Chapter 29: Enau

Enau, Friend of Abram

Setting: Genesis 14:1-14 Extra-biblical Sources: Bereishit Rabbah 42:12 , 
Zevachim 113b

The messengers of Bera and Birsha were but a precursor of things to come.  Next came an Egyptian mercenary dispatched by Amraphel of Shinar to twist our arms, that we might join the ranks of Chedorlaomer.  He was a giant of a man and he claimed to be a personal friend of Mardon.  I cannot imagine what gave him the audacity to visit us, seeing that his fellow mercenaries had put our Amorite brothers to the edge of the sword in Hazezon-Tamar not one month prior, as they marched north for Laish.

Mabug spoke peacefully to him and indicated that we would pledge full support to his master.  But as our visitor slept in Hebron that night, a dispatch was sent to the tent of Abram, who in turn assembled my brothers and I, and we entered the city while he slept and subdued him and bound him in chains.  For it was certain that to refuse this man’s demands would be to incur the full wrath of his allies, and at least in binding him we might buy some time to prepare for the conflict ahead.

The man was bound among us many days and yet no one came to retrieve him or to besiege Hebron.  We would soon learn the reason why conflict was delayed in reaching us, for the friends of this Egyptian were engaged in a great battle that required their full attention.  

Who should stride into my camp that summer but Og son of Anak, that infamous giant of a man who made even our Egyptian messenger seem small by comparison.  They say that Og stowed away with Noach on the ark during the great flood, but I have it on the authority of Melchizedek that no one survived the flood save Noach and his closest relatives.  

He came with important news from the North, and he requested to speak with Abram at once.  According to Og, after the Elamites and their mercenaries had plundered Hazezon-Tamar, they intended to march all the way to their homeland.  But upon reaching the regions of Sodom and Gomorrah, they found the armies of these towns, accompanied by the forces of Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar arrayed against them to cut them off from Mesopotamia.

The two sides joined battle in the vale of Siddim, the four northern kings of the Mesopotamian alliance against the five southern kings of Canaan.  There the Elamites prevailed, and they drove the men of Sodom and Gomorrah so hard that they fell into the tar pits that are common in the valley.  Those who died in the tar pits that day were more than those who died by the sword, so said Og.

Among those who were driven so that they fell or were cast into the tar pits was Bera, king of Sodom.  They say that the tar of those pits will drag a man straight to sheol, and not a few have suffered this fate due to carelessness or misfortune when extracting the bituminous substance as a building material.  Yet whether for better or for worse, the mighty king dragged himself out of the pit and fled to Og with the news that the Canaanites were utterly defeated.

I sounded one long blast of the ram’s horn, a signal to my brothers and Abram that there was important news in the camp, and by nightfall we were assembled.

It was clear when Abram arrived at my camp that Og was chiefly interested in speaking with him.  He made inquiries about Sarai’s wellbeing, and it seemed he was a bit too interested, in fact, to know if she was as well and as beautiful as ever.  He then wasted no time in informing Abram that his nephew Lot had been taken, along with all of Lot’s household, and that they were now prisoners of war in the camp of Elam.

Abram assembled his chief men at once.  We had as it were five commanders: Abram, Eliezer, Mamre, Eschol, and myself.  Abram’s 318 men, and 700 that comprised the rest of our force, sharpened their swords and made provisions that night, and all the next day, and the women of the entire Kiriath-Arba prepared victuals for us to take as we might have need.  

The men rested in the afternoon heat, and the next evening we set out, to travel light and fast in the nocturnal cool of the desert.  That night we traversed the hills unto Salem, where we descended eastward to the plains of Jericho.  In Salem I asked if we should not seek out Melchizedek, to know if it might go well with us or if he might give us a blessing on our way.  Abram said simply, “do not wake him, for he sleeps peacefully,” and strangely enough the watchmen of the town agreed readily, so that we skirted the town quietly in the darkness, and descended without entering that city or conversing with its leaders.

We rested in the plains of Jericho until the heat of the next day had passed, and then followed the Jordan River valley as far as Beth-Shan, where we camped outside the city, within sight of Mount Gilboa.

In another day we reached Hazor, where we camped opposite the city, and far from its view.  Hazor is no city to be trifled with, and while they certainly were no sympathizers with the Elamites, nor did we judge them likely to welcome our own army with warm hospitality.  Given their advantaged position of trade and military might, they are apt to remain neutral from any conflict that they can, favoring neither side in the battles around them.

It was the following day, when we came to Laish, that the residents of that beautiful village informed us that the Elamites had passed by not two days before, moving slowly with the women and children they had taken as spoils of war.

As we rested that day, we prepared our souls for war.

Chapter 28: Eshcol

Eshcol, Friend of Abram

Setting: Genesis 13:14-18

Abram is beloved in the Kiriath-Arba.  Our little nation is so named because it comprises four settlements: Hebron at its center, with the households of my brothers - Enau and Mamre - and my own household surrounding and protecting her.  It is a land of beautiful oak trees, the most magnificent of which - the Oak of Mamre - having been planted by Adonai Himself even as the waters of the great flood receded.

Beneath the branches of that exemplary tree the men of our households met often.  We would trade information about the surrounding streams and pastures, or share ancient poems dedicated to El, or spar with wooden swords and spears to keep our skills sharp.  There were 318 fighting men in Abram’s house in those days, but I never saw any man best Abram save his slave Eleazer.  What a strange sight to see a slave dare to out-spar his master, but the bond between Abram and Eliezer was as father and son, or as man to man, and not as slave and master.

To watch Abram use a sword was a most beautiful and inspiring sight.  His movements were slower than his opponent’s, yet they were so skillfully premeditated, and so consistently did he anticipate the movements of his foe, that he managed to make the other arrive late with each thrust.

Those were golden days, before we were inevitably drawn into the war between Mardon and Chedorlaomer.  We worked hard but we found plenty of time to rest as well.  El whispered to us in the breeze, and laughed with us in the babbling brooks, and sang with us as the stars filled the black sky at night.

Perhaps those days were so precious to us because we knew that they could not last.  Emissaries from Sodom and Gomorrah came to Hebron selling their protection.  Our elders, Mabug chief among them, were in all respects polite but firm with these men, in informing them that we wanted no involvement with their conflict.  They left cursing and it is perhaps fortunate that they did not encounter Abram or my brothers or I as they departed.

Chapter 27: Abram

Abram, servant of El Elyon

Setting: Genesis 13:14-18

Lot lifts up his eyes to the crowded city of Sodom, but I seek the more spacious places.  It is not that I disdain cultured society, but that I would build a society with more room to breathe.  I once heard a man say that in their fear our forefathers gathered too near together, and it may be that that fear shall endure a little longer, so that city walls separate hearths from fields. 

Would that Adonai would gather men’s houses in his hand, and like a sower gently scatter them in forest and meadow.  Would that the valleys were our streets, and the green paths our alleys, that we might seek one another through vineyards, and come with the fragrance of the earth in our garments.

When Lot had departed for the valley of the Jordan and its cities, Adonai came to me and instructed me to lift up my eyes.  This was the very thing that Lot had done; he had lifted up his eyes and in confidence surveyed the land.  I did not want to do the same, but when Adonai speaks, I listen, and so I lifted up my eyes and looked in all directions as I was commanded.

And God said to me “all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your seed forever, and I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the pieces of dust on the earth, then your seed can also be numbered.”  And God said to me “Arise, and walk through the length and the breadth of the land; for I will give it to you.”

I was overwhelmed, for the presence of El Elyon is ever strange and ever terrifying, even if one has experienced it before.  And I was sullen, for Lot, my only blood relative who could possibly be my heir, had departed to be his own separate tribe, so what was all of this talk of “my seed?”  And I was overjoyed, for the God who possesses heaven and earth was reaffirming His decree that this land should be mine.  And I was humbled, even unto dread, that He should say such a thing to a dead dog such as I.

And in my terror and my sullenness and my joy and my dread I arose, in the body or out of the body I cannot say, and walked the length and breadth of the land of Canaan, and saw its transcendent beauty as the very garden of God, and wept and wept and wept.

The next morning I awoke strong and healthy, and I removed my tent and we journeyed to Hebron, encamping in the plain of Mamre, among the three brothers who I had so quickly come to know and love before the famine and our sojourn in Egypt.

And there I built an altar to El Elyon, Possessor of Heaven and Earth, and called upon the name of Adonai who is my shield and my strength. 

And there Mamre and Enau and Eschol knelt with me in prayer from the time the stars appeared in the sky until they disappeared again. There we also strapped on our swords and studied the art of war, for conflict was breaking forth in Canaan. We are not concerned with the conflicts of the city-dwellers, except that the Kiriath-Arba must stand in an alliance of self-defense.

And I joined this alliance. Yes, I cut my hand so the blood ran red, as did the three brothers, and I grasped each man’s hand and embraced him so that our blood was mingled and our lives were not our own but each others, and we ate bread and drank wine and we danced and we sang and I lay with my wife Sarai and in each of these things I could have sworn that heaven was on earth.

Chapter 26: Adith

 

Adith, Lot's Wife

Setting: Genesis 13:13 Extra-biblical Sources: Book of Jasher 19:1,3-7,11-17,24-35

I know that Lot visited the tents of the cult prostitutes on at least a few occasions. But I strongly admired in him that generosity with which he lived his life in giving to others, and I was willing therefore to overlook these roguish tendencies. Even in this he was acting with more integrity than most men of Sodom, who visit the male prostitutes more than the female. Lot understands that the dynamic of the cosmos is between the two poles of the masculine and the feminine, and that this dynamism must not be profaned by the indecent acts of men with other men.

Yes, and Lot was a righteous man, for he found his soul greatly vexed by the wicked living of the men of Sodom.  More than anything, he was exasperated by their policy against hospitality toward outsiders.  Not only did this policy require us to live many months in a tent pitched outside of the city, till we should prove our genuine loyalty to the city.  This Lot could bear.  But that the household of Lot should be barred from entertaining important dignitaries who passed through the region was for Lot a cause for much distress.

I have never known a more hospitable family than that of Terah and his sons.  For them, hospitality is the greatest of all moral goods.

Even when I met Lot, lifetimes ago in Chaldea, he was helping his father Haran to prepare a great feast for the arrival of Shulgi, son of Ur-Nammu.  When our marriage was arranged I was glad to be invited into such a powerful and generous family, so practiced in feasting on the best of meat and wine with other important families and officials.  And in the case of the household of Terah, the feasting was not only with the important, but even with the lonely pilgrim of no account.  

For a man to pour out his wealth in hospitality, with prodigal abandon, is for him to sow great blessings for himself that will grow and be harvested in the future.  By faith a man sacrifices greatly in the present to bless the important dignitary, and in the future that dignitary in turn blesses his gracious host.  Or if the man he blesses is not great, the gods see and reward him in turn.

Only the foolish and ignorant man refuses to open his hand to an esteemed guest.

In this regard the men of Sodom are indeed foolish, for they disregard this most fundamental of all values.  Not only do they fail to practice hospitality, but they specifically forbid the entertaining of foreigners and roughly chastise those who do.  It is not proper for me even to describe what they do to men who would dare to pass through Sodom on some journey.  I will only say that they are publicly humiliated on public beds designed for the purpose, and because this is widely known in the region, sojourners have become very rare in Sodom indeed. 

When Eliezer of Damascus visited us, so that he might bring a report back to Abram of how we fared, he was soon found out and led into the square.  By great zeal and valor he escaped with his life, but he was struck on the head by a rock that drew much blood, and to this day he bears the scars of that encounter.

If this vexed my husband’s soul day and night from the moment we were established in Sodom, it would go on to crush my soul in what happened to Paltith.  Paltith is the youngest of our three daughters, and in many ways the most like her father.  It is her delight to share with those in need, especially travelers, should any unwittingly pass through our unwelcoming town.

At the age of twelve, Paltith was seen sharing bread and curds with a Syrian who was passing through on his way to Damascus.  The men of the city stripped her of her clothing and cast her into a pit in retribution, and we were restrained from rescuing her until nightfall by the elders of the city who advised that further trouble would ensue if we involved ourselves before the sun set.  We appealed to Serak, the judge of our city, but his decree was the same as these elders.

I told Lot then and there that we should depart from this godforsaken city, even if it did mean dwelling in tents like Abram.  Or why not dwell in Salem, among the Jebusites, or with Rim-Sin in Luz?  But Lot saw the entire event as a silly tale that we would laugh about later; an experience of growing up for Paltith that she might learn to respect the laws of men.

Would that this was her last encounter with the law, but she was caught providing charity again not one year later, and this time they tied her naked to a post in the town square and all who passed by spat upon her.  I thank God that she survived that day without being cast upon one of those beds in the square.

God have mercy, how can I even tell of what happened next.  I will tell it quickly.  Paltith was caught smuggling bread to a poor man in her water jug, and so they burned her with fire in the square.  Of what use is my life to me now?  God take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

Chapter 25: Lot

Lot, son of Haran

Setting: Genesis 13:12 Extra-biblical Sources: Bereishit Rabbah 41:7

With what awe and wonder did I lift up my eyes to behold the plain of Jordan.  Abram himself, the very man of the great God spoke it plainly that this land is mine.  It is well watered everywhere, like the very garden of God, yes even like the fertile land of Egypt with its wondrous Nile.

Yes, and the great cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are themselves much like Egyptian cities.  They are places where man has learned to put down roots and to build a society, even as we once lived in Ur as proper Chaldeans.  Whether Chaldean, or Egyptian, or Canaanite, let me live in a great city such as one of these.  A place of alabaster vases and gold jewelry, statues of beautiful men and animals, and mosaics of precious stones depicting the wisdom of the ages.  Even to live in the least little town of Canaan, as insignificant as Zoar, is better than to live as Abram seems determined to live, in the wild places with flocks that must constantly migrate in search of green pastures.

Furthermore, with war on the horizon, how much better to dwell among these mighty twin cities than in some small and vulnerable village?

And so I decided then and there, as my eyes beheld the plain, that I and my family would dwell in Sodom.  I had met not a few Sodomites when we passed this way before, and could testify that they are a people courageous and free, living life to the full and confronting the nothingness of death with humor and greatness of soul.

I confess I did not mourn to separate from the household of Abram.  It is true that in doing so I forfeited my inheritance, but so did Abram in separating from Terah.  Sometimes a man of great vision must depart from the ways of his fathers and start something fresh and new.  In Sodom, I would live richly and freely as the Sodomites do, and hire others to shepherd my flocks while I remained in the city with my wife and daughters.

So we headed east to the civilized country, and Abram journeyed to the more remote region of Mamre and his brothers, Enau and Eschol, who like him prefer the rugged life of the tent-dwelling outdoorsmen.

Chapter 24: Otiartes

Otiartes, herdsman of Lot's cattle

Setting: Genesis 13:8-11 Extra-biblical Sources: Bereishit Rabbah 41:7

Eliezer is a snake, as is Abram himself.  Ten times they have cheated us and smiled in our faces when we came to complain.  Between the Canaanite, the Perizzite, and Abram, there is no place for the flocks and the herds, no, not even for the tents, of Lot among them.

Let Abram say that Lot is his son, but his actions tell a different story, in cheating us all day long.  His flocks grow larger and healthier by the day while he sits calmly at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, meanwhile Lot breaks his back in the noonday sun and his animals languish.

Finally Lot could take no more, and he went to Abram personally with his complaint against Eliezer and the rest of Abram’s retched herdsman.  I was there in the midst of their congress when Abram pleaded with Lot that there be no strife between them or between the herdsman.  In my anger I declared that there would always be strife unless Eliezer be deposed to the lowliest position and taught to keep his mouth shut.  Abram seemed not to hear my words and addressed his nephew peaceably again, “for”, he said to him, “we are brothers.”

What a snake is that man, Abram.  Inasmuch as Sarai is his sister, Lot is his brother, whereas in truth they are not his brother and his sister but his slaves.  And yet, what Abram said next I could not believe, for it was admittedly a most gracious offer, if indeed it could be trusted.  “Is not the whole land before us?  Depart from me then, wherever you will.  If you go to the left hand, I will go to the right; if you go to the right hand I will to the left.”

And so my master’s sweetest dreams were fulfilled, and the land of El Elyon lay before him so that wherever he might choose for his foot to trod should be his.

Chapter 23: Eliezer

Eliezer of Damascius, servant of Abram

Setting: Genesis 13:5-7

Extra-biblical Sources: Bereishit Rabbah 41:5

My father Abdhulraman died in the land of Egypt.

Part of his heart he left in Damascus as a boy, and part he left in Ur as a man, and that part of his heart which remained became knit to the struggles of the desert itself.  Life in the wilderness, and the famine which drove us toward Egypt, emaciated my father, but they also gave him something to bear up under and to overcome. 

In Egypt, we sat by pots of meat and ate all that we wanted.  We ate fish at no cost.  We dined on the finest of cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic.  The man who had survived so many trials did not survive these luxuries.  It seemed that having made it through the famine, he was finally able to rest, and rest he did.

We inquired of Abram what sort of burial El would have us to give Abdhulraman, but God was strangely silent on the matter.  The Egyptians, knowing that this was a great man among Abram’s household, embalmed him after their customs and entombed him in one of their magnificent tombs.  I cannot say that this was not fitting.  He was a man who lived many lives in many places, and so even his death and burial were something strange and new to him.

Thus I became the chief of Abram's servants and so the chief herdsman of his many, many flocks, including that great influx of animals from the hand of Pharaoh.  And thus, in turn, I was drawn into bitter conflict with Otiartes.

There was much land in Egypt that was suitable for our herds and readily available, for keeping sheep in an abomination to the Egyptians, and so the land of Goshen was ours for grazing.  Even so, Otiartes often found reason to quarrel over the movements of Abram’s herds.  In his mind the distinction between the herds of Abram and those of his master Lot was clear and important, and no perceived injustice must be done to the flocks of Lot.  He perceived injustice always, for Abram’s flocks always fared better than Lot’s, and so he always suspected that we were grazing the best lands ahead of him and leaving his flocks with the remnant.

On many an occasion Otiartes came to me demanding that Abram's flocks move to some different area, even an area we had grazed just days before.  When I raised his concerns with Abram, without fail my lord acquiesced to the demands of the household of Lot.  Why the man Lot should even distinguish between his herds and Abram’s was beyond me, as Lot was indisputably Abram’s heir.  But there is much that I do not understand about this family, for neither do I understand why Abram would consistently let his nephew take advantage of him.

If the tension between Otiartes and myself began in Egypt, it grew in intensity during our exodus, for now we must travel together in the same direction, at roughly the same speed, and Lot’s insistence, mediated to me through his servant, to consistently graze ahead of us left us with less than what Abram’s immense flocks needed.

But the man Abram refused to assert his authority, nor even his right to an equal share of this land that he himself had led us into.  I admit, I took some satisfaction from watching Abram’s herds grow greater and greater, while Lot’s herds remained more or less constant, despite his insistence on putting himself first.  It must surely have been an act of God.  Adonai seems determined to bless the man, and all who are not jealous of his success rejoice to see it.

Chapter 22: Rim-Sin

Rim-Sin, King of Luz

Setting: Genesis 13:3-4

What a joy among joys, to see the face of Abram with my own eyes again.  One would never guess that there had been a famine, for his flocks and herds were innumerable and healthy.  Nor would one guess the age of his wife, for I could swear she was radiant as never before.

His story of their sojourn in Egypt, and his plundering of the Egyptians who desired his beautiful wife, only added to my joy.  Anyone who bests Senusret, or his ruthless commander Khu-Sobek, is a friend of mine.

And Abram’s joy was made complete as well; I am not lying when I say he leapt for joy when I told him of my newfound devotion to El Elyon and He alone.  For as I visited the altar of Adonai with increasing frequency during Abram’s absence, I began to have revelations there of a God unlike Baal or Asherah.  El is a God who seems too good to be true, for His promises come to us unsought and unpurchased.  He has smiled upon Luz and has blessed us with His protection and with the return of the rains to our land.

Abram and I gathered all of Luz and all of Abram’s household to the Altar of Adonai there before the mountain, and we feasted and danced as we never had before.  The name of Adonai, long forgotten in our world, we remembered and called upon once more.

But not all that we discussed was pleasant, for it was my duty to tell Abram that war was seething in the land.  For twelve years at that time the people of Canaan had been in subjection to Chedorlaomer, who resided far to the northeast in the kingdom of Elam.  Abram was well enough acquainted with the Elamites from his days in Ur, and knew better than I what a fat and greedy overlord was this Chedorlaomer.  Now in the thirteenth year of his tribute from Canaan, rebellion was spreading. 

With the encouragement and support of Mardon, son of mighty Nimrod, Bera king of Sodom and Birsha king of Gomorrah, men I must sadly say are no better than Chedorlaomer, incited the smaller cities to open rebellion, while in their own cities they maintained an outward decorum of submission for the time being.  But Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of the little town of Zoar; these rebelled openly.  Yes, and the whole countryside was full of little villages that began refusing to pay tribute, and stoning to death Chedorlaomer’s messengers.  Mardon had no kingdom of his own, and this I am sure was his scheme to build an empire in Canaan.

In retaliation, the king of Elam and his allies, Armaphel of Shinar, Arioch of Ellasar, and Tidal who is called "king of nations", marched southward and smote the peasants of the land from Ashteroth-Kamaim, to Shaveh-Kirithaim, as far as mount Seir and El-paran, and returning on the East side of the Jordan they smote the Amalekites and the Amorites in towns such as En-mishpat and Hazezon-Tamar.

Inasmuch as these weaker towns were allies of Sodom and Gomorrah, Bera and Birsha were now amassing provisions and sharpening swords and spears for a retaliatory strike which must surely cast the entire land into utter turmoil.

Abram had little to say about these matters, inasmuch as he seemed to be an otherworldly man altogether.  He was content to live off of those lands which were not under dispute, and trusted El Elyon to decide these matters in His own time.

Chapter 21: Hagar

 

Hagar, Sarai's Maidservant

Setting: Genesis 13:1-2

I know not if Senusret suspected that I had been aware of Sarai’s marriage to Abram, but for one reason or another in anger he instructed me to leave with the house of Abram.  I could scarcely have done otherwise, for they left in haste, and my mistress was in need of my help to collect her things and depart without delay.

What an immense spectacle for the people of Egypt, to see this great man Abram leading flocks without number out of the city and into the wilderness, accompanied by all manner of servants and great riches, and his gorgeous wife riding at his side.  What an embarrassment to Senusret, whatever the magicians may say.

I had never before known the life of shepherds, and it was a great challenge for me to maintain a good attitude as we constantly moved through the harsh wilderness, surrounded by sheep and seemingly always in need of more water.  Sarai was a comfort to me then, for she had spent many nights in the wilderness, and seen many lands, and assured me that Adonai would provide, as He always had.

Abram and his wife and his household are a strange people, who serve a strange God.  But it is undeniable that the God is for the people, for they do succeed wherever they go.

Chapter 20: Jabari

Jabari:  Pharoah’s Magician

Setting: Genesis 12:14-20

There is wisdom in what Senusret has done, but only shame on the liar Abram. 

Let Abram keep those many sheep and asses, for it is an abomination to live among such beasts.  The shepherd is always moving from place to place in search of grass, never settling down in one place to build a proper society.  The land of Hapi, of Khnum, Anuket, and Satet, enriched with the blood of Osiris, is not a land for such filthy creatures, but for wheat and barley, flax and spelt, a land of culture and of agriculture, and of beautiful, dignified animals like the ox.  Not like those dirty Abiru who live like the animals they herd.

And let Abram keep his infertile women, and his infertile god, as well.  Good riddance to them all.

It is a testament to Senusret’s divine wisdom that he discovered Abram’s trick, and a testament to his character that he immediately sent the woman back to her husband.  Let future people judge who is righteous, the lying nomad or the good and upright king of Egypt.

Chapter 19: Bastet

Bastet, who is Hagar, Maidservant of Sarai

Setting: Genesis 12:14-20

Extra-biblical Sources: Bereishit Rabbah 40:4

The woman Sarai would be beautiful even in her own land, let alone here where she is a foreigner and so all the more rare.  I suspected upon their arrival that she was indeed the wife of this man Abram, whatever he told our king about her.  The husbands of beautiful foreign women have been known to die when traveling through Egypt, and Abram presumably wished to avoid this outcome. My suspicions were confirmed soon enough, for once Sarai was taken into the harem, I was assigned to be her handmaid.  She so delighted Pharoah that he called me at once and said to me, “go, my daughter, for it is better for you to be a handmaid to Sarai even than to be the head mistress in a great house of Egypt.”  Thus he gave me as a reward to Sarai, for her grace and charm, and renamed me not Bastet but Hagar, which is to say, a reward. We were instant friends, and in her despair she told me everything not many days after her arrival.  If the men of this nation knew even one part in seven of the secrets its women carry in their bosoms, what a different world this would be!  But a secret is safe with a woman not only if she keeps it hidden but even if she tells it plainly, such is the value of a woman’s word in our gates.  Unless her husband trusts and confides in her as an equal.  I have no husband and therefore no risk of being taken seriously by any man. Sarai never treated me harshly.  In fact, she seemed determined to serve me as much as I served her.  This was a source of discomfort and confusion on my part, for it is an unholy thing to the Egyptians for a slave to be treated as a noblewoman.  The cosmos cannot tolerate such upside-down behavior.
On behalf of the beautiful Sarai, Pharoah lavished many gifts upon Abram.  In our land it is understood that once the bride price has been sufficiently paid, the virgin’s guardian will throw as great a feast as a reasonable portion of the dowry will allow, and the marriage will then be properly consummated. I have never seen so many animals in my life as passed from the hand of Pharaoh to Abram.  But what are sheep and oxen and donkeys to Senusret?  He is a man of crops and monuments, not of flocks and herds.  For him, livestock are to be spent in the acquiring of virgin wombs and military allies, and to those ends they are liberally spent. Why El Elyon, the god of Abram and his household, had closed the womb of Sarai she did not know, for she was aware of no great iniquities in herself that might have brought this punishment.  I sought to reassure her that El has no jurisdiction in the land of Montu-Ra and our god-king Senusret.  For whatever prudish god it was that had closed the womb of a woman so beautiful, the gods of Egypt would surely bestow fertility on such a princess.

Yet Sarai clung to the hope that her Abram had not really abandoned her, and that her El Elyon would protect her from harm.  As time went on, there were indications that she was correct in both respects.  Abram tarried long and yet threw no marriage feast, perhaps an indication that he was having second thoughts about abandoning his wife?  Even more disturbingly, from the time that Sarai was brought into the harem and her preparations for the sacred union were begun, there was a remarkable drop in the fertility of the women of Egypt. Knowing as I did that Sarai was barren, it seemed that she had brought this curse with her and spread it like a plague to the women of Egypt.  And yet, how could it be that a curse from El should alight in a land not his?  The frogs of the Nile suffered no infertility; they multiplied so greatly that they filled our land with their rotting corpses.  What was transpiring between El and Heqet?  What did our goddess of fertility mean by blessing her frogs but not our women?  And how could any Chaldean nomad, even if he be wealthy as Abram, cause such a spiritual disturbance in the delta? When Abram tarried long yet threw no marriage feast, Pharaoh became impatient and threw a feast of his own.  Sarai was in dread of what might follow.  One day she would insist that El would not let any man touch her, the next day she was weeping again at the reality of her situation and the marriage which must soon take place. Yet Pharaoh suffered a dream that brought the feast to a sudden halt.  I am told that in his dream, as he lay on his bed at night, Heqet approached him to seduce him.  Yet when he rose from his bed, waking or dreaming he did not know, she struck him so that he fell and was unable to rise.  In consulting with the magicians, Omari and Jabari, it was revealed to him for a certainty that Sarai was Abram’s wife, and that his sin in taking her for himself was the reason why our wombs had been closed.  No woman, no matter how beautiful, is worth trading the fertility of our mother Egypt, and so Senusret wasted no time in expelling Abram and his household, Sarai and her lavish dowry included, from the land.

Chapter 18: Sarai

Sarai, Wife of Abram

Setting: Genesis 12:11-13

Each day our provisions grew lighter until we were certainly not drinking enough water.  The animals became gaunt, the slaves became gaunt, the men became gaunt, and eventually even the women and children among us must suffer thirst.

We passed between Gerar and Beersheba, knowing that surely their wells and wadis must be as dry as bone, and continued on our way to Egypt.

We had come to know the Egyptians in Shechem, who told us many things of their homeland and their Pharaoh.  They told us of Pharaoh's harem, composed of women from every corner of the world, and of his habit of lavishing extravagant gifts upon the families of beautiful young maidens from distant lands, in exchange for their hand in marriage.

What woman is there who is not pleased to think of herself as exceedingly beautiful?  If such a woman exists I think it is because she esteems herself unbeautiful and spurns the vanity of outward appearance in spite. 

We delight to be praised as fair.  Those who would pity me for my “abandonment” by my husband into the harem of Pharaoh should ask themselves in earnest if they would not blush with secret joy to have a husband who esteemed them so beautiful that he feared for his life lest another man kill him to steal such a prize.  Indeed, Abram’s fears were genuine, for his estimation of my beauty knew no rational bounds.  And who am I to say if these fears were valid?  If I say yes, I am being prideful.  If I say no, I am disagreeing with my master.

But know this much, he is a man of sweeping, mountainous, monumental faith, and this above all is why I did not pity myself nor consider myself abandoned by his suggestion that I be introduced only as his sister.

It was in love that my husband esteemed my beauty of great value, and it was by faith that he knew what great riches this arrangement would transfer from a clan of Senusret to the clan of Abram.  But most importantly of all - for you must know that he is a man who sees the image of God even in woman - by faith my master knew that no harm would come to me, and that El would get the glory. 

The man who knows that God owns all things cannot ‘abandon’ anything, for to him all things are always entrusted to God’s care.  Such a man knows that nothing which is dedicated to Adonai is ever truly lost, for He keeps it and sustains it always.  And so Abram allowed me to be taken into Pharaoh’s household not because he did not care if I belonged to another man, but because he knew that I never would.  I am called “my princess” not because of Abram’s jealousy, but because of his confidence.  Not because he is possessive, but because the world and all its glory is indeed His inasmuch as the cosmos is God’s gift to mankind, and I in his eyes the crowning jewel.

I confess, I was not always as confident as my husband in this regard.  I feared lest some attendant of Pharaoh should secretly have his way with me, or lest Pharaoh himself might find the time and energy necessary to consummate the marriage and I be forced to lie with the Egyptian.  He is a man of demonic energy and I feared lest my body ever come into contact with his.

But God protected me.