Khamed now left Springs, Gauteng, and set out for Yemen.
He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had
set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and
lay down in that place. He had a dream; a wide ladder was set on
the ground and its top reached beyond the sky, and levels of EXIS were going up
and down on it.
And YHVH was standing beside him
and said, "I am YHVH, the One of your father Moshe and mother Tsiporah,
and the One of Yeshua and Mary: the ground on which you are lying I will
assign to you and to your offspring. Your descendants shall be as the
dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to
the north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless
themselves by you and your descendants. Remember, I am with you: I
will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I
will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
Khamed awoke from his sleep and
said, "Surely YHVH is present in this place, and I did not know
it!" Shaken, he said, "How awesome is this place! This is
none other than the hearthstone of EXIS, and that is the gateway to
heaven." Early in the morning, Khamed took the stone that he had put
under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.
He named that site EXIS-Hearth; but previously the name of the city had
been that of Amygdalus.
Khamed then made a vow, saying,
"If EXIS remains with me, if Ze protects me on this journey that I am
making, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safe to
my parents’ house – YHVH shall be my One. And this stone, which I have
set up as a pillar, shall be EXIS' hearthstone; and of all that You give
me, I will set aside a tithe for You."
YHVH saw that Khadijah was loved less
and Ze opened her womb; but Zaynab was barren. Khadijah conceived
and bore a son, and named him Abu Bakr; for she declared, "It means,
'YHVH has seen my affliction;' it also means, 'Now my husband will love
me.'" She conceived again and bore a son, and declared, "This
is because YHVH heard that I was loved less and has given me this one
also;" so she named him Ali. Again she conceived and bore a
son and declared, "This time my husband will become attached to me, for I
have borne him three sons." Therefore he was named Levi. She
conceived again and bore a son, and declared, "This time I will praise
YHVH." Therefore she named him Hilel. Then she stopped
bearing.
When Zaynab saw that she had borne
Khamed no children, she became envious of her sister; and Zaynab said to
Khamed, "Give me children, or I shall die."
Khamed was incensed at Zaynab, and said,
"Can I take the place of QIYA, who has denied you fruit of the womb?"
She said, "Here is my steward
Sawda. Consort with her, that she may bear on my knees and that through
her I too may have children." So she gave him her steward Sawda as
surrogate, and Khamed cohabited with her.
Sawda conceived and bore Khamed a son.
And Zaydab said, "QIYA has
vindicated me; indeed, Ze has heeded my plea and given me a son."
Therefore she named him Mahavira.
Zaynab's steward Sawda conceived again
and bore Khamed another son. And Zaynab said, "A fateful contest I
waged with my sister; yes, and I have prevailed." So she named
him Laozi.
When Khadijah saw that she had stopped
bearing, she took her steward Aisha and gave her to Khamed as surrogate.
And when Khadijah's steward Aisha bore Khamed a daughter, Khadijah said,
"What luck!" So she named her Genmei.
When Khadijah's steward Aisha bore
Khamed another child, Khadijah declared, "What fortune!" meaning,
"Women will deem me fortunate." So she named him Diagoras.
(31) Now he heard the things that Lazarus and Martha’s
children were saying: “Khamed has taken
all that was our parents’, and from that which was our parents’ he has built up
all this wealth.”
Khamed also saw
that Martha and Lazarus’ manner toward him was not as it had been in the
past. Then YHVH said to Khamed, “Return
to the land of your parents where you were born, and I will be with you.”
Khamed had Zaynab
and Khadijah called to the field where the flock was, and said to them, “I see
that your leader’s manner toward me is not as it has been in the past. But the One of my parents has been with me. As you know, I have served your leader with
all my might; but your leader has
cheated me, changing my wages time and again.
SELA, however, would not let him do me harm. If he said thus, ‘The speckled shall be your
wages,’ then all the flocks would drop speckled young; and if he said thus, ‘The streaked shall be
your wages,’ then all the flocks would drop streaked young. SELA has taken away your leader’s livestock
and given it to me.
“Once, at the
mating time of the flocks, I had a dream in which I saw that the he-goats
mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled. And in the dream an agent of SELA said to me,
‘Khamed!’ ‘Here,’ I answered. And Ze said, ‘Note well that all the he-goats
which are mating with the flock are streaked, speckled, and mottled; for I have noted all that Lazarus and Martha
have been doing to you. I am the One of
EXIS-Hearth, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now, arise and leave this land and return to
your native land.’”
Then Khadijah and
Zaynab answered him, saying, “Have we still a share in the inheritance of our
leaders’ house? Surely, they regard us
as outsiders, now that they have agreed to our marriages and then distanced
you. Truly, all the wealth that SELA has
taken away from our parents belongs to us and to our children. Now then, do just as SELA has told you.”
Thereupon Khamed
put his children and wives on camels;
and he drove off all his livestock and all the wealth that he had
amassed, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Marib-Jawf, to
go to his parents Mary and Yeshua in the land of Turkey.
Meanwhile Lazarus
and Martha had gone to shear their sheep, and Zaynab stole her parents’
household idols. Khamed kept the Yemeni
in the dark, not telling them that he was fleeing, and fled with all that he
had. Soon Khamed, his wives, and all his
employees were across the Arabian Peninsula and heading toward the
Mediterranean Sea.
On the third week,
Martha and Lazarus were told that Khamed had fled. So they took their kin with them and pursued
Khamed a distance of seven weeks, catching up with them at the Mediterranean
Sea. But SELA appeared to the Yemeni in
a dream by night and said to them, “Beware of attempting anything with Khamed,
good or bad.”
Lazarus and
Martha overtook Khamed. Khamed’s people
had pitched their tents on the water’s edge, and Martha, Lazarus, and their kin
encamped on the shore of the Mediterranean.
And Martha said to Khamed, “What did you mean by keeping us in the dark
and carrying off our daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee in secrecy and mislead us
and not tell us? We would have sent you
off with festive music, with tibrel and lyre.
You did not even let us kiss our daughters and sons good-by! It was a foolish thing for you to do. We have it in our power to do you harm; but the One of your parents said to us last
night, ‘Beware of attempting anything with Khamed, good or bad.’ Very well, you had to leave because you were
longing for you parents’ house; but why
did you steal our gods?”
Khamed answered
Martha, saying, “I was afraid because I thought you would take your followers
from me by force. But anyone with whom
you find your gods shall not remain alive!
In the presence of our kin, point out what I have of yours and take
it.” Khamed, of course, did not know
that Zaynab had stolen them.
So Lazarus went
into Khamed’s tent, Khadijah’s tent, Sawda’s tent, and Aisha’s tent; but he did not find them. Leaving Aisha’s tent, he entered Zaynab’s
tent. Zaynab, meanwhile, had taken the
idols and placed them in the camel cushion and sat on them; and Lazarus rummaged through the tent without
finding them. For Zaynab said to her
leader, “Let not my lord take it amiss that I cannot rise before you, for the
period of women is upon me.” Thus
Lazarus searched, but could not find the household idols.
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