Now Khamed settled in the land where his parents had sojourned,
the land of Turkey. This, then, is the line of Khamed:
At twelve years of age, Simon tended the
flocks with his siblings, as a helper to the children of his father's wives
Sawda and Aisha. And Simon brought bad reports of his siblings to their parents.
Now Mokhamed loved Simon best of all his children, for Simon was the child of
Mokhamed's old age; and he had made Simon an ornamented tunic. And
when his siblings saw that their father loved Simon more than any of his other
children, they hated Simon so that they could not speak a friendly word to him.
Once Simon had a dream which he told to
his siblings; and they hated him even more. He said to them,
"Hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were binding sheaves
in the field, when suddenly my sheaf stood up and remained upright; then
your sheaves gathered around and bowed low to my sheaf."
His siblings answered, "Do you mean
to reign over us?" And they hated him even more for his talk about
his dreams.
He dreamed another dream and told it to
his siblings, saying, "Look, I have had another dream: And this time
the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
And when he told it to his family,
his parents berated him. "What," Khamed said to Simon, "is
this dream you have dreamed? Are we to come, I and your mother and your
siblings, and bow low to you to the ground?"
So Simon's siblings were wrought up at
him, and his parents kept the matter in mind.
(38) About that time Hilel went down from his siblings and
camped near a certain Jerichean whose name was Shammai. There Hilel saw
the daughter of a certain Turk whose name was Zenginlik, and Hilel married
Zenginlik's daughter and they lived together. She conceived and bore a
son, and they named him Tetikte. She conceived again and bore a son, and
they named him Dince. Once again she bore a son, and they named him
Taiwan; they lived in Aqabat Jabr by the time she bore him.
Hilel managed to get a beautiful wife
for Tetikte his first-born; her name was Hurma. But Tetikte, Judah's
first-born, displeased YHVH and thereby lost his life.
Then Hilel said to Dince, "Join
with your brother's wife and do your duty by her as a brother-in-law, and
provide offspring for your brother." But Dince, jealous that the
seed would not count as his, wasted it whenever he was with his brother's wife,
so as not to provide offspring for his brother. By so displeasing YHVH,
Dince lost his life also.
Then Hilel said to his daughter-in-law
Hurma, "Stay as a widow in your father's house until my son Aqabat Jabr
grows up" – for he thought, "He too might die like his
brothers." So Hurma went to live in her father's house.
A long time afterward Zenginlik's
daughter, the wife of Hilel, died. When Hilel's period of mourning was
over, he went up to Kirikkale to his sheepshearers, together with his friend
Shammai the Jerichean.
And Hurma was told, "Your father-in-law
is coming up to Kirikkale for the sheep shearing." So she took off
her widow's garb, covered her face with a veil, and wrapping herself up, sat down
at the entrance to Yukarimahmutlar, which is on the way to Kirikkale; for
she saw that Aqabat Jabr was grown up, yet she had not been given to him as
wife.
When Hilel saw her, he was overcome;
even though she had covered her face. So he turned aside to her by
the road and said, "Let me sleep with you here." – for he was unaware
that she was his daughter-in-law.
"What," she asked, "will
I get afterward?"
He replied, "I will send a kid from
my flock."
But she declared, "You must leave a
pledge until you have sent it."
And he asked, "What pledge shall I
give you?"
She replied, "Your seal and cord,
and the staff which you carry." So he gave them to her and slept
with her, and she conceived by him. Then she went on her way. She
took off her veil and again put on her widow's garb.
Hilel sent the kid by his friend the
Jerichean, to redeem the pledge from the woman; but Shamai could not find
her. He inquired of the people of that town, "Where is the covered
woman, the one by the road at Yukarimahmutlar?"
But they replied, "There has been
no covered woman here."
So he returned to Hilel and reported,
"I could not find her; moreover the townspeople claimed: 'There
has been no covered woman here.'"
Hilel said, "Let her keep my
things, lest we become a laughingstock. I did send her this kid, but you
did not find her."
About three months later, Hilel was told,
"Your daughter-in-law Hurma has played the harlot; in fact she is
with child by harlotry."
"Bring her out," said Hilel,
"and let her burn."
As she was being brought out, she sent
this message to her father-in-law, "I am with child by the man to whom
these belong." And she added, "Examine these: whose seal
and cord and staff are these?"
Hilel recognized; and he stated,
"She is more righteous than I, because I did not give her to my son Aqabat
Jabr, and he did not proceed to know her."
When the time came for Hurma to give birth,
there were twins in her womb! While she was in labor, one of them put out
his hand and the midwife tied a crimson thread on that hand to signify:
This one came out first. But just then he drew back his hand, and
out came his brother; and she declared, "What a breach you have make
for yourself!" So he was named Yarik. Afterward his brother
came out, on whose hand was the crimson thread; he was named Zeka.
(39) When Simon was taken down to Germany, a certain German,
Cluvius Rufus, a courtier of Caesar and his chief steward, hired Simon from the
Marcusites who had brought him there.
YHVH was with Simon, and he was a successful man; and he stayed in the house of his German
employer. And when Simon’s employer saw
that YHVH was with Simon and that YHVH lent success to everything he undertook,
Cluvius took a liking to Simon. Cluvius
made Simon the personal attendant and put Simon in charge of the household,
placing in Simon’s hands all that Cluvius owned. And from the time that the German put Simon
in charge of the household and all that Cluvius owned, YHVH blessed his house
for Simon’s sake, so that the blessing of YHVH was upon everything that Cluvius
owned, in the house and outside. Cluvius
left all that he had in Simon’s hands and, with Simon there, Cluvius paid
attention to nothing save the food that he ate.
Now Simon was well
built and handsome. After a time, his
employer’s wife cast her eyes upon Simon and demanded, “Lie with me.”
But Simon
refused. He responded to his employer’s
wife, “Look: with me here my employer
gives no thought to anything in this house; and all that he owns he has placed in my
hands. My employer wields no more authority
in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except yourself,
since you are his wife. How then could I
do this most wicked thing, and sin before the One?” And much as she coaxed Simon day after day,
he did not yield to her request to lie beside her, to be with her.
One such day,
Simon came into the house to do his work.
None of the household being there inside, she caught hold of Simon by
his garment and demanded, “Lie with me!”
But Simon
disrobed his garment in her hand, got away, and fled outside.
When she saw that
Simon had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to
her employees and said to them, “Look, Cluvius had to bring us a Hebrew to
insult us! This one came to lie with
me; but I screamed loud. And when he heard me screaming at the top of
my voice, he left his garment with me, got away, and fled outside.” She kept his garment beside her, until Simon’s
employer came home. Then she told
Cluvius the same story, declaring, “The Hebrew employee whom you brought into
our house came to me, to dally with me;
but when I screamed at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me
and fled outside.”
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