Yahweh stood aloof from humanity for centuries before returning to Earth with the angel of Yahweh (which was really the Angel of Koth on temporary loan and transfered to earth through a temporary enlargement of the wormhole tunnel). Yahweh wanted to see if the human family she had chosen would remember and obey him without the same constant intervention that Koth made with family Gerash on Gorpai.
In 1577 BCE, three hundred and fifty years after Israel and his clan of seventy Immigrants moved to the Nile Delta region of Egypt to be with Joseph, Moses was born to an Immigrant couple in the tribe of Levi.
At this time the Immigrants, who were all descendants of Israel, had grown in population to rival that of Egypt itself, and the Egyptians feared they would someday unite with their enemies and overthrow them. So the Egyptians put all the Immigrants to hard labor to keep them under observation and control.
Moses was born during a period of time when Pharaoh's anti-Immigrant sentiment was particularly intense. At that time, Pharaoh ordered his subjects to kill every Immigrant boy-child they found, but allow every Immigrant girl-child to live. The parents of Moses tried to hide him as long as they could, but when that was no longer possible his mother made a little boat and set him gently adrift down the Nile river.
The daughter of Pharaoh found the boat one day while she was swimming in the river, accompanied by her maids who walked along the river bank. She remembered her father's order to kill all the Immigrant boys, but she had compassion on the baby, and forbade that he should be killed.
The sister of Moses, who had been following the progress of his little boat from the river bank, spoke to the daughter of Pharaoh and offered to find one of the Immigrant women to nurse him. The daughter of Pharaoh agreed, and Moses was returned into the arms of his own mother until he grew and was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.
Years later, after Moses came to understand that he was really an Immigrant, and had met his real brother Aaron, he came across an Egyptian flogging an Immigrant for not delivering his quota of bricks. Moses slew the Egyptian and buried him in the sand, taking great care that no one saw the crime. But the Immigrant he saved had a big mouth, and word got around that Moses was an "Egyptian" who killed other Egyptians. And word of this even got up to Pharaoh, who sought to have Moses executed.
Moses soon learned that Pharaoh was looking for him and he fled to the land of Midian, where he met a girl named Zipporah, fell in love, and married her.
Now the angel of Yahweh returned to Earth after centuries of neglect. Yahweh saw the Egyptian oppression of the Immigrants, and remembered her covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and created a plan to release their descendants from bondage.
One day when Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, he came to Mount Horeb, and the angel of Yahweh descended with fire and smoke and noise. There she commissioned Moses to represent Yahweh to Pharaoh as Yahweh put her plan into action to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses doubted Yahweh and feared that Pharaoh would not listen to him. And he also feared the Immigrants in Egypt would not believe him.
Yahweh taught Moses a few magic tricks to use as coins to buy his way. But Moses still wanted to wiggle out of the mission, and Yahweh grew angry. Finally she said Moses could let his brother Aaron do all the actual taking to Pharaoh and the people.
After Aaron spoke to the people and got them on board with Yahweh's plan to rescue them, they went to Pharaoh.
All Moses wanted at first was three days off for the people to go into the desert and hold a feast for Yahweh. Not only did Pharaoh tell them no, he punished the Immigrants for trying to get three days off. He told his taskmasters not to deliver straw for their bricks. From that day forward, the Immigrants were to gather their own straw for their bricks. They were also required to deliver the same number of bricks every day that the did when the straw was just given to them.
The Immigrants complained to Moses, and Moses complained to Yahweh that so far his mission had only made things worse for the people.
Then began a sequence of ten plagues. Each cycle began with Yahweh telling Moses to request a few days of religious leave for the Immigrants, and if the religious leave was not granted, Moses would do something with his wizard's staff to change Pharaoh's mind.
More often than not, Pharaoh's court wizards were able to duplicate the plague on a small scale, so Pharaoh was not impressed and denied the religious leave.
The first plague was a heavy spill of rock oil, which covered the surface of the Nile river with a brown syrupy layer, and many of the people said the god of Moses had turned the river into blood, and it was bitter, and they were forced to dig new wells near to the river to drink. But Pharaoh's magicians were able to mix oil with water and produce the same brown mess in the court of Pharaoh, so Pharaoh did not give in to Moses' request for religious leave for the Immigrants.
The second plague was a great swarm of frogs that covered every square foot of Egypt. Pharaoh's magicians were also able to bring forth frogs, but they could not remove the frogs, so this time Pharaoh said he would grant the religious leave if Moses made the frogs go away. Moses made the frogs go away, but Pharaoh went back on his word and did not grant the religious leave for the Immigrants.
The third plague was lice, and Pharaoh's magicians could not duplicate this plague, but Pharaoh did not let the Immigrants go on religious leave to worship Yahweh, and he waited out the plague, which only lasted a few days anyway.
The fourth plague was a swarm of flies that came upon the Egyptians and covered their skin, but did not come upon the Immigrants. Pharaoh begged Moses to remove this plague, but after Moses did so, Pharaoh refused to grant religious leave for the Immigrants.
The fifth plague was a fungus from Gorpai that exterminated all the Egyptian livestock but left the Immigrant's livestock standing. Pharaoh refused to let the Immigrants go on religious leave, and he took the Immigrant's cattle for his own people to replace the cattle which had been slain.
The sixth plague was a loathsome skin disease, also from Gorpai. Pharaoh's magicians could not even heal themselves, let alone anyone else afflicted in Egypt, but Pharaoh hardened his heart and did not grant the Immigrants religious leave to worship Yahweh.
The seventh plague was giant hailstones that slew all the cattle that Pharaoh had stolen from the Immigrants, as well as anyone standing outdoors. But none of the hail fell on the Immigrants. Pharaoh admitted his guilt, and Moses caused the hail to stop. But Pharaoh went back on his word again, and Moses at great length began to discern a pattern.
The eighth plague was a swarm of locusts that ate every green thing in Egypt. Again, no religious leave was granted.
The ninth plague was a darkness in Egypt so thick that the Egyptians could not even see each other across the room, and it was hard to breathe, but the Immigrants all had light in their houses. Pharaoh told Moses he never wanted to see his face again, and the next time they met, Moses would die.
Then Moses said to him, "O Pharaoh, you have spoken true, you will never see my face again. But to you I say, all the first-born of this land will die at midnight. The firstborn humans, the firstborn animals, even the firstborn of Pharaoh, but the firstborn of the Immigrants and their beasts shall escape this judgment. Then when your servants come and bow down before me, and beg me to take the people on the religious leave I have requested, only then will we go."
Then Moses told Aaron to instruct the people in the Passover ritual, which involved each Immigrant family killing a lamb without blemish, marking their front door with the lamb's blood in the sign of the cross, roasting the lamb, and eating it in haste while the angel of Yahweh passed over the land of Egypt and smote the firstborn of every house where there was not a token of blood on the frame of the front door.
And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
Then Pharaoh sent servants to prostrate themselves before Moses and beg him to take the Immigrants and go into the desert on the religious leave they wanted. What Pharaoh had in mind was a temporary leave of absence, and he was counting on them coming back to make more bricks later.
That is why their Egyptian friends and neighbors "lent" them jewels of silver and gold, ostensibly to wear for the feast, and much clothing for the trip. They all assumed the Immigrants would return within the week and give it all back.
So a great multitude went into the desert on foot, six hundred thousand adults, and all their children, and all their animals. The crowd was not pure Israelite, but included those of mixed ancestry, half-Israelite and half-Egyptian.
There were in such a big hurry that they had to eat unleavened bread, because there was never time to let the bread rise, and that is in fact what the Feast of Unleavened Bread commemorates, the necessity to make do when responding immediately to Yahweh. The Immigrants had lived in Egypt a total of four hundred and thirty years.
The angel of Yahweh led the chosen people out of Egypt, concealed inside a moving pillar of smoke during the day, and at night this was seen as a pillar of fire which gave them light to see. Yahweh did not go straight to Canaan, the land of promise, because she knew when the Immigrants saw the Philistines and their chariots of iron, their courage would fail, and they would run back to Egypt.
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him to fulfill an oath that Joseph laid on the House of Israel when they were to embark for the promised land at last.
The Red Sea separates Egypt and Arabia, and at the Sinai peninsula it divides into two long fingers of water that resemble the eye stalks of a snail. In ancient times the left eye stalk terminated at what is now Lake Timsah, or Crocodile Lake. Timsah Lake and the Bitter Lakes are in the ancient depression of this old seabed. Perhaps the land has risen a bit, or the sea level has fallen. But so nearly flush with sea level is this whole area that a simple ditch dug in only ten years was sufficient to link the lakes with the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to create the Suez Canal and cut seven thousand miles off the route from India to Europe.
Soon after fleeing Egypt, Yahweh led her people to make their first encampment on the west shore of that extension of the Red Sea which today is a string of lakes.
When it became obvious the Immigrants were not coming back to make bricks for Egypt again, nor to return the jewelry and clothing they "borrowed", Pharaoh took his charioteers and went out after them.
The tide went out, and the stretch of land between Lake Timsah and the Great Bitter Lake became mudflats that were dry enough for those who go on two and four feet to cross to the eastern shore, but those who went on chariot wheels had more trouble. Pharaoh and his Egyptian cavalry became stuck in the mud, and they could not escape before the sea tide flooded the mudflats and drowned all of them.
Now the way was clear for the Immigrants to move toward the land Yahweh promised to them, but it would take another forty years before they had sufficient numbers to pose a threat to the current inhabitants of Canaan, and the desert of the Sinai did not have sufficient water and food to support a million people and more. So Yahweh called in Koth's debt to her, and soon food and water flowed in the wormhole tunnel from Gorpai to Earth where once it flowed the other way to establish the nephilim in Koth's colony there.
At Mount Sinai Moses received the Law of Yahweh and the people entered into a Covenant to obey all precepts of this Law.
The law was entirely dictated by Yahweh to Moses in the Meeting Tent, or Tabernacle, which was set up outside the camp of the Israelites. The angel of Yahweh landed there in a cloud of smoke. Tradition holds that the Law was written in a single month.
The procedure for making a sin offering was to bring a young bull without blemish to the altar in front of the tabernacle, allow it to be inspected by the priest, then put his hand on the head of the bullock. His sin would transfer to the animal. Then he had to kill it. The priests (Aaron's sons) would take the blood and sprinkle it around the altar. The sinner had to flay the offering and cut it into pieces. Then the priests had to arrange the head and the fat upon the burning wood on the altar, but the guts and legs were to be washed in water before they were burned.
Similar procedures were given for sacrificing sheep and goats. For turtledoves or pigeons, the priest had to twist off the head of the bird before he burned it. The feathers were cast on the east side of the altar.
Unleavened bread offerings were also burnt, but part of the bread was given to Aaron and his sons to eat. They had to be fried with oil, had to contain salt, but they could contain no honey.
First fruits from the grain harvest were offered to Yahweh, but they were not burnt. But all of these offerings were made in the compound of the Tabernacle, which was replaced by Solomon's temple, and later the Second Temple of Nehemiah's day.
After the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, there no longer remained to the Immigrants a temple nor a tabernacle for these sacrifices to be made. Jews today continue to copy these laws faithfully from generation to generation, but without a temple the practical application of these passages in Leviticus are quite limited.
Traditionally, for Christians, they are viewed as foreshadowing the sacrifices of Yeshua for the sins of all mankind. They also serve as a model for the elaborate rituals of the Catholic Mass which memorialize and make present in all times and places the moment of Krista's death.
We get the first of the food laws in Leviticus: "It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood." The penalty for eating the fat or blood of any beast is death.
If anyone commits a sin inadvertently, he is supposed to bring a young bull to Yahweh for a sin offering. If he becomes unclean, he is supposed to bring a female lamb or a kid from the goats to offer, but if he is unable to offer them he can bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering.
If he commits tresspass (ie. violates the holy things of Yahweh such as ripping the veil in the tabernacle) then he needs to sacrifice a ram, plus bring money to fix the holy item he damaged.
Fraud is listed as a sin, along with failing to report that one has found lost property. Aside from the usual tresspass offering of animals, the monetary damages is principal plus 20% interest.
The fire is to burn on the altar forever, and never go out.
None of these rituals were really unique, all the people in the surrounding areas performed like service for their gods, as late as the Roman Empire. It provides a snapshot into a kind of religion that appears utterly alien to modern eyes.
Moses followed precise instructions from Yahweh to consecrate Aaron and his sons as priests, in the presence of all the people. After the elaborate ritual, which involved animal sacrifices and again serves as a model for the rituals involved with Catholic Holy Orders today, Aaron and his sons were to remain inside the Meeting Tent for seven days. On the eighth day "Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them", making the first annual sin offering for all the people in his new office as the high priest.
And the glory of Yahweh appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before Yahweh, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.
Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu ad-libbed the procedure and lit incense without strictly following the rules. Hence it was "strange fire" and Yahweh burned them up for doing it. Aaron was forbidden by Moses from even showing signs of grief for his lost sons, because the wrath of Yahweh would afflict the whole House of Israel.
Apparently the defective ritual occurred because Aaron's boys were drunk, because right after that, Yahweh told Aaron directly:
Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations.
Aaron had two sons that were still alive, but they were still new at this game too. They pissed Moses off by failing to eat all of the sin offering in the compound of the Tabernacle. At least it didn't rise to the level of a capital offense, but they had to have been thinking, with two dead brothers now, that this priestcraft they had bitten off was more than they could chew.
Now the food laws came fast and furious. The Israelites could not eat camels, rabbits, pigs, nor anything that went on four paws. They could eat fish with fins and scales, but things with neither fins nor scales, such as squid, they could not eat.
Among the birds the Israelites could not eat eagles, ospreys, vultures, kites, ravens, hawks, owls, swans, pelicans, herons, and storks. Among the insects they could eat locusts and beetles and grasshoppers, but every other insect was abomination. Neither could they eat weasels, mice, turtles, ferrets, chameleons, lizards, snakes, snails or moles. The blood of all beasts was forbidden because it was essentially the life principle of all flesh, Yahweh reserved blood for making atonement for sin on the altar.
The rule of circumcising every male child on their eighth day was enshrined into the written Law at last, rather than an oral tradition.
If a woman had a female child she was required to undergo rituals of purification which took twice as long as for a male child, because girls were double yucky to the Patriarchy.
There were detailed rules for dealing with lepers. Yeshua-Krista considered these laws to still be in force when he was healing lepers. He commanded them to seek out a priest for their follow-up care. In the 21st Century the disease is easily treated, and seems to mostly affect places like rural India where it is difficult to obtain access to modern treatments. In the US in 2002, there were only 92 cases of leprosy. And most cases historically were probably simple psoriasis, rather than leprosy, but the shunning was identical, and many people suffered needlessly.
Then Yahweh revealed the everlasting ordinance for making annual atonement for the sins of all Israel.
1. Use a young bullock and two goats for a sin offering.
2. Use a ram for a burnt offering.
3. Put on the holy garments.
4. Cast lots, and assign one goat to Yahweh and one as the scapegoat.
5. Offer Yahweh's goat as a sin offering.
6. Use the bullock to make atonement for the high priest and his family.
7. Bring incense into the tent with the Ark of the covenant, so that the smoke will keep the Ark from killing the high priest.
8. Use a finger to paint the bullock's blood on the mercy seat of the Ark with seven dabs, all pointing east.
9. Kill the goat of the sin offering, and bring his blood through the veil, dab it seven times, and then sprinkle it on and around the mercy seat.
10. Sprinkle blood on the altar outside of the tent.
11. Lay both hands on the head of the live goat, confess all the sins of the House of Israel to put them on the head of the goat, then send the goat away into an uninhabited wilderness.
12. Clean up the whole mess.
The laws governing sexual relations were largely targeted at males. First of all, incest was forbidden. One may not have sex with one's mother, the wife of one's father, or one's sister whether she was raised at home or abroad. Sex with a granddaughter, a half-sister, or a step-sister was forbidden as well. Sex with an aunt, the wife of an uncle, a sister-in-law or a daughter-in-law was not allowed. A three-way with a woman and her daughter was completely out of the question. Sex with a woman having her period, or sex with another man's wife was unlawful. Sex with animals was forbidden for both men and women.
Leviticus did not say that it was forbidden to have sex with the daughter of one's father's sister or brother. So it was lawful to marry a first cousin. It also did not forbid visiting a harlot but it did forbid the practice of sacrificing to devils after visiting a harlot (presumably to ward off venereal disease). Neither did Leviticus ever say that sex outside of marriage was forbidden.
But male homosexuality was explicitly forbidden: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." The corollary, that womankind shall not like with womankind as with mankind, was not mentioned. The men of that tribal society probably had no clue that lesbianism existed.
Yahweh made a law that farmers were not to harvest every square foot of their land but leave some food for the poor and strangers to pick.
Yahweh told the people not to lie to each other, or joke around by swearing at deaf people or laying obstacles for blind people. Laborers were to be paid at the end of the shift, and not to be made waiting all night for their salary. Judges were not to be biased toward the poor nor toward the rich but judge justly.
Yahweh forbade the people from having hatred for one another, and even made the first statement of the Golden Rule in the Bible to love one's neighbor as another 'I'.
Yahweh generally had a problem with mixing things. She didn't want to see different kinds of cattle bred together, or different kinds of seed sown in one field, or clothing with linen and wool mixed together.
If a man lay with a betrothed woman she was whipped, but all the man had to do was bring a burnt offering to Yahweh. Enchantment and fortunetelling was forbidden, as was getting tattoos. Men were commanded not to put their daughters into the sex care provider industry. In the marketplace, just weights and measures were commanded.
The death penalty was assigned for the various sexual sins mentioned in chapter eighteen, even for lying with a woman having her period. Yahweh gives the reason for all these things: She has taken the Israelites out of all other nations to be a holy people unto him, set aside for Yahweh, just as the Tabernacle was set aside from the camp of the people. Moral excellence was only an incidental feature of holiness. The primary meaning of holiness is "set aside for Yahweh".
Priests were forbidden to marry hookers or divorced women. If the daughter of a priest becomes a hooker, she is to be burnt with fire. Priests were required to marry virgins.
Men who had imperfections such as blemishes, blindness, lameness, flat noses, hunchbacks, dwarfism, scabs, or broken balls could not approach the altar of Yahweh. If a descendant of Aaron was imperfect in the same way, he could not offer sacrifices to Yahweh, but he could still eat the holy bread.
Strangers could not eat the holy bread unless they were slaves owned by the priests. Anyone who came near the holy things of Yahweh in an unclean state was to be put to death.
If a cow or a ewe were being prepared for sacrifice, it was forbidden to kill both her and her young on the same day.
The 14th day of the 1st month at sundown was Passover. This was the same time when Yeshua-Krista ate the Last Supper, then was betrayed, and crucified the next morning. At sundown began the feast of unleavened bread, and the first day of that was a no-work day. That was why Jesus was hastily buried and then left in the tomb until the day after that.
Fifty days later was the feast of Seven Weeks, or the feast of Weeks, which came to be known as Pentecost. It was a thanksgiving feast for the grain harvest, and among Christians it marks the birthday of the Church, when the Holy Spirit came to animate the disciples and turn them into Apostles.
The first day of the seventh month was the feast of Trumpets, which is known as Rosh Hoshanah. The use of a trumpet blast to announce the day lends some Christians to believe that whatever year the Rapture comes, it will have to happen on this day of that year, with a last trump.
The tenth day of the seventh month was the Day of Atonement, when the high priest made a sin offering on behalf of all Israel. Everyone was required to rest from labor and fast on this day, mourning their sin.
The fifteenth day of the seventh month was the beginning of the week-long feast of Booths, when the people left their homes and camped on their roof or in their front yard in booths (or huts) made from tree branches to memorialize the hardships of the people when they wandered in the Sinai desert. Except that when the feast was first implemented, the people really were wandering in the Sinai desert camping in booths. This betrays the late invention of the feast. In other words, this feast was not really instituted directly by Yahweh in the desert of Sinai, but retrojected by the priests after the Babylonian Exile.
Leviticus then outlines the law of retaliation: Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. It also commands that there is one law, for both the Israelites and the strangers who live with them.
A man with an Israelite mother from the tribe of Dan and an Egyptian father got in a quarrel with an Israelite and cursed Yahweh's name. Moses announced the penalty for blasphemy, then had the Israelites carry it out. The man was stoned to death.
At Mount Nebo Moses partitioned the lands east of the Jordan River among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. And Michael, a nephilim of Gorpai who was clandestinely a servant of Sophia, contended with Koth for permission to bring Moses to Gorpai where he would live out the few days of life remaining to him and be buried. But Koth had vowed that no nephilim would cross over to Earth. Michael nevertheless secured Koth's permission by reminding Koth that Yahweh was still owed many favors for his role aiding the creation of the nephilim. Koth replied:
Do not say 'many favors', the owing of me to Yahweh matches the number of fingers on one of your hands.
And so Michael was permitted to pass through to Earth. Moses was taken from the Immigrants, and they never found his grave. Koth owed Yahweh only four favors now.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Dragonthorn Chapter 7: Kandiel
Far in the west of the lands claimed by family Gerash, on the Western Sea at the mouth of the river Dashok is the city of Aramel, which was ruled for many years by wise King Gordiel. Upon the death of the king, three years before the coming of the Law of Koth, Lord Kirodiel Gerash made Turel the king of Aramel, for Koth had commanded Kirodiel to give Turel a suitable reward after his long labors in the other world.
But the gift was given in too much haste, it seemed to Kirodiel later, for after the coronation of King Turel the city become a hotbed of resistance to the reforms that came in with the Law of Koth. Many yin of the city of Koth removed to there, including many of Kandiel's Amazons, and many yang went there as well, all those who believed yin and yang were on a level, and yin should never be treated as mere property.
Aramel, then, was home to those who were disgusted and horrified at the sight of Ariel being paraded naked in a wooden cage from city to city across the Middle Lands of Gorpai.
As Aramel filled up with the enemies of Koth, the prophet Zadkiel grew alarmed, and convinced High Lord Patriarch Kirodiel to give him command of the Eyes of Koth, the dreaded secret police of family Gerash. Then Zadkiel surrounded the city with many Eyes of Koth in their black livery, and they turned back anyone who were not native to that city and who should try to enter.
And when Kandiel had rallied all in the Middle Lands who were sympathetic to Ariel, and bade them to emigrate to Aramel, the time was come for her to enter the city herself, yet she could not travel openly, for the blockade was pursued with vigor.
But one of the farmers who lived nigh to the city concealed Kandiel within a wooden box, and drove to the lines of the Eyes of Koth which ringed the city. There no wagons could pass. But the farmer and three sturdy yeng in his employ took the box off the wagon and bore it themselves toward the city using two poles threaded through brass rings in the side of the box, while a young dirk drove the wagon away back to the farm. Yet they were not alone, for many other farmers had to resort to the same expedient to move their goods into the city.
One of the Eyes of Koth grew suspicious and barked to them, "Let fall the box!" The four yang immediately complied. "What yang of you be the loadmaster?" he asked.
Three of the yang edged fearfully away from the fourth, who was the oldest. "This shipment be mine, lord. I am Sibiel, a farmer of the valley of Odargas."
The Eye of Koth asked, "Dost thou make vouchsafement for the goods thou bearest?"
And Sibiel answered, "I do, milord."
The Eye of Koth replied, "Yet I would see therein." Sibiel looked suddenly crestfallen. Resigned, he told the other men to open the box. Ariel's closest companion Kandiel stumbled out, dazed by the sudden change to the light of day.
The other three laborers feigned outrage at the smuggling attempt, in an effort to save their own skins.
"Stand ye apart from Sibiel," the Eye of Koth proclaimed, "all who value your lives, for contrary to the will of Koth he bearest aid to a daughter of Gerash to depart to Aramel where only goods are permitted to go.
But Kandiel was not cowed by the pretensions of this Eye of Koth. She cursed him in a loud voice, and said, "May Sophia send down fire from heaven and smite thee!"
At first the farmers from Odargas thought the yin was joking, but immediately after she spoke, brilliant orange bolts of fire shot down from the clear sky. So bright and hot was this fire that the yangs thought they had singed their own eyebrows off. The fire from the sky vaporized twelve Eyes of Koth in a single simultaneous targeted strike, leaving only smoking grease spots where the yangs once had stood.
To the farmers who had assisted her she had already told them, "My name is Kandiel and I am formally asking for asylum in the city of Aramel according to the laws of your king."
And this the farmers told to the ferrymaster after the ferry to Aramel docked at the village of Surat. But they made no mention of the slaying of the Eyes of Koth by fire from the sky, for they were afraid.
The ferrymaster said to Kandiel, "It is the commandment of King Turel that any yin of family Gerash who enters our realm automatically becomes a citizen of Aramel. Therefore you, Kandiel, are free. Yet you are a person of some renown throughout Gorpai, for you are Lady Ariel's greatest disciple, and a price has been set upon your head by the Gerash patriarch Kirodiel. Therefore you must appeal directly to King Turel in Aramel for sanctuary in our city, or you will be challenged at every step. Many would dare to sell you back to the Eyes of Koth if the favor countenance of King Turel did not rest upon you."
"It will be as you say," Kandiel promised. "But tell me, sir, that little stretch of water could not be more than five ji wide. Surely there would be many in Magodon who would easily be capable of swimming across?"
The ferrymaster smiled at this and said, "Truly, Kandiel, you know little about the underwater flora of the far west of the Middle Lands." He grabbed a whole broiled bird from a tabletop and threw it over the side. No sooner than the bird struck the water than there was a violent churning, and snapping of yellow jaws, the flashing of razor-sharp teeth, and the bird was gone.
The missing Eyes of Koth were soon noticed by the priesthood, and the true story was wrung out from many witnesses by threat of torture, and the priests knew the Eyes of Koth had been killed by bolts of fire from the sky.
This story made its way back to Zadkiel in the Holy City, and thence to Koth himself, who was at that time clothed in the body of a mighty yang named Israel, but had not made himself known as Koth to any but his prophet Zadkiel. And Israel knew the fire from the sky was interference from Binah, the first such meddling that Binah had dared to do.
Israel's response was to command Zadkiel to commence an invasion of Aramel to avenge the incredible affront. Zadkiel in turn expressed Koth's displeasure to Kirodiel Gerash, and relayed the commandment of Israel to attack.
Then the high lord Patriarch Kirodiel Gerash commanded his most senior lieutenant thus: "Make them to be a spoil for dogs and all manner of birds, and let the will of Koth be brought to fulfillment."
He placed Zadkiel in overall command of the Army of Koth, and sent him into the field to move against King Turel.
At dusk in the city of Aramel, in the castle Brys, built on a two ji high bluff on the north side of the mouth of the river Dashok, Kandiel presented herself for an audience with King Turel. She went with two of her chief Amazon lieutenants who had preceded her to Aramel by many days.
King Turel was old now, and filled with the wisdom of one who has lived in two worlds. But his long friendship with Abraham on Earth had tempered the King's nephilim love of law with the human law of love.
After Kandiel was announced, and knelt before him, the King told her to rise. Then he looked hard at Kandiel with a piercing gaze and said, "In the beginning I was a servant of Koth, but I was asked by him to call the elohim Yahweh my master for a time. Now I find their counsel has sundered one from another, and I have been forced to choose between them. And I have chosen Yahweh."
Kandiel replied, "The King knows that I embrace Sophia, and all those who also embrace Sophia. Others have also said that Yahweh has broken with Koth, but some of these say he has moved closer to Sophia. If that is true, Your Highness, then you and I would be natural allies."
Turel said, "The Eyes of Koth have long pressured me to turn over to them the hundreds of Amazons who have taken refuge here in Aramel, and they have long watched the approaches to my city for your own arrival, but now I detect almost a frenzy in their doings. The ferrymaster could tell me little. Do you know why they are acting so?"
"Yes I do, Your Highness. I called upon Sophia to smite the Eyes of Koth who discovered me and who sought to kill the kind farmer who tried to smuggle me into the city. Then fire fell from heaven and destroyed twelve Eyes of Koth utterly, such that almost no evidence remained that they had been living yeng only moments before."
"Then it is Koth himself who is now at war with us, and Aramel can no longer be called a sanctuary to you or your Amazons. Soon every hand of family Gerash will be raised against us."
Then Kandiel asked, "Are you to command us to leave the city at this time, Your Highness?"
"Far from it, Kandiel. I would ask you to command your Amazons in league with the forces of the city, for soon the Army of Koth will arrive seeking vengeance for their missing Eyes of Koth." And this Kandiel eagerly agreed to do.
Years before, on a hill near the city of Aramel, King Gordius hitched a wagon to a tree with a knot so elaborate no one has ever been able to untie it. At that time an oracle said whoever unraveled this Gordian Knot would rule the entire world of Gorpai.
Zadkiel had heard the prophesy, of course, and when the Army of Koth drew near the city he found the wagon and laid his own eyes on the famous knot. For several days, while the army camped in the surrounding countryside, Zadkiel tried to undo the knot, but to no avail. Very well, since the wagon was not going anywhere soon, he had his men lash Ariel's cage to the wagon of old King Gordius.
For Ariel had been paraded nude in cube made of wooden poles all across the Middle Lands of Gorpai to put lie to her preaching of the power of Sophia over the hearts of yin. And now she had been brought to the outskirts of the last holdout city, Aramel, to taunt her supporters there.
One night Israel (who by riding in the angel of Koth could move about Gorpai far more quickly than any yang) appeared in Zadkiel's tent and informed him that Kandiel was also in Aramel, obviously hot to take a crack at the Gordian knot herself.
Zadkiel remembered his victory over her in the courtroom. "I look forward to meeting her again, my Lord Koth."
"Don't be a reckless fool," Israel warned him. "Kandiel's people have been operating in this area for years. Doing 'good'. She's got a whole network of favors she could call in if you push her head on, and overnight you could find yourself facing more problems than you've ever had to deal with before in your life."
"My lord Koth, no one is that good. Surely no yin is that good."
"Kandiel has exactly one weakness," Israel went on, as though Zadkiel hadn't said a single word. His mouth screwed up in an expression of utter disdain. "Kandiel's only weakness, of course, is Ariel herself. For I tell you now that just as I, Koth, have taken possession of this body and go by the name Israel, so has the elohim Sophia taken possession of that body and goes by Ariel."
"But my lord Koth, you have said to me that you are the only god, and the other gods do not even exist!"
"I trust as my prophet that you will foster and maintain that belief among the people, Zadkiel. Take the utmost care where Ariel s concerned, for she is indeed Sophia, one of the elohim, despite my propaganda to the contrary, which you at least would do well not to believe."
But even as he spoke Israel was troubled, because he knew Zadkiel had come to believe that Koth's struggle against Sophia meant that Sophia should be held in contempt, which was the nephilim custom when dealing with enemies among their own order. Yet Sophia was elohim like himself, and friend or foe, Koth thought the beings of lesser orders, at least, should give her the respect that was her due. So from that day Koth vowed to slay Zadkiel the very day he was no longer useful to him.
But there would be ample opportunities to test Zadkiel later. Following Israel's precise instructions, Zadkiel immediately dispatched his cavalry.
At a beautiful blue pool in the mountains ringing the city of Aramel, Kandiel and a squad of her Amazons refreshed themselves, then assumed their usual mode of riding slowly on their horses while they watched the greater perimeter of the city for intruders. Suchwise the Eyes of Koth had also done before they were inexplicably withdrawn some weeks before.
A nearby torrent of water was so loud that Kandiel found it hard to hear her chief lieutenant, Imriel, speaking it her. She told Imriel to repeat what she had just said a bit louder. And Imriel said, "We should be back to the ferry by nightfall, having made a complete circle."
The waterfall completely blanked out the sound and vibration of onrushing hooves until it was nearly too late. Not even Kandiel's hypersensitive mare gave warning. Suddenly Gerash horsemen raced up behind Kandiel, Imriel, and the others. At the last second Kandiel's sword was brought out, only to crash against a mighty iron rod. There were sparks and Kandiel was knocked clean off her horse.
Another horseman decapitated Imriel in one smooth motion. Kandiel was stunned, and grieved for Imriel, but her horse had the intelligence to linger with Kandiel rather than follow her instinct, which was to bolt.
Shaking her head clear, Kandiel mounted up again. Imriel was dead but four of her Amazons survived the assault, and they rallied around her.
Lumbering after them, she recognized their battle standard and mouthed the vile name of their general with all the contempt she could muster: "Zadkiel!"
Kandiel chased the cavalrymen like the cold wind that presaged the long Gorpai winter. Kandiel's companions loosed many arrows even from their full gallop, and one of them slew the iron staff wielder. Two others who blocked Zadkiel from harm also fell, so no one remained to run interference while Ariel slowly closed in on her fleeing target.
But Zadkiel was too far ahead. Soon he dived into the safety of a vast forest glade guarded by a large armed encampment. Contrary to her every wish Kandiel reared back and brought her horse to a stop, and the other Amazons conformed to her movements. Kandiel scanned all the banners and standards of the army arrayed before her and recognized this as the main bulk of Zadkiel's army.
But every indication she had from the path of burning towns said Zadkiel was twelve or fifteen leagues to the west. He must have led his army on a forced march all night. But how did he know to come to precisely this place? "Koth," Kandiel muttered, answering her own unspoken question.
Zadkiel ordered that the canvas covering Ariel's cage be removed, and then Ariel was revealed to Kandiel. It was the first time she had seen her in a year, because after a time she could not bear to look at her humiliation.
"You can kill me where you stand, Ariel," Zadkiel shouted, "but that wouldn't be healthy for Ariel."
Kandiel stared at Zadkiel with first wide, then narrowing eyes. She rode a bit closer. "Don't sink to this, Zadkiel. I expect such from Koth. It isn't worthy of a pureblood Gerash."
Now Kandiel was close enough that Zadkiel could speak in a more dignified tone. He said, "Yet I find that much like Koth, I want you working for me and not against me.* Here are your only two options, Kandiel. You can defeat my legions and possibly rescue poor little Ariel. Or you can kill my field-marshal, take over my legions, and simply order her release."
And Kandiel said to him, "I like number two."
He replied, "That will take care of today. To keep Ariel safe from assassination you will ride at the head of my army and go where I command you in the East Lands and the West Lands, and in Aramel, and every place where Koth is held in contempt."
Kandiel was frustrated by her vulnerability. She thought: Had all her enemies learned Ariel was her one weakness?
Zadkiel seemed to read her thoughts. "Ariel has become a noose around your neck, Kandiel, and the closer you get to her the tighter that noose becomes. How easy it is to make you dance with a few simple threats to Ariel's life!"
She said to him, "Where is the honor in this, Zadkiel? The glory? You want me to command your army, but do you really want my decisions for you tainted by holding an unwarlike yin hostage?"
He replied, "Not at all, but you have left me no choice."
Then Kandiel got her horse up to full speed and charged toward the heart of the enemy encampment.
Moving in a well-practiced dance, a century of Kirodiel's best pikemen suddenly arranged themselves around Ariel's cage, with their forest of spikes pointing directly at the approach of Kandiel.
So Zadkiel had put Ariel on display, tempting Kandiel, at the same time making it clear Ariel was completely beyond her grasp.
Ariel shouted, "Kandiel! Forget about me!"
Kandiel's voice broke as she called back tearfully, "Don't you know by now that's the one thing I can never do?"* But she could do nothing more here. Kandiel flashed Zadkiel with a glance of pure hatred and kicked her steed, turning away to flee the scene.
"She is a true warrior, Lady Sophia," Zadkiel told Ariel, earning a wad of spit in his face. He quietly wiped it away. "She knows. The things you love are always used against you. Always! She knows!"
Sibiel, the farmer from Odargas who tried to smuggle Kandiel to Aramel, had been fingered for the Eyes of Koth by the farm hands he hired when they were threatened with death by slow torture. The Eyes of Koth elected not to kill him, for it would seem too much a kindness to Sibiel and a waste of good nephilim muscle power. Zadkiel's army was short-handed so Sibiel was instead cruelly pressed into slavery as a simple waterbearer in Zadkiel's camp.
Having little else to do for entertainment, often the Gerash soldiers would trip him, laughing together with their buddies as Sibiel trudged back again and again to refill his pot.
That night Sibiel wandered off to the edge of the camp where a hooded shape tackled him and dragged him into a small ravine. It was Kandi- el! She ordered him to switch their clothes.
He wanted to stay and help rescue Ariel, but after some stern words from Kandiel, together with ample thanks for what he had done, Sibiel faded off into the night under a black robe.
Kandiel adjusted Sibiel's clumsy homemade armor and helmet (which was almost worse than no protection at all), she padded out her curves, and put on false facial hair to offset her soft features. Then she drifted into the camp fetching water for the men and searching for Ariel in the area where Sibiel told her she was being held captive.
Ariel was in the cubical cage at the center of the camp, guarded by two yang. Tonight it was covered with the canvas to keep Zadkiel's yeng from leering at Ariel instead of watching for Kandiel.
Her Sibiel uniform worked well. Kandiel could swagger with the best of them. The guards permitted her to enter with a torch and a ladle of rancid water. She appeared between the canvas and the cage.
"Kandiel!" Ariel husked, filled with joy. Then consternation. "Nice beard."
"Hush! Take my headband." It was a green headband of intricate make, a gift from Ariel that she said was made by Binah, for in the center it possessed a brilliant white light that allowed Kandiel to move on the darkest nights, and there was none like it anywhere on Gorpai.
Ariel said, "That was my gift to you, Kandiel, and my gifts are without repentance."
Kandiel said, "You will have to make an exception this time," and she passed it to Ariel between the interlaced bars.
Ariel said, "Do you want me to use it to escape?" And Kandiel replied, "Please don't do anything stupid, Ariel. This is the only thing I have that says 'Kandiel was here' without mistake. Now Zadkiel will come in here and gloat over you like evil warlords always do. At that time I want you to let him see you have my headband. That's my message to him: I can come or go at will."
"It will rattle him good," Ariel agreed. Kandiel said, "The more men he has guarding you, the less men he'll have on the field of battle tomorrow."
Ariel smiled at her. "I knew you had a plan for getting me out of here, Kandiel."
They shared the most heartfelt kiss of their lives, knowing it could very well be the last one. Then Kandiel left, promising to return with an army to get her loose.
At sunrise Zadkiel saw that his plan worked. He had flushed Kandiel out of the city, but Lord Koth had been absolutely right about Kandiel's network of favors.
Accompanying Kandiel was King Turel of Aramel and all of his men under arms. Ariel was visible in the center of the camp, held naked and shivering within the giant wooden cage with a heavy guard around her representing a fair fraction of Zadkiel's available men.
"And that is his fatal flaw," Kandiel told King Turel, who was mounted on his own horse beside her. "My ruse has worked perfectly. Ariel has now become Zadkiel's greatest weakness, a precious jewel tying down a third of his men just as our attack begins."
So their armies began to clash fiercely, and with the disparity in numbers the battle gradually began to go against Zadkiel.
Ariel fought her way to the top of the hill behind Zadkiel's army where the wagon was tied up all by itself now. Zadkiel spotted what Kandiel was trying to do in the fog of battle and moved to cut her off, lest she solve the Gordian Knot and become the beneficiary of the prophesy.
They both dismounted and launched into an extended face-to-face sword duel. Kandiel was slashed by the tip of Zadkiel's blade as he attained first blood. Ariel feigned shock at the pain and injury and pretended to slow down. Zadkiel let his guard down for just a fraction of a second, but it was enough. Seeing her opening, Kandiel let loose a ferocious kick to his face. Zadkiel was laid out cold.
Kandiel was tempted to finish him off right there, but her eyes settled on the forgotten wagon on the hilltop and she ran to it instead. She tried to untie the Gordian knot which secured the wagon to a mighty tree, but like many who came before her she made no headway. Meanwhile Zadkiel's cavalry was closing in on her.
Finally, with no time to lose, Kandiel just cut the knot with her sword. The wagon began to roll downhill and she jumped inside. Her war-cry gripped the attention of the troops guarding Ariel, and they gaped at the horror approaching them. All of the yeng fled as Kandiel's desperate gamble played out.
She ducked inside the wagon and braced herself as the wagon collided with the cage at breakneck speed, shattering both the cage and the wagon. Both yen were more bruised and beaten than they had ever been before but Ariel was alive and free.
King Turel continued the rout and pursued the scattered remnants of Zadkiel's army into the forest. But Turel knew this defeated army represented only a fraction of the strength that the Gerash patriarch could bring to bear on them, and its relatively small size had itself been a gesture of contempt on the part of Kirodiel for the abilities of Aramel to defend itself. Next time there would be a far greater host. But for now Turel shrugged. That was a worry for another day.
When Zadkiel finally regained consciousness he saw his utter defeat from his vantage on the hilltop, and he fled the field alone on his horse.
Kandiel said, "No more adventures for a while, Ariel. I've cracked a rib, for starters."
Ariel accepted a blanket and threw it around her naked form. Being deprived of clothes for so long had caused her much suffering, Gorpai was largely an ice world after all. She said, "Thank you for everything, Kandiel! But why did you throw away everything you've worked for since you met me and first questioned who you were, just to save my life?"
For her part Kandiel was almost at a loss for words. "What do you mean 'why'? Didn't you find that cage a little drafty?"
Ariel held up the pieces of the wagon's rope. "I'm talking about the Gordian Knot. I'll admit, cutting it was not what Gordiel had in mind, maybe, but now you are destined to rule Gorpai. Fate! The unreformed Kandiel must return now."
Kandiel said, "Must she? You say Koth was behind all this, but do you think Koth will have his way forever? What if the oracle really meant the spirit of the new Kandiel will take over Gorpai? The Kandiel who changed on that unforgettable day when she first met you."
Ariel was shocked at first, then she smiled as understanding fully dawned. "The new Kandiel? If yin and yang everywhere became willing to do for each other what you did for me today...then love won today, Kandiel! It may take many more centuries to play out but you may have turned the corner here today. Once and for all . . . love won!"
But the gift was given in too much haste, it seemed to Kirodiel later, for after the coronation of King Turel the city become a hotbed of resistance to the reforms that came in with the Law of Koth. Many yin of the city of Koth removed to there, including many of Kandiel's Amazons, and many yang went there as well, all those who believed yin and yang were on a level, and yin should never be treated as mere property.
Aramel, then, was home to those who were disgusted and horrified at the sight of Ariel being paraded naked in a wooden cage from city to city across the Middle Lands of Gorpai.
As Aramel filled up with the enemies of Koth, the prophet Zadkiel grew alarmed, and convinced High Lord Patriarch Kirodiel to give him command of the Eyes of Koth, the dreaded secret police of family Gerash. Then Zadkiel surrounded the city with many Eyes of Koth in their black livery, and they turned back anyone who were not native to that city and who should try to enter.
And when Kandiel had rallied all in the Middle Lands who were sympathetic to Ariel, and bade them to emigrate to Aramel, the time was come for her to enter the city herself, yet she could not travel openly, for the blockade was pursued with vigor.
But one of the farmers who lived nigh to the city concealed Kandiel within a wooden box, and drove to the lines of the Eyes of Koth which ringed the city. There no wagons could pass. But the farmer and three sturdy yeng in his employ took the box off the wagon and bore it themselves toward the city using two poles threaded through brass rings in the side of the box, while a young dirk drove the wagon away back to the farm. Yet they were not alone, for many other farmers had to resort to the same expedient to move their goods into the city.
One of the Eyes of Koth grew suspicious and barked to them, "Let fall the box!" The four yang immediately complied. "What yang of you be the loadmaster?" he asked.
Three of the yang edged fearfully away from the fourth, who was the oldest. "This shipment be mine, lord. I am Sibiel, a farmer of the valley of Odargas."
The Eye of Koth asked, "Dost thou make vouchsafement for the goods thou bearest?"
And Sibiel answered, "I do, milord."
The Eye of Koth replied, "Yet I would see therein." Sibiel looked suddenly crestfallen. Resigned, he told the other men to open the box. Ariel's closest companion Kandiel stumbled out, dazed by the sudden change to the light of day.
The other three laborers feigned outrage at the smuggling attempt, in an effort to save their own skins.
"Stand ye apart from Sibiel," the Eye of Koth proclaimed, "all who value your lives, for contrary to the will of Koth he bearest aid to a daughter of Gerash to depart to Aramel where only goods are permitted to go.
But Kandiel was not cowed by the pretensions of this Eye of Koth. She cursed him in a loud voice, and said, "May Sophia send down fire from heaven and smite thee!"
At first the farmers from Odargas thought the yin was joking, but immediately after she spoke, brilliant orange bolts of fire shot down from the clear sky. So bright and hot was this fire that the yangs thought they had singed their own eyebrows off. The fire from the sky vaporized twelve Eyes of Koth in a single simultaneous targeted strike, leaving only smoking grease spots where the yangs once had stood.
To the farmers who had assisted her she had already told them, "My name is Kandiel and I am formally asking for asylum in the city of Aramel according to the laws of your king."
And this the farmers told to the ferrymaster after the ferry to Aramel docked at the village of Surat. But they made no mention of the slaying of the Eyes of Koth by fire from the sky, for they were afraid.
The ferrymaster said to Kandiel, "It is the commandment of King Turel that any yin of family Gerash who enters our realm automatically becomes a citizen of Aramel. Therefore you, Kandiel, are free. Yet you are a person of some renown throughout Gorpai, for you are Lady Ariel's greatest disciple, and a price has been set upon your head by the Gerash patriarch Kirodiel. Therefore you must appeal directly to King Turel in Aramel for sanctuary in our city, or you will be challenged at every step. Many would dare to sell you back to the Eyes of Koth if the favor countenance of King Turel did not rest upon you."
"It will be as you say," Kandiel promised. "But tell me, sir, that little stretch of water could not be more than five ji wide. Surely there would be many in Magodon who would easily be capable of swimming across?"
The ferrymaster smiled at this and said, "Truly, Kandiel, you know little about the underwater flora of the far west of the Middle Lands." He grabbed a whole broiled bird from a tabletop and threw it over the side. No sooner than the bird struck the water than there was a violent churning, and snapping of yellow jaws, the flashing of razor-sharp teeth, and the bird was gone.
The missing Eyes of Koth were soon noticed by the priesthood, and the true story was wrung out from many witnesses by threat of torture, and the priests knew the Eyes of Koth had been killed by bolts of fire from the sky.
This story made its way back to Zadkiel in the Holy City, and thence to Koth himself, who was at that time clothed in the body of a mighty yang named Israel, but had not made himself known as Koth to any but his prophet Zadkiel. And Israel knew the fire from the sky was interference from Binah, the first such meddling that Binah had dared to do.
Israel's response was to command Zadkiel to commence an invasion of Aramel to avenge the incredible affront. Zadkiel in turn expressed Koth's displeasure to Kirodiel Gerash, and relayed the commandment of Israel to attack.
Then the high lord Patriarch Kirodiel Gerash commanded his most senior lieutenant thus: "Make them to be a spoil for dogs and all manner of birds, and let the will of Koth be brought to fulfillment."
He placed Zadkiel in overall command of the Army of Koth, and sent him into the field to move against King Turel.
At dusk in the city of Aramel, in the castle Brys, built on a two ji high bluff on the north side of the mouth of the river Dashok, Kandiel presented herself for an audience with King Turel. She went with two of her chief Amazon lieutenants who had preceded her to Aramel by many days.
King Turel was old now, and filled with the wisdom of one who has lived in two worlds. But his long friendship with Abraham on Earth had tempered the King's nephilim love of law with the human law of love.
After Kandiel was announced, and knelt before him, the King told her to rise. Then he looked hard at Kandiel with a piercing gaze and said, "In the beginning I was a servant of Koth, but I was asked by him to call the elohim Yahweh my master for a time. Now I find their counsel has sundered one from another, and I have been forced to choose between them. And I have chosen Yahweh."
Kandiel replied, "The King knows that I embrace Sophia, and all those who also embrace Sophia. Others have also said that Yahweh has broken with Koth, but some of these say he has moved closer to Sophia. If that is true, Your Highness, then you and I would be natural allies."
Turel said, "The Eyes of Koth have long pressured me to turn over to them the hundreds of Amazons who have taken refuge here in Aramel, and they have long watched the approaches to my city for your own arrival, but now I detect almost a frenzy in their doings. The ferrymaster could tell me little. Do you know why they are acting so?"
"Yes I do, Your Highness. I called upon Sophia to smite the Eyes of Koth who discovered me and who sought to kill the kind farmer who tried to smuggle me into the city. Then fire fell from heaven and destroyed twelve Eyes of Koth utterly, such that almost no evidence remained that they had been living yeng only moments before."
"Then it is Koth himself who is now at war with us, and Aramel can no longer be called a sanctuary to you or your Amazons. Soon every hand of family Gerash will be raised against us."
Then Kandiel asked, "Are you to command us to leave the city at this time, Your Highness?"
"Far from it, Kandiel. I would ask you to command your Amazons in league with the forces of the city, for soon the Army of Koth will arrive seeking vengeance for their missing Eyes of Koth." And this Kandiel eagerly agreed to do.
Years before, on a hill near the city of Aramel, King Gordius hitched a wagon to a tree with a knot so elaborate no one has ever been able to untie it. At that time an oracle said whoever unraveled this Gordian Knot would rule the entire world of Gorpai.
Zadkiel had heard the prophesy, of course, and when the Army of Koth drew near the city he found the wagon and laid his own eyes on the famous knot. For several days, while the army camped in the surrounding countryside, Zadkiel tried to undo the knot, but to no avail. Very well, since the wagon was not going anywhere soon, he had his men lash Ariel's cage to the wagon of old King Gordius.
For Ariel had been paraded nude in cube made of wooden poles all across the Middle Lands of Gorpai to put lie to her preaching of the power of Sophia over the hearts of yin. And now she had been brought to the outskirts of the last holdout city, Aramel, to taunt her supporters there.
One night Israel (who by riding in the angel of Koth could move about Gorpai far more quickly than any yang) appeared in Zadkiel's tent and informed him that Kandiel was also in Aramel, obviously hot to take a crack at the Gordian knot herself.
Zadkiel remembered his victory over her in the courtroom. "I look forward to meeting her again, my Lord Koth."
"Don't be a reckless fool," Israel warned him. "Kandiel's people have been operating in this area for years. Doing 'good'. She's got a whole network of favors she could call in if you push her head on, and overnight you could find yourself facing more problems than you've ever had to deal with before in your life."
"My lord Koth, no one is that good. Surely no yin is that good."
"Kandiel has exactly one weakness," Israel went on, as though Zadkiel hadn't said a single word. His mouth screwed up in an expression of utter disdain. "Kandiel's only weakness, of course, is Ariel herself. For I tell you now that just as I, Koth, have taken possession of this body and go by the name Israel, so has the elohim Sophia taken possession of that body and goes by Ariel."
"But my lord Koth, you have said to me that you are the only god, and the other gods do not even exist!"
"I trust as my prophet that you will foster and maintain that belief among the people, Zadkiel. Take the utmost care where Ariel s concerned, for she is indeed Sophia, one of the elohim, despite my propaganda to the contrary, which you at least would do well not to believe."
But even as he spoke Israel was troubled, because he knew Zadkiel had come to believe that Koth's struggle against Sophia meant that Sophia should be held in contempt, which was the nephilim custom when dealing with enemies among their own order. Yet Sophia was elohim like himself, and friend or foe, Koth thought the beings of lesser orders, at least, should give her the respect that was her due. So from that day Koth vowed to slay Zadkiel the very day he was no longer useful to him.
But there would be ample opportunities to test Zadkiel later. Following Israel's precise instructions, Zadkiel immediately dispatched his cavalry.
At a beautiful blue pool in the mountains ringing the city of Aramel, Kandiel and a squad of her Amazons refreshed themselves, then assumed their usual mode of riding slowly on their horses while they watched the greater perimeter of the city for intruders. Suchwise the Eyes of Koth had also done before they were inexplicably withdrawn some weeks before.
A nearby torrent of water was so loud that Kandiel found it hard to hear her chief lieutenant, Imriel, speaking it her. She told Imriel to repeat what she had just said a bit louder. And Imriel said, "We should be back to the ferry by nightfall, having made a complete circle."
The waterfall completely blanked out the sound and vibration of onrushing hooves until it was nearly too late. Not even Kandiel's hypersensitive mare gave warning. Suddenly Gerash horsemen raced up behind Kandiel, Imriel, and the others. At the last second Kandiel's sword was brought out, only to crash against a mighty iron rod. There were sparks and Kandiel was knocked clean off her horse.
Another horseman decapitated Imriel in one smooth motion. Kandiel was stunned, and grieved for Imriel, but her horse had the intelligence to linger with Kandiel rather than follow her instinct, which was to bolt.
Shaking her head clear, Kandiel mounted up again. Imriel was dead but four of her Amazons survived the assault, and they rallied around her.
Lumbering after them, she recognized their battle standard and mouthed the vile name of their general with all the contempt she could muster: "Zadkiel!"
Kandiel chased the cavalrymen like the cold wind that presaged the long Gorpai winter. Kandiel's companions loosed many arrows even from their full gallop, and one of them slew the iron staff wielder. Two others who blocked Zadkiel from harm also fell, so no one remained to run interference while Ariel slowly closed in on her fleeing target.
But Zadkiel was too far ahead. Soon he dived into the safety of a vast forest glade guarded by a large armed encampment. Contrary to her every wish Kandiel reared back and brought her horse to a stop, and the other Amazons conformed to her movements. Kandiel scanned all the banners and standards of the army arrayed before her and recognized this as the main bulk of Zadkiel's army.
But every indication she had from the path of burning towns said Zadkiel was twelve or fifteen leagues to the west. He must have led his army on a forced march all night. But how did he know to come to precisely this place? "Koth," Kandiel muttered, answering her own unspoken question.
Zadkiel ordered that the canvas covering Ariel's cage be removed, and then Ariel was revealed to Kandiel. It was the first time she had seen her in a year, because after a time she could not bear to look at her humiliation.
"You can kill me where you stand, Ariel," Zadkiel shouted, "but that wouldn't be healthy for Ariel."
Kandiel stared at Zadkiel with first wide, then narrowing eyes. She rode a bit closer. "Don't sink to this, Zadkiel. I expect such from Koth. It isn't worthy of a pureblood Gerash."
Now Kandiel was close enough that Zadkiel could speak in a more dignified tone. He said, "Yet I find that much like Koth, I want you working for me and not against me.* Here are your only two options, Kandiel. You can defeat my legions and possibly rescue poor little Ariel. Or you can kill my field-marshal, take over my legions, and simply order her release."
And Kandiel said to him, "I like number two."
He replied, "That will take care of today. To keep Ariel safe from assassination you will ride at the head of my army and go where I command you in the East Lands and the West Lands, and in Aramel, and every place where Koth is held in contempt."
Kandiel was frustrated by her vulnerability. She thought: Had all her enemies learned Ariel was her one weakness?
Zadkiel seemed to read her thoughts. "Ariel has become a noose around your neck, Kandiel, and the closer you get to her the tighter that noose becomes. How easy it is to make you dance with a few simple threats to Ariel's life!"
She said to him, "Where is the honor in this, Zadkiel? The glory? You want me to command your army, but do you really want my decisions for you tainted by holding an unwarlike yin hostage?"
He replied, "Not at all, but you have left me no choice."
Then Kandiel got her horse up to full speed and charged toward the heart of the enemy encampment.
Moving in a well-practiced dance, a century of Kirodiel's best pikemen suddenly arranged themselves around Ariel's cage, with their forest of spikes pointing directly at the approach of Kandiel.
So Zadkiel had put Ariel on display, tempting Kandiel, at the same time making it clear Ariel was completely beyond her grasp.
Ariel shouted, "Kandiel! Forget about me!"
Kandiel's voice broke as she called back tearfully, "Don't you know by now that's the one thing I can never do?"* But she could do nothing more here. Kandiel flashed Zadkiel with a glance of pure hatred and kicked her steed, turning away to flee the scene.
"She is a true warrior, Lady Sophia," Zadkiel told Ariel, earning a wad of spit in his face. He quietly wiped it away. "She knows. The things you love are always used against you. Always! She knows!"
Sibiel, the farmer from Odargas who tried to smuggle Kandiel to Aramel, had been fingered for the Eyes of Koth by the farm hands he hired when they were threatened with death by slow torture. The Eyes of Koth elected not to kill him, for it would seem too much a kindness to Sibiel and a waste of good nephilim muscle power. Zadkiel's army was short-handed so Sibiel was instead cruelly pressed into slavery as a simple waterbearer in Zadkiel's camp.
Having little else to do for entertainment, often the Gerash soldiers would trip him, laughing together with their buddies as Sibiel trudged back again and again to refill his pot.
That night Sibiel wandered off to the edge of the camp where a hooded shape tackled him and dragged him into a small ravine. It was Kandi- el! She ordered him to switch their clothes.
He wanted to stay and help rescue Ariel, but after some stern words from Kandiel, together with ample thanks for what he had done, Sibiel faded off into the night under a black robe.
Kandiel adjusted Sibiel's clumsy homemade armor and helmet (which was almost worse than no protection at all), she padded out her curves, and put on false facial hair to offset her soft features. Then she drifted into the camp fetching water for the men and searching for Ariel in the area where Sibiel told her she was being held captive.
Ariel was in the cubical cage at the center of the camp, guarded by two yang. Tonight it was covered with the canvas to keep Zadkiel's yeng from leering at Ariel instead of watching for Kandiel.
Her Sibiel uniform worked well. Kandiel could swagger with the best of them. The guards permitted her to enter with a torch and a ladle of rancid water. She appeared between the canvas and the cage.
"Kandiel!" Ariel husked, filled with joy. Then consternation. "Nice beard."
"Hush! Take my headband." It was a green headband of intricate make, a gift from Ariel that she said was made by Binah, for in the center it possessed a brilliant white light that allowed Kandiel to move on the darkest nights, and there was none like it anywhere on Gorpai.
Ariel said, "That was my gift to you, Kandiel, and my gifts are without repentance."
Kandiel said, "You will have to make an exception this time," and she passed it to Ariel between the interlaced bars.
Ariel said, "Do you want me to use it to escape?" And Kandiel replied, "Please don't do anything stupid, Ariel. This is the only thing I have that says 'Kandiel was here' without mistake. Now Zadkiel will come in here and gloat over you like evil warlords always do. At that time I want you to let him see you have my headband. That's my message to him: I can come or go at will."
"It will rattle him good," Ariel agreed. Kandiel said, "The more men he has guarding you, the less men he'll have on the field of battle tomorrow."
Ariel smiled at her. "I knew you had a plan for getting me out of here, Kandiel."
They shared the most heartfelt kiss of their lives, knowing it could very well be the last one. Then Kandiel left, promising to return with an army to get her loose.
At sunrise Zadkiel saw that his plan worked. He had flushed Kandiel out of the city, but Lord Koth had been absolutely right about Kandiel's network of favors.
Accompanying Kandiel was King Turel of Aramel and all of his men under arms. Ariel was visible in the center of the camp, held naked and shivering within the giant wooden cage with a heavy guard around her representing a fair fraction of Zadkiel's available men.
"And that is his fatal flaw," Kandiel told King Turel, who was mounted on his own horse beside her. "My ruse has worked perfectly. Ariel has now become Zadkiel's greatest weakness, a precious jewel tying down a third of his men just as our attack begins."
So their armies began to clash fiercely, and with the disparity in numbers the battle gradually began to go against Zadkiel.
Ariel fought her way to the top of the hill behind Zadkiel's army where the wagon was tied up all by itself now. Zadkiel spotted what Kandiel was trying to do in the fog of battle and moved to cut her off, lest she solve the Gordian Knot and become the beneficiary of the prophesy.
They both dismounted and launched into an extended face-to-face sword duel. Kandiel was slashed by the tip of Zadkiel's blade as he attained first blood. Ariel feigned shock at the pain and injury and pretended to slow down. Zadkiel let his guard down for just a fraction of a second, but it was enough. Seeing her opening, Kandiel let loose a ferocious kick to his face. Zadkiel was laid out cold.
Kandiel was tempted to finish him off right there, but her eyes settled on the forgotten wagon on the hilltop and she ran to it instead. She tried to untie the Gordian knot which secured the wagon to a mighty tree, but like many who came before her she made no headway. Meanwhile Zadkiel's cavalry was closing in on her.
Finally, with no time to lose, Kandiel just cut the knot with her sword. The wagon began to roll downhill and she jumped inside. Her war-cry gripped the attention of the troops guarding Ariel, and they gaped at the horror approaching them. All of the yeng fled as Kandiel's desperate gamble played out.
She ducked inside the wagon and braced herself as the wagon collided with the cage at breakneck speed, shattering both the cage and the wagon. Both yen were more bruised and beaten than they had ever been before but Ariel was alive and free.
King Turel continued the rout and pursued the scattered remnants of Zadkiel's army into the forest. But Turel knew this defeated army represented only a fraction of the strength that the Gerash patriarch could bring to bear on them, and its relatively small size had itself been a gesture of contempt on the part of Kirodiel for the abilities of Aramel to defend itself. Next time there would be a far greater host. But for now Turel shrugged. That was a worry for another day.
When Zadkiel finally regained consciousness he saw his utter defeat from his vantage on the hilltop, and he fled the field alone on his horse.
Kandiel said, "No more adventures for a while, Ariel. I've cracked a rib, for starters."
Ariel accepted a blanket and threw it around her naked form. Being deprived of clothes for so long had caused her much suffering, Gorpai was largely an ice world after all. She said, "Thank you for everything, Kandiel! But why did you throw away everything you've worked for since you met me and first questioned who you were, just to save my life?"
For her part Kandiel was almost at a loss for words. "What do you mean 'why'? Didn't you find that cage a little drafty?"
Ariel held up the pieces of the wagon's rope. "I'm talking about the Gordian Knot. I'll admit, cutting it was not what Gordiel had in mind, maybe, but now you are destined to rule Gorpai. Fate! The unreformed Kandiel must return now."
Kandiel said, "Must she? You say Koth was behind all this, but do you think Koth will have his way forever? What if the oracle really meant the spirit of the new Kandiel will take over Gorpai? The Kandiel who changed on that unforgettable day when she first met you."
Ariel was shocked at first, then she smiled as understanding fully dawned. "The new Kandiel? If yin and yang everywhere became willing to do for each other what you did for me today...then love won today, Kandiel! It may take many more centuries to play out but you may have turned the corner here today. Once and for all . . . love won!"
CLI Applications
Remote SSH console applications installed on the Cleanposts server:
Because I am an 1337 h4x0r and don't want to use anything that you n00bs might be able to understand.
| abook | Address book | Access your contact information from any terminal |
| aewan | ASCII Editor Without A Name | F1 for drop-down menu |
| aiksaurus | Text-mode thesaurus | Example: aiksaurus brutal |
| alpine | Email client | mailto:selah@cleanposts.com |
| bc | Calculator with C syntax | define factorial(n) {if (n <= 1) return (n); return (n * factorial(n-1));} |
| bible | Text-mode Bible "bot" | See Bible for commands |
| bwbasic | Bywater Basic | BASIC interpreter, see bwbasic for commands and functions |
| calcurse | Calendar/appointments | See calcurse for detailed help information |
| dosemu | DOS emulator | C:\ points to ~/.dosemu/c-drive, D:\ points to /home |
| dict | Console-based dictionary | Example: type dict syllogism |
| finch | Instant Messenger client | Access AIM, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo! and other IM networks. Alt-Q to quit |
| freesweep | Minesweeper game | Use space bar to expose a square |
| irssi | IRC chat client | Undernet: /connect Diemen.NL.EU.Undernet.Org |
| links | Text-based web browser | Type ESC to see pull-down menu |
| mathomatic | Text-based algebra system | Mathomatic for detailed user guide |
| mc | Orthodox (two panel) file manager | See mc for more information |
| nano | Text editor | Easy to learn, based on the Pine interface |
| olive | RSS news aggregator | http://feeds.feedburner.com/Drudgefeedcom-DrudgeReportRssFeed |
| sc | Text-based spreadsheet | See sc for list of commands |
| wordgrinder | Word processor | ESC for drop-down menu |
Because I am an 1337 h4x0r and don't want to use anything that you n00bs might be able to understand.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Genesis 14
Genesis 14 - Tuesday 05APR11
14And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
Abram had over three hundred able-bodied men which he armed and led into battle to get back all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as rescue Lot and all of his goods.
In the New Testament, in Hebrews 7:3, it says of Melchizadek: "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." This seems to imply that he is immortal.
Dead Sea Scroll 11Q13 sees him as an angelic being, sort of a tax collector for God, and indeed he accepts a tenth of Abram's spoils. The second book of Enoch says that Melchizadek was born of a virgin and was preseved from the flood by being taken to the Garden of Eden, which presumably had a force-field bubble around it to stay the floodwaters. And when he was there he probably ate the fruit of the Tree of Life, which explains why he was still around in the time of Abram.
Some denomination go further and say that Melchizadek is the pre-incarnate Son of God. But in Hebrews, Paul is comparing the Aaronic priesthood, which is based on genetic descent from Abram through Aaron and the tribe of Levi, to a priesthood by divine appointment. Melchizadek has no pedigree in the Bible, no chain from father to son. And that is what Paul was alluding to when he said "without father, without mother". He says that Christ was appointed High Priest in the same manner, without regard to descent, although Christ can claim descent from Abraham through his mother. And in Christ, the baptized are appointed to a priestly ministry as well, through conversion, after being drawn to faith by God, without regard to their status as Jew or Gentile. Paul implies that this Melchizadek priesthood is the superior one. After all, Abram tithed to him, not the other way around:
- 1 And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;
- 2 That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.
- 3 All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.
- 4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
- 5-6 And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness.
- 7 And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar.
- 8-12 And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim; With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five. And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
- 13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eschol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.
14And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
Abram had over three hundred able-bodied men which he armed and led into battle to get back all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as rescue Lot and all of his goods.
- 15-16 And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
- 18-21And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
In the New Testament, in Hebrews 7:3, it says of Melchizadek: "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." This seems to imply that he is immortal.
Dead Sea Scroll 11Q13 sees him as an angelic being, sort of a tax collector for God, and indeed he accepts a tenth of Abram's spoils. The second book of Enoch says that Melchizadek was born of a virgin and was preseved from the flood by being taken to the Garden of Eden, which presumably had a force-field bubble around it to stay the floodwaters. And when he was there he probably ate the fruit of the Tree of Life, which explains why he was still around in the time of Abram.
Some denomination go further and say that Melchizadek is the pre-incarnate Son of God. But in Hebrews, Paul is comparing the Aaronic priesthood, which is based on genetic descent from Abram through Aaron and the tribe of Levi, to a priesthood by divine appointment. Melchizadek has no pedigree in the Bible, no chain from father to son. And that is what Paul was alluding to when he said "without father, without mother". He says that Christ was appointed High Priest in the same manner, without regard to descent, although Christ can claim descent from Abraham through his mother. And in Christ, the baptized are appointed to a priestly ministry as well, through conversion, after being drawn to faith by God, without regard to their status as Jew or Gentile. Paul implies that this Melchizadek priesthood is the superior one. After all, Abram tithed to him, not the other way around:
- 22-24 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
Genesis 13
Genesis 13 -- Monday 04APR11
- 1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
- 2-4 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
- 5-7 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
- 8-11 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
- 12-17 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly. And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
- 18 Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
Genesis 12
Genesis 12 -- Sunday 03APR11
Until this time, we have just been reading little episodes, a sort of "coming attractions" for the rest of the book of Genesis. Now we are come to the single narrative that will take us all the way to the settling of the Israelites in Egypt and a happy ending. And the bouncing ball I will follow is the Blessing which originated with Adam and now rests in the person of Abram, a Chaldean who has grown disgusted with the variety of (to him) meaningless religious practices in his city of Haran.
Until this time, we have just been reading little episodes, a sort of "coming attractions" for the rest of the book of Genesis. Now we are come to the single narrative that will take us all the way to the settling of the Israelites in Egypt and a happy ending. And the bouncing ball I will follow is the Blessing which originated with Adam and now rests in the person of Abram, a Chaldean who has grown disgusted with the variety of (to him) meaningless religious practices in his city of Haran.
- 1-3 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
- 4-7 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
- 8-10 And he removed from thence 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. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
- 11-13 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
- 14-17 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels. And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
- 18-20 And Pharaoh 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 Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
Genesis 11
Genesis 11 --- Sunday 03APR11
- 1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
- 2-4 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
- 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
- 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
- 7-9 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
- 2,607 B.C.E Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood
- 2,507 B.C.E.And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah...
- 2,472 B.C.E.And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber...
- 2,442 B.C.E.And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg...
- 2,408 B.C.E.And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu...
- 2,378 B.C.E.And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug...
- 2,346 B.C.E.And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor...
- 2,316 B.C.E.And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah...
- 2,287 B.C.E.And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran
- 31-32 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
Genesis 10
Genesis 10 --- Sunday 03APR11
Chapter 10 is mostly begats that don't go anywhere, so I will pretty much gloss over this. It consists of the names of the sons and grandsons and great-grandsons of Noah, each one of whom is the "George Washington" of his own nation, ranging from Ethiopia to Yemen to Russia. Nimrod gets a nod as the founder of Babel. Asshur built Nineveh in Iraq and the cities of Rehoboth and Calah. One gets the impression that Noah's family didn't like each other very much. My objection here is the same with the situation with Cain. Three or four generations out from Noah the Earth might have had enough people to form a clan in a single village. But the Scriptures are talking about these gentlemen building huge cities.
Chapter 10 is mostly begats that don't go anywhere, so I will pretty much gloss over this. It consists of the names of the sons and grandsons and great-grandsons of Noah, each one of whom is the "George Washington" of his own nation, ranging from Ethiopia to Yemen to Russia. Nimrod gets a nod as the founder of Babel. Asshur built Nineveh in Iraq and the cities of Rehoboth and Calah. One gets the impression that Noah's family didn't like each other very much. My objection here is the same with the situation with Cain. Three or four generations out from Noah the Earth might have had enough people to form a clan in a single village. But the Scriptures are talking about these gentlemen building huge cities.
Genesis 9
Genesis 9 -- Sunday 03APR11
Thus the six laws which Jewish rabbis assert were given to Adam and Eve were modified (death penalty for murder) and completed with the seventh law against eating animals with blood (newly applicable under the carnivorous diet) and we received the complete seven Noahide Laws which are binding on every human being.
- 1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
- 2-3 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
- 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
- 5-6 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
Thus the six laws which Jewish rabbis assert were given to Adam and Eve were modified (death penalty for murder) and completed with the seventh law against eating animals with blood (newly applicable under the carnivorous diet) and we received the complete seven Noahide Laws which are binding on every human being.
- Idolatry is forbidden. Do not entertaining the thought that there exists a deity except the one Creator. Do not make images of these alleged deities.
- Incestuous and adulterous relations are forbidden. People must not copulate with close kin or with others of the same gender.
- Murder is forbidden.
- Cursing the name of God is forbidden. Acknowledge the existence of God and do not blaspheme against him.
- Theft is forbidden. Do not commit fraud or even covet the possessions of others, which leads to thoughts of stealing.
- Eating flesh removed from a living animal is forbidden. Eating flesh with the blood still in it, or eating blood itself (the Filipino dish called dinuguan for example) is right out.
- Mankind is commanded to establish fair laws and just courts, and is forbidden from giving false testimony.
- 7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
- 8-11 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
- 12-14 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud
- 15-17 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
- 18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
- 20-22 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
- 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
- 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
- 25-27 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
- 28-29 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
Genesis 8
- 1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;
- 2-3- The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; and the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
- 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
- 6-7 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
- 8-9 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
- 10-11 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
- 12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
- 13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
- 14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
- 15-17 And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
- 18-20 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
- 21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
- 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 7
Genesis 7 - Thursday 31MAR11
Friday 01APR11
- 1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
- 2-3 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
- 4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
- 5-7 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
- 8-9 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
Friday 01APR11
- 10-12 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
- 13-16 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
- 17-20 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
- 21-23 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
- 24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
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