Chapter 17: Mamre

Mamre, of Hebron

Setting: Genesis 12:9-10

To live in proximity to Salem is to know and love the man Melchizedek.  He has often visited us in Hebron.  He has a fondness for our people and our beautiful oak trees, among which he has often spent a day in prayer.  What kind of a king spends the day in prayer? Melchizedek had told us that a man of great importance, humble and kind and exceedingly hospitable, would soon pass by our land.  This man, Abram, is to be the patriarch of a great people.  He is a loyal follower of El Elyon, as are we, my brothers and I.  For to know Melchizedek is to know the power and the wonder of El. As Melchizedek had predicted, the man Abram came through the land with great flocks and herds and with many people.  His wife was exceedingly beautiful, and I am sure his children would have been also, but he had none.  As if El wanted to make sure Abram stayed humble in the midst of such riches. Our bond with Abram was almost instantly forged.  His faith in El is a powerful force, and what a joy it was to meet a brother in that faith.  It was our desire to form a pact with this man, that together we might stand against the heathen nations around us and carve out a beautiful land for Adonai.  Abram extended to us the right hand of fellowship, and we ate bread and drank wine together.  But we knew that he must surely continue south to Egypt, for the land was suffering a great famine and there was no way that his animals would survive without more water. We prayed that we would see this man again.  Friendship is surely one of the greatest gifts of this short life.

Chapter 16: Melchizedek

Melchizedek, priest of El Elyon

Setting: Genesis 12:9-10 Extra-Biblical Sources: Bereishit Rabbah 39:10
There was a king who, while traversing from place to place, lost a pearl from the crown of his head.  The king halted and had his retinue halt.  When a passer-by asked, “What is going on here with the king and his entire retinue?” they were told, “A pearl has fallen from the king’s head.”  What did the king do? He heaped the soil in a number of piles, brought sieves, and sifted the first pile, but did not find the pearl… He did the same with the second, third, and so on, until when he sifted the tenth pile, he found it. Then the passersby said, “The king has finally found his precious pearl.” There were ten generations from Noach to Abram.  Through each one God sifted until finally he found his pearl. I saw the man and his caravan from a distance as they passed by on their way to Egypt.  They did not stop in Salem, for they surely knew that we were in as great a need as they, as the drought is prolonged.  But God has shown me that I will see the face of Abram one day.  El has a way of sending his chosen ones to Egypt for a time, and then calling them out again into the land of promise.

Chapter 15: Rim-Sin

Rim-Sin, King of Luz

Setting: Genesis 12:8

Abram and his people camped not far outside of our city.  He spoke peaceably to us and inquired of our religion.  He examined our bulls and goats and we traded in knowledge of animal husbandry.  Abram is a man with much livestock, and like myself, he does not hesitate to sacrifice the best of his flocks to the gods. Or rather, to the god, in Abram’s case, for he worships El and El alone.  Why the man should forsake Baal and Ashera I could not grasp.  He denied not their power in the world but insisted that El’s authority is over all, and that appeasing El alone accomplishes what is necessary. We do have a quite ancient monument to El, but Abram undertook the project of building a separate altar, to the east of our city, not far from the slopes of Ebal, where El could be worshiped in the solitude of the desert.

Abram came in a stranger but he quickly became a friend.  I had hoped that he would stay here and combine forces with us as we bear up against the ever-encroaching Jebusites of the south.  Alas, when he arrived the land was already in drought, and the drought was prolonged as he camped by Ebal until it was certain that there was not sufficient grass nor water to keep his flocks healthy. We dined together, and we worshiped El together.  Then I embraced the man, and he went south, among the very Jebusites I detest.  Nonetheless, I have never known a better man.  It seemed as though he cared more about the least person in Luz then he did about himself.  Somehow, though he was the pilgrim, he managed to be the overly hospitable party in the relationship, despite our best efforts. I still visit his alter to El at times.  It is a quiet place to sit and think, or to pray and to dream. As I watched him leave, at the head of his household, headed south to find grass and water, I knew that here was a patriarch of Canaan.

Chapter 14: Abram

Abram, servant of El Elyon

Setting: Genesis 12:6-7

Why does Adonai speak to me?  Why?!  Why has He called Abram, of all people, out into the desert to follow Him?  I am no Nephel, no Rapha, no Anank, no Gibbor Chayil.  I am no Utnapishtim, no Ur-Nammu, no Aplahanda or Senusret or Khu-Sobek.  I am no Nimrod.  What does He see in me, that I should become a partner of God?  Nay, not a partner of God, a partner of El Elyon, the God of gods? A man not eighty years old, yet already showing signs of age, with a barren wife and a handful of people, wandering in the desert.  This is who He has chosen? There were those in Harranu that asked me how I could leave my country, my kindred, and my father’s house in search of an unknown land.  But all that I forsook I forsook not in disgust or even in charity but rather in sacrifice.  Do we not preach day in and day out of the virtues of sacrifice?  Is it not axiomatic that when we give something up to the gods, they are pleased and respond in mercy?  I have gained the reputation of a man of great religiosity.  But I am merely acting in accord with the laws of the gods, who are far stronger than I.  What other choice do I have?  Could I possibly succeed by withholding the very sacrifice that Adonai demands?  Of course I must lay it on the altar, and God in His goodness will use it for good. But there is something about El Elyon that disturbs me.  It bewilders my religious senses.  This God comes to me before I have even made the sacrifice, with promises of blessing.  What kind of God comes not to the altar you have made and smiles upon you, but comes and smiles upon you when as yet you have built no altar? Shamefully I admit that I had as yet built no altar to Adonai, nor led the people in calling on His name, when He appeared to me at the foot of Gerizim.  I had gone out at evening to the field to meditate, and as the sun sank below the horizon, an unnatural darkness fell across the land.  So black was this darkness that even the shadows fled from it and I was in wild terror at what must follow. Then all was warm and calm and Adonai appeared to me.  Why did He appear to me?  And why did He say to me what He did?  In Harranu, El had declared that He would make a great nation out of my household, and bless me, and make my name great, and that he would bless them that bless me and curse those that curse me.  What divine prodigality!   But here, at Shechem, He has said that unto my seed He will give this land. Unto my seed?  What can this mean?  Am I to take another wife?  While it is not uncommon for a man of my standing to take along three or four wives, I do not believe that Adonai intends this.  I have loved My Princess with a purity that would be marred by the involvement of other wives.  When I contemplate it my mind is immediately turned back from the notion.  Surely, Lot is to be my heir, and my seed is to be named through him. And what an immense honor, though the people be descended from Harran as much as from myself, to be named as the father of a great nation!  It is humbling to look up at Gerizim, and across the plain to Ebal, and to know that this land will belong to my children.  Was my mother right in naming me Abram after all? In my shame at not having built one sooner, I oversaw the construction of a stone altar there, where Adonai appeared to me and declared this promise concerning my seed. I do not deserve such kindness from God.  I do not understand El Elyon.

Chapter 13: Otiartes

Otiartes, herdsman of Lot's cattle

Setting: Genesis 12:6-7

The free men among us had, for the most part, not spent many days outside of a city before.  Over the long journey their skin had darkened and, I think, their spirits lifted with the freedom and the harsh beauty of the wilderness. I have always been a man of the land and I have never preferred a palace to a bed beneath the stars.  In fact, I have always preferred the company of animals to men. But I will say that the town of Laish inspired in me a sense that city life can have its own freedom and wonder. Ur, Babylon, Mari, Damascus, these are places of great wealth and art, but Laish is a place of rustic charm, and harmony between god and man.  The city is idyllic.  Nestled between mountains, the cool, clear streams are fed by melting snow.  The land is fertile.  The people are cheerful, and they live at peace with one another.  My master Lot was delighted by the settlement and inquired of Abram whether this might not in fact be the land of El Elyon.  Abram said that all the earth is the land of El Elyon, but the land to which we were called was not here.  We could sense that Lot wanted to protest, but as Abram’s heir, he is more or less constrained to follow Abram or else to bid his inheritance farewell.  And a man has a better chance of reasoning with a wild ass than with Abram when he has instructions from El Elyon. So we left the pristine mountains of Laish, and came very soon to Hazor, a place of impressive military might.  Here were fighting men, with thick leather armor and bronze shields, in no small number.  I do not know what Abram said to them to placate them, but they granted us free passage without quarrel. While the cities I have known in Chaldea have each had their own unique character, the people of the various settlements have been more or less the same.  Not so here in Canaan.  Ammonites, Moabites, Hittites, Phoenicians, even Egyptians and Chaldeans live in close proximity with one another.  And their gods are no less diverse: Baal, Asherah, El, Marduk, Utu-Shammash, Enlil, Chemosh, Dagon, and Milcom to name a few.  To be sure, it is a place where a man can choose what he wants to be.  My master Lot senses this with great excitement, though he follows in the footsteps of his uncle Abram with annoyance that his inheritance shackles him to the man. All the way from Harran to Hazor, we had moved slowly but more or less steadily.  But then we came to Shechem, and here Abram rested us for some weeks.  The city itself, while inhabited by various nationalities, was governed by the Egyptians to whom it paid heavy tribute.  A nobleman of Egypt named Khu-Sobek had captured the city in the name of Senusret, Egypt's king. We did not dwell within the city, though we did have frequent commerce with it.  To reach our camp, one would walk a few minutes to the south along the road, called “the Way of the Fathers”, and depart from the road at the great Oak of Moreh.   From there one would turn toward the steep northern slope of Mount Gerizim, and proceed for just a few minutes until arriving at our camp, near the spring of water that flows near the foot of the mountain. Shechem is no Laish, but the area does give the feeling that it is a good place to settle.  And for a time, it seemed that this might be what Abram would do.  By the Oak of Moreh there was an altar to Baal and a humble tent of prostitution for Asherah.  Abram added to the religious culture of the area by building an altar to Adonai at the foot of Gerizim, within sight of the others.  There he would go as the sun was setting and offer burnt offerings and call upon the name of Adonai.

Chapter 12: Eliezer

Eliezer of Damascius, servant of Abram

Setting: Genesis 12:1-5

Who am I?  From the time I was a boy they have called me “Eliezer of Damascus,” though until now I had never set foot in this city. I am named for El, yet I have spent my life worshiping Nana and Enki. I have spent my life in walled cities, yet have I ever felt more alive than during these days and nights under the sun and the stars of the untamed wilderness? Kalumtum could not believe her ears when I told her that I would be continuing on with the house of Abram as they journeyed further south and west.  He had readily granted Kalumtum and Urhammu their freedom, and it was understood that he would grant the same to me.  If Kalumtum could not believe her ears, I could hardly even believe my own ears as I heard myself speak. “My sister, I am Eliezer of Damascus, son of Abdhulraman.  I am a Canaanite, and a worshiper of El Elyon.  The devoted follower of Abram.”