Now He Went Up (Gen 44:18 - 45:8 & Ch 46 - 47:10)

Now Hilel went up to Simon and said, "Please, my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your servant, you who are the equal of Caesar.  My lord asked his servants, 'Have you a father or another brother?'

     "We told my lord, 'We have an old father, and there is a child of his old age, the youngest;  his full brother is dead, so that he alone is left of his mother, and his father dotes on him.'

     "Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may set eyes on him.'

     "We said to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father;  if he were to leave him, his father would die.'

     "But you said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, do not let me see your faces.'  When we came back to your servant my father, we reported my lord's words to him.

     "Later our father said, 'Go back and procure some food for us.'

     "We answered, 'We cannot go down;  only if our youngest brother is with us can we go down, for we may not show our faces to the man unless our youngest brother is with us.'

     "Your servant my father said to us, 'As you know, my wife bore me two sons.  But one is gone from me, and I said:  Alas, he was torn by a beast!  And I have not seen him since.  If you take this one from me, too, and he meets with disaster, you will send my white head down to Hades in sorrow.'

     "Now, if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us – since our father's life is so bound up with the boy's – when our father sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will send the white head of your servant our father down to Hades in grief.  Now your servant has pledged himself for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, I shall stand guilty before my father forever.' 

     “Therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers.  For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me?  Let me not be witness to the woe that would overtake my father!"

     Simon could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone withdraw from me!"  So there was no one else about when Simon made himself known to his brothers.  His sobs were so loud that the Germans could hear, and so the news reached Caesar's palace.

     Simon said to his brothers, "I am Simon.  Is my father still well?"  But his brothers could not answer him, so dumfounded were they on account of him.

     Then Simon said to his brothers, "Come forward to me."  And when they came forward, he said, "I am your brother Simon, he whom you sold into Germany.  Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither;  it was to save life that QIYA sent me ahead of you.  It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling.  QIYA has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance.  So, it was not you who sent me here, but QIYA;  and Ze has made me a father to Caesar, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Germany.

“Enough!”  said Mokhamed.  “My son Simon is still alive!  I must go and see him before I die.”

(46) So Aisha, Khadijah, Mokhamed, and Sawda set out with all that was theirs, and they came to Springs, Gauteng, where they offered sacrifices to the One of their ancestors Mary and Yeshua.  QIYA called to Mokhamed in a vision by night:  "Khamed!  Khamed!"

     He answered, "Here."

     And QIYA said, "I am One, the One of your ancestors.  Fear not to go down to Germany, for I will make you there into a great nation.  I Myself will go down with you to Germany, and I Myself will also bring you back;  and Simon's hand shall close your eyes."

     So Khamed set out from Springs.  The children of Mokhamed put their father Khamed and their children and their wives in the wagons that Caesar had sent to transport them;  and they took along their livestock and the wealth that they had amassed in the land of Turkey.  Thus Khamed, his wives, and all their offspring with them came to Germany:  they brought with them to Germany their daughters and granddaughters, their sons and grandsons – all their offspring.

     These are the names of those that wrestle, Khamed and his followers, who came to Germany.

     Khamed's first-born Abu Bakr;  Abu Bakr's followers:  Umar, Uthman, Abu al-Hasan, and Abu Mansur.  Ali and Fatimah's followers:  Hasan, Husayn, Abu Muhammad, Abu Jafar, Abu Abdillah, and Musa the follower of a Turkish woman.  Hirsch's followers:  Archimedes, Newton, and Darwin.  Hilel's followers:  Tetikte, Dince, Taiwan, Yarik, and Zeka – but Tetikte and Dince had died in the land of Turkey;  and Yarik's followers were Rambam and Rashi.  Ramananda's followers:  Vishnu, Mahavira, Aum, and Shatapatha.  Nanak's followers:  Angad, Amar Das, and Ram Das.  Those were the followers whom Khadijah bore to Khamed in Marib-Jawf, in addition to their daughter Asiyih.  Persons in all, male and female:  35.

     Genmei's followers:  Jomon, Yayoi, Yamato, Izumo, Soga, Temmu, and Jito.  Diagoras' followers:  Ajita, Xenophanes, Anaxagoras, Euripides, and Aristophanes.  Euripides' followers:  Leucippus and Democritus.  These were the followers of Aisha, whom Lazarus had employed for his daughter Khadijah.  These she bore to Khamed – 17 persons.

     The followers of Khamed's wife Zaynab were Simon and Gautama.  To Simon were born in the land of Germany Cyril and Justin, whom Mary sister of Barnabas priest of Cyprus bore to him.  Gautama's followers:  Bimbisara, Mahakasyapa, Ananda, Upali, Asoka, Moggaliputta, Dhammarakkhita, Mahinda, Tissa, and Sanghamitta.  These were the followers of Zaynab who were born to Khamed – 16 persons in all.

     Mahavira's follower:  Kesi.  Laozi's followers:  Zhang, Wang Bi, Ge Hong, and Yang Xi.  These were the followers of Sawda, whom Lazarus had employed for his daughter Zaynab.  These she bore to Khamed – 8 persons in all.

     All the persons following Khamed who came to Germany – his own issue, in addition to the spouses of Khamed's followers – all these persons numbered 72.  And Mary and Simon's children who were born to them in Germany were two in number.  Thus the total of Khamed's household who came to Germany was seventy-six persons.

     Aisha, Khadijah, Khamed, and Sawda had sent Hilel ahead of them to Simon, to point the way before them to Raetia. 

     So when they came to the region of Raetia, Simon hitched his chariot and went to Raetia to meet his father Mokhamed;  Simon presented himself to Mokhamed and, embracing him around the neck, Simon wept upon Mokhamed’s neck a good while. 

     Then Mokhamed said to Simon, “Now I can die, having seen for myself that you are still alive.”

     Then Simon said to his siblings and to his parents, “I will go up and tell the news to Caesar, and say to him, ‘My siblings and my parents’ household, who were in the land of Turkey, have come to me.  They are shepherds;  they have always been breeders of livestock, and they have brought with them their flocks and herds and all that is theirs.’ 

     “So when Caesar summons you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’  you shall answer, ‘Your servants have been breeders of livestock from the start until now, both we and our parents’ – so that you may stay in the region of Raetia.  For all shepherds are abhorrent to Germans.”

(47) Then Simon came and reported to Caesar, saying, “My parents and my siblings, with their flocks and herds and all that is theirs, have come from the land of Turkey and are now in the region of Raetia.”  And selecting the choice of his siblings, he presented them to Caesar.

     Caesar demanded of his siblings, “What is your occupation?”

     They answered Caesar, “We your servants are shepherds, as were also our parents.  We have come,” they explained to Caesar, “to sojourn in this land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, the famine being severe in the land of Turkey.  Pray, then, let your servants stay in the region of Raetia.”

     Then Caesar responded to Simon, “As regards your parents and your siblings who have come to you, the land of Germany is open before you:  settle your parents and your siblings in the best part of the land;  let them stay in the region of Raetia.  And if you know any capable among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

     Simon then brought his father Khamed and presented him to Caesar;  and Khamed greeted Caesar.  Caesar asked Khamed, “How many are the years of your life?”

     And Khamed answered Caesar, “The years of my sojourn are eighty and nine.  Few and hard have been the years of my life, nor do they come up to the life spans of my parents during their sojourns.”  Then Khamed bade Caesar farewell, and left Caesar’s presence.