Then Abraham, preeminently upright, rich, and blessed with gold and silver, set out to take his flocks and possessions from Carran into the country of Egipt, as 1770 the Warder of Victory, our Ruler, bade him through his Word:  they sought the land and nation of Canan.  Thus the man dear to God came to lead his wife, his dear bed- 1775 fellow, and his nephew’s wife, into this inheritance, into happiness.  He had [numbered] 75 winters when he had to fare forth, to give up Carran and his kinsfolk.  So Abraham set out, mindful of the instructions of the 1780 Father Almighty, to look for the broad land beyond these nations, at his Lord’s command, until prospering in his journey the courageous man came to Siem, of the Cananite race.  Then the Lord and King of the Angels, Sovereign of men, manifested himself to Abraham and 1785 said: 

“This is the country, verdant and bright and adorned with fruits, that I intend to give into the power of thy descendants, an ample kingdom!” 1790

Then the good man built an altar and offered sacrifice to the Ruler of Life and Source of Light, the Protector of souls.  Thereupon Abraham traveled still further from the east in order to search with his eyes for the choicest 1795 of lands (he remembered the favors, God’s promises, which the King of Victory Himself truthfully declared to him through his holy word), until the people came with their possessions to the place where the town is called Bethlem:  the glad-hearted chieftain and his brother’s 1800 son, pious men, went forward over the storied land from the east, with their possessions, over the precipitous mountain-sides, and chose a dwelling-place for them-selves where the fields seemed bright and fair to them. 1805

XXII.

There Abraham for the second time built an altar:  there he called upon God with noble words, and offered sacrifice to the Lord of his life.  Not at all sparingly did God, through His own hand, give him reward for this,—­rich bounty, in the very place of sacrifice. 1810

There for a while the wise leader dwelt in his home and enjoyed happiness, the hero with his bride, until a frightful calamity began to press upon the Cananite race, cruel hunger, deadly to home-staying men.  Then 1815 the wise Abraham, chosen by the Lord, went into Egypt to seek sustenance; the sage fled before evil:  the plague was too strong.  Abraham spoke,—­for he saw the white 1820 pinnacled halls of Egypt and the tall cities shining brightly,—­and then the ruler, the sagacious man, began to instruct his wife, in these words: