And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said: I have gotten a man-child from Yahweh. And again she bare his brother Abel. And Adam called his wife's name Eve,' because she was the mother of all living. And Abel became a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to Yahweh; and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof. And Yahweh had respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and his offering He had no respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And Yahweh said unto Cain: Why art thou wroth, and why is thy face fallen? shall it not be lifted up? lurketh not sin at the door? but thou shouldest rule over it. Then said Cain to Abel his brother: Let us go into the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Then said Yahweh unto Cain: Where is Abel, thy brother? And he said: I know not; am I my brother's keeper? And He said: What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now: Cursed art thou from the ground which hath opened wide her mouth Yield thee its strength. A wanderer and a fugitive shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto Yahweh: My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground, and from Thy face shall I be hid. A wanderer and a fugitive shall I be in the earth; and it shall come to pass, whosoever findeth me shall slay me. And Yahweh said unto him: Therefore, if anyone slayeth Cain, sevenfold shall he be avenged. And Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. And Cain went forth from the presence of Yahweh and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. (Then Cain knew his wife; and she conceived and bare Enoch; and he builded a city and he called the city after the name of his son, Enoch. And unto Enoch was born Irad and Irad begat Mehujael; and Mehujael begat Methusael; and Methusael begat Lamech. And Lamech begat a son; and he called his name Noah, saying: This one shall comfort us for our work, and for the labor of our hands because of the ground which Yahweh hath cursed. And Lamech took unto him two wives; the name of the one, Adah; and the name of the other, Zillah. And Adah bare Jabal; he was the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, the father of all those who forge copper and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. And Lamech said unto his wives: 1Eve, (Heb. Havvah, life). The verse is brought forward from Ch. iii, 20, where it is clearly misplaced, having no proper antecedent. Adah and Zillah, hear my voice! Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech! And a young man for injuring me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-and-sevenfold.) And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son and called his name Seth, for she said: God hath appointed me yet another child. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. . And Lamech lived a hundred and eighty and two years, and begat a son. And he called his name Noah, saying: This same shall comfort us in our work, and in the toil of our hands, which cometh from the ground which Yahweh hath cursed. . . . And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah had sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all whom they chose. Then said Yahweh: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, seeing that he is only flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were upon the earth in those days and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children unto them; these were the mighty men who of old were men of renown. And Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every plan devised in his heart was only evil continually; and Yahweh repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. And Yahweh said: I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground, both man and beast and creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh. And Yahweh said unto Noah: Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take unto thee by sevens, the male and his female; and of beasts that are not clean by twos, the male and his mate. Of fowls also of the air by seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according to all that Yahweh commanded him. And it came to pass, after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons and his wife, and his son's wives with him, into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts and of beasts that were not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth on the earth, there went in by pairs, male and female, unto Noah into the ark; and Yahweh shut him in. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. And the waters increased and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the 1 Ch. v, 1-27 gives a list of the sons of Adam in the line of Seth, parallel to the briefer one of the line of Cain in ch. iv. 17-22. It is unmistakably in the style of P, but must also be based on a very old tradition. as it brings in Methusaleh and Enoch, both of whom are mentioned by earlier authors than P. Each list makes special mention of a Lamech, the one as father of the inventors of arts and industries, and the other as the father of Noah: both are inserted here, the first in parenthesis. earth. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was on the dry land, died; and every living thing was destroyed which was on the face of the ground, both men and cattle and creeping thing and fowl of the air. And they were destroyed from the earth and only Noah remained, and they that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, and he sent forth a raven which went to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth from him a dove, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground, but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark, and the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he waited yet other seven days and sent forth the dove; and she returned not unto him any more. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked; and behold, the face of the ground was dry. And Noah builded an altar unto Yahweh, and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and he offered burnt offerings on the altar. And Yahweh smelled a sweet savor; and Yahweh said in His heart: I will never apain curse the ground for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again smite every living thing as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Now the sons of Noah that went forth out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; (and Ham was the father of Canaan). These are the three sons of Noah, and unto them were sons born after the flood, and of them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and was drunken; and he was uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his brethren without. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him; and he said: Cursed be Canaan! Servant of servants let him be to his brethren. Blessed of Yahweh be the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be subject unto him. Japheth! God shall enlarge him; he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; And it shall be that Canaan shall be servant also to him. Now the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another: Come, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen had they for mortar. And they said: Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its summit in the heavens; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. And Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built. And Yahweh said: Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be impossible for them which they may plan to do. Come, let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So Yahweh scattered them abroad from thence over the face of the whole earth; and they ceased to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel (Gate of God); because Yahweh did there confound the language of all the earth, and thence did Yahweh scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. SECTION II.-The Origin of the B'ne Israel, and their progenitor, Abram. Materials: The Cherished Traditions of his Descendants. (Gen. xi, 27-xii, 18; xvi, 1b-14; xviii-xix; xxiv-xxv, 6.) Now these are the generations of Terah.1 Terah begat Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives; the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and of Iscah. And Sarai was barren; she had no child. Now Yahweh had said unto Abram: Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation; and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram went, as Yahweh had said unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the terebinth of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And Yahweh appeared unto Abram, and said: Unto thy seed will I give this land. And he builded there an altar unto Yahweh who had appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and he builded there an altar unto Yahweh, and called on the name of Yahweh. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. Now there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass, when Abram was about to enter Egypt, that he said unto Sarai, his wife: Behold, now, I know that thou art a woman fair to look upon; and it will come to pass that when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they will say: This is his wife; and they will kill me, but thee they will keep alive. Say, I pray thee, that thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my life shall be spared because of thee. And it came to pass when Abram was come into Egyptians beheld the woman, that she was very fair. Egypt, that the 1 According to P, who here inserts a genealogical table (ch. xi, 10-26) Terah was in the ninth generation from Shem in the line of Arphaxad. What is more important, Haran, his youngest son, is said to have died in Ur before the family removed to Haran in Aram. It corroborates another tradition of Abraham's birth and upbringing in the great metropolis and trading mart of Babylonia. princes saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And he treated Abram well for her sake; and he had sheep and oxen and he-asses, and man-servants and maid-servants and she-asses and camels. And Yahweh plagued Pharaoh and all his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said: What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou: She is my sister, so that I took her to be my wife? Now, therefore, behold thy wife. Take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him, and they sent him away and his wife, and all that he had. And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai; unto the place of the altar which he had made there at first; and there Abram called on the name of Yahweh. And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. (And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.) And Abram said unto Lot: Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou take the right hand then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners against Yahweh exceedingly. And Yahweh said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him: Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that, if a man can number the dust of the earth, thy seed also shall be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it thee. Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar to Yahweh. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram: Behold, now, Yahweh hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram: My wrong be upon thee. have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai: Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. I And the messenger of Yahweh found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And he said: Hagar, |