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At the command of his father, Prince Melchizedek of Shalem trav- eled to the other world to test whether men could remain obedi- ent to  the commands of an eloah with only a trace  of  contact between them.

For protection Melchizedek carried a weapon made by Bat-El her- self. Nothing was remotely like it. It was a staff capable  of ballooning out into the end-point of a portal that terminated in the  heart of the true body of Bat-El.

It could kindle stellar fire.

By snapping out of existence, the bubble could take a  bite  of any object from the head of an enemy to solid rock.

Most spectacularly of all, the portal could envelop  the  staff itself as well as the one who weilded it, and take to flight.

When brandished, the weapon bore clear witness that Bat-El  was no mere figment like the gods that multiplied in the imagination of the men of Earth.

Melchizedek rose  to the surface of Lake Tana and  dragged  his comestibles to the shore. With his staff hy felled and  shaped the ample  trees on hand to build a raft. Hy also possessed  a quantity  of gold to trade with the locals for what supplies  hy consumed.

From the  mouth of the lake it was thirty miles  to  Blue  Nile Falls, a significant obstacle. Melchizedek abandoned his  raft and built a sleeker one below the cataract. On the next leg he shot rapids men considered unrunnable.

Below the rapids Melchizedek sat in his raft and drifted through deserts with no potable water except the river hy floated on. Hy saw ponderous beasts and humans of both sexes who dared not ap- proach. At length hy floated into the place where the Blue Nile merged with the White Nile to become the Nile River proper.

This part of Earth was much warmer than the part of Kemen where Shalem lay, and it took much time for Melchizedek to  learn  to set  the heat into the back of his mind so hy could  sleep  easy without a struggle.

In the Nile delta Melchizedek traded his raft and some gold for camels and supplies to make an overland journey. his destination was the place where the Euphrates and Tigris  rivers  meandered through marshlands and silt islands before merging with the sea. As hy was commanded, Melchizedek remained alert for any man who would suit the purposes of Bat-El. Rather than taking a direct path across  the  Empty  Quarter  Melchizedek  journeyed  north through the fields and towns of Canaan and Lebanon.

At green Harran where the Damascus road forked with the road to Nineveh  Melchizedek overheard a man engaged in a loud  argument with his father. The prince learned the man's name was Avram. He lived a semi-nomadic life on the range lands around Harran while his father Terah lived in the town itself and ran a little shop selling items associated with the worship of multitudinous gods. Terah sold  carved images of dozens of deities but  Avram  com- plained all these idols were meaningless to him.

AVRAM: 

Ophan Melchizedek entered the shop and began to inspect the rack of idols on display. The angry words of father and son dwindled to silence. Melchizedek resembled a tall lad in appearance, but there was an other-worldliness about hym that went  far  beyond that of a mere stranger. After hy had made a complete tour  of the  idolatry shop, Melchizedek begin unpacking his gold on  the edge of the shop facing the street, as though hy were preparing to buy out Terah's entire stock.

As Melchizedek anticipated, this drew the attention of five men who approached Terah's shop with swords drawn. They demanded the gold be handed over to them.

At this time the Staff of Melchizadek made its first appearance to the  men of Earth.

The weapon was the size and shape of a walking staff. But when the hilt was twisted firmly in Melchizedek's hands an  intangi- ble sphere of distorted light emerged from it that could grow to any size. With a simple touch of one of the precious stones on the shaft, whatever the bubble touched simply disappeared with a sharp report as air rushed to fill the sudden gap.

One of the thieves that Melchizedek judged to be the leader was killed with  a  hole punched through the middle  of  his  body. Another thief was decapitated. This was sufficient deterrent to convince  the other three robbers to flee. Yet was not the pur- pose of the prince to kill.

Avram came before Melchizedek and sank to his knees.

MELCHIZEDEK: 

Avram (lifting his eyes to the prince): 

It took Melchizedek a moment to comprehend what Avram said. It was so unexpected.

Avram rose to his feet and took his father gently by the  arms. He undertook to explain his rejection of Daughter's command.

AVRAM: 

Then Avram fulfilled the purpose of his visit. He called in  a servant  and delivered to his father two living lambs  from  his own flocks,  one to kill and eat, and the other to sell  for  a little  money  to buy the things he needed until the  next  time Avram came in from the open range and visited him.

Melchizedek nodded in full understanding. Hy restowed his gold and quietly left the shop. Hy was careful not to tread on  the fortress of human dignity that Avram had asserted with his  re- fusal.

In all his travels, as far as the marshlands in the east  where the rivers  Tigris and Euphrates entered the  sea,  Melchizedek found no one like Avram. In time, he returned home to  Shalem and reported to his father that he had failed.

But it was not the last time Melchizadek and Avram would  meet. A a few years Terah died, and the prince returned to  Earth  to make the offer once more.

Avram means "the father is exalted" which really had  glorified Terah rather than his son. In the ritual that sealed the cove- nant with Binah Melchizedek changed his name to Avraham,  which means "father of many nations". And when Avraham's only son Yi- shak was fourteen years of age Melchizedek gave commandment:

MELCHIZEDEK: 

At first Avraham searched the face of Melchizedek, thinking  it to  be a bad joke. Avraham was tempted to refuse outright as he did  once  before  in Harran, but he  remembered  the  covenant. Melchizidek says God Most High now requires the life of his son? So be it.

AVRAHAM: 

When all was ready Avraham left his flocks grazing on the plains nigh to the coast. There he left his wife and all his servants. With Yishak at his side he was led by Melchizedek into the hills that overlooked the Salt Sea.

On the first night Melchizedek told Avraham to look at the stars and asked  if he could count them.

MELCHIZEDEK: 

Avraham got  the point. He already possessed many animals  and servants and great riches. He did not place his hopes on obtain- ing a better second life. The only new thing God could give Av- raham was  the assurance that his name and his  blood  and  the memory of him as a faithful servant of the living God would  be carried into the indefinite future.

They saw no game along the way, so when they drew near  to  the designated place and Melchizedek pointed out the hill to  them, Yishak wondered  about this aloud.

YISHAK: 

Melchizedek said nothing. Avraham could not bring himself to lie to his son.

AVRAHAM: 

Yishak belived that utterly, and he was excited to see what God was going to bring, so he ran ahead up the hill  with  youthful energy.

AVRAHAM: 

When they caught up with the boy on the hilltop  Yishak  called out.

YISHAK: 

Avraham had a length of rope and was tying loops in it.

AVRAHAM: 

Yishak promptly obeyed his father.

Thus distracted, Melchizadek took the opportunity to seize  the boy. Yishak didn't cry out at first because he didn't understand what was happening until Avraham and Melchizedek had lashed him securely to a flat boulder that would serve as the altar. After that Avraham  didn't need to work up the will to slay  his  own son, he  was actually in a hurry to do it. Every instant  the helpless Yishak lay in mortal terror of his own father tore  at his heart. Avraham couldn't stand it. He raised his blade...

Melchizedek was barely in time to restrain him.

MELCHIZEDEK: 

To be certain, Melchizedek used the Killing Relic to cut the lad free once more. Yishak ran off to a safe distance and turned to face his father.

Avraham's face twisted as he worked through a storm of dark emo- tions. He seemed to arrive at an answer.

AVRAHAM: 

Melchizedek nodded in the affirmative.

MELCHIZEDEK: 

Avraham longed to embrace Yishak but he saw how the  boy  stood well away. Trust, once betrayed like this, could never return. God had ruined his son's love for him. That was the thing Avra- ham sacrificed and it was almost more than he could bear.

AVRAHAM: 

MELCHIZEDEK: <It would be difficult to explain the  full  back- ground of the controversy. It is enough for you to know the ene- my of man has made certain claims and God Most High has  chosen you and your descendants to show them to be false>

AVRAHAM: <What I dread most of all is answering the hard  ques- tions of Sarai after Yishak has spoken to her of all this, which he doubtless will>

Just then a portal appeared on the hilltop. With the crack of a whip a ram rushed through and with a smooth motin with the Staff of Melchizedek the prince removed the head of the animal,  that Avraham may not be proven false in what he had said to his son.

Melchizekek stepped inside the portal and spoke words of  fare- well to Avraham

MELCHIZEDEK: <I will return to Earth once more, when Yishak  is of  age to have his own wife>

Then the fold-space door winked out of existence and Melchizedek was gone  with it.

When Yishak  was seventeen years of age  Melchizedek  journeyed once more  to the town called Harran in the land  of  Abraham's kin.

In Harran  Melchizedek became acquainted with Bethuel,  son  of Milcah and Nahor.

Nahor was Abraham's brother.

In the  household of Bethuel there dwelt a  young  woman  named Rebekah, who was Yishak's first cousin once removed. Eyeing her, Melchizedek told Bethuel it had fallen to him to find a wife for Yishak from among Abraham's kin.

The Ophan could, at need, dispense of Abraham's entire  estate. Of this,  he had brought as much as ten mules could  carry,  as well as precious stones and jewelry from Kemen itself. All these riches he dangled before the eyes of Bethuel, which prompted him to speak.

BETHUEL: <Rebekah, will you go with this man?>

Thus Rebekah was formally asked to take her place in  the  epic set in motion when Bat-El inserted herself into  human  history and commanded Avraham to go to the land of Canaan.

But the display of wealth did not sway Rebekah. She wanted  to know  more about Yishak himself.

So Melchizedek spoke to Rebekah of the time three  years  prior when as a boy Yishak feared losing his life at the point  of  a blade. He remaining carefully vague about the fact that he him- self had relayed the kill order from Bat-El, the eloah known to Avraham  as  El Shaddai and worshiped by him as  his  deity.

Melchizedek told Rebekah how the incident caused Yishak to  de- velop a more profound affection for his mother, while  deliber- ately neglecting  to tell her how Yishak in fact  almost  never left his mother's tent after he barely escaped being sacrificed to his father's god.

The prince used all the statecraft hy had learned at the foot of his father King Melchiyahu. Yet Rebekah did not make her deci- sion on the basis of Melchizedek's testimony of Yishak's person- al character. Melchizedek had presented hymself to Rebekah and her family as courteous, humble, and devout. The gifts were ob- ligatory.

Something still seemed a bit off, but she decided to proceed on a hunch. She judged Melchizedek to be a good man, for a man she thought him to be. Rebekah was very intelligent and it stood to reason that if the servant was a good man (for a simple  servant Melchizedek  held hymself out to be) then his masters,  her  kin Abraham and Yishak, must be good men as well. So she  answered her father Bethuel.

REBEKAH: <I will go>

When Melchizedek returned to the oasis at Be'er  Sheva,  Yishak brought Rebekah into his late mother Sarah's tent and took  her as his wife, and he loved her. So was Yishak comforted after his mother's recent death.

Melchizedek had, in a sense, provided Yishak with a replacement mother.

Rebekah sensed this and felt perhaps a twinge of regret, but she was an honorable woman who had assented to the  marriage  sight unseen.

Then Melchizedek made his final farewell to Abraham.

MELCHIZEDEK: <Behold, Avraham, I am bid to return to the side of my father who  is king in Shalem, but it may come to pass  that your God and mine will send to you and your  descendants  other messengers at his good pleasure. Dwell therefore in this land of promise in great peace and prosperity, and may the blessings of God Most High always be upon you>

Then Melchizedek passed out of all knowledge of those who dwell on Earth, and he came there not again. The task laid upon him by his father to set aside a holy people for Bat-El had been  ful- filled.

In the three and thirtieth year of the Covenant Avraham died and his son Yishak became High Priest of Bat-El. Yishak begat twin sons and named  them Esau  and Yakob. And when he was  of age Yakob, as the younger son by mere moments, took possession of a third of the livestock and  servants belonging to his father. He departed from the lands  north of Mount  Nebo in  modern Jordan where Yishak had  grazed his  flocks from  the time  his father Avraham died.

In the three and sixtieth year of the Covenant Yishak died. Esau buried him in the tomb that held the bones of his grandparents. He left his mother Rebekah in the keeping of his chief steward, then he went out with his flocks and his servants to search for his brother and tell him of the passing of their father.

For three  generations of men  Bat-El and Malkuth  had  carried out a test to see if one clan on Earth could maintain a covenant with the elohim  without any  intervention. Then Emperor Rimmon himself, the human incarnation of Kether, made a journey to Ca- naan to see the place with his own eyes.

Rimmon took little thought for his  personal safety, though  he himself was no longer young by any means. He had heard this Ya- kob  was more the son of his  mother than the son of  his   fa- ther, a  man  who  preferred  the  womanly  arts  of whispering and plotting to more masculine action on the field of the  hunt or battle.

When Rimmon caught up  with Yakob his  animals and  family  and servants were crossing the  Jordan River from  the east  to the west. Already his servants had crossed with  two hundred twenty goats, two hundred twenty  sheep, thirty horses,  fifty cattle, twenty asses, and ten foals, but Yakob hung back  with the rest of his flock as a rearguard against someone he  happened to see by chance.

Yakob hid himself amid thick vegetation near the place where the Zarqa River merged  with the  Jordan River.

When the   stranger approached, unaware of   Yakob's  presence, Yakob  assailed  him without warning. There ensued  a  bitter fistfight that changed into an legendary wrestling match.

The stranger kept grasping Yakob's clothing to hurl him around, so Yakob shed his  clothing and fought  entirely in  the  nude. Then  Rimmon saw how  Abraham's  grandson  bore  the   peculiar genital mutilation  that Malkuth had  demanded as part  of  the Covenant in his bid to sabotage Daughter's experiment.

So Rimmon  had the answer he had come  to Earth   looking  for, but there was still  the growing matter of the ongoing tussle.

As they fought Yakob kept asking, 'Who are you?' but Rimmon re- fused to identify himself.

As the night wore on hy grew dismayed how Yakob proved to be so tenacious. Rimmon wrenched Yakob's femur out of its socket  at the  hip,  causing intense torment, but still Yakob  refused  to yield.

At dawn Rimmon was at the end of his own resources and near ex- haustion. He commanded Yakob to let him go.

YAKOB: <I will not release you until you bless me>

RIMMON: <No longer shall men  call you  Yakob, but Yisrael, for you have contended with elohim and men, and you have prevailed>

Then Yakob unhanded the bruised emperor.

Rimmon demanded Bat-El produce a portal to allow him to  return to Kemen, and she immediately obeyed, but Rimmon did not return. Instead, Kether detached the link to Rimmon and  retracted  it. When Bat-El closed the portal there was no obstruction. It was as though  the fold-space door was a hatch on a  ship  that  no longer had a rope passing through it.

Bat-El did not learn until centuries later that the living ava- tar of Kether actually remained behind on Earth. Incommunicado, Rimmon wiggled into covering vegetation like a maggot  to  lick his wounds.

Three of Yisrael's sons found their father beaten and unable to stand, with a  dislocated hip. Two of them held him down with a bit between his  teeth while the third popped it  back in place. With help he was able  rejoin his wives,  but he walked  with a limp for the rest of his life.

Esau drew near with his men. Yisrael put forth his four children with their two mothers, then passed in front of  them and bowed before his brother. Esau embraced and kissed him, and revealed the death of their father, and they both wept.

Yisrael begged his brother to accept the gift of herd animals he had already sent to him.

YISRAEL: <Take them please, my lord, because God Most  High has dealt graciously with me, and I have enough. More than enough!>

Esau accepted the gifts and assured Yisrael that none of his men gave Yisrael his  beating. Then he ventured  on ahead  because Yisrael had children and young animals and now a limp, and he could not travel very fast.

Yisrael would ponder the strange nighttime fight for the rest of his life, whenever his limp prompted him. Ultimately he drew the conclusion that God had sent  a thrall to  put him to  the test even as his grandfather had  been tested with an order to  slay his father Yishak.

Esau continued in all the ways  of a wanderer passed  down from his grandfather Avraham to  his father Yishak to   himself. He traversed the land  with  his people,  and  his flocks  greatly increased.

But Yisrael began  to  tarry  in the  hill  country between the river and the sea where  few inhabitants  dwelt at that partic- ular time.

On a hilltop Yisrael built an altar unto God  Most High, and he named  that place  Beit-El, or  House  of God.

Yisrael and his servants built  a courtyard  around the  altar, and  ringed this open area  with houses of  mud brick  laid  on  stone  foundations. And the hillside  was terraced  for  crops. Trees were planted bearing olives  and fruits,  but the animals were set to graze freely nearby.

Yisrael begat a daughter named  Dinah, and he begat three sons: Levi, Yudah, and Yosef.

When he was of age Yudah departed Beit-El and taking his inher- itance of   servants and animals he  built the town  of  Hebron near the tomb of his grandfather.

When Yosef departed with his  inheritance of servants  he  beat down the  tower  of Rabbah, and the  men of that  fenced   city came out before them, but Bat-El dicomfited them before   Yosef with stones of ice from heaven and he slew more of the males of Rabbah  than Yosef and his  servants did with the edge  of   the word.

And the servants  of  Yisrael  who  dwelt  among   them   begat sons and  daughters  of  their own,  but  they  were  free, and the  same intermarried with the children of Yisrael,  and  they became one covenant people in the eyes of God Most High.

Yudah son of Yisrael took to wife Mahlah daughter  of Shuah and begat Zerah and Perez. The same Perez led a force that slew the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and killed of them a  hundred men. And Perez begat Yamin,  who became head of the  clan  of Ben Yamin, the Sons of Yamin.

The Ben  Yaminites  built the  cities of  Gibeon and   Ai,  and seized Jericho and Gilgal. The tribe occupied the high country around Beit-El even  as far  as the  river in  the East  in the Valley of Salt.

Yosef  begat  Machir, who begat Becher. The same Becher led  a company   to waylay the men  of Juttah, and smote  their  horses and chariots, and slew the Juttahites with a great slaughter.

Becher son of Machir took to wife Jashiel daughter of Eran  the Bashanite, and he begat  Ahlai. The same Ahlai as  captain led a large company against Hannathon, and burnt  with fire a third of the houses in the  midst of  the  city, and  smote a   third of the inhabitants with the edge of the sword, and scattered  a third of the inhabitants  to the wind.

Ahlai begat Azubab. The same Azubab became head of the clan of Ephraim. The Ephraimites possessed the hills north of  Beit-El even to  Mount Ebel  and Mount  Gerizim,  and  the   Yisraelite city  of Shiloh waxed strong,  but they did  not lay  seige  to Shechem  after the inhabitants of that city paid five talents in gold as tribute to Azubab.

Zerah son of  Yudah took  to wife  Parah daughter  of Avim  the Janumite. and he begat Zimri, who smote the Canaanites of  Me- theg-ammah,  subdued  them,  and took the  town  out  of  their hands.

And Zimri begat Abinadab, who took to wife Maachah daughter  of Shion. The same Abinadab became head of the clan of Yudah. The Yudahites built the cities of  Eglon  and  Lachish, and  seized the cities of Jarmuth and  Jebus, but  the five strong   cities of  the Philistines  that lay  on the  coast  they  could   not possess, namely Ashkelon, Gaza, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron.

Yisrael's son Levi remained  in Beit-El and  was taught  of his father in all the ways of the Abrahamic Covenant, that he might become high priest  after the  passing of  his father.

Yisrael lived to see his family  grow to  seventy persons,  and when he died there was no single  patriarch  holding  authority over all his descendants. But the seed of Levi scattered  among their kin as a priestly tribe and became  dependent upon   them for  necessities. The house of Levi became the the  glue  that united the clan.

In the nine and ninetieth  year of the Covenant  Yisrael   died and was laid  in the  cave of  Machpelah that housed the  bones of his ancestors.

In those days Hamon, the human incarnation of Bat-El, came   to Levi  in Beit-El.

HAMON: <I am Hamon, the messenger and servant of God Most High. Rehearse in my hearing the Seven Words of the Covenant of  your fathers>

LEVI: <Serve only God Most High. Make no images. Slay no inno- cent. Have no intercourse without a deed of marriage. Steal no property. Consume no blood. Every male of you shall be circum- cised>

HAMON: <You have spoken  well. The same words  you shall write in this scroll>

And Hamon produced the Scroll of Laylah, enscribed on an ageless sheet of papyrus known only in Kemen and bleached white.

HAMON: <I am  bid to utter new commandments God Most  High  now communicates to you, and these you shall add to the scroll, for they and the commandments that come after them shall be binding upon all  the children of Yisrael:  The office of  high  priest shall pass from father to son. Make an ark of wood for the Book of the Covenant. On the Day of Atonement the children of Yisrael shall do no work and take no food or water. On the Day of Atone- ment kill a young bullock on the altar, take the blood of   the bullock and draw it upon the  ark of  the  Covenant with   your finger as a  sin offering>

When Hamon saw  that Levi  had faithfully  recorded all   these ordinances in  the  Book  of the  Covenant  he gave his  bless- ing to  Levi in the name of God Most High  and  departed   from Beit-El.

Then Levi took to wife Adinah of Harran, and the eldest son  of  Levi was named  Kohath. In the one hundred seven and  twentieth year of the Covenant Levi slept with his fathers and Kohath be- came high priest unto God Most High.

Then Hamon again  came to  Beit-El, but he  gave his   name  as  Sabaoth,  a  messenger of God Most High. He presented  himself before Kohath  the high priest and gave unto  him  a  pouch  of leather.

SABAOTH: <Contained herein is the Urim, a white stone with black letters, and the Tumim, a black stone with white letters. They are smooth  stones which are identical in size and  shape,  and indeed, if you reach into the pouch, which thing only the  High Priest may do, and that only on the Day  of Atonement, it  will seem as though the pouch contains only  a single stone. Write ye,  then, this ordinance in the White Scroll: On the   Day  of Atonement   the high  priest shall inquire  of God Most High  by means of the Urim and Tumim>

And when Kohath had written these words on the  scroll  Sabaoth spoke again.

SABAOTH: <To  inquire of God Most  High by  means of the   Urim and the  Tumim is a  signal honor, but attend   most  carefully that you do not frame your words  in such a way  as to mock the Lord. For God Most High will himself strike  down   that  high priest who holds him in contempt>

With this  warning Hamon  departed from Beit-El,  and  he  dis- carded the name Sabaoth,  lest  the children  of  Yisrael  take the malakim, the  messengers  of  God Most  High,  to  be   im- mortal themselves and began to fashion images of them.

On the subsequent Day  of Atonement Kohath  prayed to  God Most High thus:

KOHATH: <Lord, let it come to pass that if the Ark of the Cove- nant  should be kept in a  sanctuary, give  Urim, but  if  not, give Tumim>

Then he  reached into  the pouch  and withdrew a   black  stone with white  letters. Kohath had his answer from God. This he wrote in the Book of the Covenant: Build a Sanctuary for the Ark of the Covenant.

Then was assembled  the Tent  of Meeting,  and the  ark of  the Covenant, a box of wood which held the Book of the Covenant and the Urim and the Tumim,  were secreted within.

In subsequent  years  five new commandments were   conveyed  to Kohath   by means of the  Urim and Tumim: The high priest  alone shall enter the Sanctuary. Do not enter the Sanctuary outside of the Day of Atonement. Do not permit the Sanctuary to go un- watched. Do not enter the Sanctuary with torn raiment. No priest shall defile himself by contact with the dead.

And Hamon judged this arrangement  to be  excellent. The Cove- nant  had   become a  living  thing  with both   humanity   and what they took to be divinity working in full cooperation.

In those days Kohath took to wife Beriah daughter  of Libni the Shamirite and his eldest son was named Amram. In the one hundred eight and fiftieth year of  the Covenant Kohath slept  with his fathers and Amram became high priest unto God Most High.

Machir son of Yosef begat Heman and Gilead. The same Gilead and a brigade of men fell upon the Canaanite city of Beit-horon and smote three  hundred  of the defenders  in battle.

And Gilead begat Jeezer, who became head of the clan of  Manes- seh. And the Manessehites took possession of the coastlands  at Dor. They held Tirzah and Gileed nigh to Mount Gilboa, and all that land from the river north to Megiddo.

Heman the second son of Machir took  to wife  Tolah daughter of  Achar  the Kenahite. He begat Eshean, who became head  of   the clan of Naphtali.

The  Naphtalites overthrew King Jabin at Hazor and  siezed  the cities of Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph. They occupied all  the lands nigh to Mount Merom and took tribute  from all the  towns north of  Lake Chin nereth as far as  Kedesh and  Leshem. But they were ever assailed  by the Amorites from the east.

Shimma the  second   son of Ahlai became head of  the  clan  of Asher. The Asherites seized the city of Achshaph,  which  name means sorcery. Shimma named the city anew as Kisson. But that tribe did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko on the   coast, and their men of war were turned away from the fenced  city  of Sidon.

Seled the second son of Zimri took to  wife Keilah daughter  of Mushi and begat Bezaleel. The same Bezaleel became head of  the clan of  Reuben.

The Reubenities contended with  the Amorite King Shihon of  the city of Hesbon for the lands nigh to the Salt Sea  under  Mount Peor and seized  Jahaz and Dibon to the east. To the south lay Ammon, and the western fence was the lands of the tribe of  Ben Yamin.

Ozem the  second son of Bechir took to wife Hazah  daughter  of Shupham and begat Uri. The same Uri became head of the clan  of Shimeon.

The Shimeonites grazed  their flocks nigh to Beersheba even  as Father  Abraham and Yishak had once done, and built oasis  towns in the wilderness  south of the  hill country,  yet their lands were  entirely  fenced in  by the Yudahites,  and even  in  the latter days the Shimeonites numbered  the smallest   among  all the tribes of the children of Yisrael.

Helek the  secon son of Gilead took to  wife Abez  daughter  of Jaleel and begat Oren, who became head  of the clan of of  Zebu- lun. Oren strengthened himself,  and led  forth  valiant   men with their chariots to the valley of Jezreel where they smote a thousand of the  city  of  Shimron,  and  drove off  much   cat- tle. And  the Zebulunites dwelt in all that  land  even  unto Mount Carmel.

Gibeah the second son of  Heman took to wife  Taanath  daughter of Janum the Dumahite and begat Segub who became head chieftain of the clan  of Gad.

The Gadites  dwelt along the river Jordan  from  the  Salt  Sea north to Lake Chinnereth, and their chief cites were Jazer  and Succoth on  the River  Jabbok. The city of Ramoth-gilead   lay furthest to the east of any possessed by the children  of  Yis- rael.

Ethan second son  of Jeezer took  to wife Azeakah daughter   of Nethaneel the Aphekite and begat Hammath, who became head of the clan of Issachar.

The Issacharites took possession of the roads and fields of the vale of Jezreel nigh to Mt Tabor and the Hill of Moreh, yet the feet and chariots of many armies  crossed through,  and  seldom did they know peace.

In the fulness of time the clans of the children of Yisrael wax- ed strong, and became tribes. And the tribes  of  all the chil- dren of Yisrael numbered twelve.