph gave them wag­ons ac­cord­ing to Pharao’s com­mand­ment: and pro­vi­sions for the way.

45:22. He or­dered al­so to be brought out for ev­ery one of them two robes: but to Ben­jamin he gave three hun­dred pieces of sil­ver, with five robes of the best:

45:23. Send­ing to his fa­ther as much mon­ey and rai­ment; adding be­sides, ten he-​ass­es, to car­ry off all the rich­es of Egypt, and as many she-​ass­es, car­ry­ing wheat and bread for the jour­ney.

45:24. So he sent away his brethren, and at their de­part­ing said to them: Be not an­gry in the way.

45:25. And they went up out of Egypt, and came in­to the land of Chanaan, to their fa­ther Ja­cob.

45:26. And they told him, say­ing: Joseph, thy son, is liv­ing; and he is ruler in all the land of Egypt. Which when Ja­cob heard, he awaked as it were out of a deep sleep, yet did not be­lieve them.

45:27. They, on the oth­er side, told the whole or­der of the thing. And when he saw the wag­ons, and all that he had sent, his spir­it re­vived,

45:28. And he said: It is enough for me if Joseph, my son, be yet liv­ing: I will go and see him be­fore I die.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 46

Is­rael, war­rant­ed by a vi­sion from God, goeth down in­to Egypt with all his fam­ily.

46:1. And Is­rael tak­ing his jour­ney, with all that he had, came to the well of the oath, and killing vic­tims there to the God of his fa­ther Isaac,

The well of the oath. . .Bersabee.

46:2. He heard him, by a vi­sion in the night, call­ing him, and say­ing to him: Ja­cob, Ja­cob. And he an­swered him: Lo, here I am.

46:3. God said to him: I am the most mighty God of thy fa­ther; fear not, go down in­to Egypt, for I will make a great na­tion of thee there.

46:4. I will go down with thee thith­er, and will bring thee back again from thence: Joseph al­so shall put his hands up­on thy eyes.

46:5. And Ja­cob rose up from the well of the oath: and his sons took him up, with their chil­dren and wives in the wag­ons, which Pharao had sent to car­ry the old man,

46:6. And all that he had in the land of Chanaan: and he came in­to Egypt with all his seed;

46:7. His sons, and grand­sons, daugh­ters, and all his off­spring to­geth­er.

46:8. And these are the names of the chil­dren of Is­rael, that en­tered in­to Egypt, he and his chil­dren. His first­born Ruben,

46:9. The sons of Ruben: Henoch and Phal­lu, and Hes­ron and Char­mi.

46:10. The sons of Sime­on: Ja­muel and Jamin and Ahod, and Jachin and So­har, and Saul, the son of a wom­an of Chanaan.

46:11. The sons of Levi: Ger­son and Caath, and Mer­ari.

46:12. The sons of Ju­da: Her and Onan, and Sela, and Phares and Zara. And Her and Onan died in the land of Chanaan. And sons were born to Phares: Hes­ron and Hamul.

46:13. The sons of Is­sachar: Tho­la and Phua, and Job and Sem­ron.

46:14. The sons of Zab­ulon: Sared, and Elon, and Ja­helel.

46:15. These are the sons of Lia, whom she bore in Mesopotamia of Syr­ia, with Di­na, his daugh­ter. All the souls of her sons and daugh­ters, thir­ty-​three.

46:16. The sons of Gad: Sephion and Hag­gi, and Suni and Es­ebon, and Heri and Ar­odi, and Are­li.

46:17. The sons of As­er: Jamne and Je­sua, and Jes­suri and Be­ria, and Sara their sis­ter. The sons of Be­ria: Heber and Melchiel.

46:18. These are the sons of Zel­pha, whom La­ban gave to Lia, his daugh­ter. And these she bore to Ja­cob, six­teen souls.

46:19. The sons of Rachel, Ja­cob’s wife: Joseph and Ben­jamin.

46:20. And sons were born to Joseph, in the land of Egypt, whom Aseneth, the daugh­ter of Putiphare, priest of He­liopo­lis, bore him: Man­ass­es and Ephraim.

46:21. The sons of Ben­jamin: Bela and Be­chor, and As­bel and Gera, and Naa­man and Echi, and Ross and Mophim, and Ophim and Ared.

46:22. These are the sons of Rachel, whom she bore to Ja­cob: all the souls, four­teen.

46:23. The sons of Dan: Husim.

46:24. The sons of Neph­thali: Jaziel and Gu­ni, and Jeser and Sallem.

46:25. These are the sons of Bala, whom La­ban gave to Rachel, his daugh­ter: and these she bore to Ja­cob: all the souls, sev­en.

46:26. All the souls that went with Ja­cob in­to Egypt, and that came out of his thigh, be­sides his sons’ wives, six­ty-​six.

46:27. And the sons of Joseph, that were born to him in the land of Egypt, two souls. All the souls of the house of Ja­cob, that en­tered in­to Egypt, were sev­en­ty.

46:28. And he sent Ju­da be­fore him to Joseph, to tell him; and that he should meet him in Gessen.

46:29. And when he was come thith­er, Joseph made ready his char­iot, and went up to meet his fa­ther in the same place: and see­ing him, he fell up­on his neck, and em­brac­ing him, wept.

46:30. And the fa­ther said to Joseph: Now shall I die with joy, be­cause I have seen thy face, and leave thee alive.

46:31. And Joseph said to his brethren, and to all his fa­ther’s house: I will go up, and will tell Pharao, and will say to him: My brethren, and my fa­ther’s house, that were in the land of Chanaan, are come to me:

46:32. And the men are shep­herds, and their oc­cu­pa­tion is to feed cat­tle; their flocks, and herds, and all they have, they have brought with them.

46:33. And when he shall call you, and shall say: What is your oc­cu­pa­tion?

46:34. You shall an­swer: We, thy ser­vants, are shep­herds, from our in­fan­cy un­til now, both we and our fa­thers. And this you shall say, that you may dwell in the land of Gessen, be­cause the Egyp­tians have all shep­herds in abom­ina­tion.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 47

Ja­cob and his sons are pre­sent­ed be­fore Pharao: he giveth them the land of Gessen. The famine forceth the Egyp­tians to sell all their pos­ses­sions to the king.

47:1. Then Joseph went in and told Pharao, say­ing: My fa­ther and brethren, their sheep and their herds, and all that they pos­sess, are come out of the land of Chanaan: and be­hold they stay in the land of Gessen.

47:2. Five men al­so, the last of his brethren, he pre­sent­ed be­fore the king:

The last. . .xtremos. Some in­ter­pret this word of the chiefest, and most right­ly: but Joseph seems rather to have cho­sen out such as had the mean­est ap­pear­ance, that Pharao might not think of em­ploy­ing them at court, with dan­ger of their morals and re­li­gion.

47:3. And he asked them: What is your oc­cu­pa­tion? They an­swered: We, thy ser­vants, are shep­herds, both we and our fa­thers.

47:4. We are come to so­journ in thy land, be­cause there is no grass for the flocks of thy ser­vants, the famine be­ing very grievous in the land of Chanaan: and we pray thee to give or­ders that we thy ser­vants may be in the land of Gessen.

47:5. The king there­fore said to Joseph: Thy fa­ther and thy brethren are come to thee.

47:6. The land of Egypt is be­fore thee: and make them dwell in the best place, and give them the land of Gessen. And if thou know­est that there are in­dus­tri­ous men among them, make them rulers over my cat­tle.

47:7. Af­ter this Joseph brought in his fa­ther to the king, and pre­sent­ed him be­fore him: and he blessed him.

47:8. And be­ing asked by him: How many are the days of the years of thy life?

47:9. He an­swered: The days of my pil­grim­age are a hun­dred and thir­ty years, few, and evil, and they are not come up to the days of the pil­grim­age of my fa­thers.

47:10. And bless­ing the king, he went out.

47:11. But Joseph gave a pos­ses­sion to his fa­ther and his brethren in Egypt, in the best place of the land, in Ramess­es, as Pharao had com­mand­ed.

47:12. And he nour­ished them, and all his fa­ther’s house, al­low­ing food to ev­ery one.

47:13. For in the whole world there was want of bread, and a famine had op­pressed the land, more es­pe­cial­ly of Egypt and Chanaan;

47:14. Out of which he gath­ered up all the mon­ey for the corn which they bought, and brought it in to the king’s trea­sure.

47:15. And when the buy­ers want­ed mon­ey, all Egypt came to Joseph, say­ing: Give us bread: why should we die in thy pres­ence, hav­ing now no mon­ey?

47:16. And he an­swered them: Bring me your cat­tle, and for them I will give you food, if you have no mon­ey.

47:17. And when they had brought them, he gave them food in ex­change for their hors­es, and sheep, and ox­en, and ass­es: and he main­tained them that year for the ex­change of their cat­tle.

47:18. And they came the sec­ond year, and said to him: We will not hide from our lord, how that our mon­ey is spent, and our cat­tle al­so are gone: nei­ther art thou ig­no­rant that we have noth­ing now left but our bod­ies and our lands.

47:19. Why there­fore shall we die be­fore thy eyes? we will be thine, both we and our lands: buy us to be the king’s ser­vants, and give us seed, lest for want of tillers the land be turned in­to a wilder­ness.

47:20. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, ev­ery man sell­ing his pos­ses­sions, be­cause of the great­ness of the famine. And he brought it in­to Pharao’s hands:

47:21. And all its peo­ple from one end of the bor­ders of Egypt, even to the oth­er end there­of,

47:22. Ex­cept the land of the priests, which had been giv­en them by the king: to whom al­so a cer­tain al­lowance of food was giv­en out of the pub­lic stores, and there­fore they were not forced to sell their pos­ses­sions.

47:23. Then Joseph said to the peo­ple: Be­hold, as you see, both you and your lands be­long to Pharao; take seed and sow the fields,

47:24. That you may have corn. The fifth part you shall give to the king; the oth­er four you shall have for seed, and for food for your fam­ilies and chil­dren.

47:25. And they an­swered: our life is in thy hand; on­ly let my lord look favourably up­on us, and we will glad­ly serve the king.

47:26. From that time un­to this day, in the whole land of Egypt, the fifth part is paid to the kings, and it is be­come as a law, ex­cept the land of the priests, which was free from this covenant.

47:27. So Is­rael dwelt in Egypt, that is, in the land of Gessen, and pos­sessed it; and grew, and was mul­ti­plied ex­ceed­ing­ly.

47:28. And he lived in it sev­en­teen years: and all the days of his life came to a hun­dred and forty-​sev­en years.

47:29. And when he saw that the day of his death drew nigh, he called his son Joseph, and said to him: If I have found favour in thy sight, put thy hand un­der my thigh; and thou shalt shew me this kind­ness and truth, not to bury me in Egypt.

47:30. But I will sleep with my fa­thers, and thou shalt take me away out of this land, and bury me in the bury­ing place of my an­ces­tors. And Joseph an­swered him: I will do what thou hast com­mand­ed.

47:31. And he said: Swear then to me. And as he was swear­ing, Is­rael adored God, turn­ing to the bed’s head.

To the bed’s head. . .St. Paul, Heb. 11.21, fol­low­ing the Greek trans­la­tion of the Sep­tu­agint, reads adored the top of his rod. Where note, that the same word in the He­brew, ac­cord­ing to the dif­fer­ent point­ing of it, sig­ni­fies both a bed and a rod. And to ver­ify both these sen­tences, we must un­der­stand that Ja­cob lean­ing on Joseph’s rod adored, turn­ing to­wards the head of his bed: which ado­ra­tion, inas­much as it was re­ferred to God, was an ab­so­lute and sovereign wor­ship: but inas­much as it was re­ferred to the rod of Joseph, as a fig­ure of the scep­tre, that is, of the roy­al dig­ni­ty of Christ, was on­ly an in­fe­ri­or and rel­ative hon­our.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 48

Joseph vis­iteth his fa­ther in his sick­ness, who adopteth his two sons Man­ass­es and Ephraim, and bles­seth them, pre­fer­ring the younger be­fore the el­der.

48:1. Af­ter these things, it was told Joseph that his fa­ther was sick; and he set out to go to him, tak­ing his two sons Man­ass­es and Ephraim.

48:2. And it was told the old man: Be­hold thy son Joseph cometh to thee. And be­ing strength­ened, he sat on his bed.

48:3. And when Joseph was come in to him, he said: God almighty ap­peared to me at Luza, which is in the land of Chanaan, and he blessed me,

48:4. And said: I will cause thee to in­crease and mul­ti­ply, and I will make of thee a mul­ti­tude of peo­ple: and I will give this land to thee, and to thy seed af­ter thee for an ev­er­last­ing pos­ses­sion.

48:5. So thy two sons, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt be­fore I came hith­er to thee, shall be mine: Ephraim and Man­ass­es shall be re­put­ed to me as Ruben and Sime­on.

48:6. But the rest whom thou shalt have af­ter them, shall be thine, and shall be called by the name of their brethren in their pos­ses­sions.

48:7. For, when I came out of Mesopotamia, Rachel died from me in the land of Chanaan in the very jour­ney, and it was spring time: and I was go­ing to Ephra­ta, and I buried her near the way of Ephra­ta, which by an­oth­er name is called Beth­le­hem.

48:8. Then see­ing his sons, he said to him: Who are these?

48:9. He an­swered: They are my sons, whom God hath giv­en me in this place. And he said: Bring them to me, that I may bless them.

48:10. For Is­rael’s eyes were dim by rea­son of his great age, and he could not see clear­ly. And when they were brought to him, he kissed and em­braced them,

48:11. And said to his son: I am not de­prived of see­ing thee; more­over God hath shewn me thy seed.

48:12. And when Joseph had tak­en them from his fa­ther’s lap, he bowed down with his face to the ground.

48:13. And he set Ephraim on his right hand, that is, to­wards the left hand of Is­rael; but Man­ass­es on his left hand, to wit, to­wards his fa­ther’s right hand, and brought them near to him.

48:14. But he, stretch­ing forth his right hand, put it up­on the head of Ephraim, the younger broth­er; and the left up­on the head of Man­ass­es, who was the el­der, chang­ing his hands.

48:15. And Ja­cob blessed the sons of Joseph, and said: God, in whose sight my fa­thers Abra­ham and Isaac walked, God that feedeth me from my youth un­til this day:

48:16. The an­gel that de­liv­ereth me from all evils, bless these boys: and let my name be called up­on them, and the names of my fa­thers Abra­ham and Isaac; and may they grow in­to a mul­ti­tude up­on the earth.

48:17. And Joseph see­ing that his fa­ther had put his right hand up­on the head of Ephraim, was much dis­pleased: and tak­ing his fa­ther’s hand, he tried to lift it from Ephraim’s head, and to re­move it to the head of Man­ass­es.

48:18. And he said to his fa­ther: It should not be so, my fa­ther; for this is the first­born, put thy right hand up­on his head.

48:19. But he re­fus­ing, said: I know, my son, I know: and this al­so shall be­come a peo­ple, and shall be mul­ti­plied; but his younger broth­er shall be greater than he; and his seed shall grow in­to na­tions.

48:20. And he blessed them at that time, say­ing: In thee shall Is­rael be blessed, and it shall be said: God do to thee as to Ephraim, and as to Man­ass­es. And he set Ephraim be­fore Man­ass­es.

48:21. And he said to Joseph, his son: Be­hold I die, and God will be with you, and will bring you back in­to the land of your fa­thers.

48:22. I give thee a por­tion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Am­or­rhite with my sword and bow.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 49

Ja­cob’s prophet­ical bless­ings of his twelve sons: his death.

49:1. And Ja­cob called his sons, and said to them: Gath­er your­selves to­geth­er, that I may tell you the things that shall be­fall you in the last days.

49:2. Gath­er your­selves to­geth­er, and hear, O ye sons of Ja­cob, hear­ken to Is­rael, your fa­ther:

49:3. Ruben, my first­born, thou art my strength, and the be­gin­ning of my sor­row; ex­celling in gifts, greater in com­mand.

My strength, etc. . .He calls him his strength, as be­ing born whilst his fa­ther was in his full strength and vigour: he calls him the be­gin­ning of his sor­row, be­cause cares and sor­rows usu­al­ly come on with the birth of chil­dren. Ex­celling in gifts, etc., be­cause the first­born had a ti­tle to a dou­ble por­tion, and to have the com­mand over his brethren, which Ruben for­feit­ed by his sin; be­ing poured out as wa­ter, that is, spilt and lost.

49:4. Thou art poured out as wa­ter, grow thou not; be­cause thou wen­test up to thy fa­ther’s bed, and didst de­file his couch.

Grow thou not. . .This was not meant by way of a curse or im­pre­ca­tion; but by way of a prophe­cy fore­telling that the tribe of Ruben should not in­her­it the pre-​em­inences usu­al­ly an­nexed to the first birthright, viz., the dou­ble por­tion, the be­ing prince or lord over the oth­er brethren, and the priest­hood: of which the dou­ble por­tion was giv­en to Joseph, the prince­ly of­fice to Ju­da, and the priest­hood to Levi.

49:5. Sime­on and Levi brethren: ves­sels of in­iq­ui­ty wag­ing war.

49:6. Let not my soul go in­to their coun­sel, nor my glo­ry be in their as­sem­bly: be­cause in their fury they slew a man, and in their self-​will they un­der­mined a wall.

Slew a man,. . .viz., Sichem the son of Hemor, with all his peo­ple, Gen. 34.; mys­ti­cal­ly and prophet­ical­ly it al­ludes to Christ, whom their pos­ter­ity, viz., the priests and the scribes, put to death.

49:7. Cursed be their fury, be­cause it was stub­born: and their wrath, be­cause it was cru­el: I will di­vide them in Ja­cob, and will scat­ter them in Is­rael.

49:8. Ju­da, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hand shall be on the necks of thy en­emies; the sons of thy fa­ther shall bow down to thee.

49:9. Ju­da is a li­on’s whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: rest­ing thou hast couched as a li­on, and as a li­oness, who shall rouse him?

A li­on’s whelp, etc. . .This bless­ing of Ju­da fore­tel­leth the strength of his tribe, the fer­til­ity of his in­her­itance; and prin­ci­pal­ly that the scep­tre and leg­isla­tive pow­er should not be ut­ter­ly tak­en away from his race till about the time of the com­ing of Christ: as in ef­fect it nev­er was: which is a demon­stra­tion against the mod­ern Jews, that the Mes­si­ah is long since come; for the scep­tre has long since been ut­ter­ly tak­en away from Ju­da.

49:10. The scep­tre shall not be tak­en away from Ju­da, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the ex­pec­ta­tion of na­tions.

49:11. Ty­ing his foal to the vine­yard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his gar­ment in the blood of the grape.

49:12. His eyes are more beau­ti­ful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

49:13. Zab­ulon shall dwell on the seashore, and in the road of ships, reach­ing as far as Sidon.

49:14. Is­sachar shall be a strong ass, ly­ing down be­tween the bor­ders.

49:15. He saw rest that it was good: and the land that it was ex­cel­lent: and he bowed his shoul­der to car­ry, and be­came a ser­vant un­der trib­ute.

49:16. Dan shall judge his peo­ple like an­oth­er tribe in Is­rael.

Dan shall judge, etc. . .This was ver­ified in Sam­son, who was of the tribe of Dan, and be­gan to de­liv­er Is­rael. Judges 13.5. But as this de­liv­er­ance was but tem­po­ral and very im­per­fect, the holy pa­tri­arch (ver. 18) as­pires af­ter an­oth­er kind of de­liv­er­er, say­ing: I will look for thy sal­va­tion, O Lord.

49:17. Let Dan be a snake in the way, a ser­pent in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, that his rid­er may fall back­ward.

49:18. I will look for thy sal­va­tion, O Lord.

49:19. Gad, be­ing gird­ed, shall fight be­fore him: and he him­self shall be gird­ed back­ward.

Gad be­ing gird­ed, etc. . .It seems to al­lude to the tribe of Gad; when af­ter they had re­ceived for their lot the land of Galaad, they marched in arms be­fore the rest of the Is­raelites, to the con­quest of the land of Chanaan: from whence they af­ter­wards re­turned load­ed with spoils. See Jos. 4. and 12.

49:20. As­er, his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield dain­ties to kings.

49:21. Neph­thali, a hart let loose, and giv­ing words of beau­ty.

49:22. Joseph is a grow­ing son, a grow­ing son and come­ly to be­hold: the daugh­ters run to and fro up­on the wall;

Run to and fro, etc. . .To be­hold his beau­ty; whilst his en­vi­ous brethren turned their darts against him, etc.

49:23. But they that held darts, pro­voked him, and quar­relled with him, and en­vied him.

49:24. His bow rest­ed up­on the strong, and the bands of his arms and his hands were loosed, by the hands of the mighty one of Ja­cob: thence he came forth a pas­tor, the stone of Is­rael.

His bow rest­ed up­on the strong, etc. . .That is, up­on God, who was his strength: who al­so loosed his bands, and brought him out of prison to be the pas­tor, that is, the feed­er and ruler of Egypt, and the stone, that is, the rock and sup­port of Is­rael.

49:25. The God of thy fa­ther shall be thy helper, and the Almighty shall bless thee with the bless­ings of heav­en above, with the bless­ings of the deep that li­eth be­neath, with the bless­ings of the breasts and of the womb.

49:26. The bless­ings of thy fa­ther are strength­ened with the bless­ings of his fa­thers: un­til the de­sire of the ev­er­last­ing hills should come: may they be up­on the head of Joseph, and up­on the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren.

The bless­ings of thy fa­ther, etc. . .That is, thy fa­ther’s bless­ings are made more preva­lent and ef­fec­tu­al in thy re­gard, by the ad­di­tion­al strength they re­ceive from his in­her­it­ing the bless­ings of his pro­gen­itors Abra­ham and Isaac. The de­sire of the ev­er­last­ing hills, etc. . .These bless­ings all looked for­ward to­wards Christ, called the de­sire of the ev­er­last­ing hills, as be­ing longed for, as it were, by the whole cre­ation. Mys­ti­cal­ly, the pa­tri­archs and prophets are called the ev­er­last­ing hills, by rea­son of the em­inence of their wis­dom and ho­li­ness. The Nazarite. . .This word sig­ni­fies one sep­arat­ed; and agrees to Joseph, as be­ing sep­arat­ed from, and more em­inent than, his brethren. As the an­cient Nazarites were so called from their be­ing set aside for God, and vowed to him.

49:27. Ben­jamin a ravenous wolf, in the morn­ing shall eat the prey, and in the evening shall di­vide the spoil.

49:28. All these are the twelve tribes of Is­rael: these things their fa­ther spoke to them, and he blessed ev­ery one with their prop­er bless­ings.

49:29. And he charged them, say­ing: I am now go­ing to be gath­ered to my peo­ple: bury me with my fa­thers in the dou­ble cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Het­hite,

To be gath­ered to my peo­ple. . .That is, I am go­ing to die, and so to fol­low my an­ces­tors that are gone be­fore me, and to join their com­pa­ny in an­oth­er world.

49:30. Over against Mam­bre, in the land of Chanaan, which Abra­ham bought to­geth­er with the field, of Ephron the Het­hite, for a pos­ses­sion to bury in.

49:31. There they buried him, and Sara his wife: there was Isaac buried with Re­bec­ca, his wife: there al­so Lia doth lie buried.

49:32. And when he had end­ed the com­mand­ments, where­with he in­struct­ed his sons, he drew up his feet up­on the bed, and died: and he was gath­ered to his peo­ple.

Gen­esis Chap­ter 50

The mourn­ing for Ja­cob, and his in­ter­ment. Joseph’s kind­ness to­wards his brethren. His death.

50:1. And when Joseph saw this, he fell up­on his fa­ther’s face, weep­ing and kiss­ing him.

50:2. And he com­mand­ed his ser­vants, the physi­cians, to em­balm his fa­ther.

50:3. And while they were ful­fill­ing his com­mands, there passed forty days: for this was the man­ner with bod­ies that were em­balmed, and Egypt mourned for him sev­en­ty days.

50:4. And the time of the mourn­ing be­ing ex­pired, Joseph spoke to the fam­ily of Pharao: If I have found favour in your sight, speak in the ears of Pharao:

50:5. For my fa­ther made me swear to him, say­ing: Be­hold I die; thou shalt bury me in my sepul­chre which I have digged for my­self in the land of Chanaan. So I will go up and bury my fa­ther, and re­turn.

50:6. And Pharao said to him: Go up and bury thy fa­ther ac­cord­ing as he made thee swear.

50:7. So he went up, and there went with him all the an­cients of Pharao’s house, and all the el­ders of the land of Egypt.

50:8. And the house of Joseph with his brethren, ex­cept their chil­dren, and their flocks and herds, which they left in the land of Gessen.

50:9. He had al­so in his train char­iots and horse­men: and it was a great com­pa­ny.

50:10. And they came to the thresh­ing floor of Atad, which is sit­uat­ed be­yond the Jor­dan: where cel­ebrat­ing the ex­equies with a great and ve­he­ment lamen­ta­tion, they spent full sev­en days.

50:11. And when the in­hab­itants of Chanaan saw this, they said: This is a great mourn­ing to the Egyp­tians. And there­fore the name of that place was called, The mourn­ing of Egypt.

50:12. So the sons of Ja­cob did as he had com­mand­ed them.

50:13. And car­ry­ing him in­to the land of Chanaan, they buried him in the dou­ble cave, which Abra­ham had bought to­geth­er with the field for a pos­ses­sion of a bury­ing place, of Eh­pron, the Het­hite, over against Mam­bre.

50:14. And Joseph re­turned in­to Egypt with his brethren, and all that were in his com­pa­ny, af­ter he had buried his fa­ther.

50:15. Now he be­ing dead, his brethren were afraid, and talked one with an­oth­er: Lest per­haps he should re­mem­ber the wrong he suf­fered, and re­quite us all the evil that we did to him.

50:16. And they sent a mes­sage to him, say­ing: Thy fa­ther com­mand­ed us be­fore he died,

50:17. That we should say thus much to thee from him: I be­seech thee to for­get the wicked­ness of thy brethren, and the sin and mal­ice they prac­tised against thee: we al­so pray thee, to for­give the ser­vants of the God of thy fa­ther this wicked­ness. And when Joseph heard this, he wept.

50:18. And his brethren came to him; and wor­ship­ping pros­trate on the ground, they said: We are thy ser­vants.

50:19. And he an­swered them: Fear not: can we re­sist the will of God?

50:20. You thought evil against me: but God turned it in­to good, that he might ex­alt me, as at present you see, and might save many peo­ple.

50:21. Fear not: I will feed you and your chil­dren. And he com­fort­ed them, and spoke gen­tly and mild­ly.

50:22. And he dwelt in Egypt with all his fa­ther’s house; and lived a hun­dred and ten years. And he saw the chil­dren of Ephraim to the third gen­er­ation. The chil­dren al­so of Machir, the sons of Man­ass­es, were born on Joseph’s knees.

50:23. Af­ter which he told his brethren: God will vis­it you af­ter my death, and will make you go up out of this land, to the land which he swore to Abra­ham, Isaac, and Ja­cob.

50:24. And he made them swear to him, say­ing: God will vis­it you, car­ry my bones with you out of this place:

50:25. And he died, be­ing a hun­dred and ten years old. And be­ing em­balmed, he was laid in a cof­fin in Egypt.

THE BOOK OF EX­ODUS

The Sec­ond Book of Moses is called EX­ODUS, from the Greek word EX­ODOS, which sig­ni­fies go­ing out: be­cause it con­tains the his­to­ry of the go­ing out of the chil­dren of Is­rael out of Egypt. The He­brews, from the words with which it be­gins, call it VEELLE SE­MOTH: These are the names. It con­tains trans­ac­tions for 145 years; that is, from the death of Joseph to the erect­ing of the taber­na­cle.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 1

The Is­raelites are mul­ti­plied in Egypt. They are op­pressed by a new king, who com­man­deth all their male chil­dren to be killed.

1:1. These are the names of the chil­dren of Is­rael, that went in­to Egypt with Ja­cob: they went in ev­ery man with his house­hold:

1:2. Ruben, Sime­on, Levi, Ju­da,

1:3. Is­sachar, Zab­ulon, and Ben­jamin,

1:4. Dan, and Neph­thali, Gad and As­er.

1:5. And all the souls that came out of Ja­cob’s thigh, were sev­en­ty: but Joseph was in Egypt.

1:6. Af­ter he was dead, and all his brethren, and all that gen­er­ation,

1:7. The chil­dren of Is­rael in­creased, and sprung up in­to mul­ti­tudes, and grow­ing ex­ceed­ing­ly strong they filled the land.

1:8. In the mean time there arose a new king over Egypt, that knew not Joseph:

1:9. And he said to his peo­ple: Be­hold the peo­ple of the chil­dren of Is­rael are nu­mer­ous and stronger than we.

1:10. Come let us wise­ly op­press them, lest they mul­ti­ply: and if any war shall rise against us, join with our en­emies, and hav­ing over­come us, de­part out of the land.

1:11. There­fore he set over them mas­ters of the works, to af­flict them with bur­dens: and they built for Pharao cities of taber­na­cles, Phithom, and Ramess­es.

Of taber­na­cles. . .Or, of store­hous­es.

1:12. But the more they op­pressed them, the more they were mul­ti­plied and in­creased.

1:13. And the Egyp­tians hat­ed the chil­dren of Is­rael, and af­flict­ed them and mocked them:

1:14. And they made their life bit­ter with hard works in clay and brick, and with all man­ner of ser­vice, where­with they were over­charged in the works of the earth.

1:15. And the king of Egypt spoke to the mid­wives of the He­brews: of whom one was called Sepho­ra, the oth­er Phua,

1:16. Com­mand­ing them: When you shall do the of­fice of mid­wives to the He­brew wom­en, and the time of de­liv­ery is come: if it be a man child, kill it: if a wom­an, keep it alive.

1:17. But the mid­wives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had com­mand­ed, but saved the men chil­dren.

1:18: And the king called for them and said: What is it that you meant to do, that you would save the men chil­dren?

1:19. They an­swered: The He­brew wom­en are not as the Egyp­tian wom­en: for they them­selves are skil­ful in the of­fice of a mid­wife; and they are de­liv­ered be­fore we come to them.

1:20. There­fore God dealt well with the mid­wives: and the peo­ple mul­ti­plied and grew ex­ceed­ing­ly strong.

1:21. And be­cause the mid­wives feared God, he built them hous­es.

Be­cause the mid­wives feared God, etc. . .The mid­wives were re­ward­ed, not for their lie, which was a ve­nial sin; but for their fear of God, and their hu­man­ity: but this re­ward was on­ly tem­po­ral, in build­ing them hous­es, that is, in es­tab­lish­ing and en­rich­ing their fam­ilies.

1:22. Pharao there­fore charged all his peo­ple, say­ing: What­so­ev­er shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast in­to the riv­er: what­so­ev­er of the fe­male, ye shall save alive.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 2

Moses is born and ex­posed on the bank of the riv­er; where he is tak­en up by the daugh­ter of Pharao, and adopt­ed for her son. He kil­leth an Egyp­tian, and fleeth in­to Ma­di­an; where he mar­ri­eth a wife.

2:1. Af­ter this there went a man of the house of Levi; and took a wife of his own kin­dred.

2:2. And she con­ceived, and bore a son: and see­ing him a good­ly child, hid him three months.

2:3. And when she could hide him no longer, she took a bas­ket made of bul­rush­es, and daubed it with slime and pitch: and put the lit­tle babe there­in, and laid him in the sedges by the riv­er’s brink,

2:4. His sis­ter stand­ing afar off, and tak­ing no­tice what would be done.

2:5. And be­hold the daugh­ter of Pharao came down to wash her­self in the riv­er: and her maids walked by the riv­er’s brink. And when she saw the bas­ket in the sedges she sent one of her maids for it: and when it was brought,

2:6. She opened it, and see­ing with­in it an in­fant cry­ing, hav­ing com­pas­sion on it, she said: This is one of the babes of the He­brews.

2:7. And the child’s sis­ter said to her: Shall I go, and call to thee a He­brew wom­an, to nurse the babe?

2:8. She an­swered: Go. The maid went and called her moth­er.

2:9. And Pharao’s daugh­ter said to her: Take this child, and nurse him for me: I will give thee thy wages. The wom­an took and nursed the child: and when he was grown up, she de­liv­ered him to Pharao’s daugh­ter.

2:10. And she adopt­ed him for a son, and called him Moses, say­ing: Be­cause I took him out of the wa­ter.

Moses. . .Or Moy­ses, in the Egyp­tian tongue, sig­ni­fies one tak­en or saved out of the wa­ter.

2:11. In those days, af­ter Moses was grown up, he went out to his brethren: and saw their af­flic­tion, and an Egyp­tian strik­ing one of the He­brews, his brethren.

2:12. And when he had looked about this way and that way, and saw no one there, he slew the Egyp­tian and hid him in the sand.

He slew the Egyp­tian. . .This he did by a par­tic­ular in­spi­ra­tion of God; as a pre­lude to his de­liv­er­ing the peo­ple from their op­pres­sion and bondage. He thought, says St. Stephen, Acts 7.25, that his brethren un­der­stood that God by his hand would save them. But such par­tic­ular and ex­traor­di­nary ex­am­ples are not to be im­itat­ed.

2:13. And go­ing out the next day, he saw two He­brews quar­relling: and he said to him that did the wrong: Why strik­est thou thy neigh­bour?

2:14. But he an­swered: Who hath ap­point­ed thee prince and judge over us? wilt thou kill me, as thou didst yes­ter­day kill the Egyp­tian? Moses feared, and said: How is this come to be known?

2:15. And Pharao heard of this word, and sought to kill Moses: but he fled from his sight, and abode in the land of Ma­di­an, and he sat down by a well.

Ma­di­an. . .A city and coun­try of Ara­bia, which took its name from Ma­di­an the son of Abra­ham, by Ce­tu­ra, and was peo­pled by his pos­ter­ity.

2:16. And the priest of Ma­di­an had sev­en daugh­ters, who came to draw wa­ter: and when the troughs were filled, de­sired to wa­ter their fa­ther’s flocks.

2:17. And the shep­herds came and drove them away: and Moses arose, and de­fend­ing the maids, wa­tered their sheep.

2:18: And when they re­turned to Raguel their fa­ther, he said to them: Why are ye come soon­er than usu­al?

Raguel. . .He had two names, be­ing al­so called Jethro, as ap­pears from the first verse of the fol­low­ing chap­ter.

2:19. They an­swered: A man of Egypt de­liv­ered us from the hands of the shep­herds: and he drew wa­ter al­so with us, and gave the sheep to drink.

2:20. But he said: Where is he? why have you let the man go? call him that he may eat bread.

2:21. And Moses swore that he would dwell with him. And he took Sepho­ra his daugh­ter to wife:

2:22. And she bore him a son, whom he called Ger­sam, say­ing: I have been a stranger in a for­eign coun­try. And she bore an­oth­er, whom he called Eliez­er, say­ing: For the God of my fa­ther, my helper, hath de­liv­ered me out of the hand of Pharao.

Ger­sam. . .Or Ger­shom. This name sig­ni­fies a stranger there: as Eliez­er sig­ni­fies the help of God.

2:23. Now af­ter a long time the king of Egypt died: and the chil­dren of Is­rael groan­ing, cried out be­cause of the works: and their cry went up un­to God from the works.

2:24. And he heard their groan­ing, and re­mem­bered the covenant which he made with Abra­ham, Isaac, and Ja­cob.

2:25. And the Lord looked up­on the chil­dren of Is­rael, and he knew them.

Knew them. . .That is, he had re­spect to them, he cast a mer­ci­ful eye up­on them.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 3

God ap­peareth to Moses in a bush, and sendeth him to de­liv­er Is­rael.

3:1. Now Moses fed the sheep of Jethro, his fa­ther in law, the priest of Ma­di­an: and he drove the flock to the in­ner parts of the desert, and came to the moun­tain of God, Horeb.

3:2. And the Lord ap­peared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire, and was not burnt.

The Lord ap­peared. . .That is, an an­gel rep­re­sent­ing God, and speak­ing in his name.

3:3. And Moses said: I will go, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

3:4. And when the Lord saw that he went for­ward to see, he called to him out of the midst of the bush. and said: Moses, Moses. And he an­swered: Here I am.

3:5. And he said: Come not nigh hith­er, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place, where­on thou stand­est, is holy ground.

3:6. And he said: I am the God of thy fa­ther, the God of Abra­ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Ja­cob. Moses hid his face: for he durst not look at God.

3:7. And the Lord said to him: I have seen the af­flic­tion of my peo­ple in Egypt, and I have heard their cry be­cause of the rigour of them that are over the works;

3:8. And know­ing their sor­row, I am come down to de­liv­er them out of the hands of the Egyp­tians, and to bring them out of that land in­to a good and spa­cious land, in­to a land that floweth with milk and hon­ey, to the places of the Chanaan­ite, and Het­hite, and Am­or­rhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Je­busite.

3:9. For the cry of the chil­dren of Is­rael is come un­to me: and I have seen their af­flic­tion, where­with they are op­pressed by the Egyp­tians.

3:10. But come, and I will send thee to Pharao, that thou mayst bring forth my peo­ple, the chil­dren of Is­rael, out of Egypt.

3:11. And Moses said to God: Who am I that I should go to Pharao, and should bring forth the chil­dren of Is­rael out of Egypt?

3:12. And he said to him: I will be with thee; and this thou shalt have for a sign that I have sent thee: When thou shalt have brought my peo­ple out of Egypt, thou shalt of­fer sac­ri­fice to God up­on this moun­tain.

3:13. Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the chil­dren of Is­rael, and say to them: The God of your fa­thers hath sent me to you. If they shall say to me: What is his name? What shall I say to them?

3:14. God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the chil­dren of Is­rael: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you.

I am who am. . .That is, I am be­ing it­self, eter­nal, self-​ex­is­tent, in­de­pen­dent, in­fi­nite; with­out be­gin­ning, end, or change; and the source of all oth­er be­ings.

3:15. And God said again to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the chil­dren of Is­rael: The Lord God of your fa­thers the God of Abra­ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Ja­cob hath sent me to you; this is my name for ev­er, and this is my memo­ri­al un­to all gen­er­ations.

3:16. Go and gath­er to­geth­er the an­cients of Is­rael, and thou shalt say to them: The Lord God of your fa­thers, the God of Abra­ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Ja­cob, hath ap­peared to me, say­ing: Vis­it­ing I have vis­it­ed you; and I have seen all that hath be­fall­en you in Egypt.

3:17. And I have said the word to bring you forth out of the af­flic­tion of Egypt, in­to the land of the Chanaan­ite, and Het­hite, and Am­or­rhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Je­busite, to a land that floweth with milk and hon­ey.

3:18: And they shall hear thy voice; and thou shalt go in, thou and the an­cients of Is­rael, to the king of Egypt, and thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the He­brews hath called us; we will go three days’ jour­ney in­to the wilder­ness, to sac­ri­fice un­to the Lord our God.

3:19. But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, but by a mighty hand.

3:20. For I will stretch forth my hand, and will strike Egypt with all my won­ders which I will do in the midst of them: af­ter these he will let you go.

3:21. And I will give favour to this peo­ple, in the sight of the Egyp­tians: and when you go forth, you shall not de­part emp­ty:

3:22. But ev­ery wom­an shall ask of her neigh­bour, and of her that is in her house, ves­sels of sil­ver and of gold, and rai­ment: and you shall put them on your sons and daugh­ters, and shall spoil Egypt.

Shall spoil, etc. . .That is, you shall strip, and take away the goods of the Egyp­tians. This was not au­tho­riz­ing theft or in­jus­tice; but was a just dis­pos­al made by Him, who is the great lord and mas­ter of all things, in or­der to pay the chil­dren of Is­rael some part of what was due to them from the Egyp­tians for their labours.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 4

Moses is em­pow­ered to con­firm his mis­sion with mir­acles: his broth­er Aaron is ap­point­ed to as­sist him.

4:1. Moses an­swered, and said: They will not be­lieve me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not ap­peared to thee.

4:2. Then he said to him: What is that thou hold­est in thy hand? He an­swered: A rod.

4:3. And the Lord said: Cast it down up­on the ground. He cast it down, and it was turned in­to a ser­pent, so that Moses fled from it.

4:4. And the Lord said: Put out thy hand, and take it by the tail. He put forth his hand, and took hold of it, and it was turned in­to a rod.

4:5. That they may be­lieve, saith he, that the Lord God of their fa­thers, the God of Abra­ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Ja­cob, hath ap­peared to thee.

4:6. And the Lord said again: Put thy hand in­to thy bo­som. And when he had put it in­to his bo­som, he brought it forth lep­rous as snow.

4:7. And he said: Put back thy hand in­to thy bo­som. He put it back, and brought it out again, and it was like the oth­er flesh.

4:8. If they will not be­lieve thee, saith he, nor hear the voice of the for­mer sign, they will be­lieve the word of the lat­ter sign.

4:9. But if they will not even be­lieve these two signs, nor hear thy voice: take of the riv­er wa­ter, and pour it out up­on the dry land, and what­so­ev­er thou drawest out of the riv­er, shall be turned in­to blood.

4:10. Moses said: I be­seech thee, Lord, I am not elo­quent from yes­ter­day and the day be­fore; and since thou hast spo­ken to thy ser­vant, I have more im­ped­iment and slow­ness of tongue.

4:11. The Lord said to him: Who made man’s mouth? or who made the dumb and the deaf, the see­ing and the blind? did not I?

4:12. Go there­fore, and I will be in thy mouth; and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak.

4:13. But he said: I be­seech thee, Lord, send whom thou wilt send.

4:14. The Lord be­ing an­gry at Moses, said: Aaron the Levite is thy broth­er, I know that he is elo­quent: be­hold he cometh forth to meet thee, and see­ing thee, shall be glad at heart.

4:15. Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth: and I will be in thy mouth, and in his month, and will shew you what you must do.

4:16. He shall speak in thy stead to the peo­ple, and shall be thy mouth: but thou shalt be to him in those things that per­tain to God.

4:17. And take this rod in thy hand. where­with thou shalt do the signs.

4:18: Moses went his way, and re­turned to Jethro his fa­ther in law, and said to him; I will go and re­turn to my brethren in­to Egypt, that I may see if they be yet alive. And Jethro said to him: Go in peace.

4:19. And the Lord said to Moses, in Ma­di­an: Go, and re­turn in­to Egypt; for they are all dead that sought thy life.

4:20. Moses there­fore took his wife, and his sons, and set them up­on an ass; and re­turned in­to Egypt, car­ry­ing the rod of God in his hand.

4:21. And the Lord said to him as he was re­turn­ing in­to Egypt: See that thou do all the won­ders be­fore Pharao, which I have put in thy hand: I shall hard­en his heart, and he will not let the peo­ple go.

I shall hard­en, etc. . .Not by be­ing the ef­fi­cient cause of his sin; but by with­draw­ing from him, for his just pun­ish­ment, the dew of grace that might have soft­ened his heart; and so suf­fer­ing him to grow hard­er and hard­er.

4:22. And thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Is­rael is my son, my first­born.

4:23. I have said to thee: Let my son go, that he may serve me, and thou wouldst not let him go: be­hold I will kill thy son, thy first­born.

4:24. And when he was in his jour­ney, in the inn, the Lord met him, and would have killed him.

The Lord met him, and would have killed him. . .This was an an­gel rep­re­sent­ing the Lord, who treat­ed Moses in this man­ner, for hav­ing ne­glect­ed the cir­cum­ci­sion of his younger son; which his wife un­der­stand­ing, cir­cum­cised her child up­on the spot, up­on which the an­gel let Moses go.

4:25. Im­me­di­ate­ly Sepho­ra took a very sharp stone, and cir­cum­cised the fore­skin of her son, and touched his feet, and said: A bloody spouse art thou to me.

4:26. And he let him go af­ter she had said: A bloody spouse art thou to me, be­cause of the cir­cum­ci­sion.

4:27. And the Lord said to Aaron: Go in­to the desert to meet Moses. And he went forth to meet him in the moun­tain of God, and kissed him.

4:28. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, by which he had sent him, and the signs that he had com­mand­ed.

4:29. And they came to­geth­er, and they as­sem­bled all the an­cients of the chil­dren of Is­rael.

4:30. And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had said to Moses: and he wrought the signs be­fore the peo­ple.

4:31. And the peo­ple be­lieved. And they heard that the Lord had vis­it­ed the chil­dren of Is­rael, and that he had looked up­on their af­flic­tion: and falling down they adored.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 5

Pharao re­fuseth to let the peo­ple go. They are more op­pressed.

5:1. Af­ter these things, Moses and Aaron went in, and said to Pharao: Thus saith the Lord God of Is­rael: Let my peo­ple go, that they may sac­ri­fice to me in the desert.

5:2. But he an­swered: Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice, and let Is­rael go? I know not the Lord, nei­ther will I let Is­rael go.

5:3. And they said: The God of the He­brews hath called us, to go three days’ jour­ney in­to the wilder­ness, and to sac­ri­fice to the Lord our God; lest a pesti­lence or the sword fall up­on us.

5:4. The king of Egypt said to them: Why do you Moses and Aaron draw off the peo­ple from their works? Get you gone to your bur­dens.

5:5. And Pharao said: The peo­ple of the land are nu­mer­ous; you see that the mul­ti­tude is in­creased; how much more if you give them rest from their works?

5:6. There­fore he com­mand­ed the same day the over­seers of the works, and the task-​mas­ters of the peo­ple, say­ing:

5:7. You shall give straw no more to the peo­ple to make brick, as be­fore; but let them go and gath­er straw.

5:8. And you shall lay up­on them the task of bricks, which they did be­fore; nei­ther shall you di­min­ish any thing there­of, for they are idle, and there­fore they cry. say­ing: Let us go and sac­ri­fice to our God.

5:9. Let them be op­pressed with works, and let them ful­fil them; that they may not re­gard ly­ing words.

5:10. And the over­seers of the works, and the taskmas­ters, went out and said to the peo­ple: Thus saith Pharao: I al­low you no straw;

5:11. Go, and gath­er it where you can find it; nei­ther shall any thing of your work be di­min­ished.

5:12. And the peo­ple was scat­tered through all the land of Egypt to gath­er straw.

5:13. And the over­seers of the works pressed them, say­ing: Ful­fil your work ev­ery day, as be­fore ye were wont to do, when straw was giv­en you.

5:14. And they that were over the works of the chil­dren of Is­rael, were scourged by Pharao’s taskmas­ters, say­ing: Why have you not made up the task of bricks, both yes­ter­day and to day, as be­fore?

5:15. And the of­fi­cers of the chil­dren of Is­rael came, and cried out to Pharao, say­ing: Why dealest thou so with thy ser­vants?

5:16. Straw is not giv­en us, and bricks are re­quired of us as be­fore; be­hold we, thy ser­vants, are beat­en with whips, and thy peo­ple is un­just­ly dealt with­al.

5:17. And he said: You are idle, and there­fore you say: Let us go and sac­ri­fice to the Lord.

5:18: Go there­fore and work: straw shall not be giv­en you, and you shall de­liv­er the ac­cus­tomed num­ber of bricks.

5:19. And the of­fi­cers of the chil­dren of Is­rael saw that they were in evil case, be­cause it was said to them: There shall not a whit be di­min­ished of the bricks for ev­ery day.

5:20. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood over against them as they came out from Pharao:

5:21. And they said to them: The Lord see and judge, be­cause you have, made our savour to stink be­fore Pharao and his ser­vants, and you have giv­en him a sword, to kill us.

5:22. And Moses re­turned to the Lord, and said: Lord, why hast thou af­flict­ed this peo­ple? where­fore hast thou sent me?

5:23. For since the time that I went in to Pharao to speak in thy name, he hath af­flict­ed thy peo­ple: and thou hast not de­liv­ered them.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 6

God re­neweth his promise. The ge­nealo­gies of Ruben, Si­mon and Levi, down to Moses and Aaron.

6;1. And the Lord said to Moses: Now thou shalt see what I will do to Pharao: for by a mighty hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he cast them out of his land.

6:2. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing: I am the Lord

6:3. That ap­peared to Abra­ham, to Isaac, and to Ja­cob, by the name of God Almighty: and my name ADON­AI I did not shew them.

My name Adon­ai. . .The name, which is in the He­brew text, is that most prop­er name of God, which sig­ni­fi­eth his eter­nal, self-​ex­is­tent be­ing, Ex. 3.14, which the Jews out of rev­er­ence nev­er pro­nounce; but, in­stead of it, when­ev­er it oc­curs in the Bible, they read Adon­ai, which sig­ni­fies the Lord; and, there­fore, they put the points or vow­els, which be­long to the name Adon­ai, to the four let­ters of that oth­er in­ef­fa­ble name Jod, He, Vau, He. Hence some mod­erns have framed the name Je­ho­vah, un­known to all the an­cients, whether Jews or Chris­tians; for the true pro­nun­ci­ation of the name, which is in the He­brew text, by long dis­use, is now quite lost.

6:4. And I made a covenant with them, to give them the land of Chanaan, the land of their pil­grim­age where­in they were strangers.

6:5. I have heard the groan­ing of the chil­dren of Is­rael, where­with the Egyp­tians have op­pressed them: and I have re­mem­bered my covenant.

6:6. There­fore say to the chil­dren of Is­rael: I am the Lord who will bring you out from the work-​prison of the Egyp­tians, and will de­liv­er you from bondage: and re­deem you with a high arm, and great judg­ments.

6:7. And I will take you to my­self for my peo­ple, I will be your God: and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the work-​prison of the Egyp­tians:

6:8. And brought you in­to the land, con­cern­ing which I lift­ed up my hand to give it to Abra­ham, Isaac, and Ja­cob: and I will give it you to pos­sess: I am the Lord.

6:9. And Moses told all this to the chil­dren of Is­rael: but they did not hear­ken to him, for an­guish of spir­it, and most painful work.

6:10. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

6:11. Go in, and speak to Pharao king of Egypt, that he let the chil­dren of Is­rael go out of his land.

6:12. Moses an­swered be­fore the Lord: Be­hold the chil­dren of Is­rael do not hear­ken to me: and how will Pharao hear me, es­pe­cial­ly as I am of un­cir­cum­cised lips?

Un­cir­cum­cised lips. . .So he calls the de­fect he had in his words, or ut­ter­ance.

6:13. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, and he gave them a charge un­to the chil­dren of Is­rael, and un­to Pharao the king of Egypt, that they should bring forth the chil­dren of Is­rael out of the land of Egypt.

6:14. These are the heads of their hous­es by their fam­ilies. The sons of Ruben the first­born of Is­rael: Henoch and Phal­lu, Hes­ron and Char­mi.

6:15. These are the kin­dreds of Ruben. The sons of Sime­on, Ja­muel and Jamin, and Ahod, and Jachin, and Soar, and Saul the son of a Chanaan­itess: these are the fam­ilies of Sime­on.

6:16. And these are the names of the sons of Levi by their kin­dreds: Ger­son, and Caath, and Mer­ari. And the years of the life of Levi were a hun­dred and thir­ty-​sev­en.

6:17. The sons of Ger­son: Lob­ni and Se­mei, by their kin­dreds.

6:18: The sons of Caath: Am­ram, and Isaar, and He­bron and Oziel. And the years of Caath’s life, were a hun­dred and thir­ty-​three.

6:19. The sons of Mer­ari: Mo­holi and Musi. These are the kin­dreds of Levi by their fam­ilies.

6:20. And Am­ram took to wife Jochabed his aunt by the fa­ther’s side: and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of Am­ram’s life, were a hun­dred and thir­ty-​sev­en.

6:21. The sons al­so of Isaar: Core, and Nepheg, and Zechri.

6:22. The sons al­so of Oziel: Miza­el, and Eliza­phan, and Sethri.

6:23. And Aaron took to wife Eliz­abeth the daugh­ter of Am­inadab, sis­ter of Na­ha­son, who bore him Nadab, and Abiu, and Eleazar, and Ithamar.

6:24. The sons al­so of Core: As­er, and El­cana, and Abi­as­aph. These are the kin­dreds of the Corites.

6:25. But Eleazar the son of Aaron took a wife of the daugh­ters of Phutiel: and she bore him Phi­nees. These are the heads of the Levit­ical fam­ilies by their kin­dreds.

6:26. These are Aaron and Moses, whom the Lord com­mand­ed to bring forth the chil­dren of Is­rael out of the land of Egypt by their com­pa­nies.

6:27. These are they that speak to Pharao, king of Egypt, in or­der to bring out the chil­dren of Is­rael from Egypt: these are that Moses and Aaron,

6:28. In the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt.

6:29. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing: I am the Lord; speak thou to Pharao, king of Egypt, all that I say to thee.

6:30. And Moses said be­fore the Lord: Lo I am of un­cir­cum­cised lips, how will Pharao hear me?

Ex­odus Chap­ter 7

Moses and Aaron go in­to Pharao: they turn the rod in­to a ser­pent; and the wa­ters of Egypt in­to blood, which was the first plague. The ma­gi­cians do the like, and Pharao’s heart is hard­ened.

7:1. And the Lord said to Moses: Be­hold, I have ap­point­ed thee the god of Pharao; and Aaron, thy broth­er, shall be thy prophet.

The god of Pharao. . .Viz., to be his judge; and to ex­er­cise a di­vine pow­er, as God’s in­stru­ment, over him and his peo­ple.

7:2. Thou shalt speak to him all that I com­mand thee; and he shall speak to Pharao, that he let the chil­dren of Is­rael go out of his land.

7:3. But I shall hard­en his heart, and shall mul­ti­ply my signs and won­ders in the land of Egypt.

I shall hard­en, etc. . .not by be­ing the ef­fi­cient cause of his hard­ness of heart, but by per­mit­ting it; and by with­draw­ing grace from him, in pun­ish­ment of his mal­ice; which alone was the prop­er cause of his be­ing hard­ened.

7:4. And he will not hear you: and I will lay my hand up­on Egypt, and will bring forth my army and my peo­ple, the chil­dren of Is­rael, out of the land of Egypt, by very great judg­ments.

7:5. And the Egyp­tians shall know that I am the Lord, who have stretched forth my hand up­on Egypt, and have brought forth the chil­dren of Is­rael out of the midst of them.

7:6. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had com­mand­ed; so did they.

7:7. And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-​three, when they spoke to Pharao.

7:8. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron:

7:9. When Pharao shall say to you, Shew signs; thou shalt say to Aaron: Take thy rod, and cast it down be­fore Pharao, and it shall be turned in­to a ser­pent.

7:10. So Moses and Aaron went in un­to Pharao, and did as the Lord had com­mand­ed. And Aaron took the rod be­fore Pharao and his ser­vants, and it was turned in­to a ser­pent.

7:11. And Pharao called the wise men and the ma­gi­cians; and they al­so by Egyp­tian en­chant­ments and cer­tain se­crets, did in like man­ner.

Ma­gi­cians. . .Jannes, and Mam­bres, or Jam­bres, 2 Tim. 3.8.

7:12. And they ev­ery one cast down their rods, and they were turned in­to ser­pents: but Aaron’s rod de­voured their rods.

7:13. And Pharao’s heart was hard­ened, and he did not hear­ken to them, as the Lord had com­mand­ed.

7:14. And the Lord said to Moses: Pharao’s heart is hard­ened, he will not let the peo­ple go.

7:15. Go to him in the morn­ing, be­hold he will go out to the wa­ters: and thou shalt stand to meet him on the ‘ bank of the riv­er: and thou shalt take in thy hand the rod that was turned in­to a ser­pent.

7:16. And thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the He­brews sent me to thee, say­ing: Let my peo­ple go to sac­ri­fice to me in the desert: and hith­er­to thou wouldst not hear.

7:17. Thus there­fore saith the Lord: In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: be­hold I will strike with the rod, that is in my hand, the wa­ter of the riv­er, and it shall be turned in­to blood.

7:18: And the fish­es that are in the riv­er, shall die, and the wa­ters shall be cor­rupt­ed, and the Egyp­tians shall be af­flict­ed when they drink the wa­ter of the riv­er.

7:19. The Lord al­so said to Moses: Say to Aaron, Take thy rod; and stretch forth thy hand up­on the wa­ters of Egypt, and up­on their rivers, and streams and pools, and all the ponds of wa­ters, that they may be turned in­to blood: and let blood be in all the land of Egypt, both in ves­sels of wood and of stone.

7:20. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had com­mand­ed: and lift­ing up the rod, he struck the wa­ter of the riv­er be­fore Pharao and his ser­vants: and it was turned in­to blood.

7:21. And the fish­es that were in the riv­er died; and the riv­er cor­rupt­ed, and the Egyp­tians could not drink the wa­ter of the riv­er, and there was blood in all the land of Egypt.

7:22. And the ma­gi­cians of the Egyp­tians with their en­chant­ments did in like man­ner; and Pharao’s heart was hard­ened, nei­ther did he hear them, as the Lord had com­mand­ed.

7:23. And he turned him­self away, and went in­to his house, nei­ther did he set his heart to it this time al­so.

7:24. And all the Egyp­tians dug round about the riv­er for wa­ter to drink; for they could not drink of the wa­ter of the riv­er.

7:25. And sev­en days were ful­ly end­ed, af­ter that the Lord struck the riv­er.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 8

The sec­ond plague is of frogs: Pharao promiseth to let the Is­raelites go, but breaketh his promise. The third plague is of sciniphs. The fourth is of flies. Pharao again promiseth to dis­miss the peo­ple, but doth it not.

8:1. And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao, and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Let my peo­ple go to sac­ri­fice to me.

8:2. But if thou wilt not let them go, be­hold I will strike all thy coasts with frogs.

8:3. And the riv­er shall bring forth an abun­dance of frogs; which shall come up and en­ter in­to thy house, and thy bed­cham­ber, and up­on thy bed, and in­to the hous­es of thy ser­vants, and to thy peo­ple, and in­to thy ovens, and in­to the re­mains of thy meats:

8:4. And the frogs shall come in to thee, and to thy peo­ple, and to all thy ser­vants.

8:5. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Stretch forth thy hand up­on the streams, and up­on the rivers and the pools, and bring forth frogs up­on the land of Egypt.

8:6. And Aaron stretched forth his hand up­on the wa­ters of Egypt, and the frogs came up, and cov­ered the land of Egypt.

8:7. And the ma­gi­cians al­so, by their en­chant­ments, did in like man­ner, and they brought forth frogs up­on the land of Egypt.

8:8. But Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Pray ye to the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my peo­ple; and I will let the peo­ple go to sac­ri­fice to the Lord.

Pray ye to the Lord, etc. . .By this it ap­pears, that though the ma­gi­cians, by the help of the dev­il, could bring frogs, yet they could not take them away: God be­ing pleased to abridge in this the pow­er of Sa­tan. So we see they could not af­ter­wards pro­duce the less­er in­sects; and in this re­straint of the pow­er of the dev­il, were forced to ac­knowl­edge the fin­ger of God.

8:9. And Moses said to Pharao: Set me a time when I shall pray for thee, and for thy ser­vants, and for thy peo­ple, that the frogs may be driv­en away from thee and from thy house, and from thy ser­vants, and from thy peo­ple; and may re­main on­ly in the riv­er.

8:10. And he an­swered: To mor­row. But he said: I will do ac­cord­ing to thy word; that thou mayest know that there is none like to the Lord our God.

8:11. And the frogs shall de­part from thee, and from thy house, and from thy ser­vants, and from thy peo­ple; and shall re­main on­ly in the riv­er.

8:12. And Moses and Aaron went forth from Pharao: and Moses cried to the Lord for the promise, which he had made to Pharao con­cern­ing the frogs.

8:13. And the Lord did ac­cord­ing to the word of Moses: and the frogs died out of the hous­es, and out of the vil­lages, and out of the fields:

8:14. And they gath­ered them to­geth­er in­to im­mense heaps, and the land was cor­rupt­ed.

8:15. And Pharao see­ing that rest was giv­en, hard­ened his own heart, and did not hear them, as the Lord had com­mand­ed.

Pharao hard­ened his own heart. . .By this we see that Pharao was him­self the ef­fi­cient cause of his heart be­ing hard­ened, and not God.–See the same re­peat­ed in ver. 32. Pharao hard­ened his heart at this time al­so: like­wise chap. 9.7, 35, and chap. 13.15.

8:16. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Stretch forth thy rod, and strike the dust of the earth; and may there be sciniphs in all the land of Egypt.

Sciniphs. . .Or Cinifs, He­brew Chin­nim, small fly­ing in­sects, very trou­ble­some both to men and beast.

8:17. And they did so. And Aaron stretched forth his hand, hold­ing the rod; and he struck the dust of the earth, and there came sciniphs on men and on beasts: all the dust of the earth was turned in­to sciniphs through all the land of Egypt.

8:18: And the ma­gi­cians with their en­chant­ments prac­tised in like man­ner, to bring forth sciniphs, and they could not: and there were sciniphs as well on men as on beasts.

8:19. And the ma­gi­cians said to Pharao: This is the fin­ger of God. And Pharao’s heart was hard­ened, and he hear­kened not un­to them, as the Lord had com­mand­ed.

8:20. The Lord al­so said to Moses: Arise ear­ly, and stand be­fore Pharao; for he will go forth to the wa­ters: and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Let my peo­ple go to sac­ri­fice to me.

8:21. But if thou wilt not let them go, be­hold I will send in up­on thee, and up­on thy ser­vants, and up­on thy hous­es, all kind of flies: and the hous­es of the Egyp­tians shall be filled with flies of divers kinds, and the whole land where­in they shall be.

8:22. And I will make the land of Gessen won­der­ful in that day, so that flies shall not be there: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.

8:23. And I will put a di­vi­sion be­tween my peo­ple and thy peo­ple: to mor­row shall this sign be.

8:24. And the Lord did so. And there came a very grievous swarm of flies in­to the hous­es of Pharao and of his ser­vants, and in­to all the land of Egypt: and the land was cor­rupt­ed by this kind of flies.

8:25. And Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Go and sac­ri­fice to your God in this land.

8:26. And Moses said: It can­not be so: for we shall sac­ri­fice the abom­ina­tions of the Egyp­tians to the Lord our God: now if we kill those things which the Egyp­tians wor­ship, in their pres­ence, they will stone us.

The abom­ina­tions, etc. . .That is, the things they wor­ship for Gods: ox­en, rams, etc. It is the usu­al style of the scrip­tures to call all idols and false gods, abom­ina­tions, to sig­ni­fy how much the peo­ple of God ought to de­test and ab­hor them.

8:27. We will go three days’ jour­ney in­to the wilder­ness; and we will sac­ri­fice to the Lord our God, as he hath com­mand­ed us.

8:28. And Pharao said: I will let you go to sac­ri­fice to the Lord your God in the wilder­ness, but go no far­ther: pray for me.

8:29. And Moses said: I will go out from thee, and will pray to the Lord: and the flies shall de­part from Pharao, and from his ser­vants, and from his peo­ple to mor­row: but do not de­ceive any more, in not let­ting the peo­ple go to sac­ri­fice to the Lord.

8:30. So Moses went out from Pharao, and prayed to the Lord.

8:31. And he did ac­cord­ing to his word: and he took away the flies from Pharao, and from his ser­vants, and from his peo­ple: there was not left so much as one.

8:32. And Pharao’s heart was hard­ened, so that nei­ther this time would he let the peo­ple go.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 9

The fifth plague is a mur­rain among the cat­tle. The sixth, of boils in men and beasts. The sev­enth, of hail. Pharao promiseth again to let the peo­ple go, and breaketh his word.

9:1. And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao, and speak to him: Thus saith the Lord God of the He­brews: Let my peo­ple go to sac­ri­fice to me.

9:2. But if thou refuse, and with­hold them still:

9:3. Be­hold my hand shall be up­on thy fields; and a very grievous mur­rain up­on thy hors­es, and ass­es, and camels, and ox­en, and sheep.

9:4. And the Lord will make a won­der­ful dif­fer­ence be­tween the pos­ses­sions of Is­rael and the pos­ses­sions of the Egyp­tians, that noth­ing at all shall die of those things that be­long to the chil­dren of Is­rael.

9:5. And the Lord ap­point­ed a time, say­ing: To mor­row will the Lord do this thing in the land.

9:6. The Lord there­fore did this thing the next day: and all the beasts of the Egyp­tians died, but of the beasts of the chil­dren of Is­rael there died not one.

All the beasts. . .That is, many of all kinds.

9:7. And Pharao sent to see; and there was not any thing dead of that which Is­rael pos­sessed. And Pharao’s heart was hard­ened, and he did not let the peo­ple go.

9:8. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Take to you hand­fuls of ash­es out of the chim­ney, and let Moses sprin­kle it in the air in the pres­ence of Pharao.

9:9. And be there dust up­on all the land of Egypt: for there shall be boils and swelling blains both in men and beasts, in the whole land of Egypt.

9:10. And they took ash­es out of the chim­ney, and stood be­fore Pharao, and Moses sprin­kled it in the air; and there came boils with swelling blains in men and beasts.

9:11. Nei­ther could the ma­gi­cians stand be­fore Moses, for the boils that were up­on them, and in all the land of Egypt.

9:12. And the Lord hard­ened Pharao’s heart, and he hear­kened not un­to them, as the Lord had spo­ken to Moses.

Hard­ened, etc. . .See the an­no­ta­tions above, chap. 4.21, chap. 7.3, and chap. 8.15.

9:13. And the Lord said to Moses: Arise in the morn­ing, and stand be­fore Pharao, and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord, the God of the He­brews: Let my peo­ple go to sac­ri­fice to me.

9:14. For I will at this time send all my plagues up­on thy heart, and up­on thy ser­vants, and up­on thy peo­ple; that thou mayst know that there is none like me in all the earth.

9:15. For now I will stretch out my hand to strike thee, and thy peo­ple, with pesti­lence, and thou shalt per­ish from the earth.

9:16. And there­fore have I raised thee, that I may shew my pow­er in thee, and my name may be spo­ken of through­out all the earth.

9:17. Dost thou yet hold back my peo­ple; and wilt thou not let them go?

9:18: Be­hold I will cause it to rain to mor­row at this same hour, an ex­ceed­ing great hail; such as hath not been in Egypt from the day that it was found­ed, un­til this present time.

9:19. Send there­fore now present­ly, and gath­er to­geth­er thy cat­tle, and all that thou hast in the field; for men and beasts, and all things that shall be found abroad, and not gath­ered to­geth­er out of the fields which the hail shall fall up­on, shall die.

9:20. He that feared the word of the Lord among Pharao’s ser­vants, made his ser­vants and his cat­tle flee in­to hous­es:

9:21. But he that re­gard­ed not the word of the Lord, left his ser­vants, and his cat­tle in the fields.

9:22. And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand to­wards heav­en, that there may be hail in the whole land of Egypt up­on men, and up­on beasts, and up­on ev­ery herb of the field in the land of Egypt.

9:23. And Moses stretched forth his rod to­wards heav­en, and the Lord sent thun­der and hail, and light­nings run­ning along the ground: and the Lord rained hail up­on the land of Egypt.

9:24. And the hail and fire mixt with it drove on to­geth­er: and it was of so great big­ness, as nev­er be­fore was seen in the whole land of Egypt since that na­tion was found­ed.

9:25. And the hail de­stroyed through all the land of Egypt all things that were in the fields, both man and beast: and the hail smote ev­ery herb of the field, and it broke ev­ery tree of the coun­try.

9:26. On­ly in the land of Gessen, where the chil­dren of Is­rael were, the hail fell not.

9:27. And Pharao sent and called Moses and Aaron, say­ing to them: I have sinned this time al­so, the Lord is just: I and my peo­ple, are wicked.

9:28. Pray ye to the Lord that the thun­der­ings of God and the hail may cease: that I may let you go, and that ye may stay here no longer.

9:29. Moses said: As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will stretch forth my hands to the Lord, and the thun­ders shall cease, and the hail shall be no more: that thou mayst know that the earth is the Lord’s:

9:30. But I know that nei­ther thou, nor thy ser­vants do yet fear the Lord God.

9:31. The flax there­fore, and the bar­ley were hurt, be­cause the bar­ley was green, and the flax was now bolled;

9:32. But the wheat, and oth­er win­ter corn were not hurt, be­cause they were late­ward.

9:33. And when Moses was gone from Pharao out of the city, he stretched forth his hands to the Lord: and the thun­ders and the hail ceased, nei­ther did there drop any more rain up­on the earth.

9:34. And Pharao see­ing that the rain, and the hail, and the thun­ders were ceased, in­creased his sin:

9:35. And his heart was hard­ened, and the heart of his ser­vants, and it was made ex­ceed­ing hard: nei­ther did he let the chil­dren of Is­rael go, as the Lord had com­mand­ed by the hand of Moses.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 10

The eighth plague of the lo­custs. The ninth, of dark­ness: Pharao is still hard­ened.

10:1. And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao; for I have hard­ened his heart, and the heart of his ser­vants: that I may work these my signs in him,

10:2. And thou mayst tell in the ears of thy sons, and of thy grand­sons, how of­ten I have plagued the Egyp­tians, and wrought my signs amongst them: and you may know that I am the Lord.

10:3. There­fore Moses and Aaron went in to Pharao, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord God of the He­brews: How long re­fus­est thou to sub­mit to me? let my peo­ple go, to sac­ri­fice to me.

10:4. But if thou re­sist, and wilt not let them go, be­hold I will bring in to-​mor­row the lo­custs in­to thy coasts;

10:5. To cov­er the face of the earth, that noth­ing there­of may ap­pear, but that which the hail hath left may be eat­en: for they shall feed up­on all the trees that spring in the fields.

10:6. And they shall fill thy hous­es, and the hous­es of thy ser­vants, and of all the Egyp­tians: such a num­ber as thy fa­thers have not seen, nor thy grand­fa­thers, from the time they were first up­on the earth, un­til this present day. And he turned him­self away, and went forth from Pharao.

10:7. And Pharao’s ser­vants said to him: How long shall we en­dure this scan­dal? Iet the men go to sac­ri­fice to the Lord their God. Dost thou not see that Egypt is un­done?

10:8. And they called back Moses, and Aaron, to Pharao; and he said to them: Go, sac­ri­fice to the Lord your God: who are they that shall go?

10:9. Moses said: We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daugh­ters, with our sheep and herds: for it is the solem­ni­ty of the Lord our God.

10:10. And Pharao an­swered: So be the Lord with you, as I shall let you and your chil­dren go: who can doubt but that you in­tend some great evil?

10:11. It shall not be so. but go ye men on­ly, and sac­ri­fice to the Lord: for this your­selves al­so de­sired. And im­me­di­ate­ly they were cast out from Pharao’s pres­ence.

10:12. And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand up­on the land of Egypt un­to the lo­cust, that it come up­on it, and de­vour ev­ery herb that is left af­ter the hail.

10:13. And Moses stretched forth his rod up­on the land of Egypt: and the Lord brought a burn­ing wind all that day, and night; and when it was morn­ing, the burn­ing wind raised the lo­custs.

10:14. And they came up over the whole land of Egypt; and rest­ed in all the coasts of the Egyp­tians, in­nu­mer­able, the like as had not been be­fore that time, nor shall be here­after.

10:15. And they cov­ered the whole face of the earth, wast­ing all things. And the grass of the earth was de­voured, and what fruits so­ev­er were on the trees, which the hail had left; and there re­mained not any thing that was green on the trees, or in the herbs of the earth, in all Egypt.

10:16. Where­fore Pharao in haste called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.

10:17. But now for­give me my sin this time al­so, and pray to the Lord your God, that he take away from me this death.

10:18: And Moses go­ing forth from the pres­ence of Pharao, prayed to the Lord:

10:19. And he made a very strong wind to blow from the west, and it took the lo­custs and cast them in­to the Red Sea: there re­mained not so much as one in all the coasts of Egypt.

10:20. And the Lord hard­ened Pharao’s heart, nei­ther did he let the chil­dren of Is­rael go.

10:21. And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out thy hand to­wards heav­en: and may there be dark­ness up­on the land of Egypt so thick that it may be felt.

Dark­ness up­on the land of Egypt, so thick that it may be felt. . .By means of the gross ex­ha­la­tions, which were to cause and ac­com­pa­ny the dark­ness.

10:22. And Moses stretched forth his hand to­wards heav­en: and there came hor­ri­ble dark­ness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

10:23. No man saw his broth­er, nor moved him­self out of the place where he was: but where­so­ev­er the chil­dren of Is­rael dwelt, there was light.

10:24. And Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Go, sac­ri­fice to the Lord: let your sheep on­ly, and herds re­main, let your chil­dren go with you.

10:25. Moses said: Thou shalt give us al­so sac­ri­fices and burnt-​of­fer­ings, to the Lord our God.

10:26. All the flocks shall go with us; there shall not a hoof re­main of them: for they are nec­es­sary for the ser­vice of the Lord our God: es­pe­cial­ly as we know not what must be of­fered, till we come to the very place.

10:27. And the Lord hard­ened Pharao’s heart, and he would not let them go.

10:28. And Pharao said to Moses: Get thee from me, and be­ware thou see not my face any more: in what day so­ev­er thou shalt come in my sight, thou shalt die.

10:29. Moses an­swered: So shall it be as thou hast spo­ken, I will not see thy face any­more.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 11

Pharao and his peo­ple are threat­ened with the death of their first­born.

11:1. And the Lord said to Moses: Yet one plague more will I bring up­on Pharao and Egypt, and af­ter that he shall let you go, and thrust you out.

11:2. There­fore thou shalt tell all the peo­ple, that ev­ery man ask of his friend, and ev­ery wom­an of her neigh­bour, ves­sels of sil­ver and of gold.

11:3. And the Lord will give favour to his peo­ple in the sight of the Egyp­tians. And Moses was a very great man in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharao’s ser­vants, and of all the peo­ple.

11:4. And he said: Thus saith the Lord: At mid­night I will en­ter in­to Egypt:

11:5. And ev­ery first­born in the land of the Egyp­tians shall die, from the first­born of Pharao who sit­teth on his throne, even to the first­born of the hand­maid that is at the mill, and all the first­born of beasts.

11:6. And there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as nei­ther hath been be­fore, nor shall be here­after.

11:7. But with all the chil­dren of Is­rael there shall not a dog make the least noise, from man even to beast; that you may know how won­der­ful a dif­fer­ence the Lord maketh be­tween the Egyp­tians and Is­rael.

11:8. And all these thy ser­vants shall come down to me, and shall wor­ship me, say­ing: Go forth thou, and all the peo­ple that is un­der thee: af­ter that we will go out.

11:9. And he went out from Pharao ex­ceed­ing an­gry. But the Lord said to Moses: Pharao will not hear you, that many signs may be done in the land of Egypt.

11:10. And Moses and Aaron did all the won­ders that are writ­ten, be­fore Pharao. And the Lord hard­ened Pharao’s heart, nei­ther did he let the chil­dren of Is­rael go out of his land.

The Lord hard­ened, etc. . .See the an­no­ta­tions above, chap. 4.21, and chap. 7.3.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 12

The man­ner of prepar­ing, and eat­ing the paschal lamb: the first­born of Egypt are all slain: the Is­raelites de­part.

12:1. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

12:2. This month shall be to you the be­gin­ning of months; it shall be the first in the months of the year.

12:3. Speak ye to the whole as­sem­bly of the chil­dren of Is­rael, and say to them: On the tenth day of this month let ev­ery man take a lamb by their fam­ilies and hous­es.

12:4. But if the num­ber be less than may suf­fice to eat the lamb, he shall take un­to him his neigh­bour that joineth to his house, ac­cord­ing to the num­ber of souls which may be enough to eat the lamb.

12:5. And it shall be a lamb with­out blem­ish, a male, of one year; ac­cord­ing to which rite al­so you shall take a kid.

A kid. . .The phase might be per­formed, ei­ther with a lamb or with a kid: and all the same rites and cer­emonies were to be used with the one as with the oth­er.

12:6. And you shall keep it un­til the four­teenth day of this month; and the whole mul­ti­tude of the chil­dren of Is­rael shall sac­ri­fice it in the evening.

12:7. And they shall take of the blood there­of, and put it up­on both the side posts, and on the up­per door posts of the hous­es, where­in they shall eat it.

12:8. And they shall eat the flesh that night roast­ed at the fire, and un­leav­ened bread with wild let­tuce.

12:9. You shall not eat there­of any thing raw, nor boiled in wa­ter, but on­ly roast­ed at the fire; you shall eat the head with the feet and en­trails there­of.

12:10. Nei­ther shall there re­main any thing of it un­til morn­ing. If there be any thing left, you shall burn it with fire.

12:11. And thus you shall eat it: you shall gird your reins, and you shall have shoes on your feet, hold­ing staves in your hands, and you shall eat in haste; for it is the Phase (that is the Pas­sage) of the Lord.

12:12. And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill ev­ery first­born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will ex­ecute judg­ments; I am the Lord.

12:13. And the blood shall be un­to you for a sign in the hous­es where you shall be; and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you; and the plague shall not be up­on you to de­stroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt.

12:14. And this day shall be for a memo­ri­al to you; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord in your gen­er­ations, with an ev­er­last­ing ob­ser­vance.

12:15. Sev­en days shall you eat un­leav­ened bread: in the first day there shall be no leav­en in your hous­es; whoso­ev­er shall eat any thing leav­ened, from the first day un­til the sev­enth day, that soul shall per­ish out of Is­rael.

12:16. The first day shall be holy and solemn, and the sev­enth day shall be kept with the like solem­ni­ty: you shall do no work in them, ex­cept those things that be­long to eat­ing.

12:17. And you shall ob­serve the feast of the un­leav­ened bread: for in this same day I will bring forth your army out of the land of Egypt, and you shall keep this day in your gen­er­ations by a per­pet­ual ob­ser­vance.

12:18: The first month, the four­teenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat un­leav­ened bread, un­til the one and twen­ti­eth day of the same month, in the evening.

Un­leav­ened bread. . .By this it ap­pears, that our Saviour made use of un­leav­ened bread, in the in­sti­tu­tion of the blessed sacra­ment, which was on the evening of the paschal solem­ni­ty, at which time there was no leav­ened bread to be found in Is­rael.

12:19. Sev­en days there shall not be found any leav­en in your hous­es: he that shall eat leav­ened bread, his soul shall per­ish out of the as­sem­bly of Is­rael, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.

12:20. You shall not eat any thing leav­ened: in all your habi­ta­tions you shall eat un­leav­ened bread.

12:21. And Moses called all the an­cients of the chil­dren of Is­rael, and said to them: Go take a lamb by your fam­ilies, and sac­ri­fice the Phase.

12:22. And dip a bunch of hys­sop in the blood that is at the door, and sprin­kle the tran­som of the door there­with, and both the door cheeks: let none of you go out of the door of his house till morn­ing.

Sprin­kle, etc. . .This sprin­kling the doors of the Is­raelites with the blood of the paschal lamb, in or­der to their be­ing de­liv­ered from the sword of the de­stroy­ing an­gel, was a live­ly fig­ure of our re­demp­tion by the blood of Christ.

12:23. For the Lord will pass through strik­ing the Egyp­tians: and when he shall see the blood on the tran­som, and on both the posts, he will pass over the door of the house, and not suf­fer the de­stroy­er to come in­to your hous­es and to hurt you.

12:24. Thou shalt keep this thing as a law for thee and thy chil­dren for ev­er.

12:25. And when you have en­tered in­to the land which the Lord will give you, as he hath promised, you shall ob­serve these cer­emonies.

12:26. And when your chil­dren shall say to you: What is the mean­ing of this ser­vice?

12:27. You shall say to them: It is the vic­tim of the pas­sage of the Lord, when he passed over the hous­es of the chil­dren of Is­rael in Egypt, strik­ing the Egyp­tians, and sav­ing our hous­es. And the peo­ple bow­ing them­selves, adored.

12:28. And the chil­dren of Is­rael go­ing forth, did as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses and Aaron.

12:29. And it came to pass at mid­night, the Lord slew ev­ery first­born in the land of Egypt, from the first­born of Pharao, who sat on his throne, un­to the first­born of the cap­tive wom­an that was in the prison, and all the first­born of cat­tle.

12:30. And Pharao arose in the night, and all his ser­vants, and all Egypt: and there arose a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where­in there lay not one dead.

12:31. And Pharao call­ing Moses and Aaron, in the night, said: Arise and go forth from among my peo­ple, you and the chil­dren of Is­rael: go, sac­ri­fice to the Lord as you say.

12:32. Your sheep and herds take along with you, as you de­mand­ed, and de­part­ing bless me.

12:33. And the Egyp­tians pressed the peo­ple to go forth out of the land speed­ily, say­ing: We shall all die.

12:34. The peo­ple there­fore took dough be­fore it was leav­ened; and ty­ing it in their cloaks, put it on their shoul­ders.

12:35. And the chil­dren of Is­rael did as Moses had com­mand­ed: and they asked of the Egyp­tians ves­sels of sil­ver and gold, and very much rai­ment.

12:36. And the Lord gave favour to the peo­ple in the sight of the Egyp­tians, so that they lent un­to them: and they stripped the Egyp­tians.

12:37. And the chil­dren of Is­rael set for­ward from Ramesse to So­coth, be­ing about six hun­dred thou­sand men on foot, be­side chil­dren.

12:38. And a mixed mul­ti­tude, with­out num­ber, went up al­so with them, sheep and herds, and beasts of divers kinds, ex­ceed­ing many.

12:39. And they baked the meal, which a lit­tle be­fore they had brought out of Egypt in dough: and they made hearth cakes un­leav­ened: for it could not be leav­ened, the Egyp­tians press­ing them to de­part, and not suf­fer­ing them to make any stay; nei­ther did they think of prepar­ing any meat.

12:40. And the abode of the chil­dren of Is­rael that they made in Egypt, was four hun­dred and thir­ty years.

12:41. Which be­ing ex­pired, the same day all the army of the Lord went forth out of the land of Egypt.

12:42. This is the ob­serv­able night of the Lord, when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: this night all the chil­dren of Is­rael must ob­serve in their gen­er­ations.

12:43. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the ser­vice of the Phase; no for­eign­er shall eat of it.

12:44. But ev­ery bought ser­vant shall be cir­cum­cised, and so shall eat.

12:45. The stranger and the hireling shall not eat there­of.

12:46. In one house shall it be eat­en, nei­ther shall you car­ry forth of the flesh there­of out of the house, nei­ther shall you break a bone there­of.

12:47. All the as­sem­bly of the chil­dren of Is­rael shall keep it.

12:48. And if any stranger be will­ing to dwell among you, and to keep the Phase of the Lord, all his males shall first be cir­cum­cised, and then shall he cel­ebrate it ac­cord­ing to the man­ner: and he shall be as he that is born in the land: but if any man be un­cir­cum­cised, he shall not eat there­of.

12:49. The same law shall be to him that is born in the land, and to the pros­elyte that so­jour­neth with you.

12:50. And all the chil­dren of Is­rael did as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses and Aaron.

12:51. And the same day the Lord brought forth the chil­dren of Is­rael out of the land of Egypt by their com­pa­nies.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 13

The paschal solem­ni­ty is to be ob­served; and the first­born are to be con­se­crat­ed to God. The peo­ple are con­duct­ed through the desert by a pil­lar of fire in the night, and a cloud in the day.

13:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

13:2. Sanc­ti­fy un­to me ev­ery first­born that openeth the womb among the chil­dren of Is­rael, as well of men as of beasts: for they are all mine.

Sanc­ti­fy un­to me ev­ery first­born. . .Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion in this place means that the first­born males of the He­brews should be de­put­ed to the min­istry in the di­vine wor­ship; and the first­born of beasts to be giv­en for a sac­ri­fice.

13:3. And Moses said to the peo­ple: Re­mem­ber this day in which you came forth out of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage, for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought you forth out of this place: that you eat no leav­ened bread.

13:4. This day you go forth in the month of new corn.

13:5. And when the Lord shall have brought thee in­to the land of the Chanaan­ite, and the Het­hite, and the Am­or­rhite, and the Hevite, and the Je­busite, which he swore to thy fa­thers that he would give thee, a land that floweth with milk and hon­ey, thou shalt cel­ebrate this man­ner of sa­cred rites in this month.

13:6. Sev­en days shalt thou eat un­leav­ened bread: and on the sev­enth day shall be the solem­ni­ty of the Lord.

13:7. Un­leav­ened bread shall you eat sev­en days: there shall not be seen any thing leav­ened with thee, nor in all thy coasts.

13:8. And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, say­ing: This is what the Lord did to me when I came forth out of Egypt.

13:9. And it shall be as a sign in thy hand, and as a memo­ri­al be­fore thy eyes; and that the law of the Lord be al­ways in thy mouth, for with a strong hand the Lord hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

13:10. Thou shalt keep this ob­ser­vance at the set time from days to days.

13:11. And when the Lord shall have brought thee in­to the land of the Chanaan­ite, as he swore to thee and thy fa­thers, and shall give it thee:

13:12. Thou shalt set apart all that openeth the womb for the Lord, and all that is first brought forth of thy cat­tle: what­so­ev­er thou shalt have of the male sex, thou shalt con­se­crate to the Lord.

13:13. The first­born of an ass thou shalt change for a sheep: and if thou do not re­deem it, thou shalt kill it. And ev­ery first­born of men thou shalt re­deem with a price.

13:14. And when thy son shall ask thee to mor­row, say­ing: What is this? thou shalt an­swer him: With a strong hand did the Lord bring us forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

13:15. For when Pharao was hard­ened, and would not let us go, the Lord slew ev­ery first­born in the land of Egypt, from the first­born of man to the first­born of beasts: there­fore I sac­ri­fice to the Lord all that openeth the womb of the male sex, and all the first­born of my sons I re­deem.

13:16. And it shall be as a sign in thy hand, and as a thing hung be­tween thy eyes, for a re­mem­brance: be­cause the Lord hath brought us forth out of Egypt by a strong hand.

13:17. And when Pharao had sent out the peo­ple, the Lord led them not by the way of the land of the Philistines, which is near; think­ing lest per­haps they would re­pent, if they should see wars arise against them, and would re­turn in­to Egypt.

13:18: But he led them about by the way of the desert, which is by the Red Sea: and the chil­dren of Is­rael went up armed out of the land of Egypt.

13:19. And Moses took Joseph’s bones with him: be­cause he had ad­jured the chil­dren of Is­rael, say­ing: God shall vis­it you, car­ry out my bones from hence with you.

13:20. And march­ing from So­coth, they en­camped in Etham, in the ut­most coasts of the wilder­ness.

13:21. And the Lord went be­fore them to shew the way, by day in a pil­lar of a cloud, and by night in a pil­lar of fire; that he might be the guide of their jour­ney at both times.

13:22. There nev­er failed the pil­lar of the cloud by day, nor the pil­lar of fire by night, be­fore the peo­ple.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 14

Pharao pur­sueth the chil­dren of Is­rael. They mur­mur against Moses, but are en­cour­aged by him, and pass through the Red Sea. Pharao and his army fol­low­ing them are drowned.

14:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

14:2. Speak to the chil­dren of Is­rael: Let them turn and en­camp over against Phi­hahi­roth, which is be­tween Mag­dal and the sea over against Beelsephon: you shall en­camp be­fore it up­on the sea.

14:3. And Pharao will say of the chil­dren of Is­rael: They are strait­ened in the land, the desert hath shut them in.

14:4. And I shall hard­en his heart and he will pur­sue you: and I shall be glo­ri­fied in Pharao, and in all his army: and the Egyp­tians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so.

14:5. And it was told the king of the Egyp­tians that the peo­ple was fled: and the heart of Pharao and of his ser­vants was changed with re­gard to the peo­ple, and they said: What meant we to do, that we let Is­rael go from serv­ing us?

14:6. So he made ready his char­iot, and took all his peo­ple with him.

14:7. And he took six hun­dred cho­sen char­iots, and all the char­iots that were in Egypt: and the cap­tains of the whole army.

14:8. And the Lord hard­ened the heart of Pharao, king of Egypt, and he pur­sued the chil­dren of Is­rael; but they were gone forth in a mighty hand.

14:9. And when the Egyp­tians fol­lowed the steps of them who were gone be­fore, they found them en­camped at the sea side: all Pharao’s horse and char­iots and the whole army were in Phi­hahi­roth, be­fore Beelsephon.

14:10. And when Pharao drew near, the chil­dren of Is­rael lift­ing up their eyes, saw the Egyp­tians be­hind them: and they feared ex­ceed­ing­ly, and cried to the Lord.

14:11. And they said to Moses: Per­haps there were no graves in Egypt, there­fore thou hast brought us to die in the wilder­ness: why wouldst thou do this, to lead us out of Egypt?

14:12. Is not this the word that we spoke to thee in Egypt, say­ing: De­part from us, that we may serve the Egyp­tians? for it was much bet­ter to serve them, than to die in the wilder­ness.

14:13. And Moses said to the peo­ple: Fear not: stand, and see the great won­ders of the Lord, which he will do this day; for the Egyp­tians, whom you see now, you shall see no more for ev­er.

14:14. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.

14:15. And the Lord said to Moses: Why criest thou to me? Speak to the chil­dren of Is­rael to go for­ward.

14:16. But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand over the sea, and di­vide it: that the chil­dren of Is­rael may go through the midst of the sea on dry ground.

14:17. And I will hard­en the heart of the Egyp­tians to pur­sue you: and I will be glo­ri­fied in Pharao, and in all his host, and in his char­iots and in his horse­men.

14:18: And the Egyp­tians shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall be glo­ri­fied in Pharao, and in his char­iots, and in his horse­men.

14:19. And the an­gel of God, who went be­fore the camp of Is­rael, re­mov­ing, went be­hind them: and to­geth­er with him the pil­lar of the cloud, leav­ing the forepart,

14:20. Stood be­hind, be­tween the Egyp­tians’ camp and the camp of Is­rael: and it was a dark cloud, and en­light­en­ing the night, so that they could not come at one an­oth­er all the night.

A dark cloud, and en­light­en­ing the night. . .It was a dark cloud to the Egyp­tians; but en­light­ened the night to the Is­raelites by giv­ing them a great light.

14:21. And when Moses had stretched forth his hand over the sea, the Lord took it away by a strong and burn­ing wind blow­ing all the night, and turned it in­to dry ground: and the wa­ter was di­vid­ed.

14:22. And the chil­dren of Is­rael went in through the midst of the sea dried up; for the wa­ter was as a wall on their right hand and on their left.

14:23. And the Egyp­tians pur­su­ing went in af­ter them, and all Pharao’s hors­es, his char­iots and horse­men, through the midst of the sea.

14:24. And now the morn­ing watch was come, and be­hold the Lord look­ing up­on the Egyp­tian army through the pil­lar of fire and of the cloud, slew their host.

14:25. And over­threw the wheels of the char­iots, and they were car­ried in­to the deep. And the Egyp­tians said: Let us flee from Is­rael; for the Lord fight­eth for them against us.

14:26. And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand over the sea, that the wa­ters may come again up­on the Egyp­tians, up­on their char­iots and horse­men.

14:27. And when Moses had stretched forth his hand to­wards the sea, it re­turned at the first break of day to the for­mer place: and as the Egyp­tians were flee­ing away, the wa­ters came up­on them, and the Lord shut them up in the mid­dle of the waves.

14:28. And the wa­ters re­turned, and cov­ered the char­iots and the horse­men of all the army of Pharao, who had come in­to the sea af­ter them, nei­ther did there so much as one of them re­main.

14:29. But the chil­dren of Is­rael marched through the midst of the sea up­on dry land, and the wa­ters were to them as a wall on the right hand and on the left:

14:30. And the Lord de­liv­ered Is­rael in that day out of the hands of the Egyp­tians.

14:31. And they saw the Egyp­tians dead up­on the sea shore, and the mighty hand that the Lord had used against them: and the peo­ple feared the Lord, and they be­lieved the Lord, and Moses his ser­vant.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 15

The can­ti­cle of Moses. The bit­ter wa­ters of Mara are made sweet.

15:1. Then Moses and the chil­dren of Is­rael sung this can­ti­cle to the Lord, and said: Let us sing to the Lord: for he is glo­ri­ous­ly mag­ni­fied, the horse and the rid­er he hath thrown in­to the sea.

15:2. The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is be­come sal­va­tion to me: he is my God, and I will glo­ri­fy him: the God of my fa­ther, and I will ex­alt him.

15:3. The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name.

15:4. Pharao’s char­iots and his army he hath cast in­to the sea: his cho­sen cap­tains are drowned in the Red Sea.

15:5. The depths have cov­ered them, they are sunk to the bot­tom like a stone.

15:6. Thy right hand, O Lord, is mag­ni­fied in strength: thy right hand, O Lord, hath slain the en­emy.

15:7. And in the mul­ti­tude of thy glo­ry thou hast put down thy ad­ver­saries: thou hast sent thy wrath, which hath de­voured them like stub­ble.

15:8. And with the blast of thy anger the wa­ters were gath­ered to­geth­er: the flow­ing wa­ter stood, the depths were gath­ered to­geth­er in the midst of the sea.

15:9. The en­emy said: I will pur­sue and over­take, I will di­vide the spoils, my soul shall have its fill: I will draw my sword, my hand shall slay them.

15:10. Thy wind blew and the sea cov­ered them: they sunk as lead in the mighty wa­ters.

15:11. Who is like to thee, among the strong, O Lord? who is like to thee, glo­ri­ous in ho­li­ness, ter­ri­ble and praise-​wor­thy, do­ing won­ders?

15:12. Thou stretchedst forth thy hand, and the earth swal­lowed them.

15:13. In thy mer­cy thou hast been a lead­er to the peo­ple which thou hast re­deemed: and in thy strength thou hast car­ried them to thy holy habi­ta­tion.

15:14. Na­tions rose up, and were an­gry: sor­rows took hold on the in­hab­itants of Philisthi­im.

15:15. Then were the princes of Edom trou­bled, trem­bling seized on the stout men of Moab: all the in­hab­itants of Chanaan be­came stiff.

15:16. Let fear and dread fall up­on them, in the great­ness of thy arm: let them be­come im­move­able as a stone, un­til thy peo­ple, O Lord, pass by: un­til this thy peo­ple pass by, which thou hast pos­sessed.

15:17. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the moun­tain of thy in­her­itance, in thy most firm habi­ta­tion, which thou hast made, O Lord; thy sanc­tu­ary, O Lord, which thy hands have es­tab­lished.

15:18: The Lord shall reign for ev­er and ev­er.

15:19. For Pharao went in on horse­back with his char­iots and horse­men in­to the sea: and the Lord brought back up­on them the wa­ters of the sea: but the chil­dren of Is­rael walked on dry ground in the midst there­of.

15:20. So Mary the prophet­ess, the sis­ter of Aaron, took a tim­brel in her hand: and all the wom­en went forth af­ter her with tim­brels and with dances.

15:21. And she be­gan the song to them, say­ing: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is glo­ri­ous­ly mag­ni­fied, the horse and his rid­er he hath thrown in­to the sea.

15:22. And Moses brought Is­rael from the Red Sea, and they went forth in­to the wilder­ness of Sur: and they marched three days through the wilder­ness, and found no wa­ter.

15:23. And they came in­to Mara, and they could not drink the wa­ters of Mara be­cause they were bit­ter: where­upon he gave a name al­so agree­able to the place, call­ing it Mara, that is, bit­ter­ness.

15:24. And the peo­ple mur­mured against Moses, say­ing: What shall we drink?

15:25. But he cried to the Lord, and he shewed him a tree, which when he had cast in­to the wa­ters, they were turned in­to sweet­ness. There he ap­point­ed him or­di­nances, and judg­ments, and there he proved him,

15:26. Say­ing: If thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and do what is right be­fore him, and obey his com­mand­ments, and keep all his pre­cepts, none of the evils that I laid up­on Egypt, will I bring up­on thee: for I am the Lord thy heal­er.

15:27. And the chil­dren of Is­rael came in­to Elim, where there were twelve foun­tains of wa­ter, and sev­en­ty palm trees: and they en­camped by the wa­ters.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 16

The peo­ple mur­mur for want of meat: God giveth them quails and man­na.

16:1. And they set for­ward from Elim, and all the mul­ti­tude of the chil­dren of Is­rael came in­to the desert of Sin, which is be­tween Elim and Sinai: the fif­teenth day of the sec­ond month, af­ter they came out of the land of Egypt.

16:2. And all the con­gre­ga­tion of the chil­dren of Is­rael mur­mured against Moses and Aaron in the wilder­ness.

16:3. And the chil­dren of Is­rael said to them: Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the flesh­pots, and ate bread to the full: Why have you brought us in­to this desert, that you might de­stroy all the mul­ti­tude with famine?

16:4. And the Lord said to Moses: Be­hold I will rain bread from heav­en for you; let the peo­ple go forth, and gath­er what is suf­fi­cient for ev­ery day: that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law, or not.

16:5. But the sixth day let them pro­vide for to bring in: and let it be dou­ble to that they were wont to gath­er ev­ery day.

16:6. And Moses and Aaron said to the chil­dren of Is­rael In the evening you shall know that the Lord hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt:

16:7. And in the morn­ing you shall see the glo­ry of the Lord: for he hath heard your mur­mur­ing against the Lord: but as for us, what are we, that you mut­ter against us?

16:8. And Moses said: In the evening the Lord will give you flesh to eat, and in the morn­ing bread to the full: for he hath heard your mur­mur­ings, with which you have mur­mured against him, for what are we? your mur­mur­ing is not against us, but against the Lord.

16:9. Moses al­so said to Aaron: Say to the whole con­gre­ga­tion of the chil­dren of Is­rael: Come be­fore the Lord; for he hath heard your mur­mur­ing.

16:10. And when Aaron spoke to all the as­sem­bly of the chil­dren of Is­rael, they looked to­wards the wilder­ness; and be­hold the glo­ry of the Lord ap­peared in a cloud.

16:11. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

16:12. I have heard the mur­mur­ing of the chil­dren of Is­rael, say to them: In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morn­ing you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.

16:13. So it came to pass in the evening, that quails com­ing up, cov­ered the camp: and in the morn­ing a dew lay round about the camp.

16:14. And when it had cov­ered the face of the earth, it ap­peared in the wilder­ness small, and as it were beat­en with a pes­tle, like un­to the hoar frost on the ground.

16:15. And when the chil­dren of Is­rael saw it, they said one to an­oth­er: Man­hu! which sig­ni­fi­eth: What is this! for they knew not what it was. And Moses said to them: This is the bread which the Lord hath giv­en you to eat.

16:16. This is the word that the Lord hath com­mand­ed: Let ev­ery one gath­er of it as much as is enough to eat; a go­mor for ev­ery man, ac­cord­ing to the num­ber of your souls that dwell in a tent, so shall you take of it.

16:17. And the chil­dren of Is­rael did so: and they gath­ered, one more, an­oth­er less.

16:18: And they mea­sured by the mea­sure of a go­mor: nei­ther had he more that had gath­ered more; nor did he find less that had pro­vid­ed less: but ev­ery one had gath­ered, ac­cord­ing to what they were able to eat.

16:19. And Moses said to them: Let no man leave there­of till the morn­ing.

16:20. And they hear­kened not to him, but some of them left un­til the morn­ing, and it be­gan to be full of worms, and it pu­tri­fied, and Moses was an­gry with them.

16:21. Now ev­ery one of them gath­ered in the morn­ing, as much as might suf­fice to eat: and af­ter the sun grew hot, it melt­ed.

16:22. But on the sixth day they gath­ered twice as much, that is, two go­mors ev­ery man: and all the rulers of the mul­ti­tude came, and told Moses.

16:23. And he said to them: This is what the Lord hath spo­ken: To mor­row is the rest of the sab­bath sanc­ti­fied to the Lord. What­so­ev­er work is to be done, do it; and the meats that are to be dressed, dress them; and what­so­ev­er shall re­main, lay it up un­til the morn­ing.

16:24. And they did so as Moses had com­mand­ed, and it did not pu­tri­fy, nei­ther was there worm found in it.

16:25. And Moses said: Eat it to day, be­cause it is the sab­bath of the Lord: to day it shall not be found in the field.

16:26. Gath­er it six days; but on the sev­enth day is the sab­bath of the Lord, there­fore it shall not be found.

16:27. And the sev­enth day came; and some of the peo­ple go­ing forth to gath­er, found none.

16:28. And the Lord said to Moses: How long will you refuse to keep my com­mand­ments, and my law?

16:29. See that the Lord hath giv­en you the sab­bath, and for this rea­son on the sixth day he giveth you a dou­ble pro­vi­sion: let each man stay at home, and let none go forth out of his place the sev­enth day.

16:30. And the peo­ple kept the sab­bath on the sev­enth day.

16:31. And the house of Is­rael called the name there­of Man­na: and it was like co­rian­der seed, white, and the taste there­of like to flour with hon­ey.

16:32. And Moses said: This is the word which the Lord hath com­mand­ed: Fill a go­mor of it, and let it be kept un­to gen­er­ations to come here­after; that they may know the bread, where­with I fed you in the wilder­ness when you were brought forth out of the land of Egypt.

16:33. And Moses said to Aaron: Take a ves­sel, and put man­na in­to it, as much as a go­mor can hold; and lay it up be­fore the Lord, to keep un­to your gen­er­ations,

16:34. As the Lord com­mand­ed Moses. And Aaron put it in the taber­na­cle to be kept.

16:35. And the chil­dren of Is­rael ate man­na forty years, till they came to a hab­it­able land: with this meat were they fed, un­til they reached the bor­ders of the land of Chanaan.

16:36. Now a go­mor is the tenth part of an ephi.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 17

The peo­ple mur­mur again for want of drink; the Lord giveth them wa­ter out of a rock. Moses lift­ing up his hand in prayer, Amalec is over­come.

17:1. Then all the mul­ti­tude of the chil­dren of Is­rael set­ting for­ward from the desert of Sin, by their man­sions, ac­cord­ing to the word of the Lord, en­camped in Raphidim, where there was no wa­ter for the peo­ple to drink.

17:2. And they chode with Moses, and said: Give us wa­ter, that we may drink. And Moses an­swered them: Why chide you with me? Where­fore do you tempt the Lord?

17:3. So the peo­ple were thirsty there for want of wa­ter, and mur­mured against Moses, say­ing: Why didst thou make us go forth out of Egypt, to kill us and our chil­dren, and our beasts with thirst?

17:4. And Moses cried to the Lord, say­ing: What shall I do to this peo­ple? Yet a lit­tle more and they will stone me.

17:5. And the Lord said to Moses: Go be­fore the peo­ple, and take with thee of the an­cients of Is­rael: and take in thy hand the rod where­with thou didst strike the riv­er, and go.

17:6. Be­hold I will stand there be­fore thee, up­on the rock Horeb, and thou shalt strike the rock, and wa­ter shall come out of it that the peo­ple may drink. Moses did so be­fore the an­cients of Is­rael:

17:7. And he called the name of that place Temp­ta­tion, be­cause of the chid­ing of the chil­dren of Is­rael, and for that they tempt­ed the Lord, say­ing: Is the Lord amongst us or not?

17:8. And Amalec came, and fought against Is­rael in Raphidim.

17:9. And Moses said to Jo­sue: Choose out men; and go out and fight against Amalec: to­mor­row I will stand on the top of the hill, hav­ing the rod of God in my hand.

17:10. Jo­sue did as Moses had spo­ken, and he fought against Amalec; but Moses, and Aaron, and Hur, went up up­on the top of the hill.

17:11. And when Moses lift­ed up his hands, Is­rael over­came; but if he let them down a lit­tle, Amalec over­came.

17:12. And Moses’s hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put un­der him, and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides. And it came to pass, that his hands were not weary un­til sun­set.

17:13. And Jo­sue put Amalec and his peo­ple to flight, by the edge of the sword.

17:14. And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memo­ri­al in a book, and de­liv­er it to the ears of Jo­sue; for I will de­stroy the mem­ory of Amalec from un­der heav­en.

17:15. And Moses built an al­tar; and called the name there­of, The Lord, my ex­al­ta­tion, say­ing:

17:16. Be­cause the hand of the throne of the Lord, and the war of the Lord shall be against Amalec, from gen­er­ation to gen­er­ation.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 18

Jethro bringeth to Moses his wife and chil­dren. His coun­sel.

18:1. And when Jethro the priest of Ma­di­an, the kins­man of Moses, had heard all the things that God had done to Moses, and to Is­rael his peo­ple, and that the Lord had brought forth Is­rael out of Egypt:

18:2. He took Sepho­ra, the wife of Moses, whom he had sent back:

18:3. And her two sons, of whom one was called Ger­sam: his fa­ther say­ing, I have been a stranger in a for­eign coun­try.

18:4. And the oth­er Eliez­er: For the God of my fa­ther, said he, is my helper, and hath de­liv­ered me from the sword of Pharao.

18:5. And Jethro, the kins­man of Moses, came with his sons, and his wife to Moses in­to the desert, where he was camped by the moun­tain of God.

18:6. And he sent word to Moses, say­ing: I Jethro, thy kins­man, come to thee, and thy wife, and thy two sons with her.

18:7. And he went out to meet his kins­man, and wor­shipped and kissed him: and they salut­ed one an­oth­er with words of peace. And when he was come in­to the tent,

18:8. Moses told his kins­man all that the Lord had done to Pharao, and the Egyp­tians in favour of Is­rael: and all the labour which had be­fall­en them in the jour­ney, and that the Lord had de­liv­ered them.

18:9. And Jethro re­joiced for all the good things that the Lord had done to Is­rael, be­cause he had de­liv­ered them out of the hands of the Egyp­tians.

18:10. And he said: Blessed is the Lord, who hath de­liv­ered his peo­ple out of the hand of Egypt.

18:11. Now I know, that the Lord is great above all gods; be­cause they dealt proud­ly against them.

18:12. So Jethro, the kins­man of Moses, of­fered holo­causts and sac­ri­fices to God: and Aaron and all the an­cients of Is­rael came, to eat bread with him be­fore God.

18:13. And the next day Moses sat to judge the peo­ple, who stood by Moses from morn­ing un­til night.

18:14. And when his kins­man had seen all things that he did among the peo­ple, he said: What is it that thou dost among the peo­ple? Why sittest thou alone, and all the peo­ple wait from morn­ing till night?

18:15. And Moses an­swered him: The peo­ple come to me to seek the judg­ment of God?

18:16. And when any con­tro­ver­sy fal­leth out among them, they come to me to judge be­tween them, and to shew the pre­cepts of God, and his laws.

18:17. But he said: The thing thou dost is not good.

18:18: Thou art spent with fool­ish labour, both thou, and this peo­ple that is with thee; the busi­ness is above thy strength, thou alone canst not bear it.

18:19. But hear my words and coun­sels, and God shall be with thee. Be thou to the peo­ple in those things that per­tain to God, to bring their words to him:

18:20. And to shew the peo­ple the cer­emonies, and the man­ner of wor­ship­ping; and the way where­in they ought to walk, and the work that they ought to do.

18:21. And pro­vide out of all the peo­ple able men, such as fear God, in whom there is truth, and that hate avarice, and ap­point of them rulers of thou­sands, and of hun­dreds, and of fifties, and of tens,

18:22. Who may judge the peo­ple at all times: and when any great mat­ter so­ev­er shall fall out, let them re­fer it to thee, and let them judge the less­er mat­ters on­ly: that so it may be lighter for thee, the bur­den be­ing shared out un­to oth­ers.

18:23. If thou dost this, thou shalt ful­fil the com­mand­ment of God, and shalt be able to bear his pre­cepts: and all this peo­ple shall re­turn to their places with peace.

18:24. And when Moses heard this, he did all things that he had sug­gest­ed un­to him.

18:25. And choos­ing able men out of all Is­rael, he ap­point­ed them rulers of the peo­ple, rulers over thou­sands, and over hun­dreds, and over fifties, and over tens.

18:26. And they judged the peo­ple at all times: and what­so­ev­er was of greater dif­fi­cul­ty they re­ferred to him, and they judged the eas­ier cas­es on­ly.

18:27. And he let his kins­man de­part: and he re­turned and went in­to his own coun­try.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 19

They come to Sinai: the peo­ple are com­mand­ed to be sanc­ti­fied. The Lord, com­ing in thun­der and light­ning, speaketh with Moses.

19:1. In the third month of the de­par­ture of Is­rael out of the land of Egypt, on this day they came in­to the wilder­ness of Sinai:

19:2. For de­part­ing out of Raphidim, and com­ing to the desert of Sinai, they camped in the same place, and there Is­rael pitched their tents over against the moun­tain.

19:3. And Moses went up to God; and the Lord called un­to him from the moun­tain, and said: Thus shalt thou say to the house of Ja­cob, and tell the chil­dren of Is­rael:

And Moses went up to God. . .Moses went up to mount Sinai, where God spoke to him.

19:4. You have seen what I have done to the Egyp­tians, how I have car­ried you up­on the wings of ea­gles, and have tak­en you to my­self.

19:5. If there­fore you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my pe­cu­liar pos­ses­sion above all peo­ple: for all the earth is mine.

19:6. And you shall be to me a priest­ly king­dom, and a holy na­tion. These are the words thou shalt speak to the chil­dren of Is­rael.

19:7. Moses came; and call­ing to­geth­er the el­ders of the peo­ple, he de­clared all the words which the Lord had com­mand­ed.

19:8. And all the peo­ple an­swered to­geth­er: All that the Lord hath spo­ken, we will do. And when Moses had re­lat­ed the peo­ple’s words to the Lord,

19:9. The Lord said to him: Lo, now will I come to thee in the dark­ness of a cloud, that the peo­ple may hear me speak­ing to thee, and may be­lieve thee for ev­er. And Moses told the words of the peo­ple to the Lord.

19:10. And he said to him: Go to the peo­ple, and sanc­ti­fy them to day, and to mor­row, and let them wash their gar­ments.

19:11. And let them be ready against the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the peo­ple, up­on Mount Sinai.

19:12. And thou shalt ap­point cer­tain lim­its to the peo­ple round about, and thou shalt say to them: Take heed ye go not up in­to the mount, and that ye touch not the bor­ders there­of: ev­ery one that toucheth the mount, dy­ing he shall die.

19:13. No hands shall touch him, but he shall be stoned to death, or he shall be shot through with ar­rows: whether it be beast, or man, he shall not live. When the trum­pet shall be­gin to sound, then let them go up in­to the mount.

19:14. And Moses came down from the mount to the peo­ple, and sanc­ti­fied them. And when they had washed their gar­ments,

19:15. He said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.

19:16. And now the third day was come, and the morn­ing ap­peared: and be­hold thun­ders be­gan to be heard, and light­ning to flash, and a very thick cloud to cov­er the mount, and the noise of the trum­pet sound­ed ex­ceed­ing loud; and the peo­ple that was in the camp, feared.

19:17. And when Moses had brought them forth to meet God, from the place of the camp, they stood at the bot­tom of the mount.

19:18. And all Mount Sinai was on a smoke: be­cause the Lord was come down up­on it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a fur­nace: and all the mount was ter­ri­ble.

19:19. And the sound of the trum­pet grew by de­grees loud­er and loud­er, and was drawn out to a greater length: Moses spoke, and God an­swered him.

19:20. And the Lord came down up­on Mount Sinai, in the very top of the mount, and he called Moses un­to the top there­of. And when he was gone up thith­er,

19:21. He said un­to him: Go down, and charge the peo­ple; lest they should have a mind to pass the lim­its to see the Lord, and a very great mul­ti­tude of them should per­ish.

19:22. The priests al­so that come to the Lord, let them be sanc­ti­fied, lest he strike them.

19:23. And Moses said to the Lord: The peo­ple can­not come up to Mount Sinai: for thou didst charge, and com­mand, say­ing: Set lim­its about the mount, and sanc­ti­fy it.

19:24. And the Lord said to him: Go, get thee down; and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the peo­ple pass the lim­its, nor come up to the Lord, lest he kill them.

19:25. And Moses went down to the peo­ple and told them all.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 20

The ten com­mand­ments.

20:1. And the Lord spoke all these words:

20:2. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

20:3. Thou shalt not have strange gods be­fore me.

20:4. Thou shalt not make to thy­self a graven thing, nor the like­ness of any thing that is in heav­en above, or in the earth be­neath, nor of those things that are in the wa­ters un­der the earth.

A graven thing, nor the like­ness of any thing, etc. . .All such im­ages, or like­ness­es, are for­bid­den by this com­mand­ment, as are made to be adored and served; ac­cord­ing to that which im­me­di­ate­ly fol­lows, thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them. That is, all such as are de­signed for idols or im­age-​gods, or are wor­shipped with di­vine hon­our. But oth­er­wise im­ages, pic­tures, or rep­re­sen­ta­tions, even in the house of God, and in the very sanc­tu­ary so far from be­ing for­bid­den, are ex­press­ly au­tho­rized by the word of God. See Ex. 25.15, and etc.; chap. 38.7; Num. 21.8, 9; 1 Chron. or Par­alip. 28.18, 19; 2 Chron. or Par­alip. 3.10.

20:5. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jeal­ous, vis­it­ing the in­iq­ui­ty of the fa­thers up­on the chil­dren, un­to the third and fourth gen­er­ation of them that hate me:

20:6. And shew­ing mer­cy un­to thou­sands to them that love me, and keep my com­mand­ments.

20:7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guilt­less that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.

20:8. Re­mem­ber that thou keep holy the sab­bath day.

20:9. Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works.

20:10. But on the sev­enth day is the sab­bath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daugh­ter, nor thy manser­vant, nor thy maid­ser­vant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is with­in thy gates.

20:11. For in six days the Lord made heav­en and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rest­ed on the sev­enth day: there­fore the Lord blessed the sev­enth day, and sanc­ti­fied it.

20:12. Hon­our thy fa­ther and thy moth­er, that thou mayst be longlived up­on the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.

20:13. Thou shalt not kill.

20:14. Thou shalt not com­mit adul­tery.

20:15. Thou shalt not steal.

20:16. Thou shalt not bear false wit­ness against thy neigh­bour.

20:17. Thou shalt not cov­et thy neigh­bour’s house; nei­ther shalt thou de­sire his wife, nor his ser­vant, nor his hand­maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

20:18. And all the peo­ple saw the voic­es and the flames, and the sound of the trum­pet, and the mount smok­ing; and be­ing ter­ri­fied and struck with fear, they stood afar off,

20:19. Say­ing to Moses: Speak thou to us, and we will hear: let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die.

20:20. And Moses said to the peo­ple: Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that the dread of him might be in you, and you should not sin.

20:21. And the peo­ple stood afar off. But Moses went to the dark cloud where­in God was.

20:22. And the Lord said to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the chil­dren of Is­rael: You have seen that I have spo­ken to you from heav­en.

20:23. You shall not make gods of sil­ver, nor shall you make to your­selves gods of gold.

20:24. You shall make an al­tar of earth un­to me, and you shall of­fer up­on it your holo­causts and peace of­fer­ings, your sheep and ox­en, in ev­ery place where the mem­ory of my name shall be: I will come to thee, and will bless thee.

20:25. And if thou make an al­tar of stone un­to me, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up a tool up­on it, it shall be de­filed.

20:26. Thou shalt not go up by steps un­to my al­tar, lest thy naked­ness be dis­cov­ered.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 21

Laws re­lat­ing to Jus­tice.

21:1. These are the judg­ments which thou shalt set be­fore them.

21:2. If thou buy a He­brew ser­vant, six years shall he serve thee; in the sev­enth he shall go out free for noth­ing.

21:3. With what rai­ment he came in, with the like let him go out: if hav­ing a wife, his wife al­so shall go out with him.

21:4. But if his mas­ter gave him a wife, and she hath borne sons and daugh­ters; the wom­an and her chil­dren shall be her mas­ter’s: but he him­self shall go out with his rai­ment.

21:5. And if the ser­vant shall say: I love my mas­ter and my wife and chil­dren, I will not go out free:

21:6. His mas­ter shall bring him to the gods, and he shall be set to the door and the posts, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl: and he shall be his ser­vant for ev­er.

To the gods. . .Elo­him. That is, to the judges, or mag­is­trates, au­tho­rized by God.

21:7. If any man sell his daugh­ter to be a ser­vant, she shall not go out as bond­wom­en are wont to go out.

21:8. If she dis­please the eyes of her mas­ter to whom she was de­liv­ered, he shall let her go: but he shall have no pow­er to sell her to a for­eign na­tion, if he de­spise her.

21:9. But if he have be­trothed her to his son, he shall deal with her af­ter the man­ner of daugh­ters.

21:10. And if he take an­oth­er wife for him, he shall pro­vide her a mar­riage, and rai­ment, nei­ther shall he refuse the price of her chasti­ty.

21:11. If he do not these three things, she shall go out free with­out mon­ey.

21:12. He that striketh a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death.

21:13. But he that did not lie in wait for him, but God de­liv­ered him in­to his hands: I will ap­point thee a place to which he must flee.

21:14. If a man kill his neigh­bour on set pur­pose, and by ly­ing in wait for him: thou shalt take him away from my al­tar that he may die.

21:15. He that striketh his fa­ther or moth­er, shall be put to death.

21:16. He that shall steal a man, and sell him, be­ing con­vict­ed of the guilt, shall be put to death.

21:17. He that curseth his fa­ther or moth­er, shall die the death.

21:18. If men quar­rel, and the one strike his neigh­bour with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keep­eth his bed:

21:19. If he rise again and walk abroad up­on his staff, he that struck him shall be quit, yet so that he make resti­tu­tion for his work, and for his ex­pens­es up­on the physi­cians.

21:20. He that striketh his bond­man, or bond­wom­an, with a rod, and they die un­der his hands, shall be guilty of the crime.

21:21. But if the par­ty re­main alive a day or two, he shall not be sub­ject to the pun­ish­ment, be­cause it is his mon­ey.

21:22. If men quar­rel, and one strike a wom­an with child and she mis­car­ry in­deed, but live her­self: he shall be an­swer­able for so much dam­age as the wom­an’s hus­band shall re­quire, and as ar­biters shall award.

21:23. But if her death en­sue there­upon, he shall ren­der life for life,

21:24. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

21:25. Burn­ing for burn­ing, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

21:26. If any man strike the eye of his manser­vant or maid­ser­vant, and leave them but one eye, he shall let them go free for the eye which he put out.

21:27. Al­so if he strike out a tooth of his manser­vant or maid­ser­vant, he shall in like man­ner make them free.

21:28. If an ox gore a man or a wom­an, and they die, he shall be stoned: and his flesh shall not be eat­en, but the own­er of the ox shall be quit.

21:29. But if the ox was wont to push with his horn yes­ter­day, and the day be­fore, and they warned his mas­ter, and he did not shut him up, and he shall kill a man or a wom­an: then the ox shall be stoned, and his own­er al­so shall be put to death.

21:30. And if they set a price up­on him, he shall give for his life what­so­ev­er is laid up­on him.

21:31. If he have gored a son, or a daugh­ter, he shall fall un­der the like sen­tence.

21:32. If he as­sault a bond­man or bond­wom­an, he shall give thir­ty sicles of sil­ver to their mas­ter, and the ox shall be stoned.

21:33. If a man open a pit, and dig one, and cov­er it not, and an ox or an ass fall in­to it,

21:34. The own­er of the pit shall pay the price of the beasts: and that which is dead shall be his own.

21:35. If one man’s ox gore an­oth­er man’s ox, and he die: they shall sell the live ox, and shall di­vide the price, and the car­cass of that which died they shall part be­tween them:

21:36. But if he knew that his ox was wont to push yes­ter­day, and the day be­fore, and his mas­ter did not keep him in; he shall pay ox for ox, and shall take the whole car­cass.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 22

The pun­ish­ment of theft, and oth­er tres­pass­es. The law of lend­ing with­out usury, of tak­ing pledges of rev­er­ences to su­pe­ri­ors, and of pay­ing tithes.

22:1. If any man steal an ox or a sheep, and kill or sell it: he shall re­store five ox­en for one ox, and four sheep for one sheep.

22:2. If a thief be found break­ing open a house or un­der­min­ing it, and be wound­ed so as to die: he that slew him shall not be guilty of blood.

22:3. But if he did this when the sun is risen, he hath com­mit­ted mur­der, and he shall die. If he have not where­with to make resti­tu­tion for the theft, he shall be sold.

22:4. If that which he stole be found with him, alive, ei­ther ox, or ass, or sheep: he shall re­store dou­ble.

22:5. If any man hurt a field or a vine­yard, and put in his beast to feed up­on that which is oth­er men’s: he shall re­store the best of what­so­ev­er he hath in his own field, or in his vine­yard, ac­cord­ing to the es­ti­ma­tion of the dam­age.

22:6. If a fire break­ing out light up­on thorns, and catch stacks of corn, or corn stand­ing in the fields, he that kin­dled the fire shall make good the loss.

22:7. If a man de­liv­er mon­ey, or any ves­sel un­to his friend to keep, and they be stolen away from him that re­ceived them: if the thief be found, he shall re­store dou­ble:

22:8. If the thief be not known, the mas­ter of the house shall be brought to the gods, and shall swear that he did not lay his hand up­on his neigh­bour’s goods,

22:9. To do any fraud, ei­ther in ox, or in ass, or sheep, or rai­ment, or any thing that may bring dam­age: the cause of both par­ties shall come to the gods: and if they give judg­ment, he shall re­store dou­ble to his neigh­bour.

22:10. If a man de­liv­er ass, ox, sheep, or any beast, to his neigh­bour’s cus­tody, and it die, or be hurt, or be tak­en by en­emies, and no man saw it:

22:11. There shall be an oath be­tween them, that he did not put forth his hand to his neigh­bour’s goods: and the own­er shall ac­cept of the oath, and he shall not be com­pelled to make resti­tu­tion.

22:12. But if it were tak­en away by stealth, he shall make the loss good to the own­er.

22:13. If it were eat­en by a beast, let him bring to him that which was slain, and he shall not make resti­tu­tion.

22:14. If a man bor­row of his neigh­bour any of these things, and it be hurt or die, the own­er not be­ing present, he shall be obliged to make resti­tu­tion.

22:15. But if the own­er be present, he shall not make resti­tu­tion, es­pe­cial­ly if it were hired, and came for the hire of his work.

22:16. If a man se­duce a vir­gin not yet es­poused, and lie with her: he shall en­dow her, and have her to wife.

22:17. If the maid’s fa­ther will not give her to him, he shall give mon­ey ac­cord­ing to the dowry, which vir­gins are wont to re­ceive.

22:18. Wiz­ards thou shalt not suf­fer to live.

22:19. Whoso­ev­er cop­ulateth with a beast; shall be put to death.

22:20. He that sac­ri­ficeth to gods, shall be put to death, save on­ly to the Lord.

22:21. Thou shalt not mo­lest a stranger, nor af­flict him: for your­selves al­so were strangers in the land of Egypt.

22:22. You shall not hurt a wid­ow or an or­phan.

22:23. If you hurt them, they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry:

22:24. And my rage shall be enkin­dled, and I will strike you with the sword, and your wives shall be wid­ows, and your chil­dren fa­ther­less.

22:25. If thou lend mon­ey to any of my peo­ple that is poor, that dwelleth with thee, thou shalt not be hard up­on them as an ex­tor­tion­er, nor op­press them with usuries.

22:26. If thou take of thy neigh­bour a gar­ment in pledge, thou shalt give it him again be­fore sun­set.

22:27. For that same is the on­ly thing, where­with he is cov­ered, the cloth­ing of his body, nei­ther hath he any oth­er to sleep in: if he cry to me, I will hear him, be­cause I am com­pas­sion­ate.

22:28. Thou shalt not speak ill of the gods, and the prince of thy peo­ple thou shalt not curse.

22:29. Thou shalt not de­lay to pay thy tithes and thy first­fruits: thou shalt give the first­born of thy sons to me.

22:30. Thou shalt do the same with the first­born of thy ox­en al­so and sheep: sev­en days let it be with its dam: the eighth day thou shalt give it to me.

22:31. You shall be holy men to me: the flesh that beasts have tast­ed of be­fore, you shall not eat, but shall cast it to the dogs.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 23

Laws for judges; the rest of the sev­enth year, and day: three prin­ci­pal feasts to be sol­em­nized ev­ery year; the promise of an an­gel, to con­duct and pro­tect them: idols are to be de­stroyed.

23:1. Thou shalt not re­ceive the voice of a lie: nei­ther shalt thou join thy hand to bear false wit­ness for a wicked per­son.

23:2. Thou shalt not fol­low the mul­ti­tude to do evil: nei­ther shalt thou yield in judg­ment, to the opin­ion of the most part, to stray from the truth.

23:3. Nei­ther shalt thou favour a poor man in judg­ment.

23:4. If thou meet thy en­emy’s ox or ass go­ing astray, bring it back to him.

23:5. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lie un­der­neath his bur­den, thou shalt not pass by, but shalt lift him up with him.

23:6. Thou shalt not go aside in the poor man’s judg­ment.

23:7. Thou shalt fly ly­ing. The in­no­cent and just per­son thou shalt not put to death: be­cause I ab­hor the wicked.

23:8. Nei­ther shalt thou take bribes, which even blind the wise, and per­vert the words of the just.

23:9. Thou shalt not mo­lest a stranger, for you know the hearts of strangers: for you al­so were strangers in the land of Egypt.

23:10. Six years thou shalt sow thy ground, and shalt gath­er the corn there­of.

23:11. But the sev­enth year thou shalt let it alone, and suf­fer it to rest, that the poor of thy peo­ple may eat, and what­so­ev­er shall be left, let the beasts of the field eat it: so shalt thou do with thy vine­yard and thy olive­yard.

23:12. Six days thou shalt work: the sev­enth day thou shalt cease, that thy ox and thy ass may rest: and the son of thy hand­maid and the stranger may be re­freshed.

23:13. Keep all things that I have said to you. And by the name of strange gods you shall not swear, nei­ther shall it be heard out of your mouth.

23:14. Three times ev­ery year you shall cel­ebrate feasts to me.

23:15. Thou shalt keep the feast of un­leav­ened bread. Sev­en days shalt thou eat un­leav­ened bread, as I com­mand­ed thee, in the time of the month of new corn, when thou didst come forth out of Egypt: thou shalt not ap­pear emp­ty be­fore me.

23:16. And the feast of the har­vest of the first­fruits of thy work, what­so­ev­er thou hast sown in the field. The feast al­so in the end of the year, when thou hast gath­ered in all thy corn out of the field.

23:17. Thrice a year shall all thy males ap­pear be­fore the Lord thy God.

23:18. Thou shalt not sac­ri­fice the blood of my vic­tim up­on leav­en, nei­ther shall the fat of my solem­ni­ty re­main un­til the morn­ing.

23:19. Thou shalt car­ry the first-​fruits of the corn of thy ground to the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.

23:20. Be­hold I will send my an­gel, who shall go be­fore thee, and keep thee in thy jour­ney, and bring thee in­to the place that I have pre­pared.

23:21. Take no­tice of him, and hear his voice, and do not think him one to be con­temned: for he will not for­give when thou hast sinned, and my name is in him.

23:22. But if thou wilt hear hi voice, and do all that I speak, I will be an en­emy to thy en­emies, and will af­flict them that af­flict thee.

23:23. And my an­gel shall go be­fore thee, and shall bring thee in un­to the Am­or­rhite, and the Het­hite, and the Pherex­ite, and the Chanaan­ite, and the Hevite, and the Je­buzite, whom I will de­stroy.

23:24. Thou shalt not adore their gods, nor serve them. Thou shalt not do their works, but shalt de­stroy them, and break their stat­ues.

23:25. And you shall serve the Lord your God, that I may bless your bread and your wa­ters, and may take away sick­ness from the midst of thee.

23:26. There shall not be one fruit­less nor bar­ren in thy land: I will fill the num­ber of thy days.

23:27. I will send my fear be­fore thee, and will de­stroy all the peo­ple to whom thou shalt come: and will turn the backs of all thy en­emies be­fore thee:

23:28. Send­ing out hor­nets be­fore, that shall drive away the Hevite, and the Chanaan­ite, and the Het­hite, be­fore thou come in.

23:29. I will not cast them out from thy face in one year; lest the land be brought in­to a wilder­ness, and the beasts mul­ti­ply against thee.

23:30. By lit­tle and lit­tle I will drive them out from be­fore thee, till thou be in­creased, and dost pos­sess the land.

23:31. And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea to the sea of the Palestines, and from the desert to the riv­er: I will de­liv­er the in­hab­itants of the land in­to your hands, and will drive them out from be­fore you.

23:32. Thou shalt not en­ter in­to league with them, nor with their gods.

23:33. Let them not dwell in thy land, lest per­haps they make thee sin against me, if thou serve their gods; which, un­doubt­ed­ly, will be a scan­dal to thee.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 24

Moses writeth his law; and af­ter of­fer­ing sac­ri­fices, sprin­kleth the blood of the tes­ta­ment up­on the peo­ple: then goeth up the moun­tain which God cov­ereth with a fiery cloud.

24:1. And he said to Moses: Come up to the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and sev­en­ty of the an­cients of Is­rael, and you shall adore afar off.

24:2. And Moses alone shall come up to the Lord, but they shall not come nigh; nei­ther shall the peo­ple come up with him.

24:3. So Moses came and told the peo­ple all the words of the Lord, and all the judg­ments: and all the peo­ple an­swered with one voice: We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spo­ken.

24:4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord: and ris­ing in the morn­ing, he built an al­tar at the foot of the mount, and twelve ti­tles ac­cord­ing to the twelve tribes of Is­rael.

Ti­tles. . .That is, pil­lars.

24:5. And he sent young men of the chil­dren of Is­rael, and they of­fered holo­causts, and sac­ri­ficed pa­cif­ic vic­tims of calves to the Lord.

Holo­causts. . .Whole burnt of­fer­ings, in which the whole sac­ri­fice was con­sumed with fire up­on the al­tar.

24:6. Then Moses took half of the blood, and put it in­to bowls; and the rest he poured up­on the al­tar.

24:7. And tak­ing the book of the covenant, he read it in the hear­ing of the peo­ple: and they said: All things that the Lord hath spo­ken, we will do, we will be obe­di­ent.

24:8. And he took the blood and sprin­kled it up­on the peo­ple, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you con­cern­ing all these words.

24:9. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and sev­en­ty of the an­cients of Is­rael went up:

24:10. And they saw the God of Is­rael: and un­der his feet as it were a work of sap­phire stone, and as the heav­en, when clear.

24:11. Nei­ther did he lay his hand up­on those of the chil­dren of Is­rael, that re­tired afar off, and they saw God, and they did eat and drink.

24:12. And the Lord said to Moses: Come up to me in­to the mount, and be there; and I will give thee ta­bles of stone, and the law, and the com­mand­ments which I have writ­ten; that thou mayest teach them.

24:13. Moses rose up, and his min­is­ter Jo­sue: and Moses go­ing up in­to the mount of God,

24:14. Said to the an­cients: Wait ye here till we re­turn to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you: if any ques­tion shall arise, you shall re­fer it to them.

24:15. And when Moses was gone up, a cloud cov­ered the mount.

24:16. And the glo­ry of the Lord dwelt up­on Sinai, cov­er­ing it with a cloud six days: and the sev­enth day he called him out of the midst of the cloud.

24:17. And the sight of the glo­ry of the Lord, was like a burn­ing fire up­on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the chil­dren of Is­rael.

24:18. And Moses en­ter­ing in­to the midst of the cloud, went up in­to the moun­tain: And he was there forty days and forty nights.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 25

Of­fer­ings pre­scribed for mak­ing the taber­na­cle, the ark, the can­dle­stick, etc.

25:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

25:2. Speak to the chil­dren of Is­rael, that they bring first­fruits to me: of ev­ery man that of­fer­eth of his own ac­cord, you shall take them.

First­fruits. . .Of­fer­ings of some of the best and choic­est of their goods.

25:3. And these are the things you must take: Gold, and sil­ver, and brass,

25:4. Vi­olet and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,

25:5. And rams’ skins dyed red, and vi­olet skins, and se­tim wood:

Se­tim wood. . .The wood of a tree that grows in the wilder­ness, which is said to be in­cor­rupt­ible.

25:6. Oil to make lights: spices for oint­ment, and for sweet­smelling in­cense:

25:7. Onyx stones, and pre­cious stones to adorn the ephod and the ra­tio­nal.

The ephod and the ra­tio­nal. . .The ephod was the high priest’s up­per vest­ment; and the ra­tio­nal his breast­plate, in which were twelve gems, etc.

25:8. And they shall make me a sanc­tu­ary, and I will dwell in the midst of them:

25:9. Ac­cord­ing to all the like­ness of the taber­na­cle which I will shew thee, and of all the ves­sels for the ser­vice there­of: and thus you shall make it:

25:10. Frame an ark of se­tim wood, the length where­of shall be of two cu­bits and a half; the breadth, a cu­bit and a half; the height, like­wise, a cu­bit and a half.

25:11. And thou shalt over­lay it with the purest gold, with­in and with­out; and over it thou shalt make a gold­en crown round about:

25:12. And four gold­en rings, which thou shalt put at the four cor­ners of the ark: let two rings be on the one side, and two on the oth­er.

25:13. Thou shalt make bars al­so of se­tim wood, and shalt over­lay them with gold.

25:14. And thou shalt put them in through the rings that are in the sides of the ark, that it may be car­ried on them:

25:15. And they shall be al­ways in the rings, nei­ther shall they at any time be drawn out of them.

25:16. And thou shalt put in the ark the tes­ti­mo­ny which I will give thee.

25:17. Thou shalt make al­so a pro­pi­tia­to­ry of the purest gold: the length there­of shall be two cu­bits and a half, and the breadth a cu­bit and a half.

A pro­pi­tia­to­ry. . .a cov­er­ing for the ark: called a pro­pi­tia­to­ry, or mer­cy seat, be­cause the Lord, who was sup­posed to sit there up­on the wings of the cheru­bims, with the ark for his foot­stool, from thence shewed mer­cy. It is al­so called the or­acle, ver. 18 and 20; be­cause from thence God gave his or­ders and his an­swers.

25:18. Thou shalt make al­so two cheru­bims of beat­en gold, on the two sides of the or­acle.

25:19. Let one cherub be on the one side, and the oth­er on the oth­er.

25:20. Let them cov­er both sides of the pro­pi­tia­to­ry, spread­ing their wings, and cov­er­ing the or­acle, and let them look one to­wards the oth­er, their faces be­ing turned to­wards the pro­pi­tia­to­ry where­with the ark is to be cov­ered.

25:21. In which thou shalt put the tes­ti­mo­ny that I will give thee.

25:22. Thence will I give or­ders, and will speak to thee over the pro­pi­tia­to­ry, and from the midst of the two cheru­bims, which shall be up­on the ark of the tes­ti­mo­ny, all things which I will com­mand the chil­dren of Is­rael by thee.

25:23. Thou shalt make a ta­ble al­so of se­tim wood, of two cu­bits in length, and a cu­bit in breadth, and a cu­bit and a half in height.

A ta­ble. . .On which were to be placed the twelve loaves of propo­si­tion: or, as they are called in the He­brew, the face bread, be­cause they were al­ways to stand be­fore the face of the Lord in his tem­ple: as a fig­ure of the eu­charis­tic sac­ri­fice and sacra­ment, in the church of Christ.

25:24. And thou shalt over­lay it with the purest gold: and thou shalt make to it a gold­en ledge round about.

25:25. And to the ledge it­self a pol­ished crown, four inch­es high; and over the same an­oth­er lit­tle gold­en crown.

25:26. Thou shalt pre­pare al­so four gold­en rings, and shalt put them in the four cor­ners of the same ta­ble, over each foot.

25:27. Un­der the crown shall the gold­en rings be, that the bars may be put through them, and the ta­ble may be car­ried.

25:28. The bars al­so them­selves thou shalt make of se­tim wood, and shalt over­lay them with gold, to bear up the ta­ble.

25:29. Thou shalt pre­pare al­so dish­es, and bowls, censers, and cups, where­in the li­ba­tions are to be of­fered, of the purest gold.

Li­ba­tions. . .That is, drink of­fer­ings.

25:30. And thou shalt set up­on the ta­ble loaves of propo­si­tion in my sight al­ways.

25:31. Thou shalt make al­so a can­dle­stick of beat­en work, of the finest gold, the shaft there­of, and the branch­es, the cups, and the bowls, and the lilies go­ing forth from it.

A can­dle­stick. . .This can­dle­stick, with its sev­en lamps, which was al­ways to give light in the house of God, was a fig­ure of the light of the Holy Ghost, and his sev­en­fold grace, in the sanc­tu­ary of the church of Christ.

25:32. Six branch­es shall come out of the sides, three out of one side, and three out of the oth­er.

25:33. Three cups as it were nuts to ev­ery branch, and a bowl with­al, and a lily: and three cups like­wise of the fash­ion of nuts in the oth­er branch, and a bowl with­al, and a lily. Such shall be the work of the six branch­es, that are to come out from the shaft:

25:34. And in the can­dle­stick it­self shall be four cups in the man­ner of a nut, and at ev­ery one bowls and lilies.

25:35. Bowls un­der two branch­es in three places, which to­geth­er make six, com­ing forth out of one shaft.

25:36. And both the bowls and the branch­es shall be of the same beat­en work of the purest gold.

25:37. Thou shalt make al­so sev­en lamps, and shalt set them up­on the can­dle­stick, to give light over against.

25:38. The snuffers al­so, and where the snuff­in­gs shall be put out, shall be made of the purest gold.

25:39. The whole weight of the can­dle­stick, with all the fur­ni­ture there­of, shall be a tal­ent of the purest gold.

25:40. Look, and make it ac­cord­ing to the pat­tern that was shewn thee in the mount.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 26

The form of the taber­na­cle with its ap­pur­te­nances.

26:1. And thou shalt make the taber­na­cle in this man­ner: Thou shalt make ten cur­tains of fine twist­ed linen, and vi­olet and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, di­ver­si­fied with em­broi­dery.

26:2. The length of one cur­tain shall be twen­ty-​eight cu­bits; the breadth shall be four cu­bits. All the cur­tains shall be of one mea­sure.

26:3. Five cur­tains shall be joined one to an­oth­er, and the oth­er five shall be cou­pled to­geth­er in like man­ner.

26:4. Thou shalt make loops of vi­olet in the sides and tops of the cur­tains, that they may be joined one to an­oth­er.

26:5. Ev­ery cur­tain shall have fifty loops on both sides, so set on, that one loop may be against an­oth­er loop, and one may be fit­ted to the oth­er.

26:6. Thou shalt make al­so fifty rings of gold, where­with the veils of the cur­tains are to be joined, that it may be made one taber­na­cle.

26:7. Thou shalt make al­so eleven cur­tains of goats’ hair, to cov­er the top of the taber­na­cle.

26:8. The length of one hair-​cur­tain shall be thir­ty cu­bits; and the breadth, four: the mea­sure of all the cur­tains shall be equal.

26:9. Five of which thou shalt cou­ple by them­selves, and the six oth­ers thou shalt cou­ple one to an­oth­er, so as to dou­ble the sixth cur­tain in the front of the roof.

26:10. Thou shalt make al­so fifty loops in the edge of one cur­tain, that it may be joined with the oth­er: and fifty loops in the edge of the oth­er cur­tain, that it may be cou­pled with its fel­low.

26:11. Thou shalt make al­so fifty buck­les of brass, where­with the loops may be joined, that of all there may be made one cov­er­ing.

26:12. And that which shall re­main of the cur­tains, that are pre­pared for the roof, to wit, one cur­tain that is over and above, with the half there­of thou shalt cov­er the back parts of the taber­na­cle.

26:13. And there shall hang down a cu­bit on the one side, and an­oth­er on the oth­er side, which is over and above in the length of the cur­tains, fenc­ing both sides of the taber­na­cle.

26:14. Thou shalt make al­so an­oth­er cov­er to the roof of rams’ skins dyed red: and over that again an­oth­er cov­er of vi­olet coloured skins.

26:15. Thou shalt make al­so the boards of the taber­na­cle stand­ing up­right of se­tim wood.

26:16. Let ev­ery one of them be ten cu­bits in length, and in breadth one cu­bit and a half.

26:17. In the sides of the boards shall be made two mor­tis­es, where­by one board may be joined to an­oth­er board: and af­ter this man­ner shall all the boards be pre­pared.

26:18. Of which twen­ty shall be in the south side south­ward.

26:19. For which thou shalt cast forty sock­ets of sil­ver, that un­der ev­ery board may be put two sock­ets at the two cor­ners.

26:20. In the sec­ond side al­so of the taber­na­cle that looketh to the north, there shall be twen­ty boards,

26:21. Hav­ing forty sock­ets of sil­ver, two sock­ets shall be put un­der each board.

26:22. But on the west side of the taber­na­cle thou shalt make six boards.

26:23. And again oth­er two which shall be erect­ed in the cor­ners at the back of the taber­na­cle.

26:24. And they shall be joined to­geth­er from be­neath un­to the top, and one joint shall hold them all. The like join­ing shall be ob­served for the two boards al­so that are to be put in the cor­ners.

26:25. And they shall be in all eight boards, and their sil­ver sock­ets six­teen, reck­on­ing two sock­ets for each board.

26:26. Thou shalt make al­so five bars of se­tim wood, to hold to­geth­er the boards on one side of the taber­na­cle.

26:27. And five oth­ers on the oth­er side, and as many at the west side:

26:28. And they shall be put along by the midst of the boards, from one end to the oth­er.

26:29. The boards al­so them­selves thou shalt over­lay with gold, and shalt cast rings of gold to be set up­on them, for places for the bars to hold to­geth­er the board­work: which bars thou shalt cov­er with plates of gold.

26:30. And thou shalt rear up the taber­na­cle ac­cord­ing to the pat­tern that was shewn thee in the mount.

26:31. Thou shalt make al­so a veil of vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine twist­ed linen, wrought with em­broi­dered work and good­ly va­ri­ety:

26:32. And thou shalt hang it up be­fore four pil­lars of se­tim wood, which them­selves al­so shall be over­laid with gold, and shall have heads of gold, but sock­ets of sil­ver.

26:33. And the veil shall be hanged on with rings, and with­in it thou shalt put the ark of the tes­ti­mo­ny, and the sanc­tu­ary and the holy of the holies shall be di­vid­ed with it.

The sanc­tu­ary, etc. . .That part of the taber­na­cle, which was with­out the veil, in­to which the priests dai­ly en­tered, is here called the sanc­tu­ary, or holy place; that part which was with­in the veil, in­to which no one but the high priest ev­er went, and he but once a year, is called the holy of holies, (lit­er­al­ly, the sanc­tu­ary of the sanc­tu­ar­ies,) as be­ing the most holy of all holy places.

26:34. And thou shalt set the pro­pi­tia­to­ry up­on the ark of the tes­ti­mo­ny, in the holy of holies.

26:35. And the ta­ble with­out the veil, and over against the ta­ble the can­dle­stick in the south side of the taber­na­cle: for the ta­ble shall stand in the north side.

26:36. Thou shalt make al­so a hang­ing in the en­trance of the taber­na­cle of vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine twist­ed linen with em­broi­dered work.

26:37. And thou shalt over­lay with gold five pil­lars of se­tim wood, be­fore which the hang­ing shall be drawn: their heads shall be of gold, and the sock­ets of brass.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 27

The al­tar; and the court of the taber­na­cle with its hang­ings and pil­lars. Pro­vi­sion of oil for lamps.

27:1. Thou shalt make al­so an al­tar of se­tim wood, which shall be five cu­bits long, and as many broad, that is four square, and three cu­bits high.

27:2. And there shall be horns at the four cor­ners of the same: and thou shalt cov­er it with brass.

27:3. And thou shalt make for the us­es there­of pans to re­ceive the ash­es, and tongs and flesh­hooks, and firepans: all its ves­sels thou shalt make of brass.

27:4. And a grate of brass in man­ner of a net; at the four cor­ners of which, shall be four rings of brass,

27:5. Which thou shalt put un­der the hearth of the al­tar: and the grate shall be even to the midst of the al­tar.

27:6. Thou shalt make al­so two bars for the al­tar, of se­tim wood, which thou shalt cov­er with plates of brass:

27:7. And thou shalt draw them through rings, and they shall be on both sides of the al­tar to car­ry it.

27:8. Thou shalt not make it sol­id, but emp­ty and hol­low in the in­side, as it was shewn thee in the mount.

27:9. Thou shalt make al­so the court of the taber­na­cle, in the south side where­of south­ward there shall be hang­ings of fine twist­ed linen of a hun­dred cu­bits long for one side.

27:10. And twen­ty pil­lars with as many sock­ets of brass, the heads of which, with their en­grav­ing, shall be of sil­ver.

27:11. In like man­ner al­so on the north side there shall be hang­ings of a hun­dred cu­bits long, twen­ty pil­lars, and as many sock­ets of brass, and their heads with their en­grav­ing of sil­ver.

27:12. But in the breadth of the court, that looketh to the west, there shall be hang­ings of fifty cu­bits, and ten pil­lars, and as many sock­ets.

27:13. In that breadth al­so of the court, which looketh to the east, there shall be fifty cu­bits.

27:14. In which there shall be for one side, hang­ings of fif­teen cu­bits, and three pil­lars, and as many sock­ets.

27:15. And in the oth­er side, there shall be hang­ings of fif­teen cu­bits, with three pil­lars, and as many sock­ets.

27:16. And in the en­trance of the court there shall be made a hang­ing of twen­ty cu­bits of vi­olet and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine twist­ed linen, with em­broi­dered work: it shall have four pil­lars, with as many sock­ets.

27:17. All the pil­lars of the court round about shall be gar­nished with plates of sil­ver, sil­ver heads, and sock­ets of brass.

27:18. In length the court shall take up a hun­dred cu­bits, in breadth fifty, the height shall be of five cu­bits, and it shall be made of fine twist­ed linen, and shall have sock­ets of brass.

27:19. All the ves­sels of the taber­na­cle for all us­es and cer­emonies, and the pins both of it and of the court, thou shalt make of brass.

27:20. Com­mand the chil­dren of Is­rael that they bring thee the purest oil of the olives, and beat­en with a pes­tle: that a lamp may burn al­ways,

27:21. In the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, with­out the veil that hangs be­fore the tes­ti­mo­ny. And Aaron and his sons shall or­der it, that it may give light be­fore the Lord un­til the morn­ing. It shall be a per­pet­ual ob­ser­vance through­out their suc­ces­sions among the chil­dren of Is­rael.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 28

The holy vest­ments for Aaron and his sons.

28:1. Take un­to thee al­so Aaron thy broth­er with his sons, from among the chil­dren of Is­rael, that they may min­is­ter to me in the priest’s of­fice: Aaron, Nadab, and Abiu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

28:2. And thou shalt make a holy ves­ture for Aaron, thy broth­er, for glo­ry and for beau­ty.

28:3. And thou shalt speak to all the wise of heart, whom I have filled with the spir­it of wis­dom, that they may make Aaron’s vest­ments, in which he be­ing con­se­crat­ed, may min­is­ter to me.

28:4. And these shall be the vest­ments that they shall make: A ra­tio­nal and an ephod, a tu­nic and a strait linen gar­ment, a mitre and a gir­dle. They shall make the holy vest­ments for thy broth­er Aaron and his sons, that they may do the of­fice of priest­hood un­to me.

28:5. And they shall take gold, and vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine linen.

28:6. And they shall make the ephod of gold, and vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine twist­ed linen, em­broi­dered with divers colours.

28:7. It shall have the two edges joined in the top on both sides, that they may be closed to­geth­er.

28:8. The very work­man­ship al­so, and all the va­ri­ety of the work, shall be of gold, and vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine twist­ed linen.

28:9. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and shalt grave on them the names of the chil­dren of Is­rael:

28:10. Six names on one stone, and the oth­er six on the oth­er, ac­cord­ing to the or­der of their birth.

28:11. With the work of an en­graver, and the grav­ing of a jew­eller, thou shalt en­grave them with the names of the chil­dren of Is­rael, set in gold and com­passed about:

28:12. And thou shalt put them in both sides of the ephod, a memo­ri­al for the chil­dren of Is­rael. And Aaron shall bear their names be­fore the Lord up­on both shoul­ders, for a re­mem­brance.

28:13. Thou shalt make al­so hooks of gold.

28:14. And two lit­tle chains of the purest gold, linked one to an­oth­er, which thou shalt put in­to the hooks.

28:15. And thou shalt make the ra­tio­nal of judg­ment with em­broi­dered work of divers colours, ac­cord­ing to the work­man­ship of the ephod, of gold, vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine twist­ed linen.

The ra­tio­nal of judg­ment. . .This part of the priest’s at­tire, which he wore at his breast, was called the ra­tio­nal of judg­ment; part­ly be­cause it ad­mon­ished both priest and peo­ple of their du­ty to God, by car­ry­ing the names of all their tribes in his pres­ence; and by the Urim and the Thum­mim, that is, doc­trine and truth, which were writ­ten up­on it; and part­ly be­cause it gave di­vine an­swers and or­acles, as if it were ra­tio­nal and en­dowed with judg­ment.

28:16. It shall be four square and dou­bled: it shall be the mea­sure of a span both in length and in breadth.

28:17. And thou shalt set in it four rows of stones . In the first row shall be a sardius stone, and a topaz, and an emer­ald:

28:18. In the sec­ond a car­bun­cle, a sap­phire, and a jasper:

28:19. In the third a lig­urius, an agate, and an amethyst:

28:20. In the fourth a chryso­lite, an onyx, and a beryl. They shall be set in gold by their rows.

28:21. And they shall have the names of the chil­dren of Is­rael: with twelve names shall they be en­graved, each stone with the name of one ac­cord­ing to the twelve tribes.

28:22. And thou shalt make on the ra­tio­nal chains, linked one to an­oth­er, of the purest gold:

28:23. And two rings of gold, which thou shalt put in the two ends at the top of the ra­tio­nal.

28:24. And the gold­en chains thou shalt join to the rings, that are in the ends there­of.

28:25. And the ends of the chains them­selves, thou shalt join to­geth­er with two hooks, on both sides of the ephod, which is to­wards the ra­tio­nal.

28:26. Thou shalt make al­so two rings of gold, which thou shalt put in the top parts of the ra­tio­nal, in the bor­ders that are over against the ephod, and look to­wards the back parts there­of.

28:27. More­over al­so oth­er two rings of gold, which are to be set on each side of the ephod be­neath, that looketh to­wards the nether join­ing, that the ra­tio­nal may be fit­ted with the ephod,

28:28. And may be fas­tened by the rings there­of un­to the rings of the ephod with a vi­olet fil­let, that the join­ing ar­ti­fi­cial­ly wrought may con­tin­ue, and the ra­tio­nal and the ephod may not be loosed one from the oth­er.

28:29. And Aaron shall bear the names of the chil­dren of Is­rael in the ra­tio­nal of judg­ment up­on his breast, when he shall en­ter in­to the sanc­tu­ary, a memo­ri­al be­fore the Lord for ev­er.

28:30. And thou shalt put in the ra­tio­nal of judg­ment doc­trine and truth, which shall be on Aaron’s breast, when he shall go in be­fore the Lord: and he shall bear the judg­ment of the chil­dren of Is­rael on his breast, in the sight of the Lord al­ways.

Doc­trine and Truth. . .He­brew, Urim and Thum­mim: il­lu­mi­na­tions and per­fec­tions. These words, writ­ten on the ra­tio­nal, seem to sig­ni­fy the light of doc­trine and the in­tegri­ty of life, with which the priests of God ought to ap­proach him.

28:31. And thou shalt make the tu­nic of the ephod all of vi­olet,

28:32. In the midst where­of above shall be a hole for the head, and a bor­der round about it wo­ven, as is wont to be made in the out­most parts of gar­ments, that it may not eas­ily be bro­ken.

28:33. And be­neath at the feet of the same tu­nic, round about, thou shalt make as it were pomegranates, of vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, with lit­tle bells set be­tween:

28:34. So that there shall be a gold­en bell and a pomegranate, and again an­oth­er gold­en bell and a pomegranate.

28:35. And Aaron shall be vest­ed with it in the of­fice of his min­istry, that the sound may be heard, when he goeth in and cometh out of the sanc­tu­ary, in the sight of the Lord, and that he may not die.

28:36. Thou shalt make al­so a plate of the purest gold: where­in thou shalt grave with en­graver’s work, Holy to the Lord.

28:37. And thou shalt tie it with a vi­olet fil­let, and it shall be up­on the mitre,

28:38. Hang­ing over the fore­head of the high priest. And Aaron shall bear the in­iq­ui­ties of those things, which the chil­dren of Is­rael have of­fered and sanc­ti­fied, in all their gifts and of­fer­ings. And the plate shall be al­ways on his fore­head, that the Lord may be well pleased with them.

28:39. And thou shalt gird the tu­nic with fine linen, and thou shalt make a fine linen mitre, and a gir­dle of em­broi­dered work.

28:40. More­over, for the sons of Aaron thou shalt pre­pare linen tu­nics, and gir­dles and mitres for glo­ry and beau­ty:

28:41. And with all these things thou shalt vest Aaron thy broth­er, and his sons with him. And thou shalt con­se­crate the hands of them all, and shalt sanc­ti­fy them, that they may do the of­fice of priest­hood un­to me.

28:42. Thou shalt make al­so linen breech­es, to cov­er the flesh of their naked­ness, from the reins to the thighs:

28:43. And Aaron and his sons shall use them when they shall go in­to the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, or when they ap­proach to the al­tar to min­is­ter in the sanc­tu­ary. lest be­ing guilty of in­iq­ui­ty they die. It shall be a law for ev­er to Aaron, and to his seed af­ter him.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 29

The man­ner of con­se­crat­ing Aaron and oth­er priests; the in­sti­tu­tion of the dai­ly sac­ri­fice of two lambs, one in the morn­ing, the oth­er at evening.

29:1. And thou shalt al­so do this, that they may be con­se­crat­ed to me in priest­hood. Take a calf from the herd, and two rams with­out blem­ish,

29:2. And un­leav­ened bread, and a cake with­out leav­en, tem­pered with oil, wafers al­so un­leav­ened, anoint­ed with oil: thou shalt make them all of wheat­en flour.

29:3. And thou shalt put them in a bas­ket, and of­fer them: and the calf and the two rams.

29:4. And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny. And when thou hast washed the fa­ther and his sons with wa­ter,

29:5. Thou shalt clothe Aaron with his vest­ments, that is, with the linen gar­ment and the tu­nic, and the ephod and the ra­tio­nal, which thou shalt gird with the gir­dle.

29:6. And thou shalt put the mitre up­on his head, and the holy plate up­on the mitre,

29:7. And thou shalt pour the oil of unc­tion up­on his head: and by this rite shall he be con­se­crat­ed.

29:8. Thou shalt bring his sons al­so, and shalt put on them the linen tu­nics, and gird them with a gir­dle:

29:9. To wit, Aaron and his chil­dren, and thou shalt put mitres up­on them; and they shall be priests to me by a per­pet­ual or­di­nance. Af­ter thou shalt have con­se­crat­ed their hands,

29:10. Thou shalt present al­so the calf be­fore the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny. And Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands up­on his head,

29:11. And thou shalt kill him in the sight of the Lord, be­side the door of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny.

29:12. And tak­ing some of the blood of the calf, thou shalt put it up­on the horns of the al­tar with thy fin­ger, and the rest of the blood thou shalt pour at the bot­tom there­of.

29:13. Thou shalt take al­so all the fat that cov­ereth the en­trails, and the caul of the liv­er, and the two kid­neys, and the fat that is up­on them, and shalt of­fer a burn of­fer­ing up­on the al­tar:

29:14. But the flesh of the calf, and the hide and the dung, thou shalt burn abroad, with­out the camp, be­cause it is for sin.

29:15. Thou shalt take al­so one ram, up­on the head where­of Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands.

29:16. And when thou hast killed him, thou shalt take of the blood there­of, and pour round about the al­tar.

29:17. And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and hav­ing washed his en­trails and feet, thou shalt put them up­on the flesh that is cut in pieces, and up­on his head.

29:18. And thou shalt of­fer the whole ram for a burnt of­fer­ing up­on the al­tar: it is an obla­tion to the Lord, a most sweet savour of the vic­tim of the Lord.

29:19. Thou shalt take al­so the oth­er ram, up­on whose head Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands.

29:20. And when thou hast sac­ri­ficed him, thou shalt take of his blood, and put up­on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and of his sons, and up­on the thumbs and great toes of their right hand and foot, and thou shalt pour the blood up­on the al­tar round about.

29:21. And when thou hast tak­en of the blood that is up­on the al­tar, and of the oil of unc­tion, thou shalt sprin­kle Aaron and his ves­ture, his sons and their vest­ments. And af­ter they and their vest­ments are con­se­crat­ed,

29:22. Thou shalt take the fat of the ram, and the rump, and the fat that cov­ereth the lungs, and the caul of the liv­er, and the two kid­neys, and the fat that is up­on them, and the right shoul­der, be­cause it is the ram of con­se­cra­tion:

29:23. And one roll of bread, a cake tem­pered with oil, a wafer out of the bas­ket of un­leav­ened bread, which is set in the sight of the Lord:

29:24. And thou shalt put all up­on the hands of Aaron and of his sons, and shalt sanc­ti­fy them el­evat­ing be­fore the Lord.

29:25. And thou shalt take all from their hands; and shalt burn them up­on the al­tar for a holo­caust, a most sweet savour in the sight of the Lord, be­cause it is his obla­tion.

29:26. Thou shalt take al­so the breast of the ram, where­with Aaron was con­se­crat­ed, and el­evat­ing it thou shalt sanc­ti­fy it be­fore the Lord, and it shall fall to thy share.

29:27. And thou shalt sanc­ti­fy both the con­se­crat­ed breast, and the shoul­der that thou didst sep­arate of the ram,

29:28. Where­with Aaron was con­se­crat­ed and his sons, and they shall fall to Aaron’s share, and his sons’, by a per­pet­ual right from the chil­dren of Is­rael: be­cause they are the choic­est and the be­gin­nings of their peace vic­tims which they of­fer to the Lord.

29:29. And the holy ves­ture, which Aaron shall use, his sons shall have af­ter him, that they may be anoint­ed, and their hands con­se­crat­ed in it.

29:30. He of his sons that shall be ap­point­ed high priest in his stead, and that shall en­ter in­to the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny to min­is­ter in the sanc­tu­ary, shall wear it sev­en days.

29:31. And thou shalt take the ram of the con­se­cra­tion, and shalt boil the flesh there­of in the holy place:

29:32. And Aaron and his sons shall eat it. The loaves al­so, that are in the bas­ket, they shall eat in the en­try of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny,

29:33. That it may be an aton­ing sac­ri­fice, and the hands of the of­fer­ers may be sanc­ti­fied. A stranger shall not eat of them, be­cause they are holy.

29:34. And if there re­main of the con­se­crat­ed flesh, or of the bread, till the morn­ing, thou shalt burn the re­main­der with fire: they shall not be eat­en, be­cause they are sanc­ti­fied.

29:35. All that I have com­mand­ed thee, thou shalt do un­to Aaron and his sons. Sev­en days shalt thou con­se­crate their hands:

29:36. And thou shalt of­fer a calf for sin ev­ery day for ex­pi­ation. And thou shalt cleanse the al­tar when thou hast of­fered the vic­tim of ex­pi­ation, and shalt anoint it to sanc­ti­fy it.

29:37. Sev­en days shalt thou ex­pi­ate the al­tar and sanc­ti­fy it, and it shall be most holy. Ev­ery one, that shall touch it, shall be holy.

29:38. This is what thou shalt sac­ri­fice up­on the al­tar: Two lambs of a year old ev­ery day con­tin­ual­ly,

29:39. One lamb in the morn­ing, and an­oth­er in the evening.

29:40. With one lamb a tenth part of flour tem­pered with beat­en oil, of the fourth part of a hin, and wine for li­ba­tion of the same mea­sure.

29:41. And the oth­er lamb thou shalt of­fer in the evening, ac­cord­ing to the rite of the morn­ing obla­tion, and ac­cord­ing to what we have said, for a savour of sweet­ness:

29:42. It is a sac­ri­fice to the Lord, by per­pet­ual obla­tion un­to your gen­er­ations, at the door of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny be­fore the Lord, where I will ap­point to speak un­to thee.

29:43. And there will I com­mand the chil­dren of Is­rael, and the al­tar shall be sanc­ti­fied by my glo­ry.

29:44. I will sanc­ti­fy al­so the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny with the al­tar, and Aaron with his sons, to do the of­fice of priest­hood un­to me.

29:45. And I will dwell in the midst of the chil­dren of Is­rael, and will be their God:

29:46. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who have brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might abide among them, I the Lord their God.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 30

The al­tar of in­cense: mon­ey to be gath­ered for the use of the taber­na­cle: the brazen laver: the holy oil of unc­tion, and the com­po­si­tion of the per­fume.

30:1. Thou shalt make al­so an al­tar to burn in­cense, of se­tim wood.

An al­tar to burn in­cense. . .This burn­ing of in­cense was an em­blem of prayer, as­cend­ing to God from an in­flamed heart. See Ps. 140.2; Apoc. 5.8, and 8.4.

30:2. It shall be a cu­bit in length, and an­oth­er in breadth, that is, four square, and two in height. Horns shall go out of the same.

30:3. And thou shalt over­lay it with the purest gold, as well the grate there­of, as the walls round about, and the horns. And thou shalt make to it a crown of gold round about,

30:4. And two gold­en rings un­der the crown on ei­ther side, that the bars may be put in­to them, and the al­tar be car­ried.

30:5. And thou shalt make the bars al­so of se­tim wood, and shalt over­lay them with gold.

30:6. And thou shalt set the al­tar over against the veil, that hangeth be­fore the ark of the tes­ti­mo­ny be­fore the pro­pi­tia­to­ry where­with the tes­ti­mo­ny is cov­ered, where I will speak to thee.

30:7. And Aaron shall burn sweet smelling in­cense up­on it in the morn­ing. When he shall dress the lamps, he shall burn it:

30:8. And when he shall place them in the evening, he shall burn an ev­er­last­ing in­cense be­fore the Lord through­out your gen­er­ations.

30:9. You shall not of­fer up­on it in­cense of an­oth­er com­po­si­tion, nor obla­tion, and vic­tim, nei­ther shall you of­fer li­ba­tions.

30:10. And Aaron shall pray up­on the horns there­of once a year, with the blood of that which was of­fered for sin; and shall make atone­ment up­on it in your gen­er­ations. It shall be most holy to the Lord.

30:11. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

30:12. When thou shalt take the sum of the chil­dren of Is­rael, ac­cord­ing to their num­ber, ev­ery one of them shall give a price for their souls to the Lord, and there shall be no scourge among them, when they shall be reck­oned.

30:13. And this shall ev­ery one give that pas­seth at the nam­ing, half a sicle ac­cord­ing to the stan­dard of the tem­ple. A sicle hath twen­ty obols. Half a sicle shall be of­fered to the Lord.

Half a sicle. . .A sicle or shekel of sil­ver, (which was al­so called a stater,) ac­cord­ing to the stan­dard or weight of the sanc­tu­ary, which was the most just and ex­act, was half an ounce of sil­ver, that is, about half a crown of En­glish mon­ey. The obol, or ger­ah, was about three half­pence.

30:14. He that is count­ed in the num­ber from twen­ty years and up­wards, shall give the price.

30:15. The rich man shall not add to half a sicle, and the poor man shall di­min­ish noth­ing.

30:16. And the mon­ey re­ceived, which was con­tribut­ed by the chil­dren of Is­rael, thou shalt de­liv­er un­to the us­es of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, that it may be a memo­ri­al of them be­fore the Lord, and he may be mer­ci­ful to their souls.

30:17. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

30:18. Thou shalt make al­so a brazen laver with its foot to wash in: and thou shalt set it be­tween the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny and the al­tar. And wa­ter be­ing put in­to it:

30:19. Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet in it:

30:20. When they are go­ing in­to the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, and when they are to come to the al­tar, to of­fer on it in­cense to the Lord,

30:21. Lest per­haps they die. It shall be an ev­er­last­ing law to him, and to his seed by suc­ces­sions.

30:22. And the Lord spoke to Moses,

30:23. Say­ing: Take spices, of prin­ci­pal and cho­sen myrrh five hun­dred sicles, and of cin­na­mon half so much; that is, two hun­dred and fifty sicles, of cala­mus in like man­ner two hun­dred and fifty,

30:24. And of cas­sia five hun­dred sicles by the weight of the sanc­tu­ary, of oil of olives the mea­sure hin:

30:25. And thou shalt make the holy oil of unc­tion, an oint­ment com­pound­ed af­ter the art of the per­fumer,

30:26. And there­with thou shalt anoint the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, and the ark of the tes­ta­ment,

30:27. And the ta­ble with the ves­sels there­of, the can­dle­stick and fur­ni­ture there­of, the al­tars of in­cense,

30:28. And of holo­caust, and all the fur­ni­ture that be­longeth to the ser­vice of them.

30:29. And thou shalt sanc­ti­fy all, and they shall be most holy: he that shall touch them shall be sanc­ti­fied.

30:30. Thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and shalt sanc­ti­fy them, that they may do the of­fice of priest­hood un­to me.

30:31. And thou shalt say to the chil­dren of Is­rael: This oil of unc­tion shall be holy un­to me through­out your gen­er­ations.

30:32. The flesh of man shall not be anoint­ed there­with, and you shall make none oth­er of the same com­po­si­tion, be­cause it is sanc­ti­fied, and shall be holy un­to you.

30:33. What man so­ev­er shall com­pound such, and shall give there­of to a stranger, he shall be cut off from his peo­ple.

30:34. And the Lord said to Moses: Take un­to thee spices, stacte, and ony­cha, gal­banum of sweet savour, and the clear­est frank­in­cense, all shall be of equal weight.

30:35. And thou shalt make in­cense com­pound­ed by the work of the per­fumer, well tem­pered to­geth­er, and pure, and most wor­thy of sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion.

30:36. And when thou hast beat­en all in­to very small pow­der, thou shalt set of it be­fore the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, in the place where I will ap­pear to thee. Most holy shall this in­cense be un­to you.

30:37. You shall not make such a com­po­si­tion for your own us­es, be­cause it is holy to the Lord.

30:38. What man so­ev­er shall make the like, to en­joy the smell there­of, he shall per­ish out of his peo­ple.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 31

Be­se­leel and Oo­liab are ap­point­ed by the Lord to make the taber­na­cle, and the things be­long­ing there­to. The ob­ser­va­tion of the sab­bath day is again com­mand­ed. And the Lord de­liv­ereth to Moses two ta­bles writ­ten with the fin­ger of God.

31:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

31:2. Be­hold, I have called by name Be­se­leel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Ju­da,

31:3. And I have filled him with the spir­it of God, with wis­dom and un­der­stand­ing, and knowl­edge in all man­ner of work,

31:4. To de­vise what­so­ev­er may be ar­ti­fi­cial­ly made of gold, and sil­ver, and brass,

31:5. Of mar­ble, and pre­cious stones, and va­ri­ety of wood.

31:6. And I have giv­en him for his com­pan­ion Oo­liab, the son of Achisamech, of the tribe of Dan. And I have put wis­dom in the heart of ev­ery skil­ful man, that they may make all things which I have com­mand­ed thee,

31:7. The taber­na­cle of the covenant, and the ark of the tes­ti­mo­ny, and the pro­pi­tia­to­ry, that is over it, and all the ves­sels of the taber­na­cle,

31:8. And the ta­ble and the ves­sels there­of, the most pure can­dle­stick with the ves­sels there­of, and the al­tars of in­cense,

31:9. And of holo­caust, and all their ves­sels, the laver with its foot,

31:10. The holy vest­ments in the min­istry for Aaron the priest, and for his sons, that they may ex­ecute their of­fice, about the sa­cred things:

31:11. The oil of unc­tion, and the in­cense of spices in the sanc­tu­ary, all things which I have com­mand­ed thee, shall they make.

31:12. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

31:13. Speak to the chil­dren of Is­rael, and thou shalt say to them: See that you keep my sab­bath; be­cause it is a sign be­tween me and you in your gen­er­ations that you may know that I am the Lord, who sanc­ti­fy you.

31:14. keep you my sab­bath: for it is holy un­to you: he that shall pro­fane it, shall be put to death: he that shall do any work in it, his soul shall per­ish out of the midst of his peo­ple.

31:15. Six days shall you do work: in the sev­enth day is the sab­bath, the rest holy to the Lord. Ev­ery one that shall do any work on this day, shall die.

31:16. Let the chil­dren of Is­rael keep the sab­bath, and cel­ebrate it in their gen­er­ations. It is an ev­er­last­ing covenant

31:17. Be­tween me and the chil­dren of Is­rael, and a per­pet­ual sign. For in six days the Lord made heav­en and earth, and in the sev­enth he ceased from work.

31:18. And the Lord, when he had end­ed these words in Mount Sinai, gave to Moses two stone ta­bles of tes­ti­mo­ny, writ­ten with the fin­ger of God.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 32

The peo­ple fall in­to idol­atry. Moses prayeth for them. He breaketh the ta­bles: de­stroyeth the idol: blameth Aaron, and causeth many of the idol­aters to be slain.

32:1. And the peo­ple see­ing that Moses de­layed to come down from the mount, gath­er­ing to­geth­er against Aaron, said: Arise, make us gods, that may go be­fore us: For as to this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has be­fall­en him.

32:2. And Aaron said to them: Take the gold­en ear­rings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daugh­ters, and bring them to me.

32:3. And the peo­ple did what he had com­mand­ed, bring­ing the ear­rings to Aaron.

32:4. And when he had re­ceived them, he fash­ioned them by founders’ work, and made of them a molten calf. And they said: These are thy gods, O Is­rael, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

32:5. And when Aaron saw this, he built an al­tar be­fore it, and made procla­ma­tion by a crier’s voice, say­ing To mor­row is the solem­ni­ty of the Lord.

32:6. And ris­ing in the morn­ing, they of­fered holo­causts, and peace vic­tims, and the peo­ple sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.

32:7. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing: Go, get thee down: thy peo­ple, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath sinned.

32:8. They have quick­ly strayed from the way which thou didst shew them: and they have made to them­selves a molten calf, and have adored it, and sac­ri­fic­ing vic­tims to it, have said: These are thy gods, O Is­rael, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

32:9. And again the Lord said to Moses: I see that this peo­ple is stiff­necked:

32:10. Let me alone, that my wrath may be kin­dled against them, and that I may de­stroy them, and I will make of thee a great na­tion.

32:11. But Moses be­sought the Lord his God, say­ing: Why, O Lord, is thy in­dig­na­tion enkin­dled against thy peo­ple, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great pow­er, and with a mighty hand?

32:12. Let not the Egyp­tians say, I be­seech thee: He crafti­ly brought them out, that he might kill them in the moun­tains, and de­stroy them from the earth: let thy anger cease, and be ap­peased up­on the wicked­ness of thy peo­ple.

32:13. Re­mem­ber Abra­ham, Isaac, and Is­rael, thy ser­vants, to whom thou swor­est by thy own self, say­ing: I will mul­ti­ply your seed as the stars of heav­en: and this whole land that I have spo­ken of, I will give to your seed, and you shall pos­sess it for ev­er:

32:14. And the Lord was ap­peased from do­ing the evil which he had spo­ken against his peo­ple.

32:15. And Moses re­turned from the mount, car­ry­ing the two ta­bles of the tes­ti­mo­ny in his hand, writ­ten on both sides,

32:16. And made by the work of God; the writ­ing al­so of God was graven in the ta­bles.

32:17. And Jo­sue hear­ing the noise of the peo­ple shout­ing, said to Moses: The noise of bat­tle is heard in the camp.

32:18. But he an­swered: It is not the cry of men en­cour­ag­ing to fight, nor the shout of men com­pelling to flee: but I hear the voice of singers.

32:19. And when he came nigh to the camp, he saw the calf, and the dances: and be­ing very an­gry, he threw the ta­bles out of his hand, and broke them at the foot of the mount:

32:20. And lay­ing hold of the calf which they had made, he burnt it, and beat it to pow­der, which he strewed in­to wa­ter, and gave there­of to the chil­dren of Is­rael to drink.

32:21. And he said to Aaron: What has this peo­ple done to thee, that thou shouldst bring up­on them a most heinous sin?

32:22. And he an­swered him: Let not my lord be of­fend­ed; for thou know­est this peo­ple, that they are prone to evil.

32:23. They said to me: make us gods, that may go be­fore us; for as to this Moses, who brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is be­fall­en him.

32:24. And I said to them: Which of you hath any gold? and they took and brought it to me; and I cast it in­to the fire, and this calf came out.

32:25. And when Moses saw that the peo­ple were naked, (for Aaron had stripped them by oc­ca­sion of the shame of the filth, and had set them naked among their en­emies)

Naked. . .Hav­ing lost not on­ly their gold, and their hon­our, but what was worst of all, be­ing stripped al­so of the grace of God, and hav­ing lost him.–The shame of the filth. . .That is, of the idol, which they had tak­en for their god. It is the usu­al phrase of the scrip­ture to call idols filth and abom­ina­tions.

32:26. Then stand­ing in the gate of the camp, he said: If any man be on the Lord’s side, let him join with me. And all the sons of Levi gath­ered them­selves to­geth­er un­to him:

32:27. And he said to them: Thus saith the Lord God of Is­rael: Put ev­ery man his sword up­on his thigh: go, and re­turn from gate to gate through the midst of the camp, and let ev­ery man kill his broth­er, and friend, and neigh­bour.

32:28. And the sons of Levi did ac­cord­ing to the words of Moses, and there were slain that day about three and twen­ty thou­sand men.

32:29. And Moses said: You have con­se­crat­ed your hands this day to the Lord, ev­ery man in his son and in his broth­er, that a bless­ing may be giv­en to you.

32:30. And when the next day was come, Moses spoke to the peo­ple: You have sinned a very great sin: I will go up to the Lord, if by any means I may be able to en­treat him for your crime.

32:31. And re­turn­ing to the Lord, he said: I be­seech thee: this peo­ple hath sinned a heinous sin, and they have made to them­selves gods of gold: ei­ther for­give them this tres­pass,

32:32. Or if thou do not, strike me out of the book that thou hast writ­ten.

32:33. And the Lord an­swered him: He that hath sinned against me, him will I strike out of my book:

32:34. But go thou, and lead this peo­ple whith­er I have told thee: my an­gel shall go be­fore thee. And I in the day of re­venge will vis­it this sin al­so of theirs.

32:35. The Lord there­fore struck the peo­ple for the guilt, on oc­ca­sion of the calf which Aaron had made.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 33

The peo­ple mourn for their sin. Moses pitch­eth the taber­na­cle with­out the camp. He con­ver­seth fa­mil­iar­ly with God. De­sireth to see his glo­ry.

33:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing: Go, get thee up from this place, thou and thy peo­ple which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, in­to the land con­cern­ing which I swore to Abra­ham, Isaac, and Ja­cob, say­ing: To thy seed I will give it:

33:2. And I will send an an­gel be­fore thee, that I may cast out the Chanaan­ite, and the Am­or­rhite, and the Het­hite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Je­busite,

33:3. That thou mayst en­ter in­to the land that floweth with milk and hon­ey. For I will not go up with thee, be­cause thou art a stiff­necked peo­ple; lest I de­stroy thee in the way.

33:4. And the peo­ple hear­ing these very bad tid­ings, mourned: and no man put on his or­na­ments ac­cord­ing to cus­tom.

33:5. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to the chil­dren of Is­rael: Thou art a stiff­necked peo­ple, once I shall come up in the midst of thee, and shall de­stroy thee. Now present­ly lay aside thy or­na­ments, that I may know what to do to thee.

33:6. So the chil­dren of Is­rael laid aside their or­na­ments by Mount Horeb.

33:7. Moses al­so tak­ing the taber­na­cle, pitched it with­out the camp afar off, and called the name there­of, The taber­na­cle of the covenant. And all the peo­ple, that had any ques­tion, went forth to the taber­na­cle of the covenant, with­out the camp.

33:8. And when Moses went forth to the taber­na­cle, all the peo­ple rose up, and ev­ery one stood in the door of his pavil­ion, and they be­held the back of Moses, till he went in­to the taber­na­cle.

33:9. And when he was gone in­to the taber­na­cle of the covenant, the pil­lar of the cloud came down, and stood at the door, and he spoke with Moses.

33:10. And all saw that the pil­lar of the cloud stood at the door of the taber­na­cle. And they stood and wor­shipped at the doors of their tent.

33:11. And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend. And when he re­turned in­to the camp, his ser­vant Jo­sue, the son of Nun, a young man, de­part­ed not from the taber­na­cle.

Face to face. . .That is, in a most fa­mil­iar man­ner. Though as we learn from this very chap­ter, Moses could not see the face of the Lord.

33:12. And Moses said to the Lord: Thou com­man­dest me to lead forth this peo­ple; and thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, es­pe­cial­ly where­as thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast found favour in my sight.

I know thee by name. . .In the lan­guage of the scrip­tures, God is said to know such as he ap­proves and loves: and to know by name, those whom he favours in a most sin­gu­lar man­ner, as he did his ser­vant Moses.

33:13. If there­fore I have found favour in thy sight, shew me thy face, that I may know thee, and may find grace be­fore thy eyes: look up­on thy peo­ple this na­tion.

33:14. And the Lord said: My face shall go be­fore thee, and I will give thee rest.

33:15. And Moses said: If thou thy­self dost not go be­fore, bring us not out of this place.

33:16. For how shall we be able to know, I and thy peo­ple, that we have found grace in thy sight, un­less thou walk with us, that we may be glo­ri­fied by all peo­ple that dwell up­on the earth?

33:17. And the Lord said to Moses: This word al­so, which thou hast spo­ken, will I do; for thou hast found grace be­fore me, and thee I have known by name.

33:18. And he said: Shew me thy glo­ry.

33:19. He an­swered: I will shew thee all good, and I will pro­claim in the name of the Lord be­fore thee: and I will have mer­cy on whom I will, and I will be mer­ci­ful to whom it shall please me.

33:20. And again he said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me, and live.

33:21. And again he said: Be­hold there is a place with me, and thou shalt stand up­on the rock.

33:22. And when my glo­ry shall pass, I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and pro­tect thee with my right­hand till I pass:

33:23. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face thou canst not see.

See my back parts. . .The Lord by his an­gel, usu­al­ly spoke to Moses in the pil­lar of the cloud; so that he could not see the glo­ry of him that spoke fa­mil­iar­ly with him. In the vi­sion here men­tioned he was al­lowed to see some­thing of him, in an as­sumed cor­po­re­al form: not in the face, the rays of which were too bright for mor­tal eye to bear, but to view him as it were be­hind, when his face was turned from him.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 34

The ta­bles are re­newed: all so­ci­ety with the Chanaan­ites is for­bid: some pre­cepts con­cern­ing the first­born, the sab­bath, and oth­er feasts: af­ter forty days’ fast, Moses re­tur­neth to the peo­ple with the com­mand­ments, and his face ap­pear­ing horned with rays of light, he cov­ereth it, when­so­ev­er he speaketh to the peo­ple.

34:1. And af­ter this he said: Hew thee two ta­bles of stone like un­to the for­mer, and I will write up­on them the words, which were in the ta­bles, which thou brok­est.

34:2. Be ready in the morn­ing, that thou mayst forth­with go up in­to Mount Sinai, and thou shalt stand with me up­on the top of the mount.

34:3. Let no man go up with thee, and let not any man be seen through­out all the mount; nei­ther let the ox­en nor the sheep feed over against it.

34:4. Then he cut out two ta­bles of stone, such as had been be­fore; and ris­ing very ear­ly he went up in­to the Mount Sinai, as the Lord had com­mand­ed him, car­ry­ing with him the ta­bles.

34:5. And when the Lord was come down in a cloud, Moses stood with him, call­ing up­on the name of the Lord.

34:6. And when he passed be­fore him, he said: O the Lord, the Lord God, mer­ci­ful and gra­cious, pa­tient and of much com­pas­sion, and true,

34:7. Who keep­est mer­cy un­to thou­sands: who tak­est away in­iq­ui­ty, and wicked­ness, and sin, and no man of him­self is in­no­cent be­fore thee. Who ren­der­est the in­iq­ui­ty of the fa­thers to the chil­dren, and to the grand­chil­dren un­to the third and fourth gen­er­ation.

34:8. And Moses mak­ing haste, bowed down pros­trate un­to the earth, and ador­ing,

34:9. Said: If I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, I be­seech thee that thou wilt go with us, (for it is a stiff­necked peo­ple) and take away our in­iq­ui­ties and sin, and pos­sess us.

34:10. The Lord an­swered: I will make a covenant in the sight of all, I will do signs such as were nev­er seen up­on the earth, nor in any na­tions; that this peo­ple, in the midst of whom thou art, may see the ter­ri­ble work of the Lord which I will do.

34:11. Ob­serve all things which this day I com­mand thee: I my­self will drive out be­fore thy face the Am­or­rhite, and the Chanaan­ite, and the Het­hite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Je­busite.

34:12. Be­ware thou nev­er join in friend­ship with the in­hab­itants of that land, which may be thy ru­in:

34:13. But de­stroy their al­tars, break their stat­ues and cut down their groves:

34:14. Adore not any strange god. The Lord his name is jeal­ous, he is a jeal­ous God.

34:15. Make no covenant with the men of those coun­tries; lest, when they have com­mit­ted for­ni­ca­tion with their gods, and have adored their idols, some one call thee to eat of the things sac­ri­ficed.

34:16. Nei­ther shalt thou take of their daugh­ters a wife for thy son, lest af­ter they them­selves have com­mit­ted for­ni­ca­tion, they make thy sons al­so to com­mit for­ni­ca­tion with their gods.

34:17. Thou shalt not make to thy­self any molten gods.

34:18: Thou shalt keep the feast of the un­leav­ened bread. Sev­en days shalt thou eat un­leav­ened bread, as I com­mand­ed thee in the time of the month of the new corn: for in the month of the spring time thou camest out from Egypt.

34:19. All of the male kind that openeth the womb, shall be mine. Of all beasts; both of ox­en and of sheep, it shall be mine.

34:20. The firstling of an ass thou shalt re­deem with a sheep: but if thou wilt not give a price for it, it shall be slain. The first­born of thy sons thou shalt re­deem: nei­ther shalt thou ap­pear be­fore me emp­ty.

34:21. Six days shalt thou work, the sev­enth day thou shalt cease to plough and to reap.

34:22. Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks with the first­fruits of the corn of thy wheat har­vest, and the feast when the time of the year re­tur­neth that all things are laid in.

34:23. Three times in the year all thy males shall ap­pear in the sight of the almighty Lord the God of Is­rael.

34:24. For when I shall have tak­en away the na­tions from thy face, and shall have en­larged thy bor­ders, no man shall lie in wait against thy land when thou shalt go up, and ap­pear in the sight of the Lord thy God thrice in a year.

34:25. Thou shalt not of­fer the blood of my sac­ri­fice up­on leav­en; nei­ther shall there re­main in the morn­ing any thing of the vic­tim of the solem­ni­ty of the Phase.

34:26. The first of the fruits of thy ground thou shalt of­fer in the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.

34:27. And the Lord said to Moses: Write thee these words, by which I have made a covenant both with thee and with Is­rael.

34:28. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights: he nei­ther ate bread nor drank wa­ter, and he wrote up­on the ta­bles the ten words of the covenant.

34:29. And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two ta­bles of the tes­ti­mo­ny, and he knew not that his face was horned from the con­ver­sa­tion of the Lord.

Horned. . .That is, shin­ing, and send­ing forth rays of light like horns.

34:30. And Aaron and the chil­dren of Is­rael see­ing the face of Moses horned, were afraid to come near.

34:31. And be­ing called by him, they re­turned, both Aaron and the rulers of the con­gre­ga­tion. And af­ter that he spoke to them,

34:32. And all the chil­dren of Is­rael came to him: and he gave them in com­mand­ment all that he had heard of the Lord on Mount Sinai.

34:33. And hav­ing done speak­ing, he put a veil up­on his face.

34:34. But when he went in to the Lord, and spoke with him, he took it away un­til he came forth, and then he spoke to the chil­dren of Is­rael all things that had been com­mand­ed him.

34:35. And they saw that the face of Moses when he came out was horned, but he cov­ered his face again, if at any time he spoke to them.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 35

The sab­bath. Of­fer­ings for mak­ing the taber­na­cle. Be­se­leel and Oo­liab are called to the work.

35:1. And all the mul­ti­tude of the chil­dren of Is­rael be­ing gath­ered to­geth­er, he said to them: These are the things which the Lord hath com­mand­ed to be done:

35:2. Six days you shall do work; the sev­enth day shall be holy un­to you, the sab­bath and the rest of the Lord: he that shall do any work on it, shall be put to death.

35:3. You shall kin­dle no fire in any of your habi­ta­tions on the sab­bath day.

35:4. And Moses said to all the as­sem­bly of the chil­dren of Is­rael: This is the word the Lord hath com­mand­ed, say­ing:

35:5. Set aside with you first­fruits to the Lord. Let ev­ery one that is will­ing and hath a ready heart, of­fer them to the Lord: gold, and sil­ver, and brass,

35:6. Vi­olet and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine linen, goats’ hair,

35:7. And rams’ skins dyed red, and vi­olet coloured skins, se­tim wood,

35:8. And oil to main­tain lights, and to make oint­ment, and most sweet in­cense,

35:9. Onyx stones, and pre­cious stones, for the adorn­ing of the ephod and the ra­tio­nal.

35:10. Whoso­ev­er of you is wise, let him come, and make that which the Lord hath com­mand­ed:

35:11. To wit, the taber­na­cle, and the roof there­of, and the cov­er, the rings, and the board-​work with the bars, the pil­lars and the sock­ets:

35:12. The ark and the staves, the pro­pi­tia­to­ry, and the veil that is drawn be­fore it:

35:13. The ta­ble with the bars and the ves­sels, and the loaves of propo­si­tion:

35:14. The can­dle­stick to bear up the lights, the ves­sels there­of and the lamps, and the oil for the nour­ish­ing of fires:

35:15. The al­tar of in­cense, and the bars, and the oil of unc­tion, and the in­cense of spices: the hang­ing at the door of the taber­na­cle:

35:16. The al­tar of holo­caust, and its grate of brass, with the bars and ves­sels there­of: the laver and its foot:

35:17. The cur­tains of the court, with the pil­lars and the sock­ets, the hang­ing in the doors of the en­try.

35:18. The pins of the taber­na­cle, and of the court, with their lit­tle cords:

35:19. The vest­ments that are to be used in the min­istry of the sanc­tu­ary, the ves­ture of Aaron the high priest, and of his sons, to do the of­fice of priest­hood to me.

35:20. And all the mul­ti­tude of the chil­dren of Is­rael go­ing out from the pres­ence of Moses,

35:21. Of­fered first­fruits to the Lord with a most ready and de­vout mind, to make the work of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny. What­ev­er was nec­es­sary to the ser­vice and to the holy vest­ments,

35:22. Both men and wom­en gave bracelets and ear­rings, rings and tablets: ev­ery ves­sel of gold was set aside to be of­fered to the Lord.

35:23. If any man had vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, fine linen and goats’ hair, ram­skins dyed red, and vi­olet coloured skins,

35:24. Met­al of sil­ver and brass, they of­fered it to the Lord, and se­tim wood for divers us­es.

35:25. The skil­ful wom­en al­so gave such things as they had spun, vi­olet, pur­ple, and scar­let, and fine linen,

35:26. And goats’ hair, giv­ing all of their own ac­cord.

35:27. But the princes of­fered onyx stones, and pre­cious stones, for the ephod and the ra­tio­nal,

35:28. And spices and oil for the lights, and for the prepar­ing of oint­ment, and to make the in­cense of most sweet savour.

35:29. All, both men and wom­en, with de­vout mind of­fered gifts, that the works might be done which the Lord had com­mand­ed by the hand of Moses. All the chil­dren of Is­rael ded­icat­ed vol­un­tary of­fer­ings to the Lord.

35:30. And Moses said to the chil­dren of Is­rael: Be­hold, the Lord hath called by name Be­se­leel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Ju­da,

35:31. And hath filled him with the spir­it of God, with wis­dom and un­der­stand­ing, and knowl­edge, and all learn­ing,

35:32. To de­vise and to work in gold and sil­ver and brass,

35:33. And in en­grav­ing stones, and in car­pen­ters’ work. What­so­ev­er can be de­vised ar­ti­fi­cial­ly,

35:34. He hath giv­en in his heart: Oo­liab al­so, the son of Achisamech, of the tribe of Dan:

35:35. Both of them hath he in­struct­ed with wis­dom, to do car­pen­ters’ work, and tapestry, and em­broi­dery in blue and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine linen, and to weave all things, and to in­vent all new things.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 36

The of­fer­ings are de­liv­ered to the work­men, the cur­tains, cov­er­ings, boards, bars, veil, pil­lars, and hang­ing are made.

36:1. Be­se­leel there­fore, and Oo­liab, and ev­ery wise man, to whom the Lord gave wis­dom and un­der­stand­ing, to know how to work ar­ti­fi­cial­ly, made the things that are nec­es­sary for the us­es of the sanc­tu­ary, and which the Lord com­mand­ed.

36:2. And when Moses had called them, and ev­ery skil­ful man, to whom the Lord had giv­en wis­dom, and such as of their own ac­cord had of­fered them­selves to the mak­ing of the work,

36:3. He de­liv­ered all the of­fer­ings of the chil­dren of Is­rael un­to them. And while they were earnest about the work, the peo­ple dai­ly in the morn­ing of­fered their vows.

36:4. Where­upon the work­men be­ing con­strained to come,

36:5. Said to Moses: The peo­ple of­fer­eth more than is nec­es­sary.

36:6. Moses there­fore com­mand­ed procla­ma­tion to be made by the crier’s voice: Let nei­ther man nor wom­an of­fer any more for the work of the sanc­tu­ary. And so they ceased from of­fer­ing gifts,

36:7. Be­cause the things that were of­fered did suf­fice, and were too much.

36:8. And all the men that were wise of heart, to ac­com­plish the work of the taber­na­cle, made ten cur­tains of twist­ed fine linen, and vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, with var­ied work, and the art of em­broi­der­ing:

36:9. The length of one cur­tain was twen­ty-​eight cu­bits, and the breadth four: all the cur­tains were of the same size.

36:10. And he joined five cur­tains, one to an­oth­er, and the oth­er five he cou­pled one to an­oth­er.

36:11. He made al­so loops of vi­olet in the edge of one cur­tain on both sides, and in the edge of the oth­er cur­tain in like man­ner,

36:12. That the loops might meet one against an­oth­er, and might be joined each with the oth­er.

36:13. Where­upon al­so he cast fifty rings of gold, that might catch the loops of the cur­tains, and they might be made one taber­na­cle.

36:14. He made al­so eleven cur­tains of goats’ hair, to cov­er the roof of the taber­na­cle:

36:15. One cur­tain was thir­ty cu­bits long, and four cu­bits broad: all the cur­tains were of one mea­sure.

36:16. Five of which he joined apart, and the oth­er six apart.

36:17. And he made fifty loops in the edge of one cur­tain, and fifty in the edge of an­oth­er cur­tain, that they might be joined one to an­oth­er.

36:18. And fifty buck­les of brass where­with the roof might be knit to­geth­er, that of all the cur­tains there might be made one cov­er­ing.

36:19. He made al­so a cov­er for the taber­na­cle of rams’ skins dyed red; and an­oth­er cov­er over that of vi­olet skins.

36:20. He made al­so the boards of the taber­na­cle of se­tim wood stand­ing.

36:21. The length of one board was ten cu­bits; and the breadth was one cu­bit and a half.

36:22. There were two mor­tis­es through­out ev­ery board, that one might be joined to the oth­er. And in this man­ner he made for all the boards of the taber­na­cle.

36:23. Of which twen­ty were at the south side south­ward,

36:24. With forty sock­ets of sil­ver, two sock­ets were put un­der one board on the two sides of the cor­ners, where the mor­tis­es of the sides end in the cor­ners.

36:25. At that side al­so of the taber­na­cle, that looketh to­wards the north, he made twen­ty boards,

36:26. With forty sock­ets of sil­ver, two sock­ets for ev­ery board.

36:27. But against the west, to wit, at that side of the taber­na­cle, which looketh to the sea, he made six boards,

36:28. And two oth­ers at each cor­ner of the taber­na­cle be­hind:

36:29. Which were al­so joined from be­neath un­to the top, and went to­geth­er in­to one joint. Thus he did on both sides at the cor­ners:

36:30. So there were in all eight boards, and they had six­teen sock­ets of sil­ver, to wit, two sock­ets un­der ev­ery board.

36:31. He made al­so bars of se­tim wood, five to hold to­geth­er the boards of one side of the taber­na­cle,

36:32. And five oth­ers to join to­geth­er the boards of the oth­er side; and be­sides these, five oth­er bars at the west side of the taber­na­cle to­wards the sea.

36:33. He made al­so an­oth­er bar, that might come by the midst of the boards from cor­ner to cor­ner.

36:34. And the boards them­selves he over­laid with gold cast­ing for them sock­ets of sil­ver. And their rings he made of gold, through which the bars might be drawn: and he cov­ered the bars them­selves with plates of gold.

36:35. He made al­so a veil of vi­olet, and pur­ple, scar­let and fine twist­ed linen, var­ied and dis­tin­guished with em­broi­dery:

36:36. And four pil­lars of se­tim wood, which with their heads he over­laid with gold, cast­ing for them sock­ets of sil­ver.

36:37. He made al­so a hang­ing in the en­try of the taber­na­cle of vi­olet, pur­ple, scar­let, and fine twist­ed linen, with the work of an em­broi­der­er.

36:38. And five pil­lars with their heads, which he cov­ered with gold, and their sock­ets he cast of brass.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 37

Be­se­leel maketh the ark: the pro­pi­tia­to­ry, and cheru­bims, the ta­ble, the can­dle­stick, the lamps, and the al­tar of in­cense, and com­poundeth the in­cense.

37:1. And Be­se­leel made al­so, the ark of se­tim wood: it was two cu­bits and a half in length, and a cu­bit and a half in breadth, and the height was of one cu­bit and a half: and he over­laid it with the purest gold with­in and with­out.

37:2. And he made to it a crown of gold round about,

37:3. Cast­ing four rings of gold at the four cor­ners there­of: two rings in one side, and two in the oth­er.

37:4. And he made bars of se­tim wood, which he over­laid with gold,

37:5. And he put them in­to the rings that were at the sides of the ark to car­ry it.

37:6. He made al­so the pro­pi­tia­to­ry, that is, the or­acle, of the purest gold, two cu­bits and a half in length, and a cu­bit and a half in breadth.

37:7. Two cheru­bims al­so of beat­en gold, which he set on the two sides of the pro­pi­tia­to­ry:

37:8. One cherub in the top of one side, and the oth­er cherub in the top of the oth­er side: two cheru­bims at the two ends of the pro­pi­tia­to­ry,

37:9. Spread­ing their wings, and cov­er­ing the pro­pi­tia­to­ry, and look­ing one to­wards the oth­er, and to­wards it.

37:10. He made al­so the ta­ble of se­tim wood, in length two cu­bits, and in breadth one cu­bit, and in height it was a cu­bit and a half.

37:11. And he over­laid it with the finest gold, and he made to it a gold­en ledge round about,

37:12. And to the ledge it­self he made a pol­ished crown of gold, of four fin­gers breadth, and up­on the same an­oth­er gold­en crown.

37:13. And he cast four rings of gold, which he put in the four cor­ners at each foot of the ta­ble,

37:14. Over against the crown: and he put the bars in­to them, that the ta­ble might be car­ried.

37:15. The bars al­so them­selves he made of se­tim wood, and over­laid them with gold.

37:16. And the ves­sels for the divers us­es of the ta­ble, dish­es, bowls, and cups, and censers of pure gold, where­in the li­ba­tions are to be of­fered.

37:17. He made al­so the can­dle­stick of beat­en work of the finest gold. from the shaft where­of its branch­es, its cups, and bowls, and lilies came out:

37:18: Six on the two sides: three branch­es on one side, and three on the oth­er.

37:19. Three cups in man­ner of a nut on each branch, and bowls with­al and lilies: and three cups of the fash­ion of a nut in an­oth­er branch, and bowls with­al and lilies. The work of the six branch­es, that went out from the shaft of the can­dle­stick was equal.

37:20. And in the shaft it­self were four cups af­ter the man­ner of a nut, and bowls with­al at ev­ery one, and lilies:

37:21. And bowls un­der two branch­es in three places, which to­geth­er made six branch­es go­ing out from one shaft.

37:22. So both the bowls, and the branch­es were of the same, all beat­en work of the purest gold.

37:23. He made al­so the sev­en lamps with their snuffers, and the ves­sels where the snuff­in­gs were to be put out, of the purest gold.

37:24. The can­dle­stick with all the ves­sels there­of weighed a tal­ent of gold.

37:25. He made al­so the al­ter of in­cense of se­tim wood, be­ing a cu­bit on ev­ery side foursquare, and in height two cu­bits: from the cor­ners of which went out horns.

37:26. And he over­laid it with the purest gold, with its grate, and the sides, and the horns.

37:27. And he made to it a crown of gold round about, and two gold­en rings un­der the crown at each side, that the bars might be put in­to them, and the al­tar be car­ried.

37:28. And the bars them­selves he made al­so of se­tim wood, and over­laid them with plates of gold.

37:29. He com­pound­ed al­so the oil for the oint­ment of sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion, and in­cense of the purest spices, ac­cord­ing to the work of a per­fumer.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 38

He maketh the al­tar of holo­caust. The brazen laver. The court with its pil­lars and hang­ings. The sum of what the peo­ple of­fered.

38:1. He made al­so the al­tar of holo­caust of se­tim wood, five cu­bits square, and three in height:

38:2. The horns where­of went out from the cor­ners, and he over­laid it with plates of brass.

38:3. And for the us­es there­of, he pre­pared divers ves­sels of brass, caul­drons, tongs, flesh­hooks, pothooks and firepans.

38:4. And he made the grate there­of of brass, in man­ner of a net, and un­der it in the midst of the al­tar a hearth,

38:5. Cast­ing four rings at the four ends of the net at the top, to put in bars to car­ry it:

38:6. And he made the bars of se­tim wood, and over­laid them with plates of brass:

38:7. And he drew them through the rings that stood out in the sides of the al­tar. And the al­tar it­self was not sol­id, but hol­low, of boards, and emp­ty with­in.

38:8. He made al­so the laver of brass, with the foot there­of, of the mir­rors of the wom­en that watched at the door of the taber­na­cle.

38:9. He made al­so the court, in the south side where­of were hang­ings of fine twist­ed linen of a hun­dred cu­bits.

38:10. Twen­ty pil­lars of brass with their sock­ets, the beads of the pil­lars, and the whole grav­ing of the work, of sil­ver.

38:11. In like man­ner at the north side the hang­ings, the pil­lars, and the sock­ets and heads of the pil­lars were of the same mea­sure, and work and met­al.

38:12. But on that side that looketh to the west, there were hang­ings of fifty cu­bits, ten pil­lars of brass with their sock­ets, and the heads of the pil­lars, and all the grav­ing of the work, of sil­ver.

38:13. More­over, to­wards the east he pre­pared hang­ings of fifty cu­bits:

38:14. Fif­teen cu­bits of which, were on one side with three pil­lars, and their sock­ets:

38:15. And on the oth­er side (for be­tween the two he made the en­try of the taber­na­cle) there were hang­ings equal­ly of fif­teen cu­bits, and three pil­lars, and as many sock­ets.

38:16. All the hang­ings of the court were wo­ven with twist­ed linen.

38:17. The sock­ets of the pil­lars were of brass, and their heads with all their grav­ings of sil­ver: and he over­laid the pil­lars of the court al­so with sil­ver.

38:18. And he made in the en­try there­of an em­broi­dered hang­ing of vi­olet, pur­ple, scar­let, and fine twist­ed linen, that was twen­ty cu­bits long, and five cu­bits high, ac­cord­ing to the mea­sure of all the hang­ings of the court.

38:19. And the pil­lars in the en­try were four, with sock­ets of brass, and their heads and grav­ings of sil­ver.

38:20. The pins al­so of the taber­na­cle and of the court round about he made of brass.

38:21. These are the in­stru­ments of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, which were count­ed ac­cord­ing to the com­mand­ment of Moses, in the cer­emonies of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest:

38:22. Which Be­se­leel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Ju­da, had made, as the Lord com­mand­ed by Moses.

38:23. Hav­ing for his com­pan­ion Oo­liab, the son of Achisamech, of the tribe of Dan: who al­so was an ex­cel­lent ar­ti­fi­cer in wood, and work­er in tapestry and em­broi­dery in vi­olet, pur­ple, scar­let, and fine linen.

38:24. All the gold that was spent in the work of the sanc­tu­ary, and that was of­fered in gifts, was nine and twen­ty tal­ents, and sev­en hun­dred and thir­ty sicles ac­cord­ing to the stan­dard of the sanc­tu­ary.

38:25. And it was of­fered by them that went to be num­bered, from twen­ty years old and up­wards, of six hun­dred and three thou­sand five hun­dred and fifty men able to bear arms.

38:26. There were more­over a hun­dred tal­ents of sil­ver, where­of were cast the sock­ets of the sanc­tu­ary, and of the en­try where the veil hangeth.

38:27. A hun­dred sock­ets were made of a hun­dred tal­ents, one tal­ent be­ing reck­oned for ev­ery sock­et.

38:28. And of the thou­sand sev­en hun­dred and sev­en­ty-​five he made the heads of the pil­lars, which al­so he over­laid with sil­ver.

38:29. And there were of­fered of brass al­so sev­en­ty-​two thou­sand tal­ents, and four hun­dred sicles be­sides,

38:30. Of which were cast the sock­ets in the en­try of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, and the al­tar of brass with the grate there­of, and al­so the ves­sels that be­long to the use there­of.

38:31. And the sock­ets of the court as well round about as in the en­try there­of, and the pins of the taber­na­cle, and of the court round about.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 39

All the or­na­ments of Aaron and his sons are made. And the whole work of the taber­na­cle is fin­ished.

39:1. And he made, of vi­olet and pur­ple, scar­let and fine linen, the vest­ments for Aaron to wear when he min­is­tered in the holy places, as the Lord com­mand­ed Moses.

39:2. So he made an ephod of gold, vi­olet, and pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine twist­ed linen,

39:3. With em­broi­dered work, and he cut thin plates of gold, and drew them small in­to threads, that they might be twist­ed with the woof of the fore­said colours,

39:4. And two bor­ders cou­pled one to the oth­er in the top on ei­ther side,

39:5. And a gir­dle of the same colours, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

39:6. He pre­pared al­so two onyx stones, fast set and closed in gold, and graven, by the art of a lap­idary, with the names of the chil­dren of Is­rael:

39:7. And he set them in the sides of the ephod, for a memo­ri­al of the chil­dren of Is­rael, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

39:8. He made al­so a ra­tio­nal with em­broi­dered work, ac­cord­ing to the work of the ephod, of gold, vi­olet, pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, and fine twist­ed linen:

39:9. Foursquare, dou­ble, of the mea­sure of a span.

39:10. And he set four rows of pre­cious stones in it. In the first row was a sardius, a topaz, an emer­ald.

39:11. In the sec­ond, a car­bun­cle, a sap­phire, and a jasper.

39:12. In the third, a lig­urius, an agate, and an amethyst.

39:13. In the fourth, a chryso­lite, an onyx, and a beryl, set and en­closed in gold by their rows.

39:14. And the twelve stones, were en­graved with the names of the twelve tribes of Is­rael, each one with its sev­er­al name.

39:15. They made al­so in the ra­tio­nal lit­tle chains, linked one to an­oth­er, of the purest gold,

39:16. And two hooks, and as many rings of gold. And they set the rings on ei­ther side of the ra­tio­nal,

39:17. On which rings the two gold­en chains should hang, which they put in­to the hooks that stood out in the cor­ners of the ephod.

39:18. These both be­fore and be­hind so an­swered one an­oth­er, that the ephod and the ra­tio­nal were bound to­geth­er,

39:19. Be­ing fas­tened to the gir­dle, and strong­ly cou­pled with rings, which a vi­olet fil­let joined, lest they should flag loose, and be moved one from the oth­er, as the Lord com­mand­ed Moses.

39:20. They made al­so the tu­nic of the ephod all of vi­olet,

39:21. And a hole for the head in the up­per part at the mid­dle, and a wo­ven bor­der round about the hole:

39:22. And be­neath at the feet pomegranates of vi­olet, pur­ple, scar­let, and fine twist­ed linen:

39:23. And lit­tle bells of the purest gold, which they put be­tween the pomegranates at the bot­tom of the tu­nic round about:

39:24. To wit, a bell of gold, and a pomegranate, where­with the high priest went adorned, when he dis­charged his min­istry, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

39:25. They made al­so fine linen tu­nics with wo­ven work for Aaron and his sons:

39:26. And mitres with their lit­tle crowns of fine linen:

39:27. And linen breech­es of fine linen:

39:28. And a gir­dle of fine twist­ed linen, vi­olet, pur­ple, and scar­let twice dyed, of em­broi­dery work, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

39:29. They made al­so the plate of sa­cred ven­er­ation of the purest gold, and they wrote on it with the en­grav­ing of a lap­idary: The Holy of the Lord:

39:30. And they fas­tened it to the mitre with a vi­olet fil­let, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

39:31. So all the work of the taber­na­cle and of the roof of the tes­ti­mo­ny was fin­ished: and the chil­dren of Is­rael did all things which the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

39:32. And they of­fered the taber­na­cle, and the roof, and the whole fur­ni­ture, the rings, the boards, the bars, the pil­lars and their sock­ets,

39:33. The cov­er of rams’ skins dyed red, and the oth­er cov­er of vi­olet skins,

39:34. The veil, the ark, the bars, the pro­pi­tia­to­ry,

39:35. The ta­ble, with the ves­sels there­of, and the loaves of propo­si­tion:

39:36. The can­dle­stick, the lamps, and the fur­ni­ture of them, with the oil:

39:37. The al­tar of gold, and the oint­ment, and the in­cense of spices:

39:38. And the hang­ing in the en­try of the taber­na­cle:

39:39. The al­tar of brass, the grate, the bars, and all the ves­sels there­of: the laver, with the foot there­of: the hang­ings of the court, and the pil­lars, with their sock­ets:

39:40. The hang­ing in the en­try of the court, and the lit­tle cords, and the pins there­of. Noth­ing was want­ing of the ves­sels, that were com­mand­ed to be made for the min­istry of the taber­na­cle, and for the roof of the covenant.

39:41. The vest­ments al­so, which the priests, to wit, Aaron and his sons, use in the sanc­tu­ary,

39:42. The chil­dren of Is­rael of­fered, as the Lord had com­mand­ed.

39:43. And when Moses saw all things fin­ished, he blessed them.

Ex­odus Chap­ter 40

The taber­na­cle is com­mand­ed to be set up and anoint­ed. God fil­leth it with his majesty.

40:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

40:2. The first month, the first day of the month, thou shalt set up the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny,

40:3. And shalt put the ark in it, and shalt let down the veil be­fore it:

40:4. And thou shalt bring in the ta­ble, and set up­on it the things that are com­mand­ed ac­cord­ing to the rite. The can­dle­stick shall stand with its lamps,

40:5. And the al­tar of gold, where­on the in­cense is burnt be­fore the ark of the tes­ti­mo­ny. Thou shalt put the hang­ing in the en­try of the taber­na­cle,

40:6. And be­fore it the al­tar of holo­caust.

40:7. The laver be­tween the al­tar and the taber­na­cle, and thou shalt fill it with wa­ter.

40:8. And thou shalt en­com­pass the court with hang­ings, and the en­try there­of.

40:9. And thou shalt take the oil of unc­tion and anoint the taber­na­cle with its ves­sels, that they may be sanc­ti­fied:

40:10. The al­tar of holo­caust and all its ves­sels:

40:11. The laver with its foot: thou shalt con­se­crate all with the oil of unc­tion, that they may be most holy.

40:12. And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, and hav­ing washed them with wa­ter,

40:13. Thou shalt put on them the holy vest­ments, that they may min­is­ter to me, and that the unc­tion of them may pros­per to an ev­er­last­ing priest­hood.

40:14. And Moses did all that the Lord had com­mand­ed.

40:15. So in the first month of the sec­ond year, the first day of the month, the taber­na­cle was set up.

40:16. And Moses reared it up, and placed the boards and the sock­ets and the bars, and set up the pil­lars,

40:17. And spread the roof over the taber­na­cle, putting over it a cov­er, as the Lord had com­mand­ed.

40:18. And he put the tes­ti­mo­ny in the ark, thrust­ing bars un­der­neath, and the or­acle above.

40:19. And when he had brought the ark in­to the taber­na­cle, he drew the veil be­fore it to ful­fil the com­mand­ment of the Lord.

40:20. And he set the ta­ble in the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, at the north side, with­out the veil,

40:21. Set­ting there in or­der the loaves of propo­si­tion, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

40:22. He set the can­dle­stick al­so in the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, over against the ta­ble on the south side,

40:23. Plac­ing the lamps in or­der, ac­cord­ing to the pre­cept of the Lord.

40:24. He set al­so the al­tar of gold un­der the roof of the tes­ti­mo­ny, over against the veil,

40:25. And burnt up­on it the in­cense of spices, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

40:26. And he put al­so the hang­ing in the en­try of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny,

40:27. And the al­tar of holo­caust in the en­try of the tes­ti­mo­ny, of­fer­ing the holo­caust, and the sac­ri­fices up­on it, as the Lord had com­mand­ed.

40:28. And he set the laver be­tween the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny and the al­tar, fill­ing it with wa­ter.

40:29. And Moses and Aaron, and his sons, washed their hands and feet,

40:30. When they went in­to the taber­na­cle of the covenant, and went to the al­tar, as the Lord had com­mand­ed Moses.

40:31. He set up al­so the court round about the taber­na­cle and the al­tar, draw­ing the hang­ing in the en­try there­of. Af­ter all things were per­fect­ed,

40:32. The cloud cov­ered the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, and the glo­ry of the Lord filled it.

40:33. Nei­ther could Moses go in­to the taber­na­cle of the covenant, the cloud cov­er­ing all things, and the majesty of the Lord shin­ing, for the cloud had cov­ered all.

40:34. If at any time the cloud re­moved from the taber­na­cle, the chil­dren of Is­rael went for­ward by their troops:

40:35. If it hung over, they re­mained in the same place.

40:36. For the cloud of the Lord hung over the taber­na­cle by day, and a fire by night, in the sight of all the chil­dren of Is­rael through­out all their man­sions.

THE BOOK OF LEVITI­CUS

This Book is called LEVITI­CUS, be­cause it treats of the Of­fices, Min­istries, Rites and Cer­emonies of the Priests and Levites. The He­brews call it VA­ICRA, from the word with which it be­gins.

Leviti­cus Chap­ter 1

Of holo­causts or burnt of­fer­ings.

1:1. And the Lord called Moses, and spoke to him from the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny, say­ing:

1:2. Speak to the chil­dren of Is­rael, and thou shalt say to them: The man among you that shall of­fer to the Lord a sac­ri­fice of the cat­tle, that is, of­fer­ing vic­tims of ox­en and sheep:

1:3. If his of­fer­ing be a holo­caust, and of the herd, he shall of­fer a male with­out blem­ish, at the door of the tes­ti­mo­ny, to make the Lord favourable to him.

A holo­caust. . .That is, a whole burnt of­fer­ing (olokaus­ton), so called, be­cause the whole vic­tim was con­sumed with fire; and giv­en in such man­ner to God as whol­ly to evap­orate, as it were, for his hon­our and glo­ry; with­out hav­ing any part of it re­served for the use of man. The oth­er sac­ri­fices in the Old Tes­ta­ment were ei­ther of­fer­ings for sin, or peace of­fer­ings: and these lat­ter again were ei­ther of­fered in thanks­giv­ing for bless­ings re­ceived; or by way of prayer for new favours or graces. So that sac­ri­fices were then of­fered to God for four dif­fer­ent ends or in­ten­tions, an­swer­able to the dif­fer­ent obli­ga­tions which man has to God: 1. By way of ado­ra­tion, homage, praise, and glo­ry due to his di­vine majesty. 2. By way of thanks­giv­ing for all ben­efits re­ceived from him. 3. By way of con­fess­ing and crav­ing par­don for sins. 4. By way of prayer and pe­ti­tion for grace and re­lief in all ne­ces­si­ties. In the New Law we have but one sac­ri­fice, viz., that of the body and blood of Christ: but this one sac­ri­fice of the New Tes­ta­ment per­fect­ly an­swers all these four ends; and both priest and peo­ple, as of­ten as it is cel­ebrat­ed, ought to join in of­fer­ing it up for these four ends.

1:4. And he shall put his hand up­on the head of the vic­tim: and it shall be ac­cept­able, and help to its ex­pi­ation.

1:5. And he shall im­mo­late the calf be­fore the Lord: and the priests the sons of Aaron shall of­fer the blood there­of, pour­ing it round about the al­tar, which is be­fore the door of the taber­na­cle.

1:6. And when they have flayed the vic­tim, they shall cut the joints in­to pieces:

1:7. And shall put fire on the al­tar, hav­ing be­fore laid in or­der a pile of wood.

1:8. And they shall lay the parts that are cut out in or­der there­upon: to wit, the head, and all things that cleave to the liv­er;

1:9. The en­trails and feet be­ing washed with wa­ter. And the priest shall burn them up­on the al­tar for a holo­caust, and a sweet savour to the Lord.

1:10. And if the of­fer­ing be of the flocks, a holo­caust of sheep or of goats, he shall of­fer a male with­out blem­ish.

1:11. And he shall im­mo­late it at the side of the al­tar that looketh to the north, be­fore the Lord: but the sons of Aaron shall pour the blood there­of up­on the al­tar round about.

1:12. And they shall di­vide the joints, the head, and all that cleave to the liv­er: and shall lay them up­on the wood, un­der which the fire is to be put.

1:13. But the en­trails and the feet they shall wash with wa­ter. And the priest shall of­fer it all and burn it all up­on the al­tar for a holo­caust, and most sweet savour to the Lord.

1:14. But if the obla­tion of a holo­caust to the Lord be of birds, of tur­tles, or of young pi­geons:

1:15. The priest shall of­fer it at the al­tar: and twist­ing back the neck, and break­ing the place of the wound, he shall make the blood run down up­on the brim of the al­tar.

1:16. But the crop of the throat, and the feath­ers he shall cast be­side the al­tar at the east side, in the place where the ash­es are wont to be poured out.

1:17. And he shall break the pin­ions there­of, and shall not cut, nor di­vide it with a knife: and shall burn it up­on the al­tar, putting fire un­der the wood. It is a holo­caust and obla­tion of most sweet savour to the Lord.

Leviti­cus Chap­ter 2

Of of­fer­ings of flour, and first­fruits.

2:1. When any one shall of­fer an obla­tion of sac­ri­fice to the Lord, his of­fer­ing shall be of fine flour: and he shall pour oil up­on it, and put frank­in­cense,

2:2. And shall bring it to the sons of Aaron the priests. And one of them shall take a hand­ful of the flour and oil, and all the frank­in­cense; and shall put it a memo­ri­al up­on the al­tar for a most sweet savour to the Lord.

2:3. And the rem­nant of the sac­ri­fice shall be Aaron’s, and his sons’, holy of holies of the of­fer­ings of the Lord.

Holy of holies. . .That is, most holy, as be­ing ded­icat­ed to God, and set aside by his or­di­nance for the use of his priests.

2:4. But when thou of­fer­est a sac­ri­fice baked in the oven of flour, to wit, loaves with­out leav­en, tem­pered with oil, and un­leav­ened wafers, anoint­ed with oil:

2:5. If thy obla­tion be from the fry­ing­pan, of flour tem­pered with oil, and with­out leav­en:

2:6. Thou shalt di­vide it in­to lit­tle pieces, and shalt pour oil up­on it.

2:7. And if the sac­ri­fice be from the grid­iron, in like man­ner the flour shall be tem­pered with oil.

2:8. And when thou of­fer­est it to the Lord, thou shalt de­liv­er it to the hands of the priest.

2:9. And when he hath of­fered it, he shall take a memo­ri­al out of the sac­ri­fice, and burn it up­on the al­tar for a sweet savour to the Lord.

2:10. And what­so­ev­er is left, shall be Aaron’s, and his sons’: holy of holies of the of­fer­ings of the Lord.

2:11. Ev­ery obla­tion that is of­fered to the Lord shall be made with­out leav­en: nei­ther shall any leav­en or hon­ey be burnt in the sac­ri­fice to the Lord.

With­out leav­en or hon­ey. . .No leav­en nor hon­ey was to be used in the sac­ri­fice of­fered to God; to sig­ni­fy that we are to ex­clude from the pure wor­ship of the gospel, all dou­ble deal­ing and af­fec­tion to car­nal plea­sures.

2:12. You shall of­fer on­ly the first­fruits of them and gifts: but they shall not be put up­on the al­tar, for a savour of sweet­ness.

2:13. What­so­ev­er sac­ri­fice thou of­fer­est, thou shalt sea­son it with salt: nei­ther shalt thou take away the salt of the covenant of thy God from thy sac­ri­fice. In all thy obla­tions thou shalt of­fer salt.

Salt. . .In ev­ery sac­ri­fice salt was to be used, which is an em­blem of wis­dom and dis­cre­tion, with­out which none of our per­for­mances are agree­able to God.

2:14. But if thou of­fer a gift of the first­fruits of thy corn to the Lord, of the ears yet green, thou shalt dry it at the fire, and break it small like meal; and so shalt thou of­fer thy first­fruits to the Lord:

2:15. Pour­ing oil up­on it and putting on frank­in­cense, be­cause it is the obla­tion of the Lord.

2:16. Where­of the priest shall burn for a memo­ri­al of the gift, part of the corn bro­ken small and of the oil, and all the frank­in­cense.

Leviti­cus Chap­ter 3

Of peace of­fer­ings.

3:1. And if his obla­tion be a sac­ri­fice of peace of­fer­ings, and he will of­fer of the herd, whether male or fe­male: he shall of­fer them with­out blem­ish be­fore the Lord.

Peace of­fer­ings. . .Peace, in the scrip­ture lan­guage, sig­ni­fies hap­pi­ness, wel­fare or pros­per­ity; in a word, all kind of bless­ings.–Such sac­ri­fices, there­fore, as were of­fered ei­ther on oc­ca­sion of bless­ings re­ceived, or to ob­tain new favours, were called pa­cif­ic or peace of­fer­ings. In these, some part of the vic­tim was con­sumed with fire on the al­tar of God; oth­er parts were eat­en by the priests and by the per­sons for whom the sac­ri­fice was of­fered.

3:2. And he shall lay his hand up­on the head of his vic­tim, which shall be slain in the en­try of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny: and the sons of Aaron the priests shall pour the blood round about up­on the al­tar.

3:3. And they shall of­fer of the sac­ri­fice of peace of­fer­ings, for an obla­tion to the Lord: the fat that cov­ereth the en­trails, and all the fat that is with­in,

3:4. The two kid­neys with the fat where­with the flanks are cov­ered, and the caul of the liv­er with the two lit­tle kid­neys.

3:5. And they shall burn them up­on the al­tar, for a holo­caust, putting fire un­der the wood: for an obla­tion of most sweet savour to the Lord.

3:6. But if his obla­tion and the sac­ri­fice of peace of­fer­ing be of the flock, whether he of­fer male or fe­male, they shall be with­out blem­ish.

3:7. If he of­fer a lamb be­fore the Lord:

3:8. He shall put his hand up­on the head of the vic­tim. And it shall be slain in the en­try of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny: and the sons of Aaron shall pour the blood there­of round about up­on the al­tar.

3:9. And they shall of­fer of the vic­tim of peace of­fer­ings, a sac­ri­fice to the Lord: the fat and the whole rump,

3:10. With the kid­neys, and the fat that cov­ereth the bel­ly and all the vi­tals and both the lit­tle kid­neys, with the fat that is about the flanks, and the caul of the liv­er with the lit­tle kid­neys.

3:11. And the priest shall burn them up­on the al­tar, for the food of the fire, and of the obla­tion of the Lord.

3:12. If his of­fer­ing be a goat, and he of­fer it to the Lord:

3:13. He shall put his hand up­on the head there­of: and shall im­mo­late it in the en­try of the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny. And the sons of Aaron shall pour the blood there­of round about up­on the al­tar.

3:14. And they shall take of it for the food of the Lord’s fire, the fat that cov­ereth the bel­ly, and that cov­ereth all the vi­tal parts:

3:15. The two lit­tle kid­neys with the caul that is up­on them which is by the flanks, and the fat of the liv­er with the lit­tle kid­neys.

3:16. And the priest shall burn them up­on the al­tar, for the food of the fire, and of a most sweet savour. All the fat shall be the Lord’s.

3:17. By a per­pet­ual law for your gen­er­ations, and in all your habi­ta­tions: nei­ther blood nor fat shall you eat at all.

Fat. . .It is meant of the fat, which by the pre­scrip­tion of the law was to be of­fered on God’s al­tar; not of the fat of meat, such as we com­mon­ly eat.

Leviti­cus Chap­ter 4

Of of­fer­ings for sins of ig­no­rance.

4:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, say­ing:

4:2. Say to the chil­dren of Is­rael: The soul that sin­neth through ig­no­rance, and doth any thing con­cern­ing any of the com­mand­ments of the Lord, which he com­mand­ed not to be done:

Ig­no­rance. . .To be ig­no­rant of what we are bound to know is sin­ful; and for such cul­pa­ble ig­no­rance, these sac­ri­fices, pre­scribed in this and the fol­low­ing chap­ter, were ap­point­ed.

4:3. If the priest that is anoint­ed shall sin, mak­ing the peo­ple to of­fend, he shall of­fer to the Lord for his sin a calf with­out blem­ish.

4:4. And he shall bring it to the door of the tes­ti­mo­ny be­fore the Lord: and shall put his hand up­on the head there­of, and shall sac­ri­fice it to the Lord.

4:5. He shall take al­so of the blood of the calf: and car­ry it in­to the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny.

The blood. . .As the fig­ure of the blood of Christ shed for the re­mis­sion of our sins, and car­ried by him in­to the sanc­tu­ary of heav­en.

4:6. And hav­ing dipped his fin­ger in the blood, he shall sprin­kle with it sev­en times be­fore the Lord, be­fore the veil of the sanc­tu­ary.

4:7. And he shall put some of the same blood up­on the horns of the al­tar of the sweet in­cense most ac­cept­able to the Lord, which is in the taber­na­cle of the tes­ti­mo­ny. And he shall pour all the rest of the blood at the foot of the al­tar of holo­caust in the en­try of the taber­na­cle.

4:8. And he shall take off the fat of the calf for the sin of­fer­ing, as well that which cov­ereth the en­trails, as all the in­wards:

4:9. The two lit­tle kid­neys, and the caul that is up­on them, which is by the flanks, and the fat of the liv­er with the lit­tle kid­neys:

4:10. As it is tak­en off from the calf of the sac­ri­fice of peace of­fer­ings. And he shall burn them up­on the al­tar of holo­caust.

4:11. But the skin and all the flesh with the head and the feet and the bow­els and the dung:

4:12. And the rest of the body, he shall car­ry forth with­out the camp in­to a clean place where the ash­es are wont to be poured out: and he shall burn them up­on a pile of wood. They shall be burnt in the place where the ash­es are poured out.

4: