time in a foreign land, the wife of Abraham was taken 2630
from her husband to the embrace of a stranger. Then
the eternal Lord assisted him, as he had often done:
our Preserver came himself by night to where the king
lay drunken with wine. Thereupon the Lord of Truth 2635
began to speak to the king through a dream, and threat-
ened him in wrath:

"Thou hast taken Abraham's wife, his bride from the
hero; for that deed death shall tear thy soul from thy
breast!"

To him thus the sinner, gorged with feasting, replied 2640
in his sleep:

"What! Wilt Thou ever, High King of the Angels,
through thy wrath let him be deprived of life who lives 2645
here in righteous habits, [who] in his counsel is upright
in mind, and who asks mercy of Thyself? In her own
words, unasked, this woman told me first that she was 2650
Abraham's sister. I have not sinned against her, nor
wrought any evil at all, up to this time!"

Then again the Eternal Lord and True God spoke to
him straightway through that dream:

"Give back this woman to Abraham, his wife, into 2655
his possession, if thou wishest for life any longer in this
world, as protector of the nobles. He is good and wise,
and may himself speak with [God] and see the King of
Glory. Thou shalt die, with thy flocks and thy sub-
stance, if thou deniest his wife to the warrior: if he will 2660
at once honestly and patiently prefer to me thy earnest
wishes, he may obtain his request that I yet allow thee
living to enjoy pleasures and prosperity in thy days, 2665
[allow thee] in sound health [to enjoy thy] riches."

Then the keeper of the people broke forth from sleep,
bade his councillors come to him; shaken with terror,
Abimeleh quickly told the nobles the word of the Master.
The men dreaded [as retribution] for this deed, blows 2670
from the hand of the Lord in accordance with the dream.
The king himself bade them bring Abraham before him,
in great haste. Then the ruler of the kingdom spoke:

"Man of the Ebrews! this wilt thou now tell me in 2675
words: what have I done that, since thou broughtest
thy possessions into this country among us, Abraham,
thou hast thus bitterly contrived a plot against me?
Thou, a foreigner, wouldst deceive us in this country 2680
with evil and pollute us with sin: thou saidest in plain
words