and it destroys the growth from the earth, and the waters of the sea before it are made dead. A little later, Abraham, moving from the oak at Mamre, encamped at the well of the oath, having pitched tents for himself privately and for his servants according to kinship. Then for the first time Abraham celebrated the feast of the tabernacles for seven days, which Israel celebrates even to this day, pitching tents. Isaac, it says, was twenty-five years old when he was led up for sacrifice. And in that place Abraham built the altar where later David established the temple. And Isaac, having become sixty years old, begot Esau and Jacob. Being in his seventy-fifth year, he fled Esau his brother and arrived at Laban's in Haran of Mesopotamia; and Laban was the brother of Rebecca, Jacob's mother. He tended his flocks for twenty whole years, fourteen for taking Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban, for marriage, and for the six having made an agreement for a stipulated wage. And afterwards he received from his wives Bilhah and Zilpah the maids, and begot children from the four women, in the fourteen years which he spent in Mesopotamia after the first seven years, eleven sons and one daughter, from Leah begetting Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun and Dinah, and from Rachel, Joseph, and from Bilhah, Dan and Naphtali, and from Zilpah, Gad and Asher. And in the twentieth year Jacob, having fled from Laban, was overtaken by him on the seventh day on Mount Gilead. There, having made a covenant under oath, they separated, Laban to Haran, and he to the city of Salem near Shechem. There Dinah suffered violence from Shechem. And Rachel also bore Benjamin to Jacob, and having died was buried in the land of Ephrathah, where Bethlehem now is. And Simeon and Levi avenged the outrage against their sister, using every deceit against the men of Shechem. And Jacob, having been reminded of the vision which he saw upon his arrival in Mesopotamia, went up to Bethel (for this was the name of the place where he dwelt when he saw the vision), and having tithed all that he possessed, lastly submitted his sons to the lot, and Levi, having been chosen by lot, he dedicated to God and established him as a priest of God, and first offered to God the sacrifice of the tithing of his son. Since, therefore, the Levitical race runs down to Aaron and Moses, of whom the one is priest and the other leads Israel, fittingly the genealogy from Jacob is taken from him. Jacob, being eighty-seven years old, begot Levi. Rebecca urged Isaac to bring Esau and Jacob and reconcile them, and at the same time to exhort and adjure them to keep peace with one another and to embrace the disposition of brotherly familiarity; which indeed he did, and foretold to Esau that if you should rise up against Jacob you will fall into his hands. And they died, Rebecca first, and not long after, Isaac also, leaving to Jacob the privileges of the birthright. But the sons of Esau provoked their father against Jacob and his sons, and having armed themselves with nations came for war. But he, having shut the gates of the city, exhorted Esau to remember the commands and counsels of their parents. But when he would not listen but rather behaved insolently, at the urging of Judah, Jacob drew a bow, and striking Esau on the right breast, brought him down; and when he died, the sons of Jacob went out, opening the gates, and killed nearly all of them. In the second year of Israel's sojourn in Egypt, he says a clever sacred scribe foretold that the child born to the Hebrews at this time will overthrow the kingdom of the Egyptians; and because of this Pharaoh ordered the newborn infants of the Hebrews to be killed. And in the same second year, Levi, being forty-five years old, begot Kohath; Kohath, being sixty-three years old

διαφθείρει δὲ καὶ αὐτὸ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς τὸ ἀνάστημα, καὶ τῆς προκειμένης θαλάσσης νεκροῦται τὰ ὕδατα. ὀλίγῳ δὲ ὕστερον ἀπὸ τῆς κατὰ Μαμβρὴν δρυὸς μεταναστὰς ὁ Ἀβραὰμ ἐπὶ τὸ φρέαρ κατασκηνοῖ τοῦ ὅρκου, ἑαυτῷ τε ἰδίᾳ καὶ τοῖς οἰκέταις αὐτοῦ κατὰ συγγενείας πηξάμενος σκηνάς. τότε πρῶτον Ἀβραὰμ τῆς σκηνοπηγίας ἐφ' ἑπτὰ ἡμέραις ἐπιτελεῖ τὴν ἑορτήν, ἣν εἰσέτι καὶ νῦν ὁ Ἰσραὴλ ἑορτάζει σκηνοπηγῶν. εἰκοσιπέντε ἐτῶν ἦν, φησίν, ὁ Ἰσαάκ, ὅτε πρὸς θυσίαν ἀνήχθη. εἰς ἐκεῖνον δὲ τὸν τόπον τὸ θυσιαστήριον ᾠκοδόμησεν Ἀβραάμ, ἔνθα ὕστερον ∆αυὶδ τὸ ἱερὸν ἱδρύσατο. Ἰσαὰκ δὲ γενόμενος ἐτῶν ἑξήκοντα γεννᾷ τὸν Ἡσαῦ καὶ τὸν Ἰακώβ. ἑβδομηκοστὸν καὶ πέμπτον ἄγων ἔτος φεύγει μὲν Ἡσαῦ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, καταντᾷ δὲ πρὸς Λάβαν εἰς Χαρρὰν τῆς Μεσοποταμίας· ἀδελφὸς δὲ ἦν ὁ Λάβαν τῆς Ῥεβέκας τῆς μητρὸς Ἰακώβ. τούτου νέμει τὰ πρόβατα ἐφ' ὅλοις ἔτεσιν εἴκοσι, δεκατέσσαρα μὲν Λίαν λαβὼν καὶ Ῥαχὴλ τὰς τοῦ Λάβαν θυγατέρας πρὸς γάμον, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖς ἓξ ῥητὸν μισθὸν ποιησάμενος σύμφωνον. ὑστέρωθι δὲ κομίζεται παρὰ τῶν γυναικῶν Βάλλαν καὶ ∆ελφᾶν τὰς παιδίσκας, καὶ παιδο22 ποιεῖται ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων γυναικῶν, ἐν τοῖς δεκατέσσαρσιν ἔτεσιν οἷς ἐπὶ τῆς Μεσοποταμίας μετὰ τὴν πρώτην διέτριψεν ἑπταετίαν, υἱοὺς μὲν ἕνδεκα καὶ θυγατέρα μίαν, ἐκ μὲν τῆς Λίας γεννήσας τὸν Ῥουβὴμ καὶ τὸν Συμεὼν καὶ τὸν Λευὶ καὶ τὸν Ἰούδαν καὶ τὸν Ἰσάχαρ καὶ τὸν Ζαβουλὼμ καὶ τὴν ∆ίναν, ἐκ δὲ τῆς Ῥαχὴλ τὸν Ἰωσήφ, ἐκ δὲ τῆς Βάλλας τὸν ∆ᾶν καὶ τὸν Νεφθαλείμ, ἐκ δὲ τῆς ∆ελφᾶς τὸν Γὰδ καὶ τὸν Ἀσηρ. τῷ εἰκοστῷ δὲ ἔτει διαφυγὼν τὸν Λάβαν ὁ Ἰακὼβ ἑβδόμῃ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ καταλαμβάνεται ἡμέρᾳ ἐν τῷ ὄρει Γαλαάδ. ἐνταῦθα ἐνωμότως ποιησάμενοι συνθήκας χωρίζονται, ὁ μὲν Λάβαν εἰς Χαρράν, ὁ δὲ πλησίον Σικήμων εἰς πόλιν Σαλήμ. ἐνταῦθα ὑφίσταται ὑπὸ Συχὲμ τὴν βίαν ἡ ∆ίνα. ἔτι δὲ τίκτει ἡ Ῥαχὴλ τῷ Ἰακὼβ τὸν Βενιαμίν, καὶ τελευτήσασα θάπτεται ἐν γῇ Ἐφραθᾶ, ἔνθα νῦν ἔστιν ἡ Βηθλεέμ. Συμεὼν δὲ καὶ Λευὶ τῆς ἀδελφῆς ἐκδικοῦσι τὴν ὕβριν, παντὶ δόλῳ χρησάμενοι εἰς τοὺς περὶ τὸν Συχέμ. ὁ δὲ Ἰακὼβ τῆς ὁράσεως ὑπομνησθεὶς ἧς ἐθεάσατο κατὰ τὴν ἄφιξιν τὴν εἰς Μεσοποταμίαν, ἀνέρχεται εἰς Βαιθὴλ (τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν ὄνομα τῷ τόπῳ, ἐφ' ᾧ κατοικηθεὶς εἶδε τὸ ὅραμα), καὶ πάντα ἀποδεκατώσας ἃ ἐκέκτητο, τελευταίους ὑποβάλλει κλήρῳ τοὺς παῖδας, λαχόντα δὲ τὸν Λευὶ τῷ θεῷ ἀφιεροῖ καὶ καθίστησιν ἱερέα τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ προσκομίζει πρῶτον τῷ θεῷ θυσίαν τὴν τοῦ παιδὸς ἀποδεκάτωσιν. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν τὸ Λευιτικὸν γένος ἐπὶ Ἀαρὼν κατατρέ23 χει καὶ Μωϋσῆν, ὧν ὁ μὲν ἱερατεύει ὁ δὲ στρατηγεῖ τῷ Ἰσραήλ, εἰκότως ἐξ αὐτοῦ λαμβάνεται ἡ ἐκ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ γενεαλογία. Ἰακὼβ γενόμενος ὀγδοήκοντα ἑπτὰ ἐτῶν ἐγέννησε τὸν Λευί. Ῥεβέκκα ἠξίωσε τὸν Ἰσαὰκ ἀγαγεῖν Ἡσαῦ καὶ Ἰακωκαὶ διαλλάξαι αὐτούς, παρακαλέσαι τε ἅμα καὶ ἐνορκίσαι εἰρήνην ἄγειν εἰς ἀλλήλους καὶ τῆς ἀδελφικῆς οἰκειότητος ἀσπάζεσθαι τὴν διάθεσιν· ὃ δὴ καὶ ποιήσας προεῖπε τῷ Ἡσαῦ ὅτι ἐὰν ἐπαναστῇς τῷ Ἰακὼβ ἐμπέσῃ εἰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ. τελευτῶσι δέ, προτέρα μὲν ἡ Ῥεβέκκα, μετ' οὐ πολὺ δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἰσαάκ, τῷ Ἰακὼβ τῆς πρωτοτοκίας καταλιπόντες τὰ γέρα. οἱ δὲ υἱοὶ τοῦ Ἡσαῦ παρώξυναν τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν κατὰ Ἰακὼβ καὶ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ καθοπλισθέντες μετὰ ἐθνῶν ἦλθον πρὸς πόλεμον. ὁ δὲ ἀποκλείσας τὰς θύρας τῆς πόλεως, παρεκάλει τὸν Ἡσαῦ μνησθῆναι τῶν γονικῶν ἐντολῶν καὶ παραινέσεων. τοῦ δὲ μὴ ἀνεχομένου ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ὑβρίζοντος, τοῦ Ἰούδα παρακαλέσαντος ἐνέτεινε τόξον Ἰακώβ, καὶ πλήξας κατὰ τοῦ δεξιοῦ μαζοῦ τὸν Ἡσαῦ κατέβαλε· καὶ τούτου τελευτήσαντος ἐπεξῆλθον οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰακὼβ τὰς πύλας ἀνοίξαντες, καὶ πάντας σχεδὸν ἀνεῖλον. Τῷ δευτέρῳ ἔτει τῆς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ παροικίας ἱερογραμματέα δεινὸν προειπεῖν φησὶν ὅτι τὸ τικτόμενον παιδίον ἐν τῷδε τῷ χρόνῳ τοῖς Ἑβραίοις τὴν Αἰγυπτίων καταλύσει βασιλείαν· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο Φαραὼ προσέταξε κτείνειν 24 τὰ τικτόμενα βρέφη τῶν Ἑβραίων. ἐν δὲ τῷ αὐτῷ δευτέρῳ ἔτει Λευὶ γενόμενος τεσσαράκοντα πέντε ἐτῶν γεννᾷ τὸν Καάθ· Καὰθ γενόμενος ἑξήκοντα τριῶν ἐτῶν