2003: Avrom is 55 years old; Noach is 947; 347 years after the Mabul.
Following the Eternal’s command, Avrom goes from Choron to Eretz Canaan together with his wife, Soray.
For the coming 15 years he travels between Choron and Eretz Canaan to
1 Enoki: cf. Enki ’the Lord of the Earth’ in the Shumerian mythology; the Shumerian precedent of
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accomplish his task.
Terach, Nochor and Lot stay in Choron.
Tzoan Mitzrayim (םירצמ ןעצ, ‘Tanis’ סינאט, סינט, י"וגרת)1 is built, seven years after Chevron (Bamidbor 13:22). This is the most important town in Mitzrayim, the royal capital (cf. Yishayoh 30:4), built by Chom for his second son seven years after he has built Chevron for his youngest son, Canaan ( ,ג"י רבדמב י"שר
כ
"
ב ).
2006: Avrom is 58 years old; 350 years after the Mabul.
Noach dies at the age of 950 years.
2008: Avrom is 60 years old.
After paying tributes during 12 years, the towns of the Jordan Valley (Sdom, Amoroh etc.) stand up against Kedorloomer. They will be in revolt against him for the coming 13 years (Beraishis 14:4).2
2013: Avrom is 65 years old.
Hearing about the revolt, Nimrod tries to subyugate his former general, Kedorloomer. With an army of 7.000 soldiers, he goes into battle against the 5.000 people of Kedorloomer. In the battle which takes place in the valley of Bovel, between Elom and Shinear, he is defeated (י"הס).
Kedorloomer concludes an alliance with the kings of the surrounding countries:
Akkadian Ea; he „creates” the humans they should work instead of the g-ds.
1 Tzoan: the town Tanis (Egy. Da’ne[t], Ass. Si’inu, Sa’anu, today San), situated in the delta of the Nile, becomes the royal capital during the reign of RAMSES III (1184-1153 BCE, 20th Dynasty) and his successors, the pharaohs of the 21-23rd Dynasties. In the time of the prophet Yishayoh, in the 8th century BCE, it was surely, but he lived about thousand years after Avrohom! Generally, Tzoan means Lower-Egypt. The Targums render, beside Tzoan, the towns On (see 2229) and Pisom (see 2340) also as Tanis.
Just to remember: when founding the Middle Empire (11th and 12th Dynasties, 2040-1786 BCE), a new capital has been constructed: Thebes in Upper-Egypt. The Old-Egyptian name of the town was Uasset; Gr. Thebai, name of presumabely Pelasgian origin, meaning ’a fortified hill’; today Luxor.
2 Cf. 1996.
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with Aryoch (ךוירא)1, king of Elossor (רסלא)2 and Sidol (לעדת)3, king of Goyim (םיוג)4 (ד"הס).
2018: Avrom is 70 years old, 362 years after the Mabul.
•••• Nissan 15, Pessach (ד"כ א"רדפ): the Covenant between the parts ( ןב תירב םירתבה; Beraishis 15:9-21).
According to others (אמוחנת), it took place in the year 1996, during the building of the Tower of Bovel, when Avrom was 48 years old. And from the Torah it looks like it happened after the War of the Kings.
It is written in the Torah (Shemos 12:41), that the Bnai Yisroel stay in Mitzrayim 430 years, while here the Eternal promises 400 years of slavery. These 400 years has to be computed from Yitzchok’s birth, when Avrohom is 100 years old.
This means that this Covenant had been concluded thirty years earlier, when Avrom was 70 years old (ד"י ,ג"כ ר"בדמב ;ע"ס).
The Eternal enters into a covenant with Avrom between the parts of three times three animals (heifer, female goat and ram) cut in two, and a turtledove and a young pigeon (Beraishis 15:9). The animals symbolize the sacrifices what the Bnai Yisroel will bring ulteriorly to the Bais hamikdosh (ז"י ,ד"מ ר"ב).
The animals also symbolize the four empires which will one day rule over the Bnai Yisroel:
► the heifer (הלגע) symbolizes Rome,
► the female goat (זע) symbolizes Greece,
► the ram (ליא) symbolizes the Mede-Persian empire,
1 Aryoch: according to modern identification, he can be Rim-Aku, the Elamite king of Larsa.
2 Elossor: according to modern identification, Akkadian Larsa, today Senkereh, 28 miles North-East of Ur.
3 Sidol: according to modern identification, he can be Tudhula mentioned on later Babylonian tablets.
4 Goyim: according to modern identification, they can be the Gutus (cf. Gutium in Kurdistan). Others say, the name has been corrupted from a Babylonian or Elamite king’s name. According to RASHI, the name of an (unidentified) place.
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► the turtledove (רת, in loshon hakodesh 'turtledove', but in Aramaic 'stir') symbolizes Bovel,
► finally the young pigeon (לזוג) symbolizes the Bnai Yisroel (ח"כ א"רדפ).
The Eternal promises that
► although, according to the stars, Avrom can not have any children, he will have as much descendants as the stars in heaven (Beraishis 15:5): the Bnai Yisroel are not under the rule of the stars (ו"נק תבש).
An other verse in the Torah (Beraishis 22:17) compares the number of his descendants to that of the sand on the sea-shore: if they will heed to the commands of the Eternal, people will look up to them as to the stars; but if not, they will be walked over as the sand of the earth;
► his descendants will inherite the land of Canaan, expulsing from there the ten peoples living there: seven in the times of Yehoshuah, the other three when Moshiach will come (ח"י ,ו"ט ג"הדמ);
► this will, however, be preceded by 400 years of slavery in a foreign land (Beraishis 15:13): the Eternal shows to Avrom the slavery in Mitzrayim, and also the four subsequent exiles: the Babylonian, Mede-Persian, Greek, Roman ones (ז"י ,ד"מ ר"ב);
► where they will ultimately be liberated from and come out with great wealth (Beraishis 15:14): the fourth generation (Beraishis 15:16).
Iyov (בויא) is born: he is the son or the grandson of Nochor’s firstborn, Utz ( ןבא א בויא ארזע
,
א ). According to others (א ,א בויא י"שר), he is Utz himself.
Other opinions concerning Iyov:
► the „Sefer Iyov” is only a moshol, a parable;
► Iyov lived in Yaakov’s days and married the latter’s daughter, Dinoh: as Iyov was born circumcised, Dinoh was willing to marry him. They had four sons and
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three daughters. Iyov was very rich and lived until Yossef’s death ( ג"ס חלשיו ר"לי ער
"
א );
► Iyov was born when Yaakov descended to Mitzrayim, he lived 210 years, and died when the Bnai Yisroel came out from Mitzrayim ( ימלשורי ;א"כ ר"ומש ;ז"נ ר"ב
► he was one of Paroh’s counselors, and the calamities are the punishment for the wicked counsel he gave to Paroh (ו"ק ןירדהנס ;א"י הטוס). Others say ( שדקה רזנ
► he is Yovov ben Zerach who, four years before the Exode, is elected king of Edom (ג ןמז ה רמאמ ןיסחוי);
► he lives in the days of Achashverosh (R. Yehosuah ben Korcha);
► a descendant of Avrohom, he lives in Arabia (איברע), in the land Shevoh and
in the land of Edom, South-East of Eretz Yisroel (ק"הש ;ן"במר). However, the Targum renders Utz as Armenia, what is Asia Minor. Besides, Also according to the Targum, he has been burried in Constantinople (אניטנאטסנוק; in the Targum Edom’s town in Armenia): it can well be that he went to live there from
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his birth place, Aram Naharaim (ד"הס).1
Avrom returns to Choron to visit his father and other relatives: he spends there five years (י"הס ;ע"ס).
According to others (ו"כ א"רדפ), it is at this moment that he goes from Ur Casdim to Choron: this however had to happen earlier, in the year 2000.
2021: Avrom is 73 years old, 365 years after the Mabul (ז תוכרב תופסות).
Kedorloomer, king of Elom and his allies (Aryoch king of Elossor and Sidol king of Goyim) and also Amrofel king of Shinear (he is Nimrod, defeated earlier by Kedorloomer), four kings wage war (םיכלמה תמחלמ) against the five revolting kings of the Dead-Sea region. The name of the five kings are: Bera (ערב) king of Sdom, Birsha (עשרב) king of Amoroh, Shinov (בנאש) king of Admoh, Shemever (רבאמש) king of Tzevoim and Bela (עלב) king of Tzoar (Beraishis 14:1-2).2
The four kings, who will be finally defeated by Avrom, symbolize the four kingdoms what will later subyugate the Bnai Yisroel; while Avrom’s victory alludes to the fact that – with the Eternal’s help – finally it will be the Bnai Yisroel to win.
► the first one is Amrofel = Nimrod: Bovel (Daniel 2:38);
► the second one is Elossor: presumabely a town in Moday;
► the third one is Elom: it will be there that the king of Yovon, Alexander Mokdon, will reign for six years, and thereafter – after having defeated Daryovesh – will extend his dominion over the entire world (י ז"ע);
►the fourth one is Goyim: Rome, what will reign over many peoples (ן"במר).
1 Iyov: according to the apocryphic „Iyov’s testament” - a pseudoepigraphic Jewish text, composed presumabely in the first century BCE, written originally in Hebrew or in Aramaic, but preserved only in Greek translation - he was a king of Egypt.
2 Cf. 2047.
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The Eternal’s intention is with the whole warfare is that, as a result of the war, all of their belongings should finally come into Avrom’s possession.
The army of Kedorloomer and his allies numbers alltogether 800.000 [!] men.
The decisive battle takes place in Aimek hasidim (םידסה קמע): the revolting kings are defeated.
Lot with all his belongings is taken captive (Beraishis 14:12).
The giant Og brings the news to Avrom who at that moment is baking matzos for Pessach (ב"י ,ב"מ ר"ב). According to others (ז"כ א"רדפ), the Archangel Michoel informs Avrom.
The name of the giant takes its origin from the word ugah (הגע) ’cake’: he makes as if he would be interested in the mitzvoh of baking matzos, and intended to convert.
Og hopes that Avrom will try to liberate Lot, but will be killed and so he, Og, can marry Soray (ח ,ב"מ ר"ב).
Avrom goes into battle accompanied by his 318 trained servants (Beraishis 14:14):
the Sages criticize him, as the latters are suspending Torah-learning when going to war. According to others (ב"ל םירדנ ;י ךל אמוחנת), it is only Eliezer who goes with him: the gematrioh of the latter’s name is 318: the force of Avrom’s all 318 followers is given to Eliezer by the Eternal.1
•••• Nissan 15: the Eternal divides the night of Pessach (Beraishis 14:15). The half of it is for Avrom’s victory, while the other half will be reserved for the Exode (Shemos 12:29; ז"כ א"רדפ).
Avrom defeats the army of the four victorious kings, and liberates Lot.
However, he does not accept anything of the spoil that the king of Sdom should
1 The „Sefer haYoshor” brings both traditions: in ךל ךל 'פ the latter, in שגיו 'פ the former.
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not say, Avrom became rich through him (Beraishis 14:23). He only takes the wages of his allies: Mamray (ארממ) the emori and his brothers, Eshkol (לכשא) and Onair (רנע; Beraishis 14:24) who were taking care of his belongings during the battle.
Avrom restitutes to the king of Sdom the latter’s liberated subjects. However, he retains by him the children whom he teaches the knowledge of the Eternal ( ר"ב
מ (ב"ל םירדנ). The priesthood was anyway to be inherited by Avrom’s descendants but, in this way, the heritage came to them on Avrom’s right and not of that of Malki Tzedek’s.
Avrom gives tithe to Malki Tzedek of the spoil (Beraishis 14:18-20) and of Lot’s possessions (א"מ א"ח ש"לי ;ז"כ א"רדפ.
2023: Avrom is 75 years old (Beraishis 12:4).
The Eternal orders Avrom „...Get out from your country...” (ךל ךל; Beraishis 12:1): although not born in Choron, he settled there with his family, therefore the Torah says „...Get out from your country...”.
The purpose of this changing the dwelling-place is to gain more people to the Eternal’s service, and to can have children (א ,ב"י י"שר ;ג ךל אמוחנת).
This is already the second time that the Eternal orders him „Lech lecho”, „...Get out from your country...”: the first time was twenty years earlier, what made Avrom to leave Ur Casdim (י"הס), i.e. Cuta (see above).
The Eternal does not tell him where to go, that the challenge should be greater
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(ט"קל). According to others (י"הס), the Eternal tells him that he has to go to Eretz Canaan.
Avrom, together with his wife, his nephew Lot and the people whom he gained for the Eternal’s service, go again to Eretz Canaan (Beraishis 12:5): Chevron is 17 days walk from Choron.
He spends 25 years in Chevron, travelling back and forth in the Land (Beraishis 12:9): through this, he takes possession of the land according to the halochoh (ג"י ,א"מ ר"ב).
Avrom’s father, Terach and also his brother, Nochor stay in Choron.
In those days, an especially beautiful, but very poor man from the Land Shinear, by the name Rakoyon (ןויקר), who was well dressed in all the sciences, goes to Mitzrayim to offer his services to the king Ashverosh ben Ainom ( ןב שורושא םנע).1 As the people can see their king only one day in a year, and as he has to gain his life in the meanwhile also, Rakoyon with a few armed people occupies the cemetery and – pretending acting in the name of the king – he allows the deads to be burried only after the family pays a „tax” to him. When the next year people complain about this before the king, the latter orders Rakoyon should be brought before him. The compelled however appears in the royal palace accompanied by his men bringing rich presents to the king.
Consequently, he is made a king over the whole Land Mitzrayim, and is even given a new name: Paroh (הערפ; ‘you made the deads to pay’2). During the whole year, it is Rakoyon who rules over the town, Ashverosh himself rules only
1 Ashverosh: the name given in the „Sefer haYoshor” is curiously similar to the name of Ahashverosh in the „Megilas Esther”. Cf. for example the renderings of the French LAROUSSE: Assuérus ’the name of the Persian king Xerxes I quoted in the Biblical Book of Esther’; and Ahashverush ’the name of the legendary figure of the wandering Jew (le juif errant)’.
2 Paroh: the word taken over to the European languages through Greco-Latin intermediaries as Pharaoh, takes its origin from the Old Egyptian per a'a ’big house’, designating the royal court and, later, the king himself from the 18th Dynasty (New Empire) on.
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one day a year. From this day on, the king of Mitzrayim is called Paroh (י"הס).1 2026: Avrom is 78 years old, he lives in Eretz Canaan since 3 years.
Reu dies at the age of 239 years.
2030 c.: Avrom is 82 years old, he lives in Eretz Canaan since 7 years.
Avrom goes to Mitzrayim2 with his whole household and his nephew, Lot, because of the famine in Eretz Canaan (Beraishis 12:10). This was the first famine since the creation of the world, and it striked only Eretz Canaan.
Although Avrom hids Soray in one of the luggages, she is discovered by the Mitzri border-guards and taken to Paroh’s house (Beraishis 12:14-15): this happens Pessach by night (ו"כ א"רדפ).
Soray pretends being Avrom’s sister (Beraishis 12:13): this is not a lie as a niece can be called a sister (ב"י ,ב"י ג"הדמ).
Paroh, in the intention to marry Soray, sends rich presents to Avrom (Beraishis 12:16); and to Soray, besides other presents, as an engagement he gives a land-property (act confirmed by a legal contract): the province Goshen (ו"כ א"רדפ).3 Now Soray tells Paroh that Avrom is her husband, but the king insists to force
her to marry him.
Therefore, the Eternal gives a punishment to Paroh and his whole household
1 The story told by the „Sefer haYoshor” show several surprising similarities to the transition from the 11th to the 12th Dynasties. After the collapse of the Old Empire, during the first transition periode, the land is divided into three parts, reunited finally by MENTUHOTEP I (2134-2118 BCE), the first ruler of the 11th Dynasty in Thebes. Towards the end of the periode, the former vizir, seizing the control over the whole country, rules under the name AMENEMHAT I (1991-1962 BCE), and founds the new 12th Dynasty. He constructs a new capital South of Cairo, near today’s List, the town is called Itj-Taui (’Conqueror of the two Lands’). And although the title Pharaoh comes to be used only later, let us remember that the non-Jewish stories (e. g. the Punic wars etc.) are not always presented with chronological exactitutde.
2 In Beni Hassan, situated about 300 kms South of Cairo, a wall painting made around 1900 BCE has been discovered in a grave. According to the inscription, the painting represented Egyptian border-guards in white „uniform” accompanying a semitic group dressed in colored clothes. The men and women are going by foot, the children and the packages are carried by donkeys.
3 See 2238.
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(Beraishis 12:17): they are inflicted by the most severe of the 24 kinds of leprosy (תערצ), this symbolizes the last of the ten plagues what will also be inflicted on the Mitzriim Pessach by night (ו"ט ןיכרע ;ו"כ א"רדפ ;ה ךל אמוחנת ;ב ,א"מ ר"ב).
Paroh gives new presents to Avrom, giving him also one of his daughters, Hogor (רגה) – a descendant of Chom (ב ,ה"מ ר"ב) -, born from a concubine. He says to her: it is better for you to be a maidservant in the house of this holy man, than to be a lady in mine (י"הס). According to others (ב ןמז ה רמאמ ןיסחוי), the widow queen, ruling instead of her minor son heir to the throne, after the death of her husband, the Paroh named Totis,1 gives her maidservant Hogor, to Soray.
Paroh sends away Avrom from Mitzrayim together with his family, accompanying him four steps. As a reward, Avrom’s descendants are supposed to serve him for 400 years.
Afte three months, Avrom returns from Mitzrayim to Eretz Canaan, and settles near the altar erected earlier by him between Bais Kel (ל-ק תיב) and Ai (יע;
Beraishis 13:3).
Avrom separates himself from Lot, being ashamed by the behavior of his nephew who, although he acquired his great wealth in Avrom’s merit, does not turn with his whole heart to the Eternal, he rather puts his confidence into idols. Besides, it is a permanent source of conflicts with local herdsmen, that Lot’s herdsmen take regularly their cattle on the fields of others (Beraishis 13:5-9).
Lot settles in Sdom, a town ill-famed because of its wicked inhabitants (Beraishis 13:10-12): he hopes to enlarge his wealth in the rich town (ח"ק ;י ןירדהנס).
Lot marries someone from Sdom: Iris (תיריע; א"רדפ םשב ו"כ ,ט"י 'ארב םירוטה לעב
1 Totis: there is no Pharaoh called Totis in the extant Egyptian king-lists. The name eventually remembers not a concrete Pharaoh, rather the Egyptian g-d of wisdom, Thot, who by times personnifies even the Moon. Other names sounding „similar” can be Thot (Sehemre-Sementaui of the 17th Dynasty, 1644-43 BCE) ruling in Thebes subordonated to the Hyksos; or one of the four Pharaohs of the 12th Dynasty ruling during the New Empire, by the name Thotmes.