nty years and eat the fruit of thy labor?" "I did not
find the world desolate when I entered it," said the old man; "and as my
fathers planted for me before I was born, so I plant for those that will
come after me."

_Taanith_, fol. 23, col. 1.

Mordecai was one of those who sat in the hall of the Temple, and he knew
seventy languages.

_Megillah_, fol. 13, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught:--During a prosperous year in Israel, a place
that is sown with a single measure of seed produces five myriad cors of
grain. In the tilled districts of Zoan, one measure of seed produces
seventy cors; for we are told that Rabbi Meir said he himself had
witnessed in the vale of Bethshean an instance of one measure of seed
producing seventy cors. And there is no better land anywhere than the
land of Egypt; for it is said, "As the garden of the Lord, like the land
of Egypt." And there is no better land in ail Egypt than Zoan, where
several kings have resided; for it is written (Isa. xxx. 4), "His
princes were in Zoan." In all Israel there was no more unsuitable soil
than Hebron, for it was a burying-place, and yet Hebron was seven times
more prolific than Zoan; for it is written (Num. xiii. 22), "Now Hebron
was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." For it is said (Gen. x. 6),
"And the sons of Ham, Cush, Mizraim (that is, Egypt), Phut, and Canaan"
(that is, Israel). It must, therefore, mean that it was seven times more
prolific (the verb meaning both to build and to produce) than Zoan. This
is only in the unsuitable soil of the land of Israel, Hebron, but in the
suitable soil (the increase) is five hundred times. All this applies to
a year of average return, but in one of special prosperity, it is
written (Gen. xxvi. 12), "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in
the same year an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him." (The word
years, is conveniently overlooked in working out the argument.)

_Kethuboth_, fol. 112, col. 1.

The astrologers in Egypt said to Pharaoh, "What! shall a slave whose
master bought him for twenty pieces of silver rule over us?" Pharaoh
replied, "But I find him endowed with kingly qualities." "If that is the
case," they answered, "he must know seventy languages." Then came the
angel Gabriel, and taught him seventy languages.

_Soteh_, fol. 36, col. 2.

When the leviathan makes the deep boil, the sea does not recover its
calm for seventy years; for it is said (Job xli. 32), "One would think
the deep