race

On a former occasion too, I sent you a record of the facts which I thought worth relating about the Jewish race,--the record which I had obtained from the most learned high priests of the most learned land of Egypt.

Since the law which we wish not only to transcribe but also to translate belongs to the whole Jewish race, what justification shall we be able to find for our embassy while such vast numbers of them remain in a state of slavery in your kingdom?

After a brief interval, while I was offering up an earnest prayer to God that He would so dispose the mind of the king that all the captives might be set at liberty--(for the human race, being the creation of God, is swayed and influenced by Him.

He replied, 'If they see you studying the interests of the multitudes over whom you rule; you will do well to observe how God bestows his benefits on the human race, providing for them health and food and--all other things in due season.'

And he replied, 'By observing that the human race increases and is born with much trouble and great suffering: wherefore you must not lightly punish or inflict torments upon them, since you know that the life of men is made up of pains and penalties. For if you understood everything you would be filled with pity, for God also it pitiful!

'By being fair to all men,' he replied, 'and by appearing to be inferior rather than superior to those amongst whom he was traveling. For it is a recognized principle that God by His very nature accepts the humble. And the human race loves those who are willing to be in subjection to them.'

For observing how God provides for the human race, granting them health and mental capacity and. all other gifts, he himself should follow His example by rendering to men a recompense for their arduous toil. For it is the deeds that are wrought in righteousness that abide continually!

O mother of the race, vindicator of our Law, defender of our religion, and winner of the prize in the struggle within thyself!

All those will be astonished that see me. For from another race am I:

And I said unto them: 'The throne of the Mighty One I cannot resist; Nevertheless, there shall not be wanting to Israel a wise man Nor a son of the law to the race of Jacob.

In that there rose up against them a man that was alien to our race.

And watery clouds; and then, another race

And then indeed the race was multiplied

Had honor, since they were the earliest race.

God formed another very subtile race

And after these a third strong-minded race

Appeared, a race of overbearing men

And from these afterward another race

Were in the fourth race; much the blood they spilled,

And later yet another race much worse

The whole race I will utterly destroy

When Eve's polluted race, in the great earth

First rise up, and thou first another race

Until to judgment every race of men

Shall be a care. O first race of sixth age!

Self-growing, yielding much corn for the race.

Shall they have honor, since they were a race

Oppressive, strong, another second race

One language, as of old from the first race

The tenth race, when the earth-shaking Lightener

And unto chaste men who run their race well

Who made the heaven and earth. Alas! a race

And all adorned with temples and race-grounds,

And the race of Pamphylians and Persians

And the race of the Lydians rich in gold.

Ur of the Chaldees, whence there is a race

There is a royal tribe, the race of which

This race shall bear rule and begin to build

Know then that the destructive race of Egypt

Shall forthwith perish by the race of those

When Rhea's blood-stained race, in the great earth

Also to Lycia shall a Locrian race

A royal race shall be formed. Truly now

Woe, woe to the race of Phœnician men

But until that time there shall be a race

And there shall be again a holy race

I was his son's bride and was of his race

For slow is the whole race of human kind

But, when the race of mortal men shall come

The race of men by conflagration great.

And destroy the whole race of men, and all

And after that one of the race and blood

An end of his own race and stir all things,

The sea shall overthrow the Centaur race

A race divine of blessed heavenly Jews

I mourn and the race of Ionians

Each race of men and shameless tribe of life,

Thy unknown speech, impure Chaldean race;

Forthwith a barbarous race shall make their way

The race of dreadful Thracians, hard to quell.

And the dire race shall wail for myriad things

Of sheep shall prove false, in which race

And shall the race establish, as it was

Of senate? Where shall be the race of Rhea,

Then shall the sixth race of the Latin kings

From the same race another king shall reign,

And of unshaken children is his race;

Of the Phenix shall come round, there shall a race

Sprung from the holy race of the heavenly Christ

Destroyed that race by many waters, then

Brought he in yet another race of men

Was the tenth race since these things came to pass;

And gathering tribes together, both the race

And there shall rule a child sprung from the race

Shall not forget; for his race over all

The alphabet; but his race shall pass out.

Of his race, and the same name to them all.

A race beside him growing. For a queen

Of cities, she shall feed sheep-eating race

And after that one of the race and blood

An end of his own race and stir all things,

From the race of his father, shall receive

Thy race a widow, having in his name

With temples and with places for the race,

Into a race of Cappadocian men

Having destroyed a Scythian race, the king

And race-grounds; and then shalt thou be again

A fiery eagle from the royal race,

And then the last race of the Latin kings

Dominion, children and the children's race

For father-land and parents. And a race

In this conjecturing, that the race of men

The first that stumbleth upon the steps . . . angels ascending and descending and faces in the midst of the steps: the Most High will raise up an heir of the descendants of thy brother Esau, and all the lords of the nations of the earth will accept it, who have done evil against thy seed, and will be given into his hand, and he will be hardly borne by them. But he beginneth to rule them with violence and to reign over them, and they cannot resist him, until the day when his decree goeth forth against them to serve the idols . . . and to all them that appear in such a cause, and so many . . . of thy race, so many to Thalkonagargael.

And know thou, Jacob, that thy seed shall be strangers in a strange land, and men will ill-treat them with bondage and lay blows on them daily: but the people whom they serve will the Lord judge. When a king ariseth and fighteth, then will there be to that place then will thy seed, even Israel, go forth out of the bondage of the heathen who ruled over them with violence, and will be set free from all reproach of their enemies. For this king is the head of every revenge and retribution of them that make attacks on thee, Israel. And the end of the age. For the miserable will rise and cry, and the Lord heareth them, and will be softened, and the mighty letteth himself pity their sufferings, because the angels and archangels pour out their prayers for the saving of thy race. Then will their women bear much fruit, and then will the Lord fight for thy race.

And know thou, Jacob, that thy seed shall be strangers in a strange land, and men will ill-treat them with bondage and lay blows on them daily: but the people whom they serve will the Lord judge. When a king ariseth and fighteth, then will there be to that place then will thy seed, even Israel, go forth out of the bondage of the heathen who ruled over them with violence, and will be set free from all reproach of their enemies. For this king is the head of every revenge and retribution of them that make attacks on thee, Israel. And the end of the age. For the miserable will rise and cry, and the Lord heareth them, and will be softened, and the mighty letteth himself pity their sufferings, because the angels and archangels pour out their prayers for the saving of thy race. Then will their women bear much fruit, and then will the Lord fight for thy race.

The first that stumbleth upon the steps will be a king of thy neighbours and will do evil against thy seed; he will be unwillingly borne by them. But then beginneth he to rule over them, and with violence to reign over them, and they cannot resist him, and his decree groweth against them that they should worship idols and sacrifice to the dead: and he speaketh to use force to all that are in his kingdom, which appear in such an accusation, so many to the Most High out of thy race, and so many to Thalkonagargael

That the Most High may have compassion; then will their women bear much fruit, and then fighteth the Lord for thy race with terrible and great signs, for the bondage inflicted on them. Their full storehouses will be found empty of wine and of every fruit: their land will boil over with creeping things and every deadly thing. Earthquakes and much destruction will there be. Then will the Most High accomplish his judgment on that place, and will lead forth thy seed out of the bondage of the heathen which rule over them with violence, and they will be saved from the reproaches of their enemies. But the head of the king will be for (an object of) revenge: bitterly standeth he up against them, but they cry, and the Lord heareth them and poureth out his wrath upon the Leviathan the sea serpent, and smiteth the lawless Thalkon with the sword: for against the God of gods raiseth he up his pride. But then, Jacob, appeareth thy righteousness and that of thy fathers, and of them that shall be after thee, walking in thy righteousness: and then shall thy seed blow with the trumpet, and the whole kingdom of Edom shall perish, with all the kings and peoples of the Moabites.

And as they went on from the field toward his house, beside that way there stood a cypress tree, and by the command of the Lord the tree cried out with a human voice, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God that calls himself to those that love him; but Abraham hid the mystery, thinking that the chief-captain had not heard the voice of the tree. And coming near to the house they sat down in the court, and Isaac seeing the face of the angel said to Sarah his mother, My lady mother, behold, the man sitting with my father Abraham is not a son of the race of those that dwell on the earth. And Isaac ran, and saluted him, and fell at the feet of the Incorporeal, and the Incorporeal blessed him and said, The Lord God will grant you his promise that he made to your father Abraham and to his seed, and will also grant you the precious prayer of your father and your mother. Abraham said to Isaac his son, My son Isaac, draw water from the well, and bring it me in the vessel, that we may wash the feet of this stranger, for he is tired, having come to us from off a long journey. And Isaac ran to the well and drew water in the vessel and brought it to them, and Abraham went up and washed the feet of the chief captain Michael, and the heart of Abraham was moved, and he wept over the stranger. And Isaac, seeing his father weeping, wept also, and the chief captain, seeing them weeping, also wept with them, and the tears of the chief captain fell upon the vessel into the water of the basin and became precious stones. And Abraham seeing the marvel, and being astonished, took the stones secretly, and hid the mystery, keeping it by himself in his heart.

God says to him: If I catch him by the foot, he will say, You have given me no joy in the world. But I have left him to his own will because I loved him. Wherefore I sent forth my righteous angels to guard him night and day. Sedrach says: I know, O Lord, that of all your creatures You chiefly loved man, of the quadrupeds the sheep, of woods the olive, of fruits the vine, of flying things the bee, of rivers the Jordan, of cities Jerusalem. And all these man also loves, my Lord. God says to Sedrach: I will ask you one thing, Sedrach: if you answer me, then I may fitly help you, even though you have tempted your creator. Sedrach says: Speak. The Lord God says: Since I made all things, how many men were born and how many died, and how many are to die and how many hairs have they? Tell me, Sedrach, since the heaven was created and the earth, how many trees grew in the world, and how many fell, and how many are to fall, and how many are to arise, and how many leaves have they? Tell me, Sedrach, since I made the sea, how many waves arose and how many fell, and how many are to arise, and how many winds blow along the margin of the sea? Tell me, Sedrach, from the creation of the world of the æons, when the air rained, how many drops fell upon the world, and how many are to fall? And Sedrach said: You alone know all these things, O Lord; you only understand all these things: only, I pray you, deliver man from chastisement, and I shall not be separated from our race.

And the angel, having said this, went away from them. And Seth and Eve came to the tent where Adam was lying. And Adam says to Eve: Why did you work mischief against us, and bring upon us great wrath, which is death, holding sway over all our race? And he says to her: Call all our children, and our children's children, and relate to them the manner of our transgression.