Library of Universal History and Popular Science, Vol. 2 of 25: Containing a Record of the Human Race From the Earliest Historical Period to the Present Time (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Library of Universal History and Popular Science, Vol. 2 of 25: Containing a Record of the Human Race From the Earliest Historical Period to the Present Time

Hebrews, meaning strangers from the other side, the men who had crossed the river, the emigrants from Mesopotamia. J our neying through the Syrian desert he tarried for some time at Damas cus, which was then an old city. At Damascus he met his faithful servant Eliezer, whom he created steward of his house. Thence he passed on to the south, crossing the Jordan and entering the Prom ised Land, halting in the valley of Sichem, or Shechem. The Hebrew record goes on to say: And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto the Dord, who appeared unto him. Abram proceeded unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.

This country - then called Canaan, from one of Ham's sons, whose descendants had peopled it, and afterwards known as Judasa, and now called Palestine - was inhabited by many idolatrous tribes. Abram settled in the mountain region, where he was secure from the Canaan ites, who dwelt in the more fertile plains below, but where he had but scant pasturage for his cattle. He pushed on farther southward, but was driven by a famine into Egypt. Fearing that the Pharaoh who then reigned over Egypt would be tempted by Sarai's beauty to kill him to get her in his possession, Abram passed her off as his sister. Thinking that she was an unmarried woman, the Egyptian monarch took her to his house, and bestowed wealth and honors upon Abram with a lavish hand. But says the Mosaic account: The Lord plagued Pharoah and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharoah 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 I might have taken her to me to wife; now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. And Pharoah commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

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